Page 27 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Margot

One week until wedding day

I think I’m going to be sick. No, I don’t think I’m going to be sick, because I was already sick three times in the bathroom this morning, so purging my stomach again is inevitable.

Pacing Emily’s living room again and again has left me an anxious mess as we wait for the hairstylist to show up. She’s over an hour late, and we need to get this hair and makeup trial done and over with so we can move onto the next thing.

And then the next thing, then the next thing…

“Breathe, Margot,” Emily says, her pale eyes flickering with concern.

I stop in front of the floor-length window and watch the scrammerjets soar past. Normal people going to their normal jobs while I have another breakdown over Emily’s wedding.

“It’s just a wedding,” she says, her tone bordering on agitated. I know I’m being too much, but it’s like an addiction at this point. I can’t stop. And speaking of addictions…

I pull out another cigarette. It’s self-lighting, and within seconds the strawberry-flavored smoke fills my lungs. Emily shoots me a sour face. She’s been trying to convince me to quit for years, but no dice.

“It’s your wedding. The wedding of the century,” I murmur in between drags.

Emily’s fingernails dig into the fabric of her jeans. It’s still so strange seeing her dressed in mundane clothing, but I’m happy she’s able to dress down like this. She deserves it. “Who cares about any of that? I don’t. I just want to marry Xavian and spend the rest of my life loving him,” she says. “This is all unnecessary frippery.”

I snicker as I take another drag from my cigarette. “Frippery. Now that’s a word.”

She sighs. “Don’t change the subject. And can you please smoke that somewhere else? You’re going to make the room smell weird again.”

Heat sweeps across my cheeks, and I blot out the rest of my cigarette in an ashtray. She’s so in love with her man. When they first started sleeping together, I thought maybe he was just a distraction. Someone to pass the time with. But no, what they have is real. Realer than anything I’ve ever seen before. God, they have a love that most people could only fantasize about, including me.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I’ll smoke outside. Wait here, and I’ll give the stylist a call again. Maybe she’s just stuck in traffic?” I say, then head out of the room before Emily can object. She always tells me not to bother, not to worry, not to do anything. But I can’t not do anything. If I don’t do anything, I will shrivel up and die, and then where will we be? Where will Emily be?

With Xavian. Her fiancé , a little voice in the back of my mind whispers. She doesn’t need you anymore. No one does, Margot.

When I escape to the bedroom to grab my purse, a call comes in on my holodeck. I tap the button on my wrist to pull up the video feed in front of my face. But instead of the stylist, who I expected, it’s Aiken. He stares at me impassively, and I return his expression in kind.

“Margot,” he mutters.

I lift an eyebrow. “Aiken. What do you want?”

Aiken snorts. “Rude. I wanted to tell you and Emily to stay put. Are you still in the apartment?”

“What? Yeah, we’re still here.” My heart hammers in my throat. “Why? Did something happen?”

“Yes. Xavian wanted me to check in with you and Em to make sure you’re both okay. He’s en route.” A beat passes between us. “Are … you okay?”

I nod. “Y-Yes. We’re fine. Em and I have been waiting for her stylist to come, but she’s running late and?—”

“She’s not coming,” Aiken grinds out. “Ever. On account of being dead.”

A sharp gasp escapes my throat. “What? What happened?”

“She’s been intercepted and dealt with. I can’t tell you anything else right now. Not through the holodeck. Just stay put,” he says. And then the screen goes blank. He hung up on me.

My hands are trembling. What did he mean by that? What did he mean that the stylist has been dealt with and she’s dead?

I swallow thickly and lower my hand. “Em?”

“Yeah? What’s up? Was that the stylist?” she calls back from the other room.

“No. She’s not coming. Everything is fine,” I lie. No point in worrying her when we don’t even know anything yet.

My stomach clenches in that all-too-familiar way. The way it twisted into knots at Kal’s concert on Cristal moments before disaster struck. That feeling rats get before an earthquake.