Sean let out a string of cusswords, very unlike him. That was my sign that this was not good. The craft suddenly shifted higher, as if it were thinking of taking off, but the jets came around again, and along with a secondary assault from land, explosions covered the bottom, sides, and top of the ship. There’s no way it could survive that. But just like before, when the flare-ups cleared, no damage.
“Oh, my God,” I cried. “How do we break into it?”
And then something truly awful happened. Two laser beams of fiery light shot out of the massive craft, and jets on either side went into tailspins, crashing into the desert terrain. I screamed and covered my mouth as everyone around me yelled and scrambled, trying to send comms and figure out what to do next.
“We have to get inside,” Sean said. “That’s the only way. We might have to let the damn thing land or we’ll waste all of our munitions.”
Those jets smoking on the ground. I couldn’t stop trembling. I’d wanted Rylen to fly one. That could have so easily been him.
On a crackly speaker came a familiar voice. “I’m going up.” Oh, no.
“Look,” Matt said, pointing. “He’s really flying that thing! Holy shit . . .”
I lifted my binoculars, bouncing against my eyes with the shake of my hands. And sure enough, the ship we’d found at Area 51 was in the sky. It looked so small compared to the other one.
“Fite,” Sean called into the transmitter. “Fire when ready.”
I held my breath as Rylen’s ship tilted and a cylindrical gun protruded from the side. He shot, and the Baelese ship moved faster than I thought possible. The round of fire missed it, just barely, and hit the side of a mountain, sending up dirt and debris.
Rylen cursed on the radio.
“Fire again!” Sean ordered. But all he got in return was a static sound.
I pressed a hand to the glass, frantic. “Rylen!” Why wasn’t he firing?
A crackly sound came at us, his words breaking up. “—an’t shoot . . . locked up.”
“They’ve overridden his system,” Matt said. “He can’t shoot.”
“I’m going in,” Rylen said. “I’ve got the ICBM.”
I’m sorry, but what the actual hell did he just say?
“Fite,” Sean said. “Hold on, man.”
“There’s no other way, sir. And you know it.”
“Going in?” I asked. “What is he talking about?”
Sean’s response was grave. “He’s got an intercontinental ballistic missile on board.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“A nuclear weapon,” Matt said. I made a choking sound. This could not be happening.
“We put it on his ship as a last resort,” Sean told me.
“But he can’t even shoot anything,” I said.
“It can be detonated by a remote location.”
We stared as Rylen’s ship began to gravitate toward the master ship’s belly and upward.
“No,” I whispered, then cried, “Rylen, get out of there!”
“It’s opening its hatch for him,” Matt said. “Maybe we can shoot.”
That was the most helpless moment of my life. The man I loved was flying a fucking spaceship right into the mouth of a monster. Other jets circled the vessel at a distance, but Sean told them to stand down.
“Damn it, his craft is right in the way of the opening. We can’t get a missile past without hitting his ship. It’s all on him now.”
“—ontrols—dow—” Rylen said. “—aking me in.”
Matt shook his head. “Controls are down? They’ve taken over his system completely.”
I held the heavy binoculars and couldn’t stop watching. Why? Why did he have to play the hero? There had to be another way. If he’d just given us another minute to think. But now he was being sucked toward the underbelly of their ship like a magnetic beacon.
“We have to get him off there,” I said, desperate.
“What can we do?” Matt said. “We can’t fire again with his ship that close.”
“His ship is aligning with theirs,” Sean said.
My body became heavy. So heavy. I didn’t know how I was still standing.
“The master vessel is lifting,” Matt said, and he was right. I thought it was a trick of my eyes, but as it pulled Rylen’s ship upward, it got higher in the sky, like it was going to take off.
I couldn’t stop staring. Rylen’s ship was halfway inside the belly, and I was more than halfway to a breakdown. I had to raise my binoculars as the two vessels raised upward. And then I squinted. The bottom of Rylen’s small ship had something dangling from it.
“What is that?” I asked. Then the dangling thing fell.
“He’s jumping!” Matt yelled. “But he’s too low for his chute to open!”
It happened so fast. Rylen, dropping like a dot in the sky, then his chute opening partway and him sailing down out of sight. It didn’t fully open. My stomach clenched. The Baelese mother vessel closed its belly around the smaller ship and shot heavenward.
I dropped the binoculars and grabbed my medic bag.
“We’re going to find Sergeant Fite,” Sean told the others. “When that ship is far enough away, give the signal to detonate.”
I ran for the door with the others at my heels. We jumped into the Jeep Sean had brought, and raced down the narrow path of the mountain. My heart was beating too hard when we got to the bottom and took off across the expanse of desert. I felt like I was having a heart attack, or a massive panic attack at the very least. I could see one of the downed jets, half disintegrated and smoking.
When we got to the area where Rylen had been dropping, we had to stop the Jeep because boulders and cacti were everywhere.
“Rylen!” I screamed, running.
And then, as if my heart could handle another horrible sight, I spotted a booted foot beside one of the larger boulders.
“Over here!” I yelled for the others. I sprinted and skidded in the dirt next to Rylen, taking in the facts. He was whole. One side of his body was badly scraped, half his clothes hanging off, as if he hit the ground and skidded. I felt for his pulse and it was slow, but there. I felt each arm, and the one on his scraped side definitely had a broken radius. Miraculously both legs felt in tact, but his ankle on the bad side looked twisted.
Matt cursed when he saw him. I was already getting under one of his arms, but Matt told me to take the feet.
“Watch his left arm,” I warned him. He and Sean hauled Rylen’s body up, and we awkwardly ran to the Jeep, pushing his body into the back seat.
I opened my medic bag and started treatment on the side of his face first. From his forehead down to his jaw were bright red, filled with dirt, and already peeling. He would have scars for life.
I murmured to him the whole time, shaking like a bush in a sandstorm. “You’ll be fine. I’ve got you, babe. Here’s a little morphine for the sting.”
We made it to base in record time and people ran out to help us get him inside to a medical bed. I got his clothing off and it wasn’t as bad where his uniform had protected parts, like his chest, hips, and upper legs. But his face, neck, shoulder, and arm were raw and nasty. It took almost two hours to get him cleaned up and treated. During that time Remy came rushing in to help me, taking orders like a rockstar nurse.
“What happened out there?” she asked as we bustled around the room.
I told her everything, and she shook her head. People shouted outside in the hall, and Remy ran to see what was going on.
“Look out the window!”
We ran to the window, and far out in the sky was a ball of fire, like a second sun, but so much closer. Within seconds, the ground shook, and the sound of wind and sand hitting the side of the building filled the room. It was done. Cheers sounded, echoing through the building, and Remy and I beamed.
She went to Rylen’s groggy form and kissed the side of his head that wasn’t burned.
“You saved us all,” Remy whispered to him. It
made my eyes burn, but I had no time for tears right now. I planned to have a good ugly cry later though.
Tater busted into the room, making us both jump.
“He fucking did it! Did you see?”
“Yes,” I told him. “He’s so lucky.”
“Is he okay?”
“He will be.” I gazed down at him. “The stubborn ass.” Rylen stirred, wincing and stilling again.
Tater laughed with wet eyes and went to his friend’s side. “Damn, bro, look at you. Chuleta. Guess I’m the handsomest now.”
“Nope,” Rylen whispered, surprising us. “I’ve got that rugged man look.”
We all laughed and I bent to gently kiss Rylen’s good cheek. “You’ll always be the handsomest in my eyes.” I kissed him again. “Now get some rest. You’ve got a lot of healing ahead of you.”
So much for rest. The door opened again, and Matt, Sean, Devon, Tex, and Josh pushed their way in, looking at Rylen.
Tex let out a low whistle.
Devon eyed Ry. “I heard you tried to get abducted and shit.”
Rylen laughed, which turned to a cough and he flinched. “Something like that.”
“He did.” I crossed my arms. “I saw it. He’s out of his mind.”
“I didn’t know it was going to suck me in like that and turn off my equipment.”
“Ain’t you ever seen the movies?” Tex asked.
A calming sense of rightness came over me as everyone smiled and laughed, talking over one another.
The door opened again, and this time it was Colonel Latham, there to congratulate and thank Rylen himself.
“Also,” the Colonel said. “There’s someone from the Baelese encampment who thinks she knows you. She recognized your name.”
She? Rylen’s eyebrows came together.
The Colonel looked toward the door and called, “Come on in.”
A young, waif of a girl with short blond hair came in, clasping her hands in front of herself. I stared hard, feeling like I’d seen her face before. But where?
“Macy?” Remy said, coming forward to take her hand. “You know Rylen?”
The girl nodded, and my heart jumped. Macy? It couldn’t be.
Suddenly, Rylen was trying to sit up, his eyes widening. “Mace?”
“Ry?” The girl’s eyes filled with tears, and she ran to him. He reached out with his good arm to pull her in.
I covered my mouth against a cry, remembering him holding this tiny child when I was a teen.
“How?” Remy asked.
“This is my baby cousin,” Rylen said, and his voice was a mix of emotions. The whole room was either grinning or crying at this surprise. Ry waved me over to meet her again. I hugged her and wiped the tears from her face, then kissed Rylen again. Macy smiled up at Remy.
When there was finally a lull, Colonel Latham spoke again.
“The ship in France was smaller and apparently not as sturdy. They were able to take it down much faster and easier. But the Russians had a tougher time. We’re still awaiting the final word, but last I heard the ship had touched down and it was hand-to-hand. Others in Europe and Asia were on their way to help.”
“Damn,” Josh said. “That sucks.”
“They’ll beat ’em,” I said with a sense of sureness.
Devon stuck out his fist and I bumped it with mine.
“Oohrah, girl,” he told me, using the Marine version of the battle cry charge.
“Hooah,” I said back.
Amber
One Year Later . . . Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
Rylen and I were quiet as we stood in front of Mom’s sedan, right where we’d left it over a year and a half ago. Weeds had grown up around the tires, and the body was covered in a thick layer of dirt and dust, but it was a beautiful sight. Macy drew a heart on the dirty back window with her finger, and it sent a shot of love through me.
Behind us, Remy and Tater stood with their two little ones, Ronaldo and Kelsey. Beside them were Josh and Linette, J.D. and Sean, Tex and Carmen, Devon and Shavontae with Tyree and their infant daughter Moira, and Matt. Here we were, Earth’s new generation, staring at this relic that, for me, symbolized the old generation. My mom. My family. A time when things were fast paced and busy.
We’d been forced to downgrade, to start from scratch, to decide what we wanted to reinvent, and what was best left behind. Our first priorities had been electricity, water, and landlines for phones. I didn’t mind the simplicity so much, though I did miss the speed and convenience of cell phones and internet. We used walkie-talkies a lot. It did the trick for now.
“Ready to take her home?” Josh asked. They’d already added air to the tires and jolted the battery.
I gave him a nod, and he climbed inside to hotwire her. I smiled when she sputtered, then rev’d up. Everyone clapped. We’d brought gas and filled her up. Now I hugged everyone and climbed in the driver’s seat with Rylen beside me and Macy on his lap, even though she was probably too big for that. Tater and Remy squeezed in the back with their kids. No seatbelt laws, and all.
It was beyond strange to hold the wheel, running my hands over where Mom had touched. I’d done the same thing when we went back to our old house, but where that had felt kind of sad with memories of Grandpa dying there, this felt nice, like I’d been reconnected to her. Only happy memories.
Rylen reached over and rested his hand on my leg as I accelerated too fast, making us all yell and grab ahold of whatever we could, laughing. For too long, I’d let others chauffer me around. I needed to reacclimate myself to driving.
“This is weird,” I whispered.
Ry rubbed my leg. “You look like her right now. Your mom.”
I smiled at him, jerking the car a little to the side, and Remy yelled with a laugh, “Keep your eyes on the road!”
“Sorry!” I couldn’t stop smiling.
The others were behind me in their vehicles. We’d decided to make a day trip of it, to see the place where our core group had met. We’d dredged up strange, hard, bittersweet memories that we each needed to face.
Not a single alien from the planet of Bael was alive on Earth now. At least, none that we knew of, and we had scoured. Things were far from perfect. We were humans, flawed in every way, disagreeing about the simplest things. How people ever came together to form a nation of rules among infighting and uprisings, I had no idea.
But we had one thing in common: our pursuit of happiness. And what made us happy, for the most part, was love. Laughter. Helping each other. Forming a sense of trusted community. Accepting our personality differences, despite the griping, and still being there for one another.
Humanity was amazing, and so was the human body. I glanced at Rylen for a quick second—at the light scarring along the side of his face—at the bones that had perfectly healed. It turned out that my own body had partially healed itself, as well, in a way that none of us had expected.
I was five months pregnant.
An ultrasound showed that part of one ovary and fallopian tube had survived and further healed. After the mother ships were taken down and Rylen was on a healing course, my body relaxed for the first time in eight months, and I started to bleed. Spotting, really. It scared me. I thought I was internally injured or something, but it only lasted a day. The next month when it happened again I realized.
And now . . . I placed a hand on my small baby bump and drove with one hand. Rylen looked at where I touched my belly, and he smiled, squeezing my leg.
From the back seat I heard Tater tickling Kelsey, and her tiny voice filled the car with bubbling laughter that was contagious.
“Stop it, Daddy!”
“Yeah, leave her ‘lone, Papa!” Ronaldo said, trying to take down Tater’s tickle arm, but he kept going, and the entire car filled with laughter. I reached down and took Rylen’s hand, holding it tight. He lifted my fingers to his lips, and Macy smiled as she watched our interaction.
No, things weren’t perfect in the world, and th
ey never would be, but I would savor it. Every minute of it. And never again would I take a single breath of Earth’s air, or touch of a loving hand for granted.
The End
This book could not have been written without the help and support of three specific people, and one amazing group. Jaime Arnold, who read new chapters for me every single week and filled me with enthusiasm whenever I started to freak out. Ann Kulakowski, who asked for word count updates almost every day, and cheered me on with her vibrant energy. And my daddy, First Sergeant “Jumpin’” Jim Hornback, the mean, green, fighting machine, who answered countless questions about military stuff and war tactics. And last but not least, all of the incredibly kind readers in my “Wendy Higgins Book Chat” Facebook group.
Thank you to my awesome second-round beta reader, Debbie Suzuki! Squishy hugs to you.
At the end of every book, I cry, and I count my blessings, and I feel like the completion of the story was a miracle. I think, “How did I do that? I could never do that again!” And the end of a series is even more emotional. Bittersweet. And when I put the book in your hands and you take the time to comment, leave reviews, and send me your love . . . you guys make all of the stress and craziness worth it. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to you.
Huge thanks to my PR rep KP Simmon at Inkslinger. Sara Eirew, the new cover designer. Nichole Strauss of Insight Editing. And Christine Borgford of Type A Formatting. Rock stars, all of you.
Inspirational verse that gets me through this roller coaster known as the publishing industry: Isaiah 40:31.
Photo Credit: Anastasia’s Photography Eastern Shore
Wendy Higgins is a soccer mom and backstage drama mama. What most people in her tiny bayside town don’t know is that she’s a USA Today and NYT bestselling author of paranormal, fantasy, and science-fiction romances. She’s a former high school English teacher who now writes full time in her pajamas, and lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with her veterinarian husband, daughter, son, and little doggie Rue.
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