Together… they sat with the stars above them, his arm around her, and her head on his chest. From the comfortable bench on Hale’s balcony, they had an expansive view of the city under the night sky. The two moons of Elani hung close together surrounded by the millions of stars. She hoped this would be one of many evenings spent with Hale. This was when she was at her happiest. She wasn’t longing for anything because he was with her. He was all she needed to complete her life. In the midst of her troubles, she had a smile on her face because of him. She constantly worried about how she was going to get to the caves so that she could save Elani. Yet, her worries were soothed by his presence.

She looked up at his face and expected to see him as happy as she was. But not this time. He wasn’t looking at her or the incredible view before them. He stared at the floor with his sorrowful eyes and frowning lips. If he were hurting, why didn’t he share what bothered him with her. She didn’t want to push him to tell her something he didn’t want to, but she couldn’t take seeing him depressed.

“Hale, are you okay?” She ran a hand through his hair.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll get through it.”

“You can tell me about it.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that important. I was just thinking.”

“You can tell me, Hale. I want to see you happy,” she replied.

“You make me happy,” Hale said, teasing her with a brief kiss.

She wanted to pull him back for more of his affection. But that was probably exactly he wanted her to do. She wasn’t going to let him distract her from this conversation that easily. “I’m glad, but I think you should talk to me.”

His smile was weary beyond his years. “ I’ll be fine. I really don’t want to talk about me. Let’s talk about you instead. Like, how did lunch with your father go?”

Bringing up her father was certainly one way to distract her right now. She was still angry about what had happed at lunch. Her brows furrowed at the thought of him. “It went totally wrong. So wrong.”

He lay his head behind hers and kissed the back of her neck. “Tell me.”

“He said I can’t go.”

“That’s it?”

“No, I got upset at him for criticizing you. And then he got angry at me and left. I made him feel like he’s not doing enough. I was disrespectful.” Pandora curled up into his lap. He rubbed her back affectionately.

“Can you tell him the truth about why you want to go to the caves?”

“I can’t. I’ve already tried bringing it up to him and his advisors. The last time I said anything about it my father wanted to send me to a therapist. Hale, they think I’m crazy.” She nearly burst into tears remembering the terrified expression of her father as he basically told her she was delusional. If she needed therapy, it was to forget how everyone doubted her. Hale was the only one in her life who respected her belief that Elani was dying. He was the only one who helped her. That meant everything to her.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I understand. And you’re not crazy. They’re the crazy ones.”

“But what should I do? I have to get there somehow!”

He enfolded her hands in his. “I’ll think of something. I promise. I don’t want you to worry about anything. Just enjoy this time we have together because you don’t know how long this can last.”

Her body shivered involuntarily, showing the physical effects of her fear. Was he saying their love wasn’t meant to last? “What is that supposed to mean, Hale?”

“Wait, don’t overthink anything.” Hale paused and his frown returned. “Just forget I said anything.” His eyes were stern as he finished speaking. He obviously wanted to end the conversation there.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she huffed. He still held onto her hands.

“It’s not you. I’m very stressed right now for various reasons.” The edges of his mouth curled up in a forced smile. “We’re going to figure out what to do about the caves. You have my word.”

“Okay, I won’t worry about it. Not for a while at least,” Pandora said, relaxing into his arms.

That was white lie. Of course she was going to worry about it. However, not nearly as much as she would worry for Hale. She would wait for him to open up to her, but something was bothering him. She wished he would tell her because she wanted to help him through his problems. If they were going to be in a committed relationship, they needed to be open with each other.

He was only showing part of himself, the part that he wanted her to see. But she wanted to know him fully, even the things he was keeping from her. The more she learned about him, the more she wanted him. She couldn’t explain it nor did she try to. He was her love. She had given her entire heart to him already and hoped he would keep it forever.

* * * *

Pandora was probably on her way to his room right then. Earlier, she told him she would come to him around midnight. Hale couldn’t believe he almost told her that he wanted to be alone for the entire evening. That wasn’t even true. He did want to spend as much time with her before… well— he went through with the deal he made her father. He promised the king that he wouldn’t tell Pandora about the deal. Ever. But that was the source of his agonizing guilt; he was hiding something from Pandora, something that would hurt her.

The closer they were to each other the more his guilt burned inside him, which is why he almost told her not to come over. When they were together, he struggled to maintain a normal composure. While he wasn’t a happy person generally speaking, the last few days he was obviously depressed. Trying to put on a believable facade for her, he forced nearly every smile and laugh, but Pandora still had noticed something was wrong. He didn’t have to say anything because she could easily see beyond his facade. God, he needed someone like her in his life, someone who cared enough to notice his most subtle tells. He could love her for the rest of his life. He could.

But that was wishful thinking and nothing more. He couldn’t stay here. Elani may have been where he was born, but it wasn’t his home.

Elani was a world with beauty no other planet had, that he had seen at least. But being here was tearing him apart. He couldn’t stop wondering who he might have been if he grew up on Elani, instead of Dunwar. If he had lived on Elani all his life, he probably wouldn’t have turned out to be who he was today. He could have been good enough for Pandora. As much as he wanted it to be, that wasn’t reality. Hale grew up on Dunwar. He could hate the place as much as he wanted, but it was his home. The Dunwarians were his people. And he was too much like them to live somewhere like Elani. Pretending to be someone else wasn’t something he was interested in. He might hate what he had become, but he hated faking who he was even more. There was nothing fake about Pandora, and that was one of the reasons he loved her so.

He was pretending with her now. He was pretending to be happy and acting like nothing was wrong. At least, he wouldn’t have to act for much longer. Their time together was much shorter than Pandora thought. He knew he could hold out with the secret in the time they had left.

But did he want to? There would be no coming back to her if he didn’t tell her the truth. He would have to turn his back on the one person who he loved and the one who understood him. In his mind, they shared a special bond. Pandora was the first of his kind that he remembered meeting. From the moment they looked into each other’s eyes, they had a connection. He was inexplicably drawn to her and still was. After all, she was the only one to which he had revealed his curse. Well… Pandora called it a gift. That had changed how he viewed that part of him. However, he wasn’t connected to his gift like Pandora was to hers. He still acted as if he had no supernatural powers. That was more comfortable for him.

As he lay on his bed, Hale heard a faint knock. He jumped out of bed to answer it. He knew it was her before he opened the door. After the door slid out of the way, nothing but air was between them. Pandora had come like she said she would and greeted him with the brightest of smiles.

“I hope I didn’t wake you,” she said, falling into his arms.

“I was waiting for you,” Hale replied and kissed her cheek. “You look beautiful.” She really did. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled back. She wore an off-white satin nightgown. The thin lacy straps were what especially caught his eye. He found himself wondering if she wore anything at all underneath the gown. She didn’t appear to.

“Thanks.” She followed him to the bed. “I wish I could just stay for the night. I don’t like being away from you.”

“I don’t either. But even if your father would allow that, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea.” He assisted her with climbing up into his tall bed. Once she had crawled into her spot and settled under the covers, he lay beside her.

Pandora, with a mischievous grin, turned over right on top of him. She pressed her lips against his neck, as if she was about to kiss him but stopped. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes.

She felt his forehead. “You feel cold.” His body was colder than normal, an effect of his powers that he experienced when he was extremely troubled. “Are you okay?”

It should have been easy to lie. All he had to do was say yes. But looking into her eyes, he experienced that powerful feeling like he always did, which could have been the reason he couldn’t lie to her. Not anymore.

“No… I’m not. I have to tell you something.”

She rolled off his body and kneeled beside him. “You can tell me anything, Hale. I promise.”

He half-turned away from her and rested on his side. Facing her eyes was too difficult for him. The guilt already hurt enough.

Trying to turn him back to her, she pulled on his waist. But she was unsuccessful. “Can’t you look at me? I don’t care about your past or your job. I want us to be happy together. Isn’t that what you want, Hale? We haven’t really talked about it since Vanuu, but you said you wanted to try to be in a relationship.”

“You’re the first woman I’ve wanted a relationship with.” He didn’t move. “But—” He stopped there.

“Hale, what were you going to say?”

“I can’t. I can’t,” he said covering his face with his hands.

She crawled over to the other side of him. “You don’t want a relationship anymore?”

He uncovered his eyes. “That’s not it. I want to be with you. When I’m with you, sometimes I think about the normal life I could have had. But it’s impossible.”

“No, it’s not impossible. Why would you say that?”

He finally met her eyes again. “I’d like to believe it could be, but it can’t. I can’t just run away from my life. You wouldn’t—” He couldn’t say she wouldn’t understand because she probably would. He didn’t want to explain it. “Can we just forget about this conversation? I don’t want to talk about this at all anymore.”

“But I do,” she said. Her eyes pleaded with him and looked on the verge of heartbreak.

She wasn’t demanding him to continue. That look she gave him, though, was enough to bring him to his knees at her mercy. He couldn’t leave her like this. “Alright,” he answered, stroking the side of her arm. He would tell her.

* * * *

Pandora knew Hale hadn’t come from a loving home as she had. Well, he had a chance to, but he lost his parents forever in a horrible crash. He was left to be raised by complete strangers on Dunwar. She couldn’t relate to the struggles he faced everyday in his dark world. She never would be able to. But she would try to understand him as best as she could. What if she were the first person in a very long time that he was opening up to?

“What do you want me to tell you?” Hale asked.

She ran a hand through his hair to assure him he could relax and take his time. “You were the one who said they needed to say something.” She smiled, shaking her head. “And I want you to tell me exactly what it is. We can work through whatever it is together. Can’t you trust me by now?”

“Of course I can. You’re not the reason— we can’t be together,” he said, his voice cracking. His eyes were glossed over with tears. He looked away and squeezed his fists. His constant air of confidence and apathy to life had vanished in a moment. “It’s all me.”

He must have meant something else by that. Of course, they could be together. She wanted him; he wanted her. What else mattered? Maybe he was just exaggerating his feelings through words. “You can’t mean that. We want to be together, and that’s enough.”

“Pandora, I have to be realistic. It’s not that simple.”

His logic left her surging with bitterness. After all they had been through, he was willing to let go that easily. “No, Hale. Don’t do this.”

He placed a cold hand on her exposed shoulder. “We actually can’t be together. I made a deal—”

She slapped his hand away. “So this is what has been bothering you? You’ve just been trying to find a time to break up with me? How could you do this!”

“You didn’t let me finish. Just give me a moment to explain. I want to be with you, but I made a deal with… your father.”

She would have fallen backwards off the bed if Hale didn’t grab her wrists to save her. Unable to form a complete sentence, she fumbled around with her words.

“Calm down. Please. Wait,” he whispered.

“You made a deal with my father, and didn’t tell me. What kind of deal?” Her voice fumed with anger.

“The only reason I was ever released is because of something I promised him.” He turned his head and stared out the window. “He told me I could stay for a week, and then I have to leave. I was forbidden to tell you. Guess I broke that promise.”

“What…” She had much, much more to say, but her shock suffocated her voice. She was in-process of wrapping her head around the fact that her father was making Hale leave. Her blood boiled at the thought of that. But the most infuriating part about this was that Hale agreed to the deal. He had agreed to leave and not tell her. He would have dragged her along for a week, allowing her to believe that everything would work out, and then suddenly leave her without warning.

Pandora stepped off the bed. “You should go then, and don’t bother coming back.” She held her long nightgown up and ran out of his room. Her heart was hurting because of him. She wanted this to be the last time she felt pain inflicted by his carelessness.