Page 50 of Star Bright
The small viewport in the ship’s nose framed Atsu at the controls inside, looking small but fierce. Despite his own terrified determination, Vash was almost knocked from the skyby the wave of love that rocked him. Atsu wanted happiness for his family, and he was doing everything in his small power to deliberately strand them in joy. Whether the little one had a plan for somehow getting back to the IDA outpost after he ditched the ship…
Some things were better left unknown.
Veering past the juddering ship, Vash folded his wings. In mid plummet, he shifted, clenching his talons/fingers on the datpad band. If he lost the device in the snow, he’d lose this chance to stop the ship.
His bare feet punched into a snowbank, and he was instantly buried to the waist. In the instant of change, the ship arced over his head, but he was already sending the remote code to ground it.
For a wretched heartbeat, the ship continued on, as if the code had been blocked. The heat of shifting dissipated in the next heartbeat, and icy cold sleeted through him—from the crotch up since his legs were already numbing. He clenched the datpad, ready to throw himself after his fledgling again and again until they were together…
The whine of the engines stuttered, indicating a shutdown, but the ship tilted, and the engines sputtered up again as if the ship was arguing with itself. Since the remote descent should’ve been calibrated to the rough terrain, Vash knew Atsu must be fighting the grounding order by hand.
Toggling the datpad, Vash roared through the ground-to-ship comm, “Young drakling, you put that ship down right now or no more tarts for you!”
But the ship had already disappeared behind the wall of trees.
Wrenching his body side to side, Vash waded through the snow. How could it be so fluffy in the air but dense as plascrete on the ground? He called to his beast, but he was getting tired. Apparently he wasn’t entirely recovered from stasis and hiscrash injuries. Once more they could rally, and then they would crawl if they had to.
Before he could shift, the horrible sound of splintering wood split the night—
Followed by a searing light, almost as bright as that long-ago lightning flash that had thrown his life into chaos.
A roar deeper than any beast echoed over the forest, and the explosion ripped through the trees. Splinters, violent and fragrant, rained around him, piercing his naked skin.
“Atsu!”
Without another thought, he shifted, bounding out of the snow. Shifters healed faster as their tissues transformed, but it took even more energy than usual, and he blundered above the broken treetops.
There, a pale hole in the dark forest with snow reflecting an ominous glow. But the flames were already dying as the ship’s fire suppression system kicked in. As a secondary priority to hull integrity, probably that system hadn’t been entirely refurbished after the initial crash, but it should be enough for what amounted to a minor accident.
Vash spun down toward the grounded ship. The nose cone was angled down but intact, though the viewport was obscured with snow. Atsu would be fine. He had to be fine…
Flaring his wings to land, Vash caught a glimpse of a bright spark.
Then the hatch blew toward him in a rainbow of lethal light.
Chapter 17
At the booming explosion, Darcy’s cold-stiffened hands jerked on the hover cart joystick, almost steering them into a snow drift. Luckily, the cart’s internal sensors compensated, and they just drifted lightly over the hillock, then down the back side with more grace than her own sledding skills.
Yadira’s grip around her middle tightened, a welcome warmth. “What was—?”
An impossible lightshow blasted above the trees. Huge, bright flowers of sparks ignited in the sky, accompanied by shrilling whistled and more deep booms. Independence Day in December? What was happening?
Darcy glanced at her datpad. Oh no, the violent explosions were right along the predicted path of the hopscotching ship. She had about the same experience with fireworks as she did with alien snowmobiles, but she knew even sparklers could burn incredibly hot and dangerous. And these were obviously larger shells.
But even as she flinched from the pandemonium of light and sound, she throttled the joystick as far forward as it could go, mentally cursing the sluggish pace.
She didn’t want to worry the girl behind her any more than necessary, not that the stranglehold around her belly left her any illusions about Yadira’s fears.
Which she felt herself, as stabbing as the bright lights ahead. How could she have fallen in love so quickly and completely? Not just once, but three times, with the strong, sweet male, the lovely, wounded girl, and the wild little one with his joy and enthusiasm bursting like the Fourth of July above.
She set her chattering teeth hard, leaning forward as if she could make the cart go faster.
But when the night went ominously dark and silent, all the bright blooming impossible flowers gone, her blood went as cold as the streamers of melting snow. Suddenly, she didn’t want heat and light because that meant—
Fire!
The red-gold glow should have been welcoming, but she was so afraid of what they would find. She wanted to leave Yadira with the cart, but she didn’t think she could make it through the deep snow on foot. And abandoning the girl now was no good either. The cold and fear ripped tears from her eyes. “Yadira…”
