Page 79 of Warrior's Purpose

This is it. We’re going to die on Mars, and I haven’t even told him…

“Ash, I…”

“Abby, please, I need to concentrate.” His gaze met hers for a brief intense second before he turned back to the planet.

Stubborn to the very end.

“If we’re about to die in a fiery crash, I refuse to end it with us being at odds. I…”

“Brace!” Ash yelled, cutting her off again.

Her eyes swung to the display screen in horror as they struck the surface of Mars.

Ashtoret de Origa

Ashtoret blinked again to clear his head. The settling cloud of dust made it hard to see, but he could just make out the wreckage of the torn hull. He scrambled to his feet and frantically looked around the barren landscape littered with mangled pieces of the cruiser.

“Abby!” he bellowed, his voice coming out deeper than normal because of the thin atmosphere.

He shoved the daunting revelation that they’d crashed on a totally inhospitable planet to the back of his mind and started sprinting toward a large section of wreckage. With every step the low gravity sent him jaunting through the air. Ashtoret tore back a shattered section of the hull and it flew nearly a hectare. He tossed another scrap aside, but Abby wasn’t here. He moved to the next pile in the long crater left by the crash. Ashtoret skidded to a halt when he saw a bony-plated arm sticking out from beneath the carnage. He tugged back the mangled aft to find Abby’s unmoving body. Ashtoret dropped to his knees in the rocky dirt.

“Abby!” He picked up her body and cradled her against his chest. “Abby! Wakeup, beautiful, please,” he begged as he shook her, but she didn’t rouse. “No!” he tipped back his head and screamed, anguish ripping through his soul.

His head dropped forward when his voice finally grew hoarse.

“Abby, I’m so sorry I failed you,” he rasped and nuzzled her cheek. Ashtoret desperately wished the armor wasn’t in the way so he could feel her one last time before all the warmth fled her body.

“Ash.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder and swung around.

“Ash, is Mom all right?”

He glanced from the small figure in his arms to the one standing beside him. Cloaked in the bony armor, he couldn’t tell them apart.

“I don’t know,” he choked as he set Carol down and clutched Abby to him. It was a good thing she was wearing the armor because he couldn’t control how tight he held her.

“How are we even alive?” She rubbed his back.

“I think the Osivoire shells saved us. I guess your mother is still unconscious from the tranquilizer. Does anything hurt?” He pulled back and looked for damage to her armor.

“I feel a bit like I just rode on a cracked-out merry-go-round, but I think I’m fine.”

“Thank Kali,” he rasped, unable to repress the emotion in his voice.

“Do you think those bastards will let Aculus come get us?”

He couldn’t say. The foreign vessels barely let them live. They weren’t going to react well to Aculus attempting to approach Earth again. If it was just him, he’d tell the warrior to hold back and not risk the others. But he wasn’t alone stranded on the desolate rock. And he had no clue how long the bony shell would protect them from the harsh environment.

Torment, I don’t even know how the shell is keeping us alive to begin with. The gravity of the situation overwhelmed him as he looked at the barren landscape and hazy sky.

“I’m sorry, Abby. You weren’t supposed to be involved in any of this, let alone crash here on this goddess forsaken wasteland of a planet.”

“You can’t blame yourself. I snuck onto the cruiser.”

“No.” He shook his head in frustration and anger. “This was my duty, not yours. I came here to keep your people from harm, to keep you from harm. I made an oath to my friend, your sister. And not only did I fail you all, I selfishly bound you to me and stole you from your family, which has already suffered enough. You deserve a better male than that.” His shoulders slumped in defeat.

Abby wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.

---