Chapter Twenty-Three
SATURDAY, MAY 1
Sweet Sorrow
Well, fellow humans, I bid you adieu. In a few moments, I’ll board the shuttle to my transport home. I’ve said good-bye to everyone I love—my friends and family who have chosen to remain on Earth, and my brother, who can’t join me until his enlistment is up. It’s a bittersweet day…for more reasons than you think.
It’s not only people I’m leaving behind. It’s a way of life. In choosing to settle on another planet, I’m letting go of one dream to embrace another. You won’t see me roaming the Dartmouth campus in the fall. Heck, you won’t even see me at my high school graduation. Mine will be the ultimate hands-on education as I shape the laws and policies of a fledgling government. That’s right. Me—a politician. Who’d have guessed it? If you’ve applied to join the colony, essentially putting your future in my hands, thank you for your trust. I won’t let you down.
As for the rest of you, I suppose this isn’t really good-bye. You can still find me here on the blog as I recount my adventures for your amusement. Take care of each other while I’m away, and eat a Reese’s Cup for me.
I’ve lost my taste for them.
Posted by Cara Sweeney
Cara shut down her laptop and stowed it safely inside her luggage between a stack of uniforms and the Star Wars Snuggie her parents had given her as a going-away present. Ordinarily, she’d keep the computer by her side, but she decided to take a vacation from blogging during the voyage home. She’d already received her antinausea medication, so once the shuttle delivered her to the main transport, she intended to spend the next week suction-cupped to Aelyx’s side.
“Miss Sweeney?” said the L’eihr attendant from the other side of the luggage cart. When she glanced up, he asked, Are you sure you won’t shuttle up with The Way?
I’m sure, she told him. After what happened yesterday, I’m not letting Aelyx out of my sight.
The man smiled in understanding and signaled the first shuttle to depart without her. Once we load your cargo, we’ll board the second shuttle. He nodded toward the other end of the hangar to the steel cryogenic box holding David’s body.
Cara’s stomach sank an inch. Her first official act as a member of The Way had been approving Syrine’s request to bury her l’ihan on the colony. Until now, they hadn’t planned for a cemetery—L’eihrs preserved a genetic sample, then cremated their dead—but Cara couldn’t say no, not when she knew how it felt to lose her whole heart. The few minutes when she thought she’d lost Aelyx had left her with a permanent mark on her soul.
She peered around the dim hangar until she found him talking with Syrine near the coffee station. His hair had grown long enough for a stumpy ponytail, but one lock slipped from its clasp, then another and another until everything spilled free in a honey-brown riot. Exasperated, he shoved his hair behind both ears. It made Cara smile. Hitching her bag over one shoulder, she strode to join him.
“How’re you holding up?” she asked Syrine, offering a gentle shoulder squeeze. She’d noticed Syrine had refused to engage in Silent Speech, which made sense. If their roles were reversed, Cara would want to keep her grief private, too. “Anything I can do?”
Syrine shook her head and blew into her Styrofoam cup, peeking over the rim with unnaturally wide black pupils.
Good. She was still sedated.
“I have something for you,” Aelyx said to his friend. After checking to ensure no one was watching, he reached into his pocket and pressed an object into Syrine’s hand. “Hide it well, or they’ll take it from you at the checkpoint.”
Forehead wrinkled in curiosity, Syrine uncurled her fingers, revealing a tiny brown speck resting in the center of her palm. “What is it?”
Aelyx closed her hand and covered it with his own. “A pear seed.”
Cara didn’t understand, but Syrine smiled and brought that hand to her chest as if the seed were more precious than plutonium. Tears streamed down her face, but they looked like the happy kind. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’ll guard it with my life.”
An hour later, Cara palmed her transport chamber’s security panel, retracting the door with a hiss. Aelyx followed her inside the closet-size bedroom, and they took a few moments to simply stand there in the darkness. Shell-shocked, maybe. So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours that it seemed surreal. So much loss—but triumph, too. Cara tried to shake off the shadow of heartache and focus on the future.
It was all any of them could do.
Aelyx took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Can you believe this is actually happening?”
“No. We’re starting over from scratch. I can’t wrap my mind around it.”
Aelyx took her cheeks between his palms and gave her a warm smile. His molten silver eyes reflected the dim lighting from the port window, so beautiful it made her breath catch. Just when she thought the sight of him couldn’t stir her any more deeply, he proved her wrong. She braided her fingers in his hair and marveled at the contrast of her pale skin against his bronze cheek. He was exquisite, inside and out. And all hers.
“True,” he said. “But that’s not what I was referring to.”
“Then—” she began before he silenced her with his lips.
He gripped her waist with powerful fingers, his touch both gentle and possessive as he explored her mouth with the tip of his soft tongue. Her pulse jump-started and rushed to some pretty interesting places. Before Cara knew what had happened, her back was to the bedroom wall.
He didn’t stop, eventually forcing her to break for air. While she tried to catch her breath, he liberated both their shirts and bit the magical spot at the top of her shoulder, the one that made her knees go weak. Holding her against the wall with his body, he pressed his fingers to her throat and counted the frenzied beats of her heart. A moment later, he murmured against her lips, “One fifteen,” then gave her a downright scandalous kiss—the kind that made it clear what he wanted.
Cara rested a hand on his chest and gently pushed him away, afraid of exciting him too soon after his trip into the white light. “Whoa, there. Let’s give your ticker a break, okay?”
His eyes practically glowed while one corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. “I don’t want a break. I want you.”
“But you just died.”
“That was ages ago.”
More like twelve hours. She gave him a firm shake of her head. “Not happening. I just brought you back from the great beyond. I’m not going to risk losing you again.”
“I’m fine, really,” he insisted. “And if anything goes wrong, the transport medic can restart my pulse.”
“No way,” Cara said with a laugh. “I’m not going to the infirmary and telling them I sexed you to death!”
Smiling, Aelyx peered at the ceiling as if picturing it. “I can think of worse ways to die.”
“Well, keep dreaming.” She took his hand and led him to the bunk. Whether or not Aelyx realized it, he needed his rest. “Because all you’re getting is a cuddle.”
He heaved a mighty sigh but didn’t hesitate to scoop her into his arms once they lowered to the mattress. She tucked her cheek against that perfectly molded spot where his shoulder met his chest, and they spent the next several minutes listening to the noises of the flight crew priming the thrusters for departure.
Soon Cara felt the gentle pull of inertia as the transport picked up speed and jettisoned them toward a new galaxy. When the rumble of the boosters died down and another minute passed in silence, she traced imaginary patterns on Aelyx’s chest and wondered if he felt the same subtle tug of anxiety that she did.