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