Adrien nodded. “Before you go, I want to thank you for what you did out in the Madlands. You stopped me from making a huge mistake.”
Sarah Jennifer sighed. However prickly Adrien was, he wasn’t a bad person. However, his reaction to Linda’s death had shown her that he had the potential to go either way. “Adrien, promise me something?”
“What?” he asked.
“There are going to be times when the darkness in the world rises. When that happens, I want you to remember that our choices, your choices, are what will guide people toward the light.”
Adrien’s brow furrowed. “I… Yes, Major.”
“That’s all I can ask.” Sarah Jennifer extended a hand across the desk.
Adrien shook with a rueful smile. “I guess this is goodbye.”
Sarah Jennifer smiled. “Goodbye, Adrien, and good luck for the future.”
She left the office and made her way out of the city to find Ezekiel. She found him in the training fields, working on the martial arts-style forms he had developed with teaching magic in mind.
Ezekiel didn’t notice her at first. She leaned on the fence and watched as he continued moving through his kata, crossing his arms over his chest and pushing them out with a wall of flames, then dipping into a low stance and stamping his left foot to bring a pillar of rock shooting out of the ground.
“Ezekiel,” she called softly.
Ezekiel completed his move before walking over to where Sarah Jennifer was leaning. “Hey. Just practicing. What do you think?”
Sarah Jennifer smiled. “I think the time I spent teaching you self-defense wasn’t wasted. This is how you’re going to teach magic?”
Ezekiel nodded. “Yeah. I’m finding my students can focus their will better when they have set techniques to work through.” He tilted his head in curiosity. “I thought you were switching the BYPS off today?”
“I am,” she told him. “I was wondering if you wanted to come up there with me?”
Ezekiel grinned. “I’d love to. As long as you’re not expecting me to be of any use with taking down the grid.”
Sarah Jennifer laughed, pulling him into a one-armed hug. “No. Esme left me everything I need to get it done.”
“In that case, I’m in,” Ezekiel told her, returning the hug.
Sarah Jennifer called Enora as they made their way to the fields where the Defense Force was in the middle of striking the camp they’d been living in for the last few weeks.
Ezekiel caught her arm as they neared the edge of camp. “There’s something different about you. Wait, you’re walking just fine.”
“That’s because my knee is healed,” Sarah Jennifer told him. “You provided the magic. I dealt with my emotional issues. It’s all good.”
“Does that mean you’re going to quit avoiding Kain?” Ezekiel teased.
Sarah Jennifer shrugged. “I haven’t been avoiding him. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve all been busy.”
“Now’s your chance to prove it.” Ezekiel pointed out Kain, Caitlin, and Mary-Anne working along with the Weres to dismantle the multitude of tents filling the open space. Many of the men were stripped to the waist as they worked under the strong spring sun.
Sarah Jennifer made a snap decision and waved Kain over.
Caitlin catcalled him as he jogged to Sarah Jennifer and Ezekiel. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Wondering if you’d like a preview of space?” Sarah Jennifer told him, suddenly feeling shy.
Kain grinned. “Oh, hells, yeah! Meet you at the airship. Need to grab my shirt.”
Sarah Jennifer had been trying not to notice he wasn’t wearing one. “Caitlin and Mary-Anne are welcome to come along, too,” she called as Kain ran back to where he’d been working. She gave Ezekiel a sharp look when he chuckled. “You’d better not be reading my mind,” she told him.
Ezekiel raised his hands in submission. “Not me, honest!”
Sarah Jennifer ruffled his hair. “Fair enough.”
The Enora was ready to go when they got to the temporary airstrip on the other side of the field. Kain was alone when he showed up. “Caitlin didn’t want to go, and Mary-Anne won’t leave her,” he told them in answer to Sarah Jennifer’s inquiry.
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “Just the three of us, then.”
“Four,” Ezekiel modified. “Enora will be there, too.”
Sarah Jennifer smiled, her spirits rising for the first time since Linda’s wake. “That’s a given. You two haven’t been out of Earth’s atmosphere before. I was thinking we might swing around the local area while we’re up there.”
Kain looked up at the sky. “What are you counting as local?”
Sarah Jennifer’s smile widened into a grin. “Oh, you know. The moon, Mars. I need to pick up the Pods.”
Ezekiel grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”
Sarah Jennifer worked out the flight plan with Enora while Ezekiel and Kain took care of the vital task of making coffee and snacks.
“This feels like the last hurrah,” the AI commented wistfully as the airship lifted off.
“It’s not all bad,” Sarah Jennifer countered. “Just think of how good it will be to relax for the next couple hundred years.” She thought about her grandparents and how much good the fifty-year vacation they’d taken before returning to the pack to begin hers and Sylvia’s training had done them. The pack wouldn’t be resting on their laurels, having the directive to be ready for any incursion coming from outside the Solar System, but they would have their own version of utopia as a backdrop for their training.
She wished Sylvia was coming with her, but her twin was set on remaining here on Earth. They had the IICS to keep in touch, and she could visit anytime. It would have to be enough.
“We’re about to arrive at the primary satellite,” Enora informed Sarah Jennifer, putting an end to her daydreaming.
Ezekiel and Kain came into the cockpit as Sarah Jennifer finished giving the access code.
Kain laughed. “I didn’t peg you for an AC/DC fan,” he teased.
Sarah Jennifer felt her face redden. “Would you believe I’m not?” she replied as the BYPS EI confirmed her authority to access the satellite.
Kain grinned. “I don’t know. Kinda sounded like you were getting into that. I like your version better than the original without the mention of the Matriarch.”
“Some genius decided those lyrics were the perfect access code,” she told him.
Ezekiel slid into the co-pilot’s chair and handed Sarah Jennifer a travel mug. “Well, I don’t suppose aliens would know the altered lyrics you just sang.”
Sarah Jennifer got to her feet, taking her coffee with her. “True. Okay, you two hang tight while I head over to the satellite.”
“How long will this take?” Ezekiel asked.
“I shouldn’t be more than an hour.” Sarah Jennifer paused in the doorway. “I’ve got my comm if you need me.”
She stopped by her cabin on the way to the drop bay and collected the thumb drive she’d found in Esme’s cabin along with instructions on how to use it, then made her way over to the satellite in the roamer.
Being up here without Esme filled her with nerves. Sarah Jennifer took a seat on the high-backed stool and extracted the written instructions Esme had left her.
She unfolded the paper and stared at the neat, looping script. She hadn’t read through the instructions yet, afraid that seeing Esme’s elegant handwriting would trigger a tsunami of grief she couldn’t afford to indulge while so much on Earth was still left to be resolved.
All she felt was the absence of her best friend. She missed her voice, her dry humor, and her pragmatic approach to the cascade of shitty situations they’d spent the last two decades working through for the sake of everyone else.
“I miss you,” she murmured. “I wish I could tell you that I’ve taken my head out of my ass and decided to give this thing with Kain a chance. You would be so proud of how far Ezekiel has come. Truth, I’m beyond gla
d to be leaving for Mars. Not so I can forget you, but so I can do what you asked and stop holding myself back.”
She plugged the thumb drive into the console and followed the steps Esme had written out. Then she returned to the Enora while the EI took care of the rest.
Ezekiel and Kain were playing cards in the crew lounge when she came up from the drop bay. The wallscreen showed the grid, which was still up for the moment. Sarah Jennifer glanced at the screen before taking a seat at the table.
Ezekiel dealt her into the next hand without asking. “How’d it go?”
“No problems,” Sarah Jennifer told him. “What are we playing?”
“Rummy,” Kain told her. “Kiddo here has a bad habit of mind reading when we’re playing poker, and I don’t feel like losing my ass today.”
“‘The only fair fight is the one you lose,’” Ezekiel intoned.
Sarah Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t think Bethany Anne was talking about poker when she said that.”
Ezekiel lifted a shoulder. “How do you know she wasn’t? Winning is winning.”
They all turned to look at the screen when the red light emitted by the BYPS grid flickered and then vanished. Sarah Jennifer laid her cards face-down on the table. “Enora, confirm the grid is down.”
The AI replaced the view of the stars. “Confirmed.”
Sarah Jennifer smiled. “Then take us out.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sarah Jennifer led the way as they went back to the cockpit.
Enora’s avatar filled one corner of the viewscreen. The rest showed the expanse of space. Kain let out a low whistle as Enora moved out of Earth’s orbit and the planet came into view at the bottom of the screen.
“It’s beautiful, right?” Sarah Jennifer took her seat. “I came up here sometimes just to remind myself there was a whole world outside of my problems.”
“Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe it,” Kain admitted. “I feel so small.”
“Wait until we get out past the moon,” she told him.
Ezekiel returned to the co-pilot’s seat, his expression thoughtful. “It puts everything into perspective, that’s for sure. Can I get some maps before you leave?” he asked Sarah Jennifer. “I’m going to be traveling a lot to search out the magic users. It would help if I knew where the people were.”
“Sure thing. Enora can put something together for you.” Sarah Jennifer pointed at a reddish dot in the distance. “One thing at a time. We’ll be getting to Mars within the hour. Make the most of the trip. This is literally once in a lifetime for you unless you get tired of shepherding Earth and decide to call me to come get you.”
Ezekiel nodded, his eyes glued to the viewscreen.
Kain was also quiet as the void rushed by. Sarah Jennifer used the time to call ahead and inform Brutus they were on their way to retrieve the Pods.
Mars soon came into sight. Sarah Jennifer had a moment of her mind not registering what her eyes were seeing as the Enora got close. The saltwater lakes had filled and joined to create oceans, the band of forest around the equator had exploded in a riot of green and yellow, and she saw cloud formations that told her the climate control system had been put into Phase Nine—regular weather systems. But what made her heart leap was the square splodge of pink sticking out on the Reynolds Plain.
“Promessa,” she whispered.
Once again, Kain let out a low whistle. “Fuck me. You weren’t kidding about the changes to this place.”
Sarah Jennifer frowned, then recalled Kain’s age. “What were you expecting?”
He shrugged. “Not this, that’s for sure. It’s so…green.”
“And blue,” Ezekiel added. “It looks like Earth, only…alien in some way.”
Sarah Jennifer chuckled at the awe in their voices. “Honestly, it’s come along a ways since I was last here. Even I’m impressed.”
“I wish we could stay long enough for me to visit the city,” Ezekiel told her. “But I don’t know if I could leave if I saw everyone. I need to get back to Earth. It’s where I belong.”
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “I don’t want to go down there yet either. We’ll do what we came here to do, and we’ll get back to Arcadia.”
“I have instructed Galileo to send up the Pods,” Enora informed them. “You have a call, Major.”
“Who is it?” Sarah Jennifer asked.
“The Queen,” Enora replied.
“I’ll take it in my cabin,” Sarah Jennifer told her. “Let me know when the Pods are ready.”
Bethany Anne was already onscreen when Sarah Jennifer entered her office. “I got a notification the BYPS has been switched off. Can I assume the Madness is no more?”
Sarah Jennifer gave her a brief rundown of the events since her last report. “People are starting to manifest magic,” she finished almost forty minutes later. “I’m getting ready to move the remainder of my people out to Mars.”
Bethany Anne’s mouth turned up at the corner. “Yeah, about that. Why Mars? Why not continue rebuilding on Earth?”
“You want magic to develop naturally.” Sarah Jennifer perched on the edge of her desk and folded her arms. “The BYPS isn’t infallible; we’ve seen the proof of that. Mars. It still sounds so exotic.” She smiled. “I’ll send video in my next report. We’re going to be happy here.”
“You did build a colony there. It would suck six ways to Sunday if you didn’t at least like the place.” Bethany Anne returned Sarah Jennifer’s smile. “The war out here is heating up. I don’t hate the idea of having the Defense Force nearby.”
Sarah Jennifer turned away from the viewscreen. “It’s more than the need to remain nearby. We brought the planet to life. Magic and technology are going to go their separate ways while people learn to have faith in themselves. Earth will need protection from space; that’s a given. We have the technology to make sure no entity coming here with the intention to conquer can succeed, thanks to you.”
“There are going to be hard times ahead,” Bethany Anne told her. “The people could use you down there.”
Sarah Jennifer lifted a shoulder. “Old argument, one we’ve gone around and around on over the years, and I still believe the same. They would grow to rely on us. The Defense Force would only end up policing the world if we stayed. Factions would form. That’s not the world either of us wants.”
Bethany Anne sighed. “No. It’s not.”
“Ezekiel has the fight in him to guide humanity into this age of magic. We each have our own path to walk.” Sarah Jennifer paused. “It would be better if we could make it a clean break.”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “What are you suggesting?”
“Is there a way to make everyone forget about us?” The request came from her heart without thought.
Bethany Anne didn’t answer immediately. “I don’t think that’s necessary. History becomes a dream, children’s stories. They will forget you soon enough without my intervention. You’re sure about Ezekiel? What about Lilith?”
“People follow Ezekiel,” Sarah Jennifer reasoned. “He’ll teach them that faith is what powers their abilities. Lilith is safe.”
She touched her knee, healed at long last. The red planet filled her inner vision, its possibilities filling her mind. This was the safe haven she’d dreamed of for the Weres. A place to build a defensive line from which they could protect Earth.
“My place is up here. With my family.”
A knock on the door distracted Sarah Jennifer before she could further articulate her thoughts. “Come in,” she called.
Kain opened the door. “Enora says the Pods are all in place.” His eyes flicked to Bethany Anne on the screen, and he inclined his head respectfully before giving Sarah Jennifer another glance and ducking out of the cabin.
Bethany Anne glanced at Kain as he left the cabin. “Who was that?”
Sarah Jennifer couldn’t help but smile. “Kain.”
Bethany Anne tilted her head. “He loves you. You feel the sa
me?”
“I could.” Sarah Jennifer snorted softly. The Queen's perception was as deep as always. “He almost died after the battle of Rift Valley. I knew even then. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I know I’m willing to be there for it.”
Bethany Anne folded her arms, tapping a finger on her elbow. “You’ll be there if Earth needs you.” It wasn’t a request.
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “Always.”
Ezekiel was overawed when she returned to the cockpit and relayed the parts of the conversation that pertained to him. “The Matriarch knows who I am?”
Sarah Jennifer fought her impulse to give him a shake. “This is your chance to teach the world to believe in their own power. The people of Europe need homes, centers of learning where they can explore Bethany Anne’s gift with guidance. You need to keep your eye on Arcadia.”
Ezekiel’s face crumpled with distaste. “I’ve had enough of living under strictures that I don’t intend to put them on anyone else.”
Sarah Jennifer just smiled. The passing of his youth hadn’t lessened his chafing reaction at the mere mention of authority. “Don’t be a stubborn dumbass. This is your world now. Yours to shape. Do me and Esme proud, kiddo.”
Ezekiel nodded. “I will. I swear.”
“That’s all I can ask.” Sarah Jennifer turned to Enora on the viewscreen. “Back to Earth, Enora. It’s time to wrap things up there.”
Kain left on the Enora to take Caitlin and Mary-Anne back to Canada while Sarah Jennifer made her final trip to Arcadia to coordinate the withdrawal of her forces. Ezekiel remained stoic while the Pods were loaded and the Weres boarded.
As the last Pod lifted off, Sarah Jennifer looked up to see the Enora coming in from the west.
Ezekiel came to stand beside her, his expression thoughtful. “This is it. Goodbye.” He held out his arms for a final embrace.
Sarah Jennifer wrapped him in a tight hug. “You’ve got this, Ezekiel. I have so much faith in you it’s unreal.” She sighed, thinking about the difficult conversation waiting for her when she got to Mars.
Ezekiel squeezed her. “Esme would be proud of you, you know.”
End of the Line Page 25
