Tears stung her eyes as she gazed at it, at all it represented. All the blood and death, beauty and life. And when she gave him a tremulous smile, he saw that knowledge in her eyes.
Those eyes widened as Valerian went down on one knee. “Happy birthday,” he said, holding up the ring that was at once the most banal and most beautiful thing in the universe.
“Thank you,” she said. “That’s very romantic. Is this your idea?”
“Yes, Laureline.” He swallowed hard, and she realized the hand that presented the ring was trembling. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“For better or worse?” she asked.
Anxiously, Valerian said, “Is this negotiable?”
Laureline smiled. She wanted to start laughing, to start crying, to start… other things.
“No,” she said.
He settled his shoulders. “All right, then,” he replied.
Laureline gazed down at him for a moment, then bent and accepted the ring. His happiness at the gesture turned to puzzlement as, instead of slipping it on her finger, she placed it carefully on the console. He got to his feet, his expression questioning.
She went into his arms, kissed him, and then began to unfasten his uniform.
His bewildered expression melted into a wicked grin. “Is that a yes?” Valerian asked.
“That’s a maybe,” Laureline replied. She had removed one of his gloves, and got to work on the other one.
He stared at her, totally at a loss. “I’m so confused. Is this how love works?”
“No.” Laureline gave him a teasing look with a hint of a smolder to it, and he inhaled swiftly. She leaned in for a kiss. As he began to enthusiastically return it, she pulled back and began to remove his jacket. When she placed her hand on his chest for a moment, she could feel his heart pouncing beneath her fingers.
“This is how women work. A woman lived in your body for a while. Didn’t you learn anything?”
She tossed aside the jacket and started to slide her hands up under his shirt. To her surprise, he stopped her. She looked up questioningly at him.
“I did learn something,” he said, grinning.
“And what might that be?”
“Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
She laughed a little. “We have two whole hours!”
Valerian gave her a slow, wicked smile. “Precisely,” he said, pulling her close and kissing her hungrily. Her arms slipped up around his neck and she pressed herself against him.
The stars were not eternal, but they were ancient beyond reckoning. They had seen much, and would behold more. But seldom had their judgeless gazes borne witness to events as momentous as those that occurred this day. Two worlds had been born. One, a vast, exquisite planet, with sea and sky and sand and tranquility.
The other, a much smaller, but no less significant world, consisting only of two.
Acknowledgments
The author must gratefully acknowledge Valerian and Laureline’s creators, Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières, and of course the astoundingly creative Luc Besson, who brings them to life on the screen. Thanks must also go to my agent, Lucienne Diver, and my editors on this project, Natalie Laverick and Ella Chappell.
About the Author
Award-winning and eight-time New York Times bestselling author Christie Golden has written over fifty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She has writing in such franchises as Star Wars, Star Trek, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Assassin’s Creed, Halo, and Fable, among many others, as well as authoring her own books.
Recent projects are two novels for the Warcraft movie, Warcraft: Durotan and Warcraft: The Official Movie Novelization, and Assassin’s Creed: Heresy and Assassin’s Creed: The Official Movie Novelization. Appearing on shelves in 2017 in addition to the novelization of Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets will be Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad.
Golden was awarded the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers’ Faust Award 2017, conferring upon her the title of Grandmaster in acknowledgment of a quarter century of contributions to the field of media tie-in fiction.
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Copyright
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Official Movie Novelization
Print edition ISBN: 9781785653841
E-book edition ISBN: 9781785653858
Published by Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP
First edition: July 2017
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
© 2017 Valerian SAS / TF1 Films Production.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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