to anyone, nor will Krey, but you must stay in your room. If you leave your room again without permission, Quill will have you sent to Iron Gate and nothing I say will convince him otherwise.”
“I won’t leave again.” I poked at the food on my plate. “How was your day?”
“Fine.” He was already edging toward the door. “I am sorry, but I cannot stay and visit. I have prior commitments this evening.”
“Oh, yeah, no, I get it. No problem.” I stood and plastered a smile on my face. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
“Yes, most likely. Good-bye, Ellis.” Galan left my apartment, locking the door behind him.
I stared at the food on my plate. My appetite had completely vanished for the first time since I woke up on the Draax planet. Unlike me, Galan was a terrible liar.
* * *
Ellis
“Hey, hello!” I jumped up from the couch, smiling excitedly at the pink-haired woman. “Candy, right? It’s great to see you again.”
“You too, Ellis.” Candy’s look was one part friendly, two parts warning, Will Robinson, danger ahead.
I immediately tried to rein in my enthusiasm. I was acting weird, but could you blame me? I hadn’t spoken to anyone but Adrix for an entire week and while I liked him well enough, it was quickly apparent that he wasn’t that into me. Even on our twice daily walks through the garden, getting him to talk was like pulling teeth. Yesterday, in sheer desperation, I tried to speak to a random Draax we walked by in the garden, but Adrix had hurried me along and scolded me for talking to him.
“You must remember that you are not a guest in my king’s home,” he’d said with his tail lashing back and forth. “You are a prisoner and it is only through the king’s mercy that you are not at Iron Gate.”
“This must be your son. Hi, I’m Ellis.” I tried to smile in a natural way at the dark-haired boy standing just behind Candy and carrying two sets of virtual reality goggles.
“Roden, say hello to Ellis, please.”
“Hi, Ellis,” Roden said cheerfully.
Adrix walked in behind them, setting a sewing machine on my small table. “Here you go, Candala.”
“Thank you, Adrix.”
He shut the door behind him as Candy set down a bag on the couch. “I have your clothes ready.”
“Thank you so much.” I pulled out the four shirts, the three pairs of pants and the pair of shorts. “These are amazing. Hey, shoes!”
Candy grinned at me as I held the shoes up to my feet. “One of the other ladies has pretty small feet. She had an extra pair of shoes she was willing to give up. Hopefully they fit you.”
I tried the shoes on. “Perfect, actually.”
“Great,” Candy said.
I pulled the pants on under Galan’s shirt and buttoned them. “Thank you, Candy.”
“They’re a bit too long. I was afraid of that. Hop up on the chair and I’ll hem them for you,” Candy said.
“Oh, it’s fine. I can just roll them,” I said.
“It’ll only take a few minutes. It’s why I brought the machine with me. Roden, hang out on the couch for a while.”
“Sure, Mama.” Roden plopped down on the couch and stuck a pair of the goggles on his face before hitting a button on the side. It glowed green and I watched with some amusement as Roden grabbed an invisible steering wheel and said, “Departure checklist complete. Ready for takeoff, air tower.”
I hopped up on the chair and Candy pinned the pants. “Okay, just give me a few minutes here.”
“So, how are things?” I sat down on the chair and watched as Candy fiddled with the sewing machine.
“Good.” Candy did something to the machine, placed my pants under a section of it, and hit a button.
I watched in fascination as the silver blur of the needle pierced through the fabric. Candy pressed another button and a lever fed the pants through the machine.
“God, these new machines are crazy good,” Candy said. “I had an old automatic sewing machine that belonged to my grandmother back on Earth, but when Sabrina found out I liked to sew, she had this new model brought to Draax. It’s crazy fast and for simple jobs like this, I can just program it.”
“That’s cool,” I said. “What else is new?”
“Well, the waiting period for us to socialize with the Draax is over.”
“How is that going? Meet anyone interesting?” I was like a teenage girl desperate for drama. Normally I couldn’t give a shit about anyone’s love life,