Wild Blue Yonder (The Ceruleans: Book 3) by Megan Tayte Page B

my
eyebrows.
    ‘For one,’ she said, ‘it’s not safe for you beyond Cerulea.
Here, you’ll be healthy and happy and live out your life protected from the
many ills of the mainland – and I don’t mean only physical illness. Crime.
Violence. Betrayal. Modern society is imploding. It’s no place to live, and to
raise children. And then there are those who took your sister, who’ll want you
too now that you’re fully Cerulean.’
    ‘The Fallen?’
    Her lip curled. ‘That is what we call them, yes. They won’t
come here – not since the first of them split from us have they come near.
Here, you’re safe. But on the mainland, you’d be at their mercy, and they would
take you, I’m sure. As they did Sienna.’
    She took a sip of tea, and I followed suit, buying time as I
wondered how to handle her. I said, ‘I’d be careful over there. I wouldn’t let
them take me.’
    ‘If only it were that simple, dear. But even if you could go
back, go back and protect yourself from them, you couldn’t stay.’ She leaned
forward and looked at me earnestly. ‘Tell me, Scarlett, how did you feel in the
year or so before your death?’
    ‘Pretty lousy,’ I said slowly, trying to fathom the course
of the digression. ‘Understandable given the brain tumour.’
    ‘What were your symptoms?’
    ‘Headache. Dizziness. Tiredness.’
    ‘Ah.’ She sat back. ‘And when did this tiredness begin?’
    I thought about it. I remembered the year before I’d turned
eighteen, before I’d met Jude and discovered my fate, I’d been gradually more
exhausted. ‘Well, I guess sometime after my seventeenth birthday,’ I said.
    ‘And it worsened after you came of age? The exhaustion?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Because the Cerulean in you was blossoming, Scarlett, and
the people around you were pulling you down. We’re incompatible, Ceruleans and
humans. They drain us, exhaust us. When we’re around them, they feel steadily
more alive – energetic, healthful, positive. We, conversely, feel steadily more
lethargic. It’s a natural effect of our healing power. I suppose we leak it out
at a low level all the time when around people, but not with our own kind.
    ‘That’s why we have Cerulea, away from the mainland, as a
place of protection, and for recharging those who’ve been around people. Our
base on the mainland, Kikorangi, is similarly isolated, out on Dartmoor, which
allows the boys to grow up there largely untouched by human influence.’
    ‘Jude mentioned it,’ I recalled. ‘When I was – before – he
said he could only be around me for short periods of time. But still, all that
time the males spend on the mainland mingling with people, helping them – it
must be manageable then?’
    Evangeline surveyed me seriously. ‘It is manageable,
Scarlett, when all you’re doing is coming into contact with people fleetingly,
for a couple of hours at the very most. But anything beyond casual acquaintance
– a relationship, involving long periods of time together – it’s not remotely
feasible.’
    I stared at her and slowly, painfully, the significance of
her words sunk in. Luke. So even if I could go back, I couldn’t be with
him?
    She read my thoughts: ‘I’m sorry, Scarlett, but a
relationship between a Cerulean and a human just can’t work. For the Cerulean,
it’s a kind of torture. Terrible, life-sapping torture.’
    ‘It’s never been done?’
    ‘It has. In our history a Cerulean has had a relationship
with a human. It didn’t end well.’
    I leaned forward. ‘How exactly?’
    She took a bite of toast and chewed agonisingly slowly
before answering: ‘Misery, Scarlett. For them both. And, ultimately, death.’
    I squeezed my eyes shut tight. To have had hope, to have
allowed myself that much, and then to have it taken away…
    Evangeline’s hand touched mine, and I opened my eyes to see
understanding in hers. ‘Do you see now, Scarlett? You have to let it go, your
old life. You died. The fact that you were reborn as