His body stills inside me, and he reaches up and rubs his fingertip over my lips as his brow furrows. “This shouldn't feel like this. Why does it feel like this? Why do I actually feel the pain when I think of losing you, like you're part of my body?”
My breathing comes faster and that spiraling rush of sensation begins to tease and tingle where our bodies are joined. “You’re right,” I say hoarsely. “It’s never felt like this.” I arch my back and squirm beneath him, desperate for the friction, frantic to fall over the edge.
There are no more words between us, just soft moans and heavy breaths. He doesn’t stop until I’m boneless and crying out his name.
As we lay together afterward, we hear a shuffle of feet just outside our door. A throat clears and a knuckle raps three times. “General, sir.”
Rune groans and lifts himself up on his elbow, staring drowsily down at me. “At least he knocked this time before bursting in.”
“I think the slap to his face when he barged in the last time taught him the lesson,” I giggle and untangle myself from him. “I’ll get dressed, you can tell him to come in. Maybe he has some news from this morning’s search.”
Rune jumps up and grabs his pants. “It might have little to do with the slap and more to do with finding me naked with my manhood pointing right at him.”
“It is a sight to behold,” I smile, pulling up my pants.
When Rune sees I’m fully dressed, he opens the door.
Jex looks disheveled and agitated, making a surge of hot adrenaline spike through my chest.
“What?” I say hastily. “What happened? Did someone find them after we came back this afternoon?”
Jex’s eyes dart from me to Rune and his face breaks into a giant smile, “Come, follow me.”
I don’t listen to anything else he says, of course. I run out ahead of him and down the hallway until I see them. Both of them. My father and Claire.
Dad wears Caelum armor for pants, and he notices me right away. He seems lucid and focused. The armor must be helping him. Claire turns when she hears me running and screams my name when she realizes it’s me. I grab her up in my arms and I never want to let her go. She looks healthier, less placid, even heavier somehow, like she hasn’t had a problem finding food to eat. I can’t wait to find a home for us, to settle her down, and keep her safe and smiling just like she is right now.
A universe of possibilities surrounds us, now it’s up to us to decide where to go from here. I’m so happy I’m crying, but I wipe my tears away fast, before Claire mistakes them for sadness.
“There is another finding, Rune,” I hear Jex murmur low. “We just got word from Tore.”
“And what did he report?” Rune asks, facing away from us and our reunion.
“He discovered how Pious programed the ship to go back in time. Rune, heknowshow to do it. Do you know what this could mean? Do you know what we could do?”
I hug my sister and father tighter to my chest. I know what this could mean to the Caelum, but I also know what this could me for me and my family. There is one of us still missing. One of us that died with the virus the Caelum brought to wipe us out when they landed. My mother.
And if I can have it my way, we’ll be going back to get her.
