Zoraida Cordova - A Crash of Fate

“Jules,” she whispered, pressing a kiss on each of his close eyelids, on the side of his neck, on his mouth.

He couldn’t speak at first, afraid that if he did he would say something that would ruin the moment. He cleared his throat and took a long, heady breath.

“Izzy?”

“I have something that I want to give back to you,” she said.

“Is it the kiss? Was it that bad, really?”

Her laugh was low. She brought her lips back to his, and every other thought fell away. They ended up lying on the grass. Rather, she pressed her hands on his chest and the force of it pushed him back. He traced the soft skin of her lower back, where her top was riding up.

When they couldn’t breathe, they broke apart. She sat on his lower abdomen, and he was struck by three things: One, there was nothing and no one in the galaxy as beautiful as Izal Garsea. Two, he was certain that the mechanisms of the world, the stars, luck, the Force itself, had brought her back to him somehow. And he loved her.

He looked up at her as droplets of water from her hair landed on his bare chest. Her thin black top clung to her skin. She tugged on the leather cord around her neck. At the bottom there was a small black pendant flecked in gold. She dangled it from her finger. It was too dark to see at first.

Then he realized what it was.

“You kept it all this time?”

“Of course,” she said.

It was his family ring, the one he’d given her as a thank-you for saving his life. Perhaps even as a child he’d known how much Izzy would mean to him, despite how long it would be until they saw each other again.

“Why?”

“At first it was to remember you and the life we had once. For a little while I thought I was giving it back to you.”

He touched her chin and guided her gaze back to his. “I’ve been here all day, Izzy. I don’t think you want to return it after all.”

“Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic deep, deep, deep down.”

“Deep down.”

“You want it?” she asked, a challenge in her voice.

He reached for it, but she held it over her head. Then she jumped back into the pool of water. He watched her swim away, her body graceful as she made for the other side. He was a fast swimmer, and he knew he could catch up to her. But it wasn’t the ring he wanted back; it was Izzy.

As he stood to dive in, something grabbed him and yanked him into the shadows. The skin of a calloused palm slapped over his mouth and cut off his warning to Izzy. He felt the barrel of a blaster against his temple. A man with blue hair stepped in front of him and his attacker.

“We weren’t finished,” said Damar.

Perhaps Jules hadn’t lied after all. The water, once she returned to it, was perfect. It welcomed her like an embrace. She could feel how old everything around her was, the natural archways below where fish gathered. The night was darker, but there was light in the water. She didn’t believe in magic, but as she swam to the other side of the cenote, she knew that at least she believed in herself. She had to trust her gut just as her parents had taught her. The galaxy would still be in flux, but she could be a better version of herself. All those impulses she’d had to help others, she could do that, and her day on Batuu proved it. Her mind felt clearer than it had in so long.

When she swam to the surface, she was still smiling. She looked up at the stars and felt something like hope.

“Jules?” she asked. He wasn’t in the water, and he wasn’t where they had been sitting before. The tree-lined path they’d taken to get there was clear. She suddenly knew something was wrong; she could feel it.

“You really shouldn’t leave this thing lying around,” Damar said, stepping from the shadows of a boulder holding her blaster.

Her body flashed hot and she struggled to stay afloat at the sight of him. It was only rage that fueled her enough to swim to the edge and pull herself out. She felt bare, her clothes gone. Everything was gone.

“Where is Jules?” she snarled.

“I always liked this weapon,” Damar said. “Your mother modified it, didn’t she? It always shot true. Or it was supposed to.”

“Damar,” she said again. “What are you doing?”

He stepped toward her, something wild in his gray eyes. He was stripped down to his open-necked tunic and dark pants, his blue hair in disarray. She’d never seen it that way before. He never even woke with it that way. The family ring he always wore was gone. Izzy had never seen him so desperate, either, not even when they were cornered once in a hangar during a job he’d bungled by setting off an alarm. Then, she’d been afraid of the panicked look in his eyes. She’d been afraid that he was going to leave her behind to take the fall. If she hadn’t shot their attackers fast enough, he might have.

His strange gray eyes seemed to catch the moonlight. “You should have listened, Izzy.”

“I did listen!” she shouted. “Ana Tolla and I had a deal.”

She looked around her. She could make for the caves, but then she’d be leaving Jules alone with Ana Tolla’s crew. There were rocks strewn around, but the ones big enough to do any damage were just out of her reach. He would shoot her before she had a chance. Though she was sure he needed her enough not to hurt her, it didn’t change the fact that they had Jules.

“Go,” Damar said. When she didn’t move, he shouted, “If you want your farm boy alive, you’re going to move!”

Izzy put her hands up. Humiliation rippled through her as she walked barefoot in her underwear across the dewy grass. She cursed herself for letting her guard down. She cursed Damar for ever coming into her life. If they hurt Jules—what? What could she possibly do? All her thoughts of helping and selflessness went out the window. All she wanted was to fight. But she kept walking, retracing the steps she’d just taken, when he shoved the blaster into her wet spine.

“Believe me, nothing would have made me happier than to find someone else for this job. But the locals here are a lot harder to bribe than we thought they’d be. It’s a good thing we found your friend.”

Friend? The salt on her tongue tasted sour. There was a speeder stationed directly beside Jules’s. The sky was cloudless, and both moons illuminated them in silver light: Delta Jeet and Jules.

A dark smirk tugged at Delta’s lips. She didn’t know what a fool she was being played for. She had a blaster aimed at Jules. He was bound and gagged, but he lunged forward when he saw Izzy with Damar.

A red blast shot at Jules’s feet, and Delta screamed.

“That was a warning, Jules,” Damar said. “Don’t be a hero.”

“You almost hit me,” Delta hissed.

“I can aim,” Damar snapped, shoving Izzy forward.

“I want to talk to Ana Tolla,” Izzy said. “Make a deal.”

Damar shook his head. His usually perfect coif was damp. What had happened throughout the day to make him so desperate? People did terrible things when they felt there was no way out, no choice. She could almost hear what Jules would say to that. He’d say that everyone had a choice. That was the sort of person he was.

She wanted to assure Jules that everything would be fine, but she worried her eyes only contained an unshakable fear.

“You had your chance, Izzy. We need the farm boy for the job. You’re just insurance.”

Damar pointed, directing her to stand face to face with Jules. Delta clipped her wrists with magnetic cuffs. “But first, Ana sends a thank-you gift.”

He pulled out a holodisk and held it on his palm.

“Stop,” Izzy said, a strangled sob erupting from the back of her throat.

“Why do you care about what happens to him?” Damar asked. “You told me you hated this place. That you had nothing but bad memories.”