Kyon’s thighs nuzzle mine as he leans forward. He adjusts the deck where our feet rest. “You’re so little,” he says close to my ear. “I have to bring the pedals forward.” He does, and my feet finally fit into the slots on either side. He rests his hand on my left thigh. “This foot controls altitude. Press down on the pedal, the bike rises—ease up on the pedal, the bike will drop.”
“Got it,” I say, pressing down to feel the resistance. The hoverbike doesn’t move, because he hasn’t started the engine yet.
Kyon places his hand on my right thigh. “This foot controls your acceleration. Steering is on the handles. When you twist the left handle, you turn in that direction. Same goes for the right side.” His hands are heavy on me. The heat of them permeates my clothing.
“Is that it?” I ask.
“Squeeze the handsets hard and the hoverbike will brake.” His hands squeeze my thighs lightly.
“Like this?” I grip the handsets, leaning forward.
“Yes,” Kyon replies. He speaks to the hoverbike: “Lace compartment. Ignite engine.”
The hood of the hovercycle closes, securing us inside. The engine revs up; it vibrates beneath me just enough to let me know it’s on.
“Press the white button on the control panel to open the ceiling access,” Kyon murmurs in my ear. I do. Above us, a spiral opening forms in the ceiling as pieces of it retract, leaving a hole.
“Let me put my feet beneath yours on the pedals so that you can feel what I’m doing,” Kyon says. He moves his feet under mine. He leans forward so that he blankets my back with his chest as he places his hands over mine on the handlebars. The contact is extremely intimate. He makes me feel afraid and at the same time alive in ways that I feel only when I’m with him. He’s like waking up to fire. I know I can’t stay too long or he’ll burn me.
Gently, he maneuvers the hoverbike so that we rise up. Glancing down at the tops of his other aircraft as they grow smaller beneath us is another kind of awakening to life—it makes me somehow larger. As we emerge outside, the sun blinds me for a moment, until Kyon says, “Deepen tint.” The lid of the hoverbike darkens and the glare is cut. “Do you want to see the island?” Kyon asks.
“Yes.”
His cheek brushes against mine as he says, “Hold on.” Diving down, he drives the hovercycle in a death spiral toward the ground. I have the sensation of losing my stomach, but I resist the urge to close my eyes. He levels off the hoverbike just before we crash into a bed of wildflowers. We take the grass path that led me up to the hangar. At face-melting speed we move through the trees, twisting on the shell-lined path. My blood is violent in my veins.
When we reach the beach, he flies us on a cushion of air above the sand and out over the water. The sea beneath us is fire blue and siltless. Kyon makes a sharp turn; the hoverbike rears up like a nervous stallion. I suck in air. My rigid arms force me against Kyon’s chest. The back end of the bike drops into the water and causes a rooster tail arc to splash out of it until he brings the front of the vehicle down to level us off again. I breathe heavy in fear; my heart thumps in fleeing-rabbit beats.
“I like you like this,” Kyon says softly in my ear, as he drives at breakneck speed over the water.
“Like what,” I whisper breathlessly.
“At my mercy.” Nuzzling my neck with his firm lips, his left hand relinquishes mine on the handset. He wraps his arm around my waist.
My flesh tingles where the bristles of his skin touch me. An assault of shivers racks my body, not all of them unpleasant. “If you don’t stop kissing me, I’m gone and I won’t come back.”
With a frustrated growl, he continues to caress my neck with his lips. “You’re forever running away from me, Kricket. Don’t you wonder what it would be like if you were brave enough to face me?”
“No,” I reply.
His foot beneath mine lifts up a little on the accelerator. We slow. “Do you want to try it now?” he asks as he eases away from me a bit.
“Yes,” I reply. Anything would be better than his driving. We’ve traveled around one side of the island, but I hardly saw any of it because he was going so fast. He allows me to take control of the hovercycle by moving his hands from mine to my waist.
For the next few hours we cruise at a much slower pace around the perimeter of the island. Kyon shows me all the basics to piloting the vehicle. I almost can’t help myself when I begin daydreaming ways in which I can use this hovercycle to escape from Ethar. Kyon leans near my ear and says. “Take us to the house.”
I nod, continuing to assess the approximate distance of every point on the island. I’ll need to map out how far it is from the main house to the hangar—know to the second how long it will take on foot to get there and retrieve the hoverbike.
Rounding the large cliffs on the side of the island, the cove where the main house rests comes into view. It resembles an elegant pirate ship that only awaits the tide to take it back out to sea. I maneuver the hovercycle to the shore, bringing it to rest on the sand by the wide stone patio. From behind me, Kyon says, “Unlace compartment.” The lid of the hovercycle opens. Kyon rises and extends his hand to me. I ignore it and stand on my own. My legs are stiff from riding for so long.
“I need to go over the security sensors. I will be in my office, should you need me. We’ll dine on the beach in two parts.”
“Do you want me to take the hoverbike back to the hangar?” I ask, trying to hide my surprise at the freedom he’s allowing me. I may just have to seize the moment and leave now, even if I don’t know where I am or how to get to where I need to be.
“No. I’ll send it back.” He lifts his wrist, displaying a silver watchlike band. Tapping it with his finger, a lighted grid projects from his wrist. He touches the light on his skin, scrolling through menus before entering a coded sequence of lighted numbers. Next to me, the hood to the hovercycle closes. It lifts from the ground and travels unpiloted in the direction of the hangar.
I must have a look of despair in my eyes, because Kyon says, “If your plan is to use one of my vehicles to escape, you should truly rethink that strategy. I can easily override the manual controls and call any of them back without much effort.”
“It’s kind of you to point that out,” I mutter.
“The shield is up as well. You’d have a problem getting through it.”
“Noted,” I say, nodding.
“And the defensive systems would activate to alert me the moment you’re no longer detected by them.”
My smile is grim. “I’m not leaving, am I?”
“Not without me,” he replies. “I will meet you here in two parts. Don’t make me come look for you.”
CHAPTER 8
FUTURE TRIP AND VIKING SHIP
The fire is hypnotic. I lean back in one of the large chairs Kyon had dragged out here to the beach. The campfire wavers beneath a metal grill placed over it. Smoke curls around the crustaceans Kyon is cooking for our dinner. After Kyon checked on the sensors today, we collected shellfish from traps in the sea. First he showed me how to set the snares, then showed me the best spots to catch the ugly creatures. They look a little bit like lobsters, but their shells are bright pink and they each have three heads and two tails. I, quite frankly, find them disgusting to look at, but my stomach growls every time their aroma floats in my direction.