Page 50 of Jace

For a moment he looked torn. Then he nodded and loosened the sling so he could swing the sleeping boy into his arms.

To Susannah’s intense relief, Zeke did not wake up when Jace handed him over. She loved when the little guy was awake, but at the moment, she wanted to stay focused on whatever was happening on the porch.

She gazed at the fluff of hair on his head and his lashes resting on his plump, downy cheeks and felt a tiny measure of peace in spite of their circumstances.

By the time she looked up again, Jace had nearly reached the porch.

He studied the hanging object for a few seconds, then jogged up the steps to circle it.

She figured he was sniffing it. He seemed to use his olfactory sense almost as much as his sight. It had to be a dragon shifter thing. No Terran could rely on their sense of smell for much more than telling when dinner was burning.

Jace stepped into the house without beckoning for her to join him. For a moment, she felt panicky and exposed out in the yard alone.

For the second time in a day, she had the sensation she was being watched, but when she spun around, all she saw were the trees and grass.

“Come on up,” Jace called to her from the porch. “All clear.”

“What is it?” she asked as she got closer.

“An arbistle,” he said, sounding genuinely confused.

She stepped up onto the porch and examined it with him. The creature had been skinned and hung like a sow in the meat market back on Terra-11.

“Why is it like that?” she asked.

“It could be a warning to us,” he said. “But whoever dressed it did a great job. This is ready to cook and eat.”

“A warning,” she echoed. “Like, this will happen to us next if we stay?”

“Seems odd to use food to explain that,” Jace admitted.

“Well, if nothing is wrong with it, I think we should eat it,” Susannah suggested. “No point letting it go to waste.”

“Spoken like a true frontierswoman,” Jace said approvingly.

She laughed, but he didn’t.

“Get it down,” she told him. “You can show me the best way to cook it.”

“We’ll make dinner together,” he told her. “These things are best cooked slowly, but if we get started right away, it will be ready tonight. I’ll taste it first, to be sure it’s safe.”

She watched his muscles bunch and stretch as he pulled the arbistle down from the rafters.

When he was done, he looked at her expectantly and she realized she had been so busy ogling him she had forgotten to open the door, and his hands were full now.

She rested Zeke on her left shoulder and placed her right palm on the sensor.

The door swung open, and they headed for the kitchen.

Jace placed the arbistle by the sink and washed his hands to the elbows.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked up in alarm.

A second later, there was a knock on the door.

19

Susannah

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