“You hush there now, sugarplum. I don’t want to hear another thing about it. If you’d tried any harder, you would have wound up dead.”
“We still might.”
“C’mon,” Lyric interrupts. “Don’t be fatalistic.”
She puts on a brave face, but she knows the implications. Earth II knows. They received the transmission. We’re sitting ducks.
“What’s the plan in case there is any retaliation?” Theron asks.
Not if, when. They’re coming. Not a doubt in my mind.
“We’ll be ready for them,” says a voice I can’t quite place a name to.
“Got something up your sleeve, Oz?” Hadrian says.
“Don’t I always?” Oz replies.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We won’t let anything happen,” Mom reassures me.
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can,” Theron says. “There’s no way any of us will let anything happen to our family.”
Family.
They’re my family.
I look up at the morts around me. Avrell had come in at some point and I note that he and Zoe position themselves as far away from each other as possible. Lyric and Hadrian are by the desk. He has an arm around her, and she nods to me encouragingly. Theron, my arrogant mate, is beside me, where I know he’ll always be.
“Stella and Henry were there, at the outpost. So we know they’re alive,” I say to keep from crying again. I’ve never been much of a crier. It must be the atmosphere. “Someone should go back and leave one of the vehicles, maybe some supplies just in case they go back. I could—” I begin.
“Not a chance. I’ll go out and leave it on my next run,” Julie offers.
I roll my eyes at Theron’s arm squeeze. I’m no delicate flower, but the last thing I want to do is go back there. “Fine, thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Don’t worry, Willow, we’ll figure this out. Avrell will cure The Rades and we’ll start thinking about consolidating our people. We’re vulnerable separated this way.” It’s no wonder Breccan is their leader. His calm, reassuring nature reaches all the way across the comms line. Even though a part of me still worries, his voice calms me.
I hadn’t even considered leaving the prison. For some reason, I thought I’d always be here, locked away even though I’d already been outside its walls.
“We have to cure it first,” Avrell says gruffly through his mask. “If we survive Earth II’s advances.” It must suck for him to have to stay completely suited all the time, but since he hasn’t been exposed to this strain of The Rades like the rest of us have, we can’t afford for him to catch it.
“Always a ray of sunshine,” Zoe says under her breath.
“I guess you two had better learn to get along and figure it out, then,” Breccan warns. “We need every able-bodied person to help. The sooner you can heal them, the better.”
“Yes, Commander,” Avrell says.
Theron and I share a look. At least things won’t be boring while we prepare for war.
Then again, life with these morts has always been entertaining.
Breccan orders Hadrian to check in the following solar as they call them with an update and to call if there are any other emergencies. Zoe and Avrell begin to bicker as soon as the comms are off and their voices follow down the hallway.
Theron loops an arm over my shoulder and pulls me close to him as he guides us firmly in the opposite direction.
“What now?” I ask.
“For now, we do nothing. It’s up to Sayer and Oz to focus on the threat from Earth II. You must stay safe now that you’re carrying my mortling.”
I pull away. “Your mortling?”
“Our,” he corrects.
“Damn right. And I hope you don’t think you’ll keep me sequestered away here. That’s not the type of woman you fell in love with.”
“Of course not.”
“I won’t be coddled, Theron. I want to help.”
“Of course.”
“You’re very agreeable all of a sudden.”
He steers me to our room. “I’m not like Avrell. I know when I shouldn’t argue with my mate.”
I gasp. “You think Zoe is his mate? They hate each other.”
“You weren’t too fond of me in the beginning.”
“True, but you grew on me.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what we were talking about. I’m serious, Theron. I won’t let you lock me up in here. Not when I’m just starting to feel like I have some freedom.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, my mate. The safest place for you is beside me.”
“You’ll let me come with you on the Mayvina?”
He pulls me down to the bed and kisses me soundly. “You’re my mate, Willow. Sitting beside me is where you belong.”
Epilogue
Ozias
Less than fourteen solars.
I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s like we have a date set for our extermination. That’s what this is after all. When they bring their “rain,” we all get sent to The Eternals. At least that’s what Julie says.
“We could build more ships,” I tell the quiet one. “But do I have enough time to design one and then make multiples? Probably not.”