The Moon Dwellers

by David Estes

  I am so tired. Emotionally, physically, mentally. All I want is to go with Tristan, to help him, to maybe get to know him, possibly hold his hand some more, maybe even kiss him at some point. And yet I say, “I’ll do it.”

  “Then I’m coming with you,” Tristan says immediately.

  “No,” I say, not wanting to say it.

  “We’ll find your mother first, then we can talk to the moon dwellers.”

  “There isn’t time,” I say. “Plus, the star dwellers will kill you if they catch you down there.”

  “They’ll kill…you, too,” Tristan says, his words catching in his throat slightly as he says kill.

  “No, they won’t. Not if I tell them I’m joining their rebellion. That’s what they want, isn’t it? For all the moon dwellers to join them? But they won’t accept that a sun dweller wants to betray his own people. Especially not you.” My words are firm, my logic sound. Inside, my stomach is in knots, my heart crumbling beneath the power of my brain’s logic. Why are you saying this? Let him come with you! Someone else can talk to the moon dwellers.

  Tristan is shaking his head, his mouth tight and grim. His eyes look misty. When he looks away from me I feel tears well up. I barely know him, and yet…my feelings for him are so real. My soul aches. I blink away the tears.

  My dad leans in close to me. His voice is hoarse, merely a whisper. “I’m so sorry, honey. I want to come with you, want to protect you, but I can’t…I can’t come with you, Adele,” my dad says. I already know he can’t. Elsey needs a father now more than ever. Plus, my dad can help open up lines of communication between the moon dweller leaders and Tristan.

  Selfishly, I want him to come with me. I’ve been on my own for so long now, I just want my dad to be there, to tell me what to do, to protect me, to be my rock, like he’s always been. I’ve come so far. So far.

  I see my dad’s face. I’ve never seen such pain in his eyes before. They are wet and red and tired. I have to be strong for him.

  I hug him again. “It’s okay, Dad,” I find myself saying. At first I think I am just trying to act tough again. Then I realize it isn’t an act. The last six months, though hard, have chiseled me into a different person. I am the same, but different. I am no longer reliant on my father to protect me. I am tough. A survivor. “I’ll be fine,” I say firmly.

  My dad tilts my chin to look at me. His eyes are wet. “I know you will, Adele. You are an incredible young woman, courageous and strong. I’m so proud of you. Be safe.”

  “Do you have any advice?” I ask, hoping for some of my dad’s usual pearls of wisdom.

  “Do what’s in your heart. And please, come back to me.” He kisses my forehead, holds his lips to my skin for a moment, his dark and tangled beard blocking my vision.

  After all the crying I’ve done lately, I expect to be bawling now. But I’m not. Other than the few tears I blinked away, I feel strong, resilient. The fighter my father raised me to be.

  I release my dad and turn to Elsey. “Take care of Dad for me, will ya?”

  Elsey’s eyes widen. “I will,” she says solemnly. “Thank you for rescuing me.” She rushes to me and throws her arms around me. She’s not being overly dramatic this time—the situation warrants it. I hold her fiercely.

  “I will never forget you, Elsey,” I say, speaking her language.

  “Nor I you,” she replies. I kiss both her cheeks and then turn to Tawni.

  Although I desperately want to, I can’t ask her to come with me. She has done too much already, and the road ahead will be too dangerous. “Goodb—”

  “I’m coming with you,” she says, interrupting my farewell speech before it ever really gets started. I burst into a huge smile, hug her. I don’t argue. Like before, I know she won’t take no for an answer, and I don’t want her to.

  I go to shake Roc’s hand, but he gives me a hug instead. I don’t know him that well, but he seems like a good person. “Take care,” I say.

  “Till we meet again,” he says.

  Finally, I turn toward Tristan. He is still frowning, his lips still tight.

  “But I just found you,” he says.

  Oh, how his words make my heart ache. I don’t fully understand how I feel about him, but I know I care for him. I have to be strong, have to stand on my own two feet. My body shivering slightly, I put my arms around him, hug him.

  Under any other circumstances I would be embarrassed to hug a guy in public—other than my dad, of course, and Roc, who seems so brotherly—but now I don’t care. I need to feel his heat against me, the warm buzzing of his amazing magnetism, just one more time. I need it to remember him by, to get me through whatever is coming.

  I raise my chin and look up at him. A single tear creeps from his eye and meanders down his cheek. I wipe it away with the edge of my hand. Once more, I have the urge to kiss him. I grit my teeth and ignore the feeling, pull him close for a final squeeze. It isn’t out of embarrassment that I choose not to kiss him, nor because I am inexperienced, having never kissed a guy before; rather, it is because I don’t want our first kiss to be our last, too.

  I release Tristan and immediately feel the electricity leave my body. I feel numb again, unfeeling. “Where will you go?” he says.

  Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never been to the Star Realm, have no idea how to get there. I look at Tawni. She shrugs. A good team we are going to be.

  Roc chuckles as he unzips his pack. “Here, take these,” he says, handing me a packet of maps. “Your complete guide to the Star Realm. I recommend following the reservoir around the city to the north”—he points in the direction we should take—“and then hang a right through the inter-realm tunnel. Typically you’d need clearance to get through it, but I expect no one is manning it because of everything that’s happening.”

  I nod. “Thank you. For everything.”

  I can’t bear to drag out the goodbyes any longer. I’ve just brought three-quarters of my family back together, and yet I have to leave them to find my mom. The last quarter.

  I will find her—of that I am certain.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Tristan

  She is gone. I watch her long, black hair fade into obscurity, becoming one with the dark cavern walls. When I turn away, I find her father looking at me seriously.

  “She’s my little girl,” he says. I sense a protective undercurrent to his words.

  “I’m not like my father.”

  “You already told me that,” he says. “Now you have to show me.”

  “I will,” I promise. I stride to him, extend my hand. “I’m Tristan. Tristan Nailin.”

  He takes my hand, squeezes hard, crushes my fingers. A test, maybe. Although it hurts like hell, I control my face, don’t cry out. “I’m Adele’s father,” he says sternly. I raise my eyebrows, intimidated by the serious man before me. My judge. My jury. Without his approval, I surely won’t get Adele’s.

  He surprises me by breaking into a huge smile, chuckling under his beard. “Just kidding,” he says. “I’m not really that tough. Unless you do something to hurt my daughter, of course. Then I’m your worst nightmare. Name’s Ben. Ben Rose.”

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Rose,” I say.

  “Just Ben is fine.”

  “Thanks. And I won’t do anything to hurt your daughter—that’s a promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” he says, leaving me and going to Roc and Elsey, who are dangling their feet in the reservoir.

  I crouch down, put a hand on the stone. I imagine that I can feel small vibrations through the ground, the soft patter of her footsteps in the distance. I close my eyes and picture her green eyes looking up at me, her soft lips slightly parted. It had felt like she was about to kiss me—God knows I wanted her to—but then she didn’t.

  I hope I will get the chance to ask her why.

  I fear for her. The caverns are a dangerous place, and get more dangerous the deeper you go. Cannibals, marauding gangs of thieves, and now legions of
star dweller troops roam the depths, preying on the weak. Adele is not weak—she’s proved that every step of the way with her fighting, with the slingshot—but she’s also not invincible. Like when I started this adventure, I hope I will see her again.

  I still don’t know what our feelings are for each other, or why they feel so strong, but I want to find out. She is like no one I have ever met before. So strong and capable—but tender and compassionate, too. At least that is my first impression.

  My only regret: I didn’t tell her what I know. It just never felt like the right time. I vow to tell her the next time I see her. Until then, she’ll live in my dreams, like my mom.

  I kiss the tips of my fingers, touch them to the ground. “Farewell, Adele Rose,” I whisper.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Adele

  My dad says that the purest love is that which is unlived. I am beginning to understand what he means by that. I don’t think I am in love with Tristan. At least, not yet. I mean, how can I be? We just met. But whatever we have, it is certainly pure, unscarred by the filth of the world we live in.

  I hope I won’t regret having not kissed him.

  The tunnel is right where Roc said it would be. He is wrong about there not being any guards, though, but they are both dead, lying awkwardly at the bottom of the stone staircase leading to the tunnel entrance. They’ve been shot and thrown down the stairs. I try not to look at their faces as we step over them.

  We reach the top of the steps and I pause, looking back over the city. Thick smoke roils over the crumbling rooftops. A cheer rises up in the distance. The star dwellers have taken subchapter 26.

  “Thanks for coming with me,” I say to Tawni.

  “I didn’t have anything better to do,” she says.

  I laugh. “You know, you’re not like your parents at all.”

  Her face lights up, her gray eyes shining slightly under the glow of the overhead cavern lights. “That means a lot,” she says, tearing up. “Cole said the same…” She can’t get the rest of the words out as she stifles a sob with the back of her hand.

  “I know,” I say. “Cole said the same thing. Because it’s true. He would’ve come with us, too. I know it.”

  Tawni hugs me once, still afraid to speak, and turns to the cave mouth. A year ago it would’ve looked ominous, like the mouth of a monster, the stalactites hanging from above its teeth, ready to eat us alive. But now it just looks like a cave. Another challenge.

  And I am ready.

  ###

  Keep reading for a peek into the exciting sequel, The Star Dwellers, which will be published in September 2012.

  Acknowledgements

  Oh wow, where do I start? Unlike The Evolution Trilogy where I mostly did things on my own, The Moon Dwellers was a team effort. First, I’d like to thank my wife, Adele, for letting me use her name and for always supporting me and saving me from myself. You’re the best thing in my life and you always will be. Also, I’d like to thank my parents, of course, who read everything I send them (which is A LOT).

  To my editor, Christine LePorte, for helping me turn my rough-cut gemstone into something sparkling and beautiful, and for your patience in my many technical shortcomings.

  To my marketing team at shareAread, particularly Nicole Passante and Karla Calzada, who have been instrumental in helping connect my words with your eyes.

  Thanks to my incredible team of beta readers who gave me so much positive feedback to keep me optimistic, while slipping in those precious nuggets of constructive criticism that allowed The Moon Dwellers to transform into something beyond what I was capable of on my own. So thank you Laurie Love, Alexandria Nicole, Christina Maness, Christie Rich, Danielle Dundas, Kayleigh-Marie Gore, Nicole Marie Passante, Kerri Hughes, Terri Thomas, Krystle Jones, Lynne Chattaway, and Tamika Dartnell-Moore.

  Next up are my incredible cover artists/designers at Winkipop Designs. Thank you for all your hard work and for giving my story the absolute best first impression I could ever ask for. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the second book!

  To all my friends on Goodreads, I am a better person and writer from having met you. You make me laugh, blush, dance, sing, read, and write. I will never forget any of you.

  And most importantly I’d like to thank all my readers who took a chance on me with this book or with Angel Evolution. Without you, my work would just be words on a page. You are the reason I write.

  Discover other books by David Estes available through the author’s official website:

  http://davidestes100.blogspot.com

  or through select online retailers including BarnesAndNoble.com.

  The Evolution Trilogy by David Estes:

  Book One—Angel Evolution

  Book Two—Demon Evolution

  Book Three—Archangel Evolution

  Connect with David Estes Online

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Estes/130852990343920

  Author’s blog: http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

  Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/davidestes100

  Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/davidestesbooks

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/davidestesbooks

  About the Author

  After growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David Estes moved to Sydney, Australia, where he met his wife, Adele. Now they travel the world writing and reading and taking photographs.

  A SNEAK PEEK

  THE STAR DWELLERS

  BOOK 2 OF THE DWELLERS SAGA

  Available anywhere e-books are sold in September 2012!

  Chapter One

  Adele

  Not for the first time since we parted ways, and surely not for the last time, my thoughts turn to him. Our lost kiss.

  I wonder where he is, whether he’s thinking about me, whether he’s getting on okay with my dad. I hope my dad’s not giving him a hard time. I’m not sure what to expect, as I’ve never really had a guy interested in me before. For all I know, my dad might put on a tough guy act, even though he’s really a softy. The weird thing is, soon my dad will probably know Tristan better than I do.

  We’ve been walking for two solid days, Tawni and I, trudging down an endless inter-Realm tunnel, making our way slowly to the Star Realm. Although I know we are, I don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere. Every step forward feels like two backward. It’s like wading through water, as if the air has substance, its viscosity slowing our every move.

  It’s not just the act of walking that frustrates me. It’s the monotony of the tunnel. The tunnel is wide enough for half a dozen people to walk side by side, and tall enough for me to give Tawni a piggyback ride, although given she’s about eight inches taller than me, the physics might not work so well. The tunnel floor is smooth, packed hard by thousands of tramping feet, but the walls and ceiling are rough and jagged, as if it was excavated haphazardly by a century-old tunneling machine. Modern day tunnelers create perfectly arched passages, with smooth edges and glassy sides, at a rate of 5 miles per hour. This tunnel looks more like three guys with shovels and pickaxes carved their way through at about 5 feet per hour.

  For two days, the tunnel has sloped gently downwards, which should make the hike easy, but it doesn’t. It’s as if gravity has reversed itself, pitting even the laws of nature against us, making the downhills feel like uphills. We haven’t spoken for at least three hours, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

  Recently I’ve had Tristan on my mind, but before that I thought about my mom. Is she okay? Although I rescued my sister, Elsey, and my dad, I don’t dare to hope that my mom is still alive. How could she be? There are no happy endings in my world. Not even happy beginnings. And the middle parts, they are the saddest of all.

  “Can we rest?” Tawni asks, snapping me out of my grim mood.

  I nod, lick my dry, chapped lips, try to swallow. The water is running low, so we’re rationing. I sling my pack in the corner between the wall and the floor, s
it down next to it, lean my back against the rough stone.

  “Why haven’t we seen anyone?” I ask.

  Tawni sits down next to me, her long blond hair shimmering across her face, illuminated by the flashlight I’m holding.

  “I don’t think the star dweller troops are going home anytime soon,” she says. “Not until they get what they want, anyway.”

  Just before we entered the tunnel we are in, two days earlier, we saw thousands of star dweller troops pass by. They looked rough and weary, but determined. Determined to get the moon dwellers to join their rebellion…or die trying.

  “So many people will die,” I say.

  “Not if your dad and Tristan can get the moon dweller leaders to listen. I mean, they will get them to listen. I know they will.” Tawni is just being herself. Optimistic by nature. Despite all she’s been through, still optimistic. I marvel at her character.

  “I’ll agree with you the second the sun dwellers invite us all up for a big Tri-Realms unity party,” I say.

  Tawni smirks, but tries to hide it.

  “I meant never.”

  “I know,” Tawni says, laughing.

  I figure if Tawni is an optimist, I should be a pessimist—we need to stay balanced. Ideally, I’d prefer to just be a realist. Hope for the best, but expect the worst, perhaps.

  I open my pack and take a thin swallow from our only non-empty canteen. I hand it to Tawni, who does the same. She looks at me curiously.

  “What?” I say.

  “I’ve been thinking—”

  “Always dangerous,” I comment.

  “And…” Tawni says, ignoring me, “I think Tristan and Roc were hiding something from us.”

  “Like you think one of them might be a woman?”

  Tawni cracks up. “Not what I was thinking, but good guess. I’m thinking something more important, like about the meaning of life.”