CHAPTER 11
I spend the next hour explaining the events of the past six months to my father.
I tell him how I was abducted; my run-in with Orion and our pursuit by the Order of the Hunt. I describe the succession crisis on Homeworld, Nereus’s need for a bride, and where we intend on going next. Dad pales when I recount the events of that fateful night when we almost lost Nereus, and when Kye, Nereus, and myself were bound together for good.
I leave out the bits about all the sex we had. I figure it’s for the best.
When I’m done, he slumps in his chair with a look of profound shellshock, swirling the whiskey in his glass and looking from me, to Kye’s cybernetic hand, to Nereus’s fluorescent gills. He’s taking it all in stride like a champ, and I have to commend him for how he’s handling it.
“So…” he says. “I have to assume you came here on a spaceship?”
“It’s out in the woods,” Kye says. “We can show you if you’d like.”
My dad swallows hard, shaking his head decisively. “No,” he says. “I think I’ve seen and heard enough tonight that I’ll be processing it for the rest of my life. I guess...I guess where I’m most confused is as to how you fit into all of this, Kye.”
Kye raises his eyebrows. He’s been relatively quiet the whole night, letting me and Nereus do all the talking, but my father’s attention is now firmly on him. “You came here willing to act as if you weren’t in love with my daughter,” my dad says. “Why? It sounds like the three of you have been through the wringer.”
Kye chews on his words for a minute, leaning forward. He’s focused and intent, though I can see that he’s starting to get tired after the events of the evening. “I know that it’s hard to understand,” he says, “but what’s happening in the universe is...well, it’s bigger than the three of us. Fiona and Nereus are in a position to save billions of people. And I wouldn’t ever do anything to jeopardize that, no matter how much I love them.”
My heart clenches in my chest as my dad takes that in. I don’t think I can ever articulate to Kye just how good he is, though I wish I could.
“Spoken like a man who understands the meaning of service,” my father says. “And your family--were you planning on visiting them? It sounds as if you might not get another chance.”
He chokes on those words a little, his eyes flickering to mine. I know he’s scared; I just described how dangerous this all is, how many times we’ve put our lives at risk, how we’re going to do it all again.
But it doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop me.
“I thought I’d go and see them, but haven’t been able to find an address,” Kye says. “Last I knew, they were near the air force base in Pensacola, but it’s been so long...”
“I’ll put my people on it,” dad says. “Seems a shame you’d come all this way without catching up.”
“Thank you,” Kye says, and I can hear the earnestness in his voice--in the way he croaks a little toward the end, like he might cry.
“Well,” my dad says. “I’m sure you’re all exhausted. I know that I am...and I have an angry wife to deal with on top of all that.”
“You should really divorce her,” Nereus says flatly, and I snort.
“Don’t tempt me,” dad says with a roll of his eyes. “Now if you two don’t mind, I’d like to have a word with my daughter. Alone.”
I freeze up, but squeeze Kye’s shoulder to let him know it’ll be okay. Nereus flashes me a smile as he goes, then leans down to kiss me on the cheek, the two of them leaving the room together and shutting the door with a thud.
I half expect my dad to call me out--to tell me he doesn’t believe a word of it. But he just leans back in his chair and stairs into the fire, holding his empty glass absently in his hand as I tuck my feet under me and watch him closely.
“I’m sorry I didn’t love you enough,” he says quietly.
It’s not what I’m expecting, and a lump swells in my throat. I swallow it down, but it won’t seem to go away, and I don’t think I can speak again without it overwhelming me.
“You have so much of your mom in you,” he says. “And I was weak, and I missed her so much that I...it was too painful to see so much of her in you and not be able to share that with her.”
I bite my lip, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “Dad, I--”
“I’m so, so proud of you, Fiona,” he says, looking up at me. “And I want you to know that, when all this is over--and if you ever need a safe place to land--you can always come home. Do you understand?”
I nod, taking a shuddering breath. “Yeah,” I choke out. “I think I do.”
I stand up and my dad joins me in the middle of the room, pulling me into a warm embrace. I let myself cry against his chest, feeling all of a sudden like the family we were before we lost my mom.
“I love you, sweetpea,” he whispered. “Just...make sure to call next time you get abducted by aliens.”
I laugh, leaning back to look him in the eye. “Of course,” I say. “Of course I will.”