Looking up at him, seeing that smile, I knew it was over.
It was really, finally, completely over.
As we walked back to the others, still wrapped and wound around one another, so that we could barely walk, I saw that our small group had grown by two more.
As we got closer still, I realized it was three.
Stanley was with them now, laughing at something Cass said, right before he threw his arms around her in a hug. Next to them, Uye and Kali were watching us approach, their arms around one another as they watched me, Revik and Lily tread across the white sand.
Looking at them, I felt another swell of gratitude, of love… of hope.
It hadn’t escaped me that Feigran said only the Elaerian came here, and their mates.
Jon wouldn’t be here, or Wreg.
Most of our friends and family wouldn’t be here.
Most of our friends and family had gone somewhere else.
Even so, I wasn’t alone.
I would never be alone again, not here. Not in this life.
Revik squeezed me against his side, hearing my thought. Pulling me closer still, he kissed my temple, sending me a hot, liquid plume of heat and love, wound in with a flush of gratitude and relief that it was done. I smiled up at him, feeling a returning flood of emotions so intense it made my eyes close, pain clenching briefly in my heart as I sent it all his way.
When he grinned back, kissing me again, I gripped Lily, hugging her more tightly against both of us.
Turning my head, I looked briefly out over that crystal blue water. I saw birds winging there, singing as the light grew brighter.
The sun was rising.
I’d never seen anything so beautiful.
I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
Sending up a thought, a well-wish––maybe even a prayer, even though I’d never been the praying type––I hoped that all of our friends, wherever they were, would experience nothing but happiness and love, success and fun, beauty and good lives.
It struck me, in something close to shock, that I felt certain, utterly certain, that they would have all those things. Maybe for the first time in my life, I believed, truly believed, that everything really would be okay.
Wherever they were, I knew they would be okay.
I knew they loved me.
They knew I loved them.
I knew they no longer needed me.
Epilogue
THE NEW WORLD
JON LOOKED UP when he heard someone call his name, wiping sweat out of his eyes.
Squinting against the bright sunlight, he set down his hammer, smiling when he saw who was climbing the ladder just below him. Sitting back on the brace beam where he was perched, he took the drink the other man offered him, leaning down to kiss him on the mouth before he took his first sip, dripping his sweat on him.
“Gaos,” His voice and light exuded gratitude. “I needed this. Thank god I’m married to a seer.”
Wreg smiled, looking over his handiwork.
“It’s kind of a turn-on, you know, that you can build things, ilyo.”
Jon grunted, looking at him, then down at the roof’s skeleton, a faint smile on his lips.
“Turns out it’s a good thing,” he said wryly. “Since someone else spent all of his formative years learning how to kill things, and push people around with his mind… not how to build a house that won’t actually fall down when you look at it.”
Wreg shrugged, unapologetic.
“I don’t have that number one commidante thing by my name,” he said. “I’m just here for the free food. And the sex.”
“And to kill things we need to eat,” Jon reminded him. “And you’re pretty good at building weird mechanical things, funnily enough, as long as no wood is involved and we don’t have to live in it. And yes,” he said, tugging on the collar of the other man’s shirt. “For the sex. A commidante’s got his needs.”
Squinting into the sun, he frowned.
“Speaking of which… where’s the other number one around here? She’s not off flirting with the cute seer boys again, is she?”
Wreg followed his gaze, looking out over the valley from his perch on the ladder.
“Dunno,” he said, frowning. “I thought I saw her with Loki earlier. Maybe he and Black Wing took her out to teach her tracking or something.”
Jon frowned. “She’s supposed to be working with the other teenagers. She said she’d get them organized better… or at all, really. She’s got some whole system worked out for the irrigation she wants to try. I told her to put them to work.”
He grunted, taking another long drink of the cool liquid before pressing the glass against his forehead with a sigh.
“She says she’s sick of doing everything the ‘stupid and slow way,’” Jon added, quirking an eyebrow down at his mate.
“Good,” Wreg said. “So am I.”
Leaning a muscular arm on the side of the house, he smiled up at Jon.
“Although,” he admitted. “This isn’t such a bad life, is it? I mean, apart from all of the humans running around…”
He laughed when Jon smacked him, and they kissed again.
“No, brother,” Jon said, raising his head and gazing back out over the valley. He looked contentedly over the sprawl of houses somewhere in the process of being completed, the river reflecting sunlight in the distance, winding alongside their fields.
“No,” he repeated. “It’s not such a bad life.”
For a moment they only stood and sat there, gazing out over their new world.
Jon followed the lazy curves of the glass-clear river with his eyes, watching it wind its way towards the distant mountains. His gaze paused a few times, seeing flying creatures wing over the rushing water, diving down to catch fish and other water creatures before they popped back up in the air, then disappeared into the tall, purple-leafed trees. The two stars hung only halfway in the sky, so it wasn’t even the hottest part of the day yet.
Jon didn’t even stare at the twin suns anymore.
He stared at some of the animals they encountered here still, and the strange plants, and the trees, and the odd creatures they found in the river… but the suns no longer confused him, or shocked some part of his mind when he looked up at them.
“Do you think wherever they are, it’s as pretty as this?” Jon mused, taking another drink.
Wreg grunted, leaning a thick arm on the brace-beam beside Jon.
“Knowing Nenzi, it’s prettier,” he said. “He always was a picky shit.”
Jon laughed.
Tilting his head back, he took another few swallows of the sweet and sour drink, gazing up at the suns, watching the clouds float past them, high in the sky.
The kids had named them… the suns, that is.
They called the smaller, bluish one atsilí, which meant “brother” in Navajo.
They called the bigger, yellow one hádí, which meant “sister.”
Jon grunted when he’d first heard it, partly because he knew it was a not-so-subtle dig at him.
Somehow Dante got wind of the joke about him being Allie’s younger brother, after years of thinking he was the “big” brother. She thought that was positively hilarious, and told the Navajo kids the story the first chance she got, since she babysat them sometimes while their parents were out hunting and working with Loki and the others.
So he would be immortalized forever on this world, as the runt.
Revik would have loved that.
Next to him, Wreg grinned. “Well, they won’t forget you, brother.”
Jon smiled back at him, picking up his hammer.
“They won’t forget her, either,” he said.
Looking up at him, Wreg pulsed warmth at him, laying a hand on his thigh.
Jon smiled back, tilting his face up towards the twin suns.
No, it wasn’t a bad life.
It wasn’t a bad life at all.
* * *
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THE BRIDGE & SWORD WORLD is a dark, unique and gritty apocalyptic world and alternate history of Earth. It features a young woman grappling with her role in bringing about the end of one world and the start of a new one. Follow Allie Taylor and her antihero partner in crime, Dehgoies Revik, as they fight terrifying enemies and one another in a passionate story spanning centuries, and filled with unpredictable twists, turns and betrayals.
QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY WORLD encompasses a number of dark, gritty paranormal mystery arcs with science fiction elements, starring brilliant and mysterious Quentin Black and forensic psychologist Miriam Fox. For fans of realistic paranormal mysteries with romantic elements, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black solves crimes, takes on other races and tries to keep his and Miri’s true identities secret to keep them both alive.
THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE SERIES is a dystopian new adult romance about a tough girl named Jet Tetsuo who grew up on Earth following an alien invasion. Forced into living among her conquerors, she has to navigate a treacherous world full of enemies who pose as friends, even as she becomes their most famous fighter in the Rings, a modern day version of the coliseum.
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“Seeking Truth in Made-Up Worlds”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JC Andrijeski is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, along with apocalyptic and cyberpunk-y science fiction, often with a metaphysical bent.
JC has a background in journalism, history and politics, and currently occupies herself by traipsing around the globe and reading whatever she can get her hands on. She grew up in the Bay Area of California, but has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, and from coast to coast in the continental United States.
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SUN
Bridge & Sword Series #10
by
JC Andrijeski
Copyright © 2018 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Damonza.com
2018
Link with me at: http://jcandrijeski.com
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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE: Deifilius
ONE: Rescue
TWO: Knights of the End
THREE: Two Men
FOUR: Fatherly Advice
FIVE: Sunrise
SIX: Reception
SEVEN: A New Religion
EIGHT: A New Agreement
NINE: Anomalies
TEN: Hard Truths
ELEVEN: A Hard Line
TWELVE: The Last to Know
THIRTEEN: New Mexico
FOURTEEN: The Last People
FIFTEEN: Family Dinner
SIXTEEN: Future Visions
SEVENTEEN: Doors to the Other Side
EIGHTEEN: Another Lie Explained
NINETEEN: Marriage Therapy
TWENTY: Bounty
TWENTY-ONE: On the Road
TWENTY-TWO: Old Wounds
TWENTY-THREE: Dubrovnik
TWENTY-FOUR: Old City
TWENTY-FIVE: Pink Hearts and Buddha Stars
TWENTY-SIX: Foundation
TWENTY-SEVEN: Game Face
TWENTY-EIGHT: Claustrophobia
TWENTY-NINE: Misgiving
THIRTY: Four Lights
THIRTY-ONE: The Dark Water
THIRTY-TWO: Bad Blood
THIRTY-THREE: The First Door
THIRTY-FOUR: The Silver Womb
THIRTY-FIVE: Military Decision
THIRTY-SIX: Bread and Circuses
THIRTY-SEVEN: Ultimatums and Requests
THIRTY-EIGHT: Freeing Lions
THIRTY-NINE: Apocalypse
FORTY: Sacred Land
FORTY-ONE: Tiger
FORTY-TWO: Coming Down
FORTY-THREE: Pariahs
FORTY-FOUR: America the Beautiful
FORTY-FIVE: The Secret Door
FORTY-SIX: Night Walk
FORTY-SEVEN: Cave of Dreams
FORTY-EIGHT: The Last Time Alone
FORTY-NINE: The Final War
FIFTY: Bonded
FIFTY-ONE: Past Wronged
FIFTY-TWO: Blood
FIFTY-THREE: Revenge of the Gods
FIFTY-FOUR: Diggers and Stingers
FIFTY-FIVE: The First Wave
FIFTY-SIX: Winning and Losing
FIFTY-SEVEN: Strange Lights
FIFTY-EIGHT: Cave Painting
FIFTY-NINE: Bridge of Light
SIXTY: The End of the World
SIXTY-ONE: The Last Door
SIXTY-TWO: I Will Return
SIXTY-THREE: Time to Go
SIXTY-FOUR: Sun
EPILOGUE: The New World
MORE BY JC ANDRIJESKI
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
Sun Page 89
