A split formed on the top center of the rock. Dad splayed his arms, backing us both away. The split enlarged, forming a circular cut in the surface that popped up, landing askew across the hole.
I glanced at Dad, but he looked as dumbfounded as I was. He took a step closer but skipped back as the circle wiggled to the side and toppled off the rock.
A spindly, hairy black finger jutted out of the hole, then another. A tousled, dark mound appeared before three golden eyes reflected the sunlight.
“Edgar!” I darted to the boulder and pulled the huge spider into my arms. His rough, prickly hairs scratched my cheek, and I loved every second of it. “I can’t believe it!”
Dad eyed up the wiggling bundle in my arms. “I guess it’s safe to say that thing isn’t dangerous?”
“He’s fine.” I nuzzled my little friend. “He’s perfect.”
Dad stretched over the boulder. He pulled along the edges of the hole and felt along the sides. He sighed. “The rest looks pretty solid.”
I tightened my grip on the squirming grassen. I wasn’t about to let him go. Edgar was my last link to David, my last living memory of our final week together. I had to keep him safe. After a moment, the creature stopped struggling and hid his eyes in my armpit.
“So now what?” I asked.
Dad picked up the water bottle, looking deep into the glass. He frowned. There were probably only a few sips left.
“Well, staying put isn’t doing us any good. If they find the escape pods, they’ll be able to track us here.” He glanced at the sky. “I say we head west and see what happens.”
I nodded and fell in, walking beside him.
Edgar scrambled up to my shoulder and chirped in my ear.
“You’re not thinking of keeping that thing, are you?” Dad asked.
“His name is Edgar, not that thing.” I snuggled the grassen’s cheek, or where his cheek would have been if he had one. “And maybe I will keep him.”
Edgar’s coo turned to a growl as he bared his gargantuan fangs. He snapped, cutting my palm before I dropped him.
“What the … ” I flailed my hand as he scampered across the sand.
“You all right?” Dad asked, wiping the blood with his thumb.
“Yeah.” Only my pride hurt a little. I’d thought Edgar was my bud.
Dad followed the grassen back across our footprints, stopping at the boulder.
Edgar hopped atop the rock and whittled his mass back into the hole he’d emerged from.
Dad glanced at me before leaning over the hole. “I can’t see … wait.” His eyes widened. “Jess!”
I sprinted toward him, skidding beside the boulder as Edgar shimmied out of the hole butt first. The grassen grunted, pulling until the creature’s head emerged with violescent fingers clutched in his mouth.
“David!”
Edgar released his burden and backed away.
I grasped the lavender digits. Cold. So cold. “We have to get him out of there!”
Dad felt several points on the wrist. “There’s no pulse, Jess.”
No. I refused to believe that.
My father rubbed his hands along my shoulders. “That rock is solid. And small. If David is in there, he’s in pieces.”
I choked back a sob. I was better off thinking he’d burned up in the explosion. Finding pieces … it was too much.
Lost, weak, defeated beyond reason, I slumped beside the boulder.
Edgar hissed and lunged for the violet hand, sinking his teeth into the palm.
“Stop!” I sprang to my feet. “Don’t eat him!”
The grassen bit down again, then scampered to the ground and sat like a puppy waiting for someone to throw a ball.
What the …
Dark, bluish blood seeped from the wounds in the hand and dripped down the mottled, bumpy sides of the boulder.
Mottled and bumpy … not clean and flat like the other parts of the ship we’d found.
Part of my chest frayed away and sunk toward my stomach. “He wasn’t trying to eat him,” I whispered.
“What?”
I held my chest, gasping for air. “That’s not part of the ship!” I lunged for the hole, tugging at the opening.
“What are you talking about?” Dad pulled me back.
“It’s a cocoon.” I pointed at Edgar. “They’re the same as spiders. They stun animals and put them in cocoons so they can eat them later.” His brow furrowed. “Don’t you get it? Edgar knew the shell would be hard enough to stand reentry, so he bit David and sealed them both inside.”
Dad tucked my pesky stray hair behind my ear. “Sweetie, there’s no pulse.”
“It’s suspended animation. He’s okay in there. We need to get him out!”
Edgar warbled and leaped atop the boulder.
The hand twitched.
“Christ on his throne!” Dad darted to the rock and felt along the edges.
I cradled the hand. “David, we’re here. Can you hear me?” The cold skin didn’t react. I looked over the three-foot casing. Dad was right. How could David be in one piece in such a small space?
Edgar bared his fangs and plunged them into the shell. The casing ripped as he drew his teeth back. Dad shoved his hands into the fissure and pulled. A crack echoed through the desert. Dad grimaced, looking within.
“What is it?” I approached tentatively as my father’s expression slackened, faded. He gulped, and his nose twitched, just like it had in the hospital seconds before he told me Mom had died. I took another step. “Dad?”
He held up his hands. “Jess, don’t.”
Tears trailed down my cheeks. “I need to see!”
I settled my hands along either side of the opening. I took a deep breath and gazed within.
David’s body lay contorted, rolled into a ball. His legs and arms bent at ghastly angles. Open, vacant eyes stared up at me. Lost. Alone. Gone. His lips stretched as if frozen in a scream. My heart played basketball against my ribcage. Hope drained from my heart. My chest seized.
I collapsed, slamming against the side of the cocoon and sliding to the hot sand. It was done. Over. Finished.
The emptiness in his eyes haunted me. Burned into my mind like a permanent brand. He risked everything. He gave up his life so my father and I could live. If Edgar had tried to save him, he failed and failed miserably.
My gaze shifted to the trilling creature, until a low moan resounded from within the shell.
I jumped to my knees. “David?”
Dad reached inside, and I helped him pull David out of the shell and lay him on the desert floor. His arms and legs relaxed and seemed to bend back into a more human shape. He wasn’t broken!
Edgar inched beside David, nuzzled his arm, and then snarled, sinking his teeth into David’s bicep. David bolted upright, shouting a word in Erescopian and throwing Edgar across the sand.
Dad and I froze, waiting as David stared at his bloody hand and arm. He flexed his fingers twice before his gaze slowly rose to mine. “I’m not dead?”
Tears brimmed on the edges of my eyelashes. “No.” I dropped to my knees and crushed him to my chest. “You’re alive. I can’t believe you’re alive!” I pushed him back and stared at him, taking in his beautiful, turquoise, living eyes.
Anger roiled to the surface. I punched his chest. “You shoved me in an escape pod again, you jerk!” I punched him again, and again. “You scared the crap out of me! I thought you were dead.”
He grabbed my wrists. “Jess, you’re hitting me.”
My vision blurred. I froze, staring, lost. Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I was so scared. I thought you were gone, and—”
His arms circled me; his fingers dug into my shoulder blades. The muscles in his arms trembled.
“I thought it was over,” he said. “The ship was coming apart. And then … ” His gaze trailed to the empty shell and lingered before turning to Edgar, hiding behind Dad’s legs. “I thought you were at
tacking me. But you saved me, didn’t you?”
Edgar shook, ruffling his spindly fur.
David laughed and pulled me closer. He held my face, searching through my eyes. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, do you know that?”
His lips settled over mine, and a magnetic wave charged through my nervous system. Two short whimpers filled my throat before the energy blasted through every pore in my body. Reaching, searching, finding, and holding. Scolding, searing, taking, and giving. Life exploded into a stream of color and warmth. Adoration swirled deep into eternity within me.
The sensation ebbed away. I wanted to reach out, grab hold, and reel all David offered back into my soul forever, but I didn’t have the strength. I gasped and let my head loll back.
“Eh-hem,” Dad said.
Oops.
“Jess’s father!” David fumbled to his feet, tripped toward Dad, and pulled him into a hug.
Dad threw up his hands. “Yeah, glad to see you too. Just don’t kiss me.”
David laughed and took my hand as I stood. He drew me into his arms, more gentle this time. Needy. Worshiping. “We’re alive. We’re actually alive.”
“Yeah, well, I hate to rain on your parade,” Dad said, “but if we don’t find some water two of us are going to bake in this heat, and it won’t be the alien.”
David nodded and pointed to the right. “There are helicopters coming from that direction. Hopefully they’ll bring supplies.”
Dad squinted into the distance. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” David took a step and stumbled.
I ducked under his shoulder to support him. “Take it easy. You just crash-landed.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to make a habit of that.”
Dad placed David’s other arm around his shoulder and winced.
“You’re hurt, too,” David said.
“Just a scratch. I’ve had worse.”
I shivered, remembering the gouge on my father’s shoulder that Nematali had tried to heal. Dad’s wounds were far more than a scratch. I glanced down at the gash in my own leg. A year ago, I’d have melted into a pool of jelly getting a cut like that. Things sure had changed in the last few months.
David winced.
“You going to be all right, soldier?” Dad asked.
David stretched his neck. “Yeah. Just a scratch.”
Dad smiled. A sweet, genuine, happy, relief-filled smile.
Edgar jumped onto my shoulder and flopped like an un-stuffed plush toy. I nuzzled him with my cheek and tried not to burst into girly tears and ruin the moment.
“You like tacos, David?” Dad asked.
David shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“He doesn’t eat meat, Dad.”
“Oh, we can’t have that.” Dad adjusted David’s weight on his shoulders. “I’m sure it’s a mortal sin to put anything but ground beef on a tortilla.”
“Daaaad.”
His gaze danced across the sand dunes. “I suppose I may have a can of beans in the house. Just don’t ask me to eat them.”
David stopped walking. “Are you inviting me to a meal, sir?”
“Yeah, well, my daughter seems to like you.” He eased us into walking again. “And I might like you a little, too.”
“I’m honored.”
Dad snickered. “Don’t be honored yet. I’m going to make you clean up, and it’s Jess’s turn to cook.”
David’s chuckle fell into a wince.
“I think we need to get you both to a hospital first,” I said.
Dad stretched his injured shoulder. “Screw the hospital. I’m hungry.”
I scanned the swirling sand. “Me, too, but I have a funny feeling we’re a pretty long way from home.”
Three helicopters sprung from the horizon: a massive twin-blade Chinook flanked by two smaller Apaches.
Dad pointed toward the whooting blades. “That’s what they’re here for.” He turned to David. “Let me explain to you the finer points of the delicacy that is the real, authentic taco.”
I snorted as Dad tried to describe a tortilla. He glossed over the part about opening the bright yellow box and tossing the pre-made shells into the oven. He didn’t get to cover much more before the roar of the choppers and the swirl of biting sand overtook us.
A man leaned out the side of the Chinook, holding up a camera. Steven Callup. I should have known. I could almost hear him salivating over more award-winning photographs with each press of the shutter button.
No matter. We were home. On Earth. And alive.
I’d lived through another insane week with David. The first week, two months ago, had left me alone in the arms of my father. The second week had left me pretty much holding up both the men I loved. I clutched the starburst pendant beneath my shirt. Mom always believed in the impossible, and always believed in family. Had I finally found that?
Maybe. But David still had a huge job to do. His people needed him to terraform Mars, and I wouldn’t get in the way of that. I couldn’t.
Edgar scurried down my waist and shimmied his head under the edge of my tee-shirt. Dad sheltered our faces as the center helicopter touched down, whisking the sand into the sky. This was my family, now. Dad, David, maybe even Edgar.
At least for a day. Hopefully I’d have that long before duty stole the guy I loved again.
Callup circled us. The flash ignited twice. If his camera was set correctly—the sand spiraling around us—damn, what a shot.
David’s grip on me tightened. Was he reading my mind, again?
I pressed my thoughts toward him. I’m going to miss you. Do you know that?
His eyes saddened as his lips formed a straight line.
Yes, apparently he was reading my mind. Maybe he always had been. No matter. The link we’d developed had become part of us. A connection. Something we couldn’t lose, even after David left for Mars.
Connected. I liked that.
A whoosh of emotion circled through me. Relaxation. Relief. Had that come from David?
His grip on me tightened again. He knew I felt his emotions. Somehow, I could just tell.
I smiled at him. We really are connected, aren’t we?
David looked at the ground, suppressing a grin. Another question you already know the answer to. He glanced back to me. Are you mad?
The resonance of his voice inside me was like being hugged from within. No. It was even better.
I ran my fingers down his cheek. “Why would I be mad?”
Callup’s camera came a little too close. Dad backed him off.
David placed a kiss close to my ear and whispered, “It will be hard when I leave.”
I gulped down a sob, curling into his chest. “I know.”
Ugh, it was going to be ugly. There would be tears. Maybe even from both of us. I didn’t want to think about that now. I needed to hold on to these last few hours—revel in his touch until he was taken away again.
“I don’t care what your orders are,” Dad screamed over the pulsing helicopter blades. “We’re going to New Jersey, and you’re landing this thing on my front lawn!”
I highly doubted those helicopters had enough fuel to take us all the way home, but I don’t think Dad cared at the moment, and I loved him for it. I didn’t want to spend my last few hours with David in an Army hospital somewhere.
Dad herded us toward the Chinook. “Don’t worry. Come Hell or high water, we’re having tacos tonight.”
I snorted, covering my nose from the swirling sand. For some reason, I knew Dad would find a way to make that happen, even if we were on the other side of the world. Somewhere along the line, tacos had become synonymous with home and freedom. And we’d get there, one way or another.
Edgar climbed into my lap, and David wrapped his hand around mine as he eased beside me in the helicopter. Dad took the seat opposite us, plopping my backpack at his feet. He reached across to David and shook his hand.
They held the grip slightly longer than customary, staring into each other’s eyes. Dad’s eyes quaked, and his jaw set as if he tried to hide pain. Was David in his head?
Dad glanced at me and grimaced before he released David’s grip. Clearing his throat, he sought out the sky as we hovered over the endless stretch of desert.
There were more than tacos on his mind, now. And David’s emotions seemed blank to me. What had they said to each other?
No matter. The only definite in life was … well, nothing, come to think if it.
Except for tacos.
For now, tacos would have to do.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Whew! I feel like we’ve been to one side of the galaxy and back!
Thanks so much for spending another three hundred and some-odd pages with Jess and David. I really hope you had a great time.
If you’d like to be the first to hear about the next Fire in the Woods title, follow this link for the latest news, cover reveals, and maybe even some bonus content. http://tinyurl.com/pwvs98h
And if you’re in the mood, don’t be a stranger. Drop me a line and let me know what you thought about Ashes in the Sky. I’m on all sorts of social media. Pick your favorite mode of space travel at my website http://www.jennifereaton.com/
Waving madly from Mars!
JENNIFER M. EATON
Jennifer M. Eaton is a contemporary blender of science fiction, dystopian, and romance. (Because you can never get enough of a good thing) While not off visiting other worlds, Jennifer calls the East Coast of the USA home, where she lives with her wonderfully supportive husband, three energetic boys, and a pepped up poodle who tortures the family's goldfish and frogs. Jennifer’s perfect day includes long hikes in the woods, bicycling, swimming, snorkeling, and snuggling up by the fire with a great book; but her greatest joy is using her over-active imagination constructively: creating new worlds for everyone to enjoy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Fire in the Woods was meant to be a standalone. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself with a three-book deal, a tight deadline, and no concept whatsoever for another two stories. Yikes!
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