Page 2 of Born for Starlight

“Don’t say that.” I hit him on the arm. “You should be looking forward to it.”

“Right now, nobody but her and my parents know we’re a couple. And you of course. And Code who put this system together. She just doesn’t want the paparazzi to ruin her big day. So you and me pretending to be lovers is really helping.”

I squeezed his bicep and fake-leered. “It’s no hardship. muscle-boy.”

He shouted out with laughter.

“What are you two laughing about?” Milo asked.

“Ah, leave the lovebirds alone,” Marty said.

“I want to⁠—”

The plane dropped.

This was a real drop, not one of those little ones that you sometimes feel going over the Rockies. Hard enough that Milo’s whole kit slid off his lap and Marty’s phone shot out of his hand and cracked against the window.

I sneezed as myriad colored powders poofed into the air from where Milo was sitting. I looked over, and Milo looked like he’d been clubbing with all those colors covering him.

“Sorry, folks.” Hank’s voice came easy from the cockpit, the voice of a man who’d said those words through worse than this. “Just some air. We’re⁠—”

He didn’t finish, because the second drop wasn’t air. My teeth clacked together as my jaw slammed shut.

The engine coughed then stuttered. Something was wrong, really wrong. Hank’s voice changed completely.

“Brace. Brace! Brace! Brace!”

I wasn’t scared. There wasn’t time. Instead, I looked over next to me at Grant and checked to make sure he had his seatbelt on. He did. I looked across the aisle at Milo, but then my body was moving of its own volition. It folded forward and lurched.

Milo screamed. I heard it from far away, muffled, like it came through water.

The air seemed to go thick and silent, then the world turned to noise. Metal tore in a long shriek. I felt the seat in front of me vibrate, and I pushed against it with my left hand. The seat heaved against it.

Grant made a sound that belonged on a horror set.

Something in my wrist gave, and the scream was out of me before the pain even caught up. But the seat stayed in place.

Then the impact, huge and final, threw my head forward into something hard and turned the world to static.

I was surrounded by quiet.

It seemed like hours later when I heard the engine ticking. It was somewhere close. Somebody breathed in short, ragged pulls that I slowly understood were mine. Something warm slid past my eyebrow in a thin, steady line.

What? Oh yeah. Blood.

But… I was alive?

I took inventory before I let myself believe it. Fingers, right hand fine, left hand angry and wrong, already swelling under my watch strap. Head, warm and wet and starting to throb in time with my pulse. It was attached to my neck, at least. And I could think. Fuzzy, but working. Okay, I had a brain, that was a positive. Time to use it.

“Everybody sound off.” My voice came out steadier than I expected, much steadier than I felt, and I decided right then to count that as another win. “Say something. Anybody,” I called out louder.

“I’m taking the train next time.” Milo’s voice sounded thin. But I didn’t care; him trying to be funny was a great sign.

I tried to turn my head to look at Grant, but it hurt, so I yelled out for Marty. “Marty. How are you?”

“I am not paying for this flight.” Marty’s voice came from somewhere behind me, faint and furious and completely, gloriously fine. I would have laughed except it was at that point I heard Grant start to whimper.

“I hear you, Marty.”