Chapter 1

1

Distant Kingdom members Bo Thomas and Carlos Reyes made for quite the cozy couple when spotted in Soho this week! It’s the first public sighting of Bo’s bling since the couple announced their engagement three weeks ago—and boy is it worth the wait. Is that a rock or a private island?

Rafael Reyes, Carlos’s brother—and Bo’s former beau—has still made no public statement about the relationship or the fate of the trio’s band. This may be the end of the road for Grammy-winner Distant Kingdom. If anything can kill that juggernaut, it’s probably one band member jilting another for his brother!

—TMZ, 7/28/19

* * * *

Stars against the sky were never bright like you

I had to shield my eyes against a light like you

Caught me by surprise the night I first saw you

I was tongue-tied, you were rude

And I knew that I was screwed

—“Love at First Sight,” from the Warrior EPby Distant Kingdom

* * * *

“I already told you, I’m not taking the part.” Julian did not so much as look at the script his uncle was attempting to place in his hand.

Uncle Eddie, of course, had no interest in whether Julian wanted what he was giving him. “It’s exactly the part you need right now. Sweet and cute and harmless.”

“It’s high school. I’m done playing teenagers.”

“What a joke. You know any actor with sense keeps playing teenagers as long as they can get away with it.”

“No matter how stupid they look.”

“Once the bloom is off the rose, there’s no getting it back. The curse of age may not hit the male of the species as hard as the female in this industry, but it’s still—”

“I’m only just twenty-one.”

“Exactly! And as smooth and pretty as any sixteen-year-old.”

“Oh, do you really think so, Uncle?” Julian said sweetly. “Certain previous comments of yours have hinted otherwise.”

It was possibly the most daring thing he’d ever said to his uncle, skirting thissubject in the full hearing of the limo driver, and Julian felt a bit lightheaded as he waited for him to react.

If he’d hoped to fluster him, though, Julian should have remembered that the man was incapable of shame. Uncle Eddie, as both Julian and the entertainment industry called him, merely gazed at him steadily. If some ugly light far behind his eyes hinted anger at being called out, only Julian could have seen it.

“In a world where twenty-six-year-old ‘teenagers’ are more the norm than not, you would have no trouble with believability in the part,” Uncle said, voice only slightly clipped.

“It’s such a shame I don’t still look the way I did when I was thirteen,” Julian said, hardly able to believe he was speaking the words. “What was it you said then? That I was the most beautiful boy you’d ever seen?”

Had the driver’s glance in the mirror been a bit…startled? The limo jerked as it stopped at a red light, as if the driver almost hadn’t seen it in time.

Uncle’s voice was stone now. “It’s always a shame when a sweet child grows up into a difficult and petulant adult. It’s not unusual for a former ‘child star’ to turn out as a prick, but I thought I’d raised you better.”

“You didn’t raise me at all, Uncle.”

“You act as though I’m refusing to let you grow up, but you may recall that against my better judgment I let you take Gunpowder,and look how that’s turned out—”

“All the preliminary reviews are raving.”

“I’m talking about your own reputation, now that you’ve proven you can’t conduct yourself as an adult on the set.”

“Shewas the one who couldn’t conduct herself—” Julian bit his tongue, knowing too late that he’d made a mistake.

Uncle, of course, never missed a chance to go for blood. “Oh, she started it, is that your defense? You and every other kindergartener on the playground? Yes, Julian, you are clearly mature beyond your years.”

The lightheadedness had not gone away, had in fact progressed to a sort of buzzing in his ears. Julian entertained a brief fantasy of climbing through the sunroof and screaming the truth about his uncle to every person they passed. He half-believed no one would hear him, even if he shattered their eardrums. It was as if a force field surrounded his uncle, one that warped reality to suit his wishes.

“It’s funny you should mention conducting myself as an adult,” Julian said. “A rep from a cologne company asked me yesterday about being the face of their ad campaign. I said I would run it by you, and do you know what he did? He laughed, Uncle! In genuine surprise! And he asked, wasn’t I twenty-one now?”

Uncle Eddie looked at him, his expression neutral. So utterly neutral that Julian knew he was finally being heard.