Captain Marvel
Page 27
Carol threw back her head and laughed. “I never could tame her sticky fingers.” She looked down at her team, who had just finished loading their equipment into the shuttle.
“You should go,” Rhi said, never in a million years thinking she would be saying that. But she knew Carol had a life to get back to—just like she had a life to build here. With Umbra and Fern. With Zeke and Alestra and their baby. With Jella and Mazz and Tarin and Tynise. With the Inhumans who were still learning how to be around others after years in exile. And with Sona, her family, and the other members of the Resistance. Rhi and her friends had a society to rebuild here, where Inhuman and Damarian would live side by side in harmony.
“I should.” Carol squeezed Rhi’s hand. “Keep in touch.”
Fern’s delighted applause when Carol floated down the stairs instead of walking filled Rhi with happiness as she approached the two of them, taking Umbra’s hand, watching Carol near the group awaiting her on the tarmac.
“She’ll be missed,” Umbra murmured, leaning her head against Rhi’s shoulder.
“She’ll be back,” Rhi said, surer of that than almost anything else in her life.
She waved as the rest of the team piled into the shuttle. Carol was the last to board; she paused on the stairs, looking back at where Rhi and Umbra stood.
“Hey, Rhi!” she yelled.
Rhi stepped forward, Umbra’s hand still in hers.
“You’re strong and you’re smart!” Carol called out, her words ringing out like a blessing. “Don’t you forget it!”
Rhi smiled, a brilliant bright crook of her mouth that said it all.
“I won’t.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TEAMWORK IN writing is almost as important as teamwork in super hero pursuits. A book, like most successful operations against invading aliens, is a collaborative effort. My most grateful thanks to the team that helped bring this book into the universe:
Steve Saffel, editor extraordinaire and guiding light, and the rest of the amazing team at Titan Books, Cat Camacho in particular for all her guidance and help. Caitlin O’Connell, Jeff Youngquist and the lovely team at Marvel for all their expertise and ideas. My wonderful agent, Jim McCarthy, who rolls with the punches of publishing in a way Carol would admire. Natasha MacKenzie for creating such a phenomenal cover, and Hayley Shepherd for her eagle eye for detail. My dear writing friends, who are patiently used to me being evasive and slightly secretive about what I’m working on: Elizabeth May, Charlee Hoffman, Paul Krueger, Dahlia Adler, Jess Capelle, Kelly Edgeington Stultz, and EK Johnston. And my husband, who drove an extra thousand miles over the weeks to fetch me endless rounds of takeout while I wrote this book—the true hero I needed in my pursuit for out-of-this-world barbecue. I love you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BORN IN a mountain cabin to a punk-rocker mother, Tess Sharpe grew up in rural northern California. Living deep in the backwoods with a pack of dogs and a growing colony of formerly feral cats, she’s the author of the thriller Barbed Wire Heart, the critically acclaimed YA novel Far From You, the Jurassic World prequel, The Evolution of Claire, and co-editor of Toil & Trouble, a feminist anthology about witches.
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