Darker Space Read Free Page B

the stairs out of the station onto the street. She’d woken up a little by the time we got to the park we used as a shortcut.
    “Can we go on the swings?”
    “It’s dark,” I told her. “We’ll come tomorrow after school.”
    “Please, Brady!” She tugged at my hand. “I didn’t get to sleep over at Catherine and David’s like I wanted, and it’s my birthday !”
    I looked at Cam.
    “It’s her birthday,” he said with a shrug.
    The lights in the playground area were on. They were bright enough to let us see our way, but not bright enough to swallow the starlight. I kept my eyes fixed on Lucy’s back as I pushed, fighting the tiny ripples of nausea that tickled at the edges of my mind whenever I glimpsed the stars.
    Lucy squealed with laughter as she swung higher and higher into the night.
    Then somehow we all ended up on the merry-go-round, Cam and Lucy sprawled in the middle while I sat on the side and pushed us slowly around. Cam had his arms folded behind his head. Lucy was resting her head on his stomach, lying crossways to him.
    “The two bright ones,” Cam was saying, “are called the Pointers, because they point to the Southern Cross.”
    “Which two ones? They’re all bright!”
    Cam raised his hand. “Those two. See?”
    Lucy craned her neck. She wasn’t scared to look at the stars, not like me. “Do you know all the stars, Cam?”
    Cam’s eyes were dark in the gloom. He smiled slightly. “Not all of them.”
    “Brady, do you know all of them?”
    I pushed my heels against the ground, giving us another tiny burst of speed. “I don’t know any of them.”
    I’d spent most of my life not looking at the night sky, and three years of it stuck on a Defender where I could feel it crawling at my back every minute of every day. I’d been scared of the black enough as a kid—every horror story I’d ever heard and nightmare I’d ever had came from there—but after coming back, it was even worse. I’d seen the Faceless now. I’d heard Kai-Ren’s voice in my head. I could still feel his fucking touch on my skin.
    Cam reached and took my hand. He stroked it with his thumb. “Brady’s not a stargazer, Lucy.”
    Lucy huffed at me.
    “I don’t even like Jump the Moon,” I said.
    “What’s that?” Cam asked.
    After today, I was weirdly pleased to have found a party game I had to explain to him. “We used to play it back home. First, you get really smashed. Then you take a broomstick, and you hold it up at the moon. Then you spin around ten times, and then you put the broomstick down and try and jump over it.”
    “You do that?”
    I poked him in the ribs, making him flinch and Lucy giggle as her head got jostled. “Well, not anymore. I grew up and got cultured.”
    “I’m not sure I’d agree with either of those,” Cam said, the smile evident in his voice.
    “Faking it until I make it, LT.”
    He laughed. “Okay. Good luck with that.”
    We spun in slow, lazy circles for a while longer, Cam and Lucy staring at the sky while I watched their faces.
    Lucy gasped suddenly. “Cam, look! Look! A shooting star!”
    I twisted my neck before I could stop myself, and saw the flare of light across the field of stars. My heart stammered, and my breath caught in my throat.
    “Make a wish!” Lucy crowed. “Make a wish!”
    I wished I’d never fucking looked.
    I don’t know how much time passed. The entire universe had contracted in that moment and left me small and terrified, nothing but a heartbeat, at its core. I was on Defender Three again, feeling the black at my back. I was on the Faceless ship again. I could hear his voice in my head— “Bray-dee” —and the prickling drag of a claw down my naked spine.
    I was just a fucking bug to him, an insect.
    He’d liked the panicked noises I made.
    “Brady.” Cam’s hand on my shoulder startled me. “Let’s go. Let’s go home.”
    Lucy was quiet as we left the park, and I felt like an asshole for ruining her fun. I didn’t feel