by Roxie Ray
Which meant there was no way out at all.
As I shot and slashed at the mass of beasts coming my way, I thought about my father. He’d gone out in a blaze of glory too. Facing down no-win situations was apparently in my blood.
I hoped I was doing him proud.
In some small, terrified part of me, I knew I was.
I thought of my mother, gone before her time. Birth was hard on Lunarian females. She’d given her life to bring me into this world. Now, I was giving mine so my mate could live to birth to my cub as well.
She’d be proud of me too, I hoped.
When all of this was over, I hoped I’d be able to see her again, even just for a moment, so she could tell me so herself.
For every beast I felled, three more seemed to take its place. They came at me in waves, churning walls of hunger and teeth. My muscles burned with every movement I made. I was losing energy.
But I’d be damned if I lost faith. Not in the moons. Not in any higher power.
The only faith I had was that what I was doing here today was the most important thing I’d ever done in my life.
I pushed forward. One shot. Two. Three. Somewhere outside of the ship, I heard Ronan’s and Pax’s war cries, furious and strong.
I hoped they’d live through this.
I hoped they’d take my mate somewhere where she’d never be in danger again when this was done.
Claws swiped at me, but somehow, I evaded them. Teeth came my way from every angle, but somehow, they never quite managed to break my skin.
Maybe there was something to this higher power thing after all. It felt like something was watching over me, protecting me from every danger, every death blow.
Whatever it was, I’d have to thank it later.
As with any battle, at any hesitation, any moment of too much arrogance—that was the moment when luck finally ran out.
Time blurred. I wasn’t thinking at all anymore. Only doing. One shot. Two. Three. Slash. Stab. Roll to the side. Slash again.
There was only room in my mind for one thing, and that was forward.
Or…maybe two things.
Moving forward, and the most precious thing in all the galaxies that I was leaving behind: her.
But then, so suddenly that it felt like I only had to blink for it to happen…
It was over.
I was at the front of the hall with a wall of dead beasts in my wake, and on the other end of the ship with his own pile of bodies between us was Nurek, of all people. He twisted his head to the side, shaking the body of a final beast off the tips of his horns…
Our eyes met, his black, mine blood red.
“Hey,” I said tentatively.
Honestly, I was a little surprised to see him. I’d never known a Rutharian to run from a battle, but I hadn’t seen or heard anything from him since the battle had started. If I would have stopped to wonder about that, I would have just assumed he’d taken off.
“Gallix.” Nurek scanned me up and down. “Are you harmed?”
I had to pat myself down before I even knew the answer to that question. My shirt was pretty tattered, and I had a few scratches on me.
But, impossibly…
“I…don’t think so.” I gave him a once-over as well. “You?”
“If I am, it does not matter,” Nurek said with a shrug. “The females…”
“Through there.” I blinked, dazed, then pointed at the barricade of bodies behind me.
I shouldn’t have been alive. There was no damned way I could still be alive.
But as Nurek and I worked together to move the bodies of the fallen beasts aside, there was no denying it.
My body burned with exhaustion at every move I made, but I was alive.
And more importantly, that meant I was going to see Eve again.
The exhaustion faded away at that thought. I threw each of the beasts aside like they weighed nothing at all. When a path was finally cleared, I raced toward the doors and pried them open like I was drowning and the only source of air was between them.
As soon as the metal parted, she was there.
Eve threw herself at me. Her tears wetted my skin as her cheek brushed against mine.
Even though I was still unsure of how I’d managed it, at least I knew how this part went.
I love you, she’d say, and then I’d kiss her, and everything would be right again.
“I hate you!” Eve spat at me as soon as she stopped sobbing. Her little fists pounded against my chest like she was trying to punch her way through my skin. “How dare you do that to me?”
I let out a laugh.
Okay. Not quite the welcome I’d been expecting, but it’d do.
“I love you too, vringna.” I let her tire herself out before I wrapped my arms around her little body and squeezed her tight. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
“I hate you,” she said again. “So much.”
Then, the kiss came. It burned even hotter than the soreness of my muscles. It lasted so long, I finally had to pull away so I could gasp for air.
“I hate you.” Eve rested her forehead against mine. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Yeah, well…” I chuckled tiredly. “Here I am anyway.”
“I hate you.” Eve kissed my cheeks, then my jaw, then my lips again. “I love you, Gallix. I love you so much.”
“Love you too, bright eyes. Love you too.”
We held each other for a long time. Longer than we should have, probably, but around us, I could feel the world being set right. Ronan limped in and slumped down on the carcass of one of the dead beasts, covered in blood. Pax and Ora threw themselves at each other as soon as they saw each other. And faintly, I was aware of Nurek pushing past me to embrace Marisa too.
Not that any of that mattered. I was glad we hadn’t lost anyone, sure, but the most important thing was already in my arms.
“How’s your romance novel hold up to that?” I whispered against Eve’s ear. “Enough action for you?”
“It’s not hanging off a cliff, but…” Eve took a sharp breath and let it out with a shudder as she pressed her cheek to my chest. Her arms wrapped around my waist and squeezed me so tight I had to let out a grunt just so I had room to draw in air. “I think that’s enough action for one lifetime. I’m ready for my happily ever after now.”
“Mm. So am I.” I kissed the top of her head, then turned her face up toward mine so I could claim her lips, too.
“I thought you didn’t believe in happily-ever-afters,” she teased as she pulled away.
“You make me believe in a lot of things I didn’t used to, vringna.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Like joy. For the rest of my life. Love—the keeping kind.” I smiled down at her. “Like the possibility that a no-good baz-terd like me can become a father. Have a wife.”
“I’m not your wife, Gallix,” Eve pointed out. “Not that it matters, but…”
“Marry me, then.” I raised an eyebrow. “How do they do this in your romance novels?”
“You’re asking me to… Oh, Gallix.” Eve stifled a laugh of disbelief behind her hand. Her eyes were sparkling. Green and blue and gold. Glittering. Bright. “Generally, the hero would get down on one knee…”
I dropped immediately as I took her hands in mine.
“Marry me,” I said again with a grin. “Marry me, and you can have whatever happily ever after you like.”
19
Eve
Ronan married us in Edon’s sacred cave beneath the purple glow of Edon’s moon through the crystal ceiling. It wasn’t just a wedding for Gallix and me, though. Pax and Ora went first. They babbled their way through their vows, talking over each other so frantically it was like they were both trying to marry the other one first.
By the time they finally kissed, they were both crying. Gallix snorted as he watched them, then shook his head as he took my hand.
“You’ve got my whole damned heart, vringna, but don’t
get it in your head that I’m going to be blubbering like the two of them when this is over.”
“Of course not.” I laughed as we stepped forward. “A big strong warrior like you would never cry at a wedding, right?”
“Right.” Gallix gave me a wink, then pulled my fingers up to his lips to kiss them. “Let’s do this.”
Gallix’s vows were clear and stiff, almost stubborn. Just like him.
“Gonna love you forever, Eve,” he told me with a squeeze of my hands. “Gonna protect you for the rest of my life. You have me, Eve. For as long as you want me, I’m yours—and if you ever stop wanting me, I’ll be yours anyway. Kick me like I’m a mean old wraith-wolf and I’ll come bounding back to you like an overeager pup.”
“I’m not going to kick you,” I promised him. That wasn’t part of my vows, but since he’d mentioned it—he might as well know. “I’m going to love you forever too, you big idiot.”
“Promise?”
I nodded, then laughed. “Promise.”
“All right. Those are my vows. Now you.”
My vows were…long. Flowery. Probably too much—but aside from this time I’d spent with Gallix, the closest I’d gotten to love was in some ancient, ratty old romance novel.
“And when we’re old, with gray in our hair and wrinkles around our eyes and more grandchildren than we can count, I want to die with you,” I finished. “Not surrounded by Rutharians, or jungle beasts, or anything else—just me and you, peacefully in our bed, wrapped up in each other’s arms with the family we’ve created all around us. The final time my heart beats, it’ll still be beating with love for you.”
“M-moons, Eve.” Gallix turned his face away and let go of my hands to wipe something from his cheek. “Just…aw, nine hells!”
“Are you crying, Gallix?”
“Nah. I’m…I’m fine.” Gallix sniffed, then turned back to me with a smile. His eyes were glistening with tears. “That was…that was beautiful, vringna. Just got something in my eye.”
When he kissed me, I could’ve been wrong, but it felt like the moon glowed a little brighter. Maybe that was just the hopeless romantic in me.
Or maybe, it was something more.
After all of the unreal things I’d been through since I met Gallix, it was just as believable as anything else. If I could make him believe in happily-ever-afters, then this crazy planet could certainly make me believe in the power of the moon.
“Are you all satisfied now?” Ronan asked. He looked tired and a little uneasy here in the cave. Maybe it was the four-armed skeletons lurking at the back of this place, or the drawings on the walls—or maybe, he was just worn out from all the injuries he’d sustained.
But when I nodded, he gave me a bright smile. Exhausted, but sweet.
“Thank you, Ronan,” I told him.
“Of course,” he replied. “Then if we are finished here—”
“No,” Nurek said. He stepped forward uncertainly, but his hold on Marisa’s hand was firm. “Not yet. I…I know that I am not of your people. I am not sure that I am even of my people anymore. But if you are willing…if it is no trouble…”
“Please?” Marisa asked. Her voice was softer and sweeter than I’d ever heard it before. “Will you do us, too?”
Ronan bowed his head and waved them forward. “You may not be of our people, Nurek, but you have fought bravely for us. You are more than a friend now.”
“You’re family,” Gallix agreed, clapping Nurek on the shoulder. “Get on with it, you two.”
As Nurek and Marisa whispered their vows together, Gallix and I moved back toward the cave’s walls. The picture we ended up by was the drawing of the coronation again. The more that I looked at it, the four-armed figure being crowned by all of the two-armed ones looked more and more like…
“It’s Ronan, isn’t it?” Gallix spoke like he was reading my mind. “All those orange figures…I wondered at first, but looking it over again now…”
“Maybe this is the place where your people originally came from. These caves…if they’re on Lunaria too, it would make sense.”
“All those creepy skeletons in the back, too. No way of being sure, but…they’re built just like Ronan’s people. The stories have always said that his line is from an ancient race of Lunarians, from sometime before Lunaria itself…”
“We can be sure,” Ronan said from behind us. Beneath the crystal ceiling, Nurek and Marisa were making out tenderly. Ronan didn’t look amused. He looked…tense. “I have proof now.”
“You do?” Gallix and I said simultaneously.
Now that we were married, I guessed we were of one mind, too. Gross…but cute.
“I have been grim ever since I found this place. More on edge than I have ever been in my life. And not just because of my injuries.” Ronan sighed. “These caves…they awakened something in me. My dreams…they have all been of this planet. This place.” He tapped the red-haired figure next to the four-armed one being crowned. Her hair was even brighter than mine. Instead of curls, she had thick waves and looked…almost human. “I have dreamed of her every night.”
“Dreams aren’t proof, though, soldier,” Gallix reminded him.
“No,” Ronan agreed. “But I can show you something that is.”
We left the others to their own devices in the cave and followed Ronan back to camp. It was still covered in the bodies of the beasts that had been slain there. Ronan moved to one with orange fur and turned it over with a grunt.
When he moved its shaggy fur aside, a smooth, short-haired underbelly was revealed. The skin beneath it was almost the same color as Gallix’s and Ronan’s. And on its chest, just over its heart…
“Your tattoo.” I moved my hand up to Gallix’s chest, where the four black claw marks were inked into his skin. “It’s the same tattoo as yours.”
“I cannot be sure…but I think these beasts were Lunarians once. Or, rather, they were whatever we were before we became Lunarians.” Ronan touched his fingers to his forehead, then to his lips, then to his heart. “I do not know what happened here, but…something, something terrible. Perhaps it is why our people left this place long ago, before our histories were written. Before we knew how to write.”
Something panged in my chest. The feeling traveled all the way down to my womb. As I placed my hand over my belly, I bit my lip and let out a breath.
“We can’t stay here.” I hated that I had to say those words, but they needed to be said. “Ora and I should have our babies somewhere with…with real medical attention for us. And if this place turned the Lunarians who used to live here into those…those things—”
“It may only be a matter of time before we turn too,” Ronan finished for me.
Gallix blew out a heavy breath. “Not a chance we can afford to take.”
“We are all in agreement, then?” Ronan asked.
“We…should ask Pax and Ora. Explain this to them too. And I s’pose Nurek and Marisa get votes too. But not all of these beasts are orange. I’ve killed green ones and yellow ones too. Even some red ones. Red fur, black blood.”
“Rutharians,” Ronan said. “None of us are safe here. Perhaps Nurek will allow us to use his ship.”
“Won’t hurt to ask, right?”
“To leave this cursed planet…” Ronan grunted, then headed back to the caves. “Yes. I will even sink so low as to ask the help of a Rutharian. No price is too high.”
After Ronan left, Gallix and I lingered by the edge of the pool. He helped me to a sitting position, and I dipped my toes in. The water felt blissfully cool.
“It’s a shame we have to leave.” I kicked my feet slowly in the water. “For so long now, this really felt like…like our place.”
“It’s the place we fell in love, vringna.” Gallix sat down next to me and pulled off his boots, then put his feet into the water as well. “The place where our cub was conceived. It’s normal, I think, to miss it.” He cast a glance over his shoulder at the mound of dead beasts behind
us. “Not that I’m going to regret narrowly avoiding getting turned into one of those, but…yeah, I’m glad you said it. We have to leave. We have no choice.”
“You didn’t even get a chance to teach me how to swim, though.” I laughed a little sadly as I took his hand in mine. “I guess I won’t need to now, but…” I narrowed my eyes at Gallix as I caught him grinning. “What?”
“We’ve got a little time left here.” He cocked his head toward the pool. “I could still teach you a thing or two.”
“Really?” I pressed my hand to my stomach. “It won’t…hurt the baby, will it?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just a little water.” Gallix dipped his finger beneath the pool’s surface and splashed a handful of wetness onto my knees, which made me giggle. “And no wife of mine should go without knowing how to swim.”
“You think we have time?”
“Enough for a lesson or two.” Gallix winked at me as he began to pull off his shirt. “Get your clothes off, though. If you’re getting in this water with me, we’re doing it properly this time.”
“Naked?” I laughed at him. “I don’t think I need to be naked to learn how to swim.”
“Nah.” Gallix stripped down out of his pants then offered me his hand. “That’s just for me. You up for it?”
I laughed again, then pulled my shirt off over my head and tossed it to the ground.
We jumped into the pool together, the way we should have done on that first night here.
If this was our last time, then Gallix was right.
We’d do it properly this time. Together.
Hand in hand.
Husband and wife.
20
Gallix
We left Edon that night. Once the others heard our theories about the beasts and saw the evidence, coming to that conclusion wasn’t exactly hard. Nurek, after noticing the red-furred, black-blooded beasts we presumed to be former Rutharians, was even so kind as to offer us the use of his ship.
Not that I was happy about working with a Rutharian, but even I had to admit that Nurek was…different. He was soft-spoken. Gentle. Especially with Marisa. It gave me hope for my comrade Nion’s future children—twins with the human, Alyse—one half-Lunarian, one half-Rutharian.