them. They’re probably also full of yellowed paperbacks.
The book that took a dip with the girl rests on a towel on the desk at the far end of the library. The Starless Throne by Sophie Jenkins. I pick it up to read the back summary, surprised to find out that the book is about the character I played in the films—General Ambrose Sond. The villain in Starfield: Resonance.
To atone for the crimes of the Twelfth Order, Ambrose Sond escapes his lifelong imprisonment in the Mines of Mourning and is sent careening into a plot that may destroy not only the Federation but everything he once loathed—until he finds a reason to protect it.
“Sounds terrible,” I mutter, tossing the book back onto the towel. It’s still mostly damp, and the cover has begun to curl around the edges. To say it’s ruined would be an understatement. It’s pulp. I can hardly imagine that once it was worth as much as my favorite trainers.
I can hardly imagine any book would be worth that much.
If Elias thinks I will help out in any capacity in this library, he’s sorely mistaken. I am not here to play housekeeper—that sounds boring, anyway.
As I begin to leave, a magazine on the edge of the desk catches my eye.
PULL THE REIGNS ON VANCE! it says, which is really quite ingenious, I have to admit.
I slowly sneak up to the magazine, as if it’ll jump away and disappear, but it’s really there. I’m quite surprised, actually, that this magazine is the first bit of the outside world I’ve seen in weeks, and it’s…sort of terrifying. But I’m too curious to simply look away.
And the reality of my, well, reality, begins to settle in.
“I always thought he was bad news,” tweets one of the authors penning the current young-adult book series Starfield: Ignite. “About time his problematic behavior caught up with him.”
Vance Reigns has always been somewhat of a hot-button topic. Whether it be the ragers he hosts at his house in Beverly Hills, or the questionable videos on his Instagram in clubs he’s not yet old enough to get into, or the revolving door of men and women through his love life, Vance Reigns gave us a little of it all and we drank it in. After all, he’s a young guy in Hollywood with too much time on his hands! We’ve all lived a little vicariously through his exploits.
But his appeal turned sour a few weeks ago when he took a nose dive into a private pond in a Tesla with Elle Wittimer herself, costar Darien Freeman’s longtime girlfriend. They claim they were pursued by paparazzi, but the question stands: what were they trying to hide?
Darien Freeman and Elle Wittimer have since broken up—and Vance Reigns’s popularity has plummeted. He has become one of the most-hated celebrities on the internet, rivaled only by the polarizing hatred for Kylo Ren from the Star Wars franchise—a fictional character.
And where is Vance Reigns to own up to what he has done? No one knows. While we have our suspicions as to where he might be, Starfield is scrambling to control the narrative of this disaster. There is no doubt Vance Reigns has quite a career ahead of him as a villain of epic proportions.
But the real question is: will the fans let him? Or will his career, like Darien Freeman and Elle’s relationship, be canceled?
I feel sick to my stomach and quickly close the magazine. The entire room begins to spin. Somewhere in the distance Sansa barks, but I barely hear her as I sit down in one of the wingback chairs.
Darien and Elle are broken up?
I was supposed to take her back to Darien’s place on the west side of LA. It was during the wrap party for Starfield: Resonance. We had filmed our last scene that day, and so we were celebrating at Natalia Ford’s—our director’s—house in the Hills. Which would have been grand, but I had a previous engagement at a club with a few of my other blokes, so I decided to leave the party early.
I was heading back to my car when I intercepted Darien, dark hair messy and shirt crumpled, and Elle in an oversized sweatshirt and jeans. She wanted to leave, he didn’t. Classic case, really.
“I’ll just call a car,” she was telling him.
But he was shaking his head. “No, just hold on—I’ll drive you home.”
“You want to stay, Dare, and I have an exam tomorrow morning. It’ll be fine. Stay