Page 63 of Into Orbit
‘Or something bad could have happened.’
She tugged my waist until I turned in her arms. Something inside me eased as I drank in her lovely face, her changeable eyes, her rippling silver hair.
‘We have a saying,’ she murmured. ‘Bad feelings only grow in tilled soil.’
I touched her cheek. ‘Is that like … you only think bad things if youletyourself think them?’
She smiled. ‘Something like that.’ She pushed my hair back from my face. ‘I’m worried, too. But Ashton is a warrior. He’s strong and capable and smart. He’ll come back. He has to. I could see what he was doing with his tongue and I think maybe …’ She flushed green. ‘I think I want him to do that to me.’
‘You don’t mind?’ I whispered, watching her carefully. ‘You don’t mind being part of a family?’
She snorted. ‘Maeve, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted and never thought I’d get to have.Youare everything I’ve ever wanted. You arrived here, and somehow made all my dreams come true.’ She studied me. ‘Will it make you feel better if we waited in the hangar?’
I exhaled slowly. ‘Yes, I think so. I don’t know why I’m so worried.’
Elswyth brushed her lips over mine. ‘You’re worried because your family is in danger. You’ll feel this way until both Ashton and Willow are back within arm’s length.’
‘I don’t like it,’ I said crossly.
‘Why do you think we stay so close to our bonded?’ She pulled me gently away from the heartree’s trunk. ‘It’s unbearable to be separated.’
‘I’mhuman,’ I argued. ‘I shouldn’t be feeling this.’ I eyed her sideways as we walked through the Forest. ‘Enough about me. How areyoufeeling?’
Elswyth shook her hair behind her shoulders; I glimpsed leaves and vines through its silver mass, and a blossom unfurled to rest on the top of one pointed ear. ‘The bees told me I was being stupid,’ she said petulantly. ‘Apparently my mother has been speaking with them, and she reminded them of how many souls we have on board this ship. They said it was fine to be scared, but could I do it elsewhere, thank you very much, as they were sick of the flowers being dry of pollen.’
‘Jerks,’ I said cheerfully.
She laughed; the sound tied my stomach up in knots and made my heart lift. She laced her fingers through mine, and we walked to the hangar like two teenagers on their first date, stopping to exchange shy kisses.
Until I saw the hangar’s huge doors, and I remembered what she’d distracted me from.
Juniper saw us walk in and rushed to Elswyth’s side, her fingers flying furiously over her screen. ‘They’ve picked up a Pod coming this way,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s the First Guard’s. I’m sure of it.’
‘Has he sent a comm?’ I said anxiously.
Juniper’s face fell. ‘Not yet,’ she said, biting her lip. ‘I’ve been trying to run a long-distance system check on the Pod for ten minutes, but it’s not returning a proper reading, so if he tried to send a message, it might not have gotten through …’ She saw my face and trailed off. ‘I’m sure the First Guard is fine. I’m sure he’s fine, and he’s brought Head Doctor Willow back to the ship.’
‘Thank you, Juni,’ Elswyth said quietly, gracefully polite when I couldn’t even think straight. ‘I’m sure you’re right.’
The airlock hissed; I suppressed a squeak of surprise.
Juniper flashed us a panicked look, then dashed towards the airlock, where a Pod was being pulled into the hangar by the magnetic tracks lining the floor. I half-sprinted after her, dragging Elswyth with me, elbowing my way through the guards and engineers who’d been standing vigil in the hangar.
Pods were almost indestructible. But like any vehicle, they had weak spots.
Something had hit Ashton’s Pod right where the cockpit glass stretched to meet the roof proper, right where the roof was weakest.
Right where Ashton’s head would be as he piloted the small craft.
Elswyth choked back a whimper. I took her hand and squeezed her fingers as a team of mechanics used their odd mix of tools and stroking to trigger the Pod’s roof to open, tearing away quantities of black moss that had grown over the damage. There was a shout as the roof slid back.
I took one look and spun Elswyth into my arms, pressing her face into my shoulder. She cried out in protest, but I held her, determined.
There was no way I would let her seethat.
Ashton was still in the pilot’s seat, but there was thick green bloodeverywhere. Even from a distance I could see the damage to his skull, the way his face wasn’t quite the same shape it had been when he left. My mouth was dry with fear, withgrief, and I forced myself to swallow, my throat aching. I buried my nose in Elswyth’s hair, breathing her in.
‘He’s alive!’
