Light Unfolding: A Reverse Harem Science Fiction Romance (Wings of Artemis Book 8)

by Rebecca Royce

  She really was an amazing friend. In fact, behind her, three more of our group arrived. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We survived together. Or at least they all did and I’d glammed on like I had any right to be there when I was nothing but an imposter in their midst.

  A figure emerged from the ship. I stared in awe. I’d just been thinking about the ship. Why hadn’t I realized there would be more to this than just the vehicle itself? There were people who had to pilot it. And I knew those people.

  Or I would. In the future. They didn’t know me yet.

  It was Nolan. He was bald with two visible earrings and a scowl on his face. I gasped. He really hadn’t aged that much, and he had to be twenty-seven years older when I knew him. At least that much older. Maybe more. I really couldn’t do the math of this. All of his traveling through black holes and timelines changed his aging. In any case, he hadn’t aged much since this moment. Wes followed him out. The changes in him were noticeable. He was buff in the future and here he looked scrawny.

  He scratched his head and shouted behind him. A shaggy looking Dane dragged off the ship. He rubbed his eyes before lifting his hand to block the sun. This was not the focused doctor I was used to seeing. Dane was one of the most put together people I’d ever known. Was he hung over? Geoff followed, his gaze trailing the ground. Diana’s father had something on his mind, and he didn’t look happy.

  Finally, the woman herself exited the ship. It was Melissa Alexander, flanked on both sides by C.J. and Cooper. The latter had his hands in his back pockets; he scanned the crowd and said something to Melissa that made her nod her head.

  “Do you know those people? Are they related to your husbands?”

  I shook my head no. I was lying. But if I wanted to be technical, I didn’t know those people. Not at all, actually. In the future I would know them, but before I’d left, I’d wanted to kill C.J. because he’d made Jackson seriously upset, getting him caught up in a scheme he had no business running. I was still pissed, all of my anger surging toward a person who had yet to make that decision. It was the Sandler in me. We never forgave a wrongdoing against a person we loved. I rubbed the back of my neck. This was getting me nowhere.

  “Waverly?”

  I sighed. I needed to say something to Dawn. “I thought I did. But I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

  She patted my shoulder. “Ghosts of the past do chase us, don’t they?”

  “Of the future, too.”

  Orion wasn’t without their poor. Crowds of starving and homeless moved like zombies heading for the ship, all of them male. Thanks to Dawn there weren’t women here left without options. In the universe, if there was an unclaimed woman, someone would take her as theirs, whether she liked it or not. Dawn had given people options.

  She was amazingly strong.

  But there was nothing for the starving mass of men.

  I sighed. Two of them ran up to the newly landed group of rebels. I blinked. Yes, at this point that was what they were. Melissa had been a leader in my time, a woman who had run Mars Station, given women a safe place, and helped lead our rebellion. Right here, she was just a pawn in her mother’s rebellion and not really in charge of anything but her own ship.

  “Can you help us?” A particularly thin man called out to her. His hands shook while he lifted them to beg. I hated this scene. I tried so much to give to them what I could, and I had so little. At least half of what I took home I gave to the homeless. There was always someone who had it worse than me. I wanted to help where I could.

  C.J. reached into his pocket, but Melissa grabbed his arm. “Don’t. If you want something and you don’t like how things are then join the rebellion and help us fight. Things suck. Do something about it.”

  What?

  C.J.’s face fell, but he dropped his arm and instead moved forward to make a way for Melissa to cut through.

  My temper rose. Had she really just said that? Joining the rebellion wasn’t exactly something people could just do. First off, they needed a ship to get there and then to know where the nomadic rebels were. Plus, you had to have an introduction. I heard this again and again. Most people would love to do something. That wasn’t an option and for her to be so dismissive? No, I couldn’t let this stand. My temper rose and if there was one thing I’d learned in the months with my guys was it was okay to just be me.

  I strode forward. “Hey,” I called out, and it must have been loud enough that they heard me through the crowd. Cooper, C.J., and Melissa all turned. Farther on, I had earned Nolan’s attention as well.

  Melissa raised her dark eyebrows. There was no question she was gorgeous. I used to care about that a lot. These days I found it the least interesting thing about someone.

  “This isn’t who you are.” I addressed Melissa directly. “Not by a long shot. You aren’t built for what you just did. You are going to be so much better than this. You are going to be someone who inspires people to do better. Start now. Do better than this.”

  Her temper flared in her eyes even as Cooper placed a hand on her arm. “Look, I don’t know who you are and why you think you can talk to me like that. Let me give you a clue. I’m Melissa Fucking Alexander, and I fucking rock. It doesn’t get any better than me.” She rounded on Cooper. “How are there so many women here?”

  Cooper scrunched up his nose. “This is a safe place. If women can get here they’re protected from authorities.”

  “Well, that’s good and fine.” She gave me a huge, mirthless grin. “But it changes nothing. I’m Melissa Fucking Alexander. Haven’t you heard? I’m the rebel princess. I rock.”

  She laughed like she’d said something funny. C.J. grimaced for half a second before he covered it, and they disappeared in the crowd.

  I sighed. I shouldn’t have said anything. That wasn’t the Melissa I knew. The one I’d gotten to know was so much more than that shell in front of me. If ever there was evidence that a person could change it was right there.

  Exhaustion wafted through me. I thought seeing Artemis would make me feel closer to home. It didn’t. I’d never felt so lost in the universe before. The planet was spinning, and I might just lose gravity and float off to space.

  2 Impending Doom

  I sat sipping my drink and stared at Dawn across the table. We’d finished the houses on time, mostly because the crowds had stayed drunk so long. So we were able to have one drink before we went home to the house Dawn kept for all of us.

  “When I first came here, I never imagined I could do this. I was just a woman alone. But together, a group of us made this happen with some help from the local government. I’ve just been lucky. I’m glad you’re with us.”

  I sighed. That was so nice of her to say. “Thank you.” Maybe it was the alcohol. I’d never been much of a drinker before but now I did look forward to my one drink a day at the end of my work. We cleaned on the 8th days. Babysat on the 1st and 3rd. Cooked on the 4th. The list went on. I wasn’t good at anything except the childcare, and even then, the way society seemed to demand I be subservient to the mothers here took the joy out of caring for their little ones.

  “Something is on your mind.”

  I lifted my gaze. “What would you do if I told you that this place was going to end? That sometime in the not too distant future, a madwoman will unleash nuclear winter here. Not just here, but almost the entire area of the galaxy. There will be almost nowhere safe to go.” In fact, one of the men I loved had either just been born or would soon be, and he would spend his early years in one of the few places left in the galaxy where they could hide. His parents were betraying everyone around them, and he was frozen most of the time. So much so, that to this day he had nightmares of being cold. “After the explosions are over, out of the wreckage will come zombies.”

  Dawn reached out and took my hand in hers. “I would say that awful things happen in the universe all the time and worrying about things we can’t control is both harder and easier than those things we can.”

  I s
upposed that was fair enough. I knew two things right then. If I told her the truth, she’d never believe me, and I was never going to bring it up again. Where could I go to survive if I did run? I didn’t know this part of the galaxy, and if I managed to find the planet where Jackson and Diana had been until they were five what would I do there? Stare at a man I loved as a baby? Even if I found a ship to take me through the black hole, I’d arrive in a time where I knew no one. I could go hang out on Sandler One and see my brothers come into the world, observe my parents courting, find Ari’s father and stop him from beating him.

  Or I could stay here and find a way to improve the life of the Super Soldiers.

  None of those things were realistic. I was alone, and even though I could become Cassandra and scream out the future, no one would believe me. I wasn’t suicidal; I was just stuck in the inevitable.

  I took a long pull from my drink. In some ways, I was lucky, Humans, for the most part, did not know ahead of time how our end would come. I did.

  My musing was cut short by the sudden presence of three drunks stumbling into the bar. Dawn sighed. We’d dealt with those three before. Individually, they were an annoyance. They worked at the docks, and while they might each grumble and make lewd remarks about all of us, they mostly left us alone. Together, they suddenly thought themselves anything from a lothario to a posse.

  In any case, it disturbed them down to a cellular level that we weren’t fuckin’ them.

  “Hey,” Clyde, the leader of the bunch, called out to us. “It’s the sluts who left their husbands.” He laughed like he’d made a joke. “Come on girls. Give me some.”

  Usually this was as hard as it got. Lewd remarks we’d ignore until it drove us out, but tonight was different. Tonight, he really intended to have sex with one of us. There were two of us, three of them, and the bartender took too long to call the enforcement.

  I remembered the sound of bottles breaking. Clyde and his shortest cohort Nova each broke their beer bottles and rushed toward us. Dawn jumped up, overturning our table, which smacked into me on the way down. My head took the brunt of the circular wooden table. I saw stars and the world went black.

  I came to sometime later, the sound of sirens filling the air. Dawn stood over me. Her eye puffed out like she’d been hit; tears leaked from it. I reached out to touch, but she caught my hand. “Waverly, you’re okay.”

  I nodded. I supposed I was. My ears were ringing, and I’d passed out. Nausea rolled through me. Yep, I was concussed for sure, but unless something went terribly wrong, I was going to live through this. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “The police came, but not before I had to stab him—Clyde.” She looked over her shoulder. “I think he might be dying. The other two ran off.”

  I stumbled upward. The world tilted, and I tried to ignore it. Yes, she’d stabbed him, but he wasn’t going to die, not immediately anyway. If the paramedics got him to a hospital and a med machine quickly he’d survive.

  “He won’t.” I met her gaze even as I reached to take Clyde’s pulse. It was strong and steady. He moaned, crying out in pain. I didn’t envy him his agony, but I also didn’t mind it. My nurse side warred with my Sandler ruthlessness… It might be better if he did die. The world would be that much better. Of course, he then wouldn’t get to suffer when the bombs dropped.

  She sucked in a sob, and I put my arms around her. The sirens told me the authorities were coming in. “Why can’t they leave us alone? Why can’t they just let us live? Will there ever come a day when they do?”

  I’d yet to see it. I swallowed. “Someday. We have to believe.”

  I turned away from her to throw up.

  So much for ending our day on a high note.

  Weeks turned into months, and nothing burned up in nuclear flames. I started to wonder if I’d really imagined it. Was it possible I was totally delusional? Maybe. Perhaps I’d made up the whole thing. Four wonderful guys who thought I walked on water? Not likely. Maybe my own truth was so horrible my conscious mind had covered it up.

  Dawn came home from lock up a month later. She was changed—quiet and disillusioned. Jumping at every loud noise, she wouldn’t tell me or anyone else what happened. My heart bled for her.

  I scrubbed the floors of a new account for us while I tried to hum to myself. I was tired. I needed a bath, but we’d run out of hot water so a quick shower was the best I could do. The men were getting restless, more and more of them losing their jobs. With Dawn emotionally checked out, I was going to have to organize the other women together to see what we could do.

  Finishing up, I stepped outside. The weather was changing.

  “Waverly,” a voice I’d never hear again called out to me. I sighed. Every once in a while I hallucinated hearing one of my guys. This time it was Rohan. I stared down at my feet. The delusion would pass.

  “Waverly.” A hand grabbed onto me, and I reacted, fighting back from the touch. Whoever it was could just get their hands off me. They could…

  I gasped. It really was Rohan. He held onto me, observing me with wide eyes before tugging me into a tight embrace. “Rohan?”

  I couldn’t seem to say anything else. He smelled right. I closed my eyes. If he were fake, he would smell wrong or something. This was real.

  I found my voice again. “How?”

  “We can’t wait. I’ll explain.” He shook, holding me. “I’ve got her guys. Yes, coming. Everyone to the ship. There’s no time to lose. Minutes.”

  “Until what?”

  He took my cheeks in his hand. “Until the bombs.”

  I shook my head. “No.” The reality of this slammed into me like a truck hitting me. “We have to warn people. We have to get them out. I have friends.”

  He didn’t let go of my arm, didn’t loosen his grip. “We can’t. No one would believe us. We’d be locked up for questioning and die with them. We can’t save everyone.”

  I tugged against his hold. “Okay, not everyone. Just my friends.”

  “Waverly, we have minutes. Where are your friends?”

  I wanted to have a different answer but I didn’t. “Not close. Oh Rohan, no. I can’t do this. I can’t. It’s too much.” I’d never fallen apart in my life. I was the girl who survived things, who found a way to make everything work. I didn’t lose it in hard circumstances, and yet here I was crumbling.

  He shook his head. “I’ve got you, Wavey. I promise.”

  Rohan was strong and steady. Strong enough to carry me even when I fought him all the way to the ship. I didn’t even know what I was screaming about by the time he got me inside. I’d given up hitting and kicking him. I couldn’t really explain why I did that at all.

  He set me on a table in the med bay. They’d come on Artemis, but our version of it. An older ship than the one Melissa had appeared on. I felt it jolt, becoming airborne seconds before Ari appeared in front of me. Rohan hadn’t changed his appearance at all, but Ari needed to shave. His blond hair was kept in a rubber band, so I couldn’t tell how long it was.

  I couldn’t stop crying.

  “I don’t know.” Rohan said to Ari. “It’s the bombs. She didn’t want to leave anyone.”

  Ari nodded. “Of course she didn’t.” He touched my hair, running his hand through it. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

  He never used that name for me, but this was too awful to even focus on that. I jumped off the table and rushed to the viewport. The planet shrank behind us. I cried out. Any second, this place—one I’d never have chosen to see, but had been my home for ten months—would be no more.

  We’d no sooner pulled out of orbit than a bright light obscured my view. I closed my eyes. It was gone. Just like that. I put my hand over my face.

  “Thank you for coming.” My voice shook. “I… I…”

  A hand came to my back. It was Rohan. “Don’t thank us. This happened to you because of us. We love you. We’d never leave you there.”

  I was being so ungrateful. They’d somehow come all t
his way. I didn’t even know how. My knees gave out, but he caught me. “You don’t have to tell me they were all already dead anyway. I know. I was walking around with people long gone this whole time. It was just hard to remember that when…”

  Rohan placed me back on the table, and Ari took my hands in his. “Waverly, can you tell me the symptoms of delayed shock?”

  “What?” I blinked at him, dropping my hands from my face. He wanted me to list symptoms. “I… I’m not sure.”

  “Yes, you are. What are they?” His gaze lifted above my head and back down. He had a medical readout going for me. I should look up and see what the computer was saying about me, but I didn’t. The door opened and closed, Jackson appearing.

  I could barely look at him.

  “Ari?” Jackson asked, coming next to him.

  “Can you tell me the delayed symptoms of shock? Or what shock is?” He hit a button on the console, and I heard it move. He was getting ready to give me some medicine.

  I had to think, had to make my brain work. That was what he was asking me to do. “Organs and tissues in the body don’t receive enough blood. Because of this, a buildup of waste happens and can cause damage to organs. Patients can go into a coma, collapse, or die.” My knees had just given out. “Is that happening to me, Ari?”

  “Do you think I would let that happen to you?” He hit another button. “Symptoms?”

  “Um.” I had to breathe. It was hard to catch my breath, and my chest felt tight. But, okay, he needed me to talk. I’d do that. “It’s a state of mind thing, a psychological trauma resulting in physical reaction. Symptoms include extremely low blood pressure.” Jackson raised his gaze to look at the readout above my head. “Weakness, nausea, chest pain, fast but weak pulse. Dizziness. I get what you’re doing here.”

  He tilted his head to the side. “Do you?”

  “Yes. I’m going into shock, and you’re making me think through it.”