Free Starbreak by Phoebe North

the sky. I remembered the way the boy’s voice sounded in my head as he urged me south. Fearful. Passionate. But none of them knew anything about that . Instead they only saw the sharp, certain movements of Aleksandra’s hands and heard the ferocity of her warning. Hostile. The aliens were hostile. Her followers all held their rifles to their chests, not just herguards but Rebbe Davison, and Deklan, and Jachin, and Laurel, too.
    Only Ettie stayed apart from the rest, sitting beside me on a log, watching as the embers died. For a long time she didn’t speak. Her hair was a dark net over her eyes. But at last she slipped her hand in next to my hand.
    “I don’t like this plan,” she said. “What if there are monsters ?”
    “I’ll keep you safe from them,” I said. I’d brought Ettie here, after all. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
    “With your gun?”
    The weapon still rested across my knees. Ettie reached out and touched the barrel gently, as if the metal might spring to life at any moment.
    “With my hands and fists and teeth if I have to,” I said. I put an arm around her and held her close. Her body shook next to mine. I realized she was weeping then, but I wasn’t surprised. It had been a long day—for all of us. I knew I should have said something, offering apologies for her grandfather’s death or comforting words. But I’d never been any good at that. Everything I could offer seemed awkward, wrong. My words withered before I could speak them
    “Now I think it’s time we get some rest,” Aleksandra said, speaking too loudly, I think, to mean only the group gathered around her. She meant the rest of us, too—Ettie and me especially. “It’ll be a long hike tomorrow before we can reach the city.”
    Ettie rose, still sniffling. To my surprise she turned to look back at me.
    “Thank you, Terra,” she said. I gave an uncertain nod. It seemed like I’d done so little—shared a hug, a few comforting words. But maybe, just maybe, my being there had been enough.
    •  •  •
    The rest of them worked together, driving their tent stakes into the hard, half-frozen ground. But I only watched. My eyes were wide, taking in the darkness. I needed to go to the city, where I would be safe, where the boy waited for me. I needed to stand up to Aleksandra, to prove to her that I was someone worth listening to. And if that didn’t work, I needed to strike out on my own. But I couldn’t . I watched as Rebbe Davison held a stake and Ettie swung the mallet, grinning proudly as the tears dried on her face. She was here only because of me. They all were, and I knew it. My guilt was an invisible thread tying us together. We were bound even as they all crawled inside the tent and disappeared into the darkness, leaving me alone there with Aleksandra Wolff.
    “When I said it was time for bed,” she said, standing over the fire, her shadow long and dancing against the writhing foliage, “I meant you, too.”
    I still held my gun across my knees—the metal was cold, as heavy as dead flesh. Useless. What did I know of guns?
    “We shouldn’t go east,” I said. I couldn’t bear to look her in theeyes, only stared down at that stupid gun. “There are animals in the forests. If we head south, there’s a path. We can walk to Raza Ait—”
    “Terra,” she said. She didn’t sound sneering, or vicious. Just tired, like she’d lost all patience for me. “Shut up.”
    So I did.
    “I don’t know what you thought you were doing when you took that shuttle,” she said. “A sixteen-year-old girl, head screwed on backward! You can’t even follow the simplest of orders, and you thought you could negotiate with the natives?”
    I hadn’t thought that, actually. In my mind the path ahead had been simple: I’d find the boy, fall into his arms, and the world around us would fall away. But now, with Aleksandra standing over me, I could see how naive I had been. There was a whole ship up there,