Page 127 of A Lot Like Adiós
Zack soared away from Planet Salazarin and prepared to engage hyperspeed. But as his fingers hovered over the ship’s control panel, he paused.
What in the galaxy was he doing? Going back to his dead-end life working as a bartender in a port city? Leaving Riva, the one person who saw him not as a savior or heir to his father’s throne but as a real flesh-and-blood person, after finally reconnecting with her after all these years? Turning his back on all the work that needed to be done?
You couldn’t pick your family, but you could choose how you played the cards you were dealt.
So what if his father was a monster and his mother was a manipulative liar? Zack hadn’t turned out like either of them, thanks to his auntsand uncles, and thanks to Riva’s friendship, the grounding force in a life marked by chaos.
Yet here he was, choosing to fold and thus proving himself to be worse than the king and queen. He was a coward, running away from his responsibilities, leaving his mess for other people to clean up because he couldn’t be bothered to face where he’d come from and what it might mean about him. He was too enamored with his own pain to set it aside and see what was really before him.
Riva.
His people who relied on him.
And the few who’d stayed behind to temper the king’s worst impulses.
It was time to play his cards, for better or worse.
Zack engaged the navigation AI. “Set a course for the Salazar Compound.”
“Are you sure?” the computer asked. “You just left there.”
“I’m 100% sure.”
“Well, if you’re sure you’re sure...”
With the ship on autopilot, Zack took the MacGuffin Device and went to the engine room. He stared at the cube for a long time. It looked so innocuous. Who would have thought it had the capacity to wield so much power?
He held the cube on the flat of his palm and squinted at it. Then, using his telekinesis, he flung it into the engine’s reactor core.
Zack landed the ship right where he’d taken off from.
“Shut everything down,” he told the AI. “I won’t be going anywhere for a while.”
“Very good, Your Highness.”
Zack paused. The AI hadn’t referred to him by his title in years, and if it had, he would’ve corrected it. But now? It fit in a way it never had before. Not like something unwanted, but also not like something he deserved.
No, it was more like something to grow into. To aspire to deserve. To prove himself worthy of.
Zack found Riva in the great hall, reviewing a holo-map with one of his uncles.
When he approached, Riva looked at him with a mix of apprehension and hope in her amber eyes. His uncle took one look at the two of them and scurried off, claiming he’d left the hoverdrive on.
“Where is it?” she asked.
“Gone,” Zack said. “Destroyed. You were right. It’s too dangerous to exist. No one should control something like that. Not even me.”
“So you... came back to tell me that?”
He shook his head. “No. I came back to rule. On one condition.”
The corner of her mouth quirked. “What’s that?”
“I’d like you to rule with me.” He took her hand. “My connection with you has always been the best part of me. If I’m going to do this, and do it well, I need you, Riva.”
“You do. But you’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “How do I know you won’t leave again?”
“You don’t,” he answered honestly. “I can’t guarantee I won’t get the urge to run again, but I can promise I’ll tell you when I’m feeling that way, and why. I hope you’ll give me another chance, and love me through it when those feelings come up. I know it’s a lot to ask.”
