Parallel Fire Read Free Page A

the canopy. With a gesture, he indicated the view below, and she pressed up against the dark glass to discover the twinkling lights of town.
    â€œVery pretty,” she breathed through the comm.
    â€œIt’s always beautiful to me.” His husky voice, so immediate and right in her ears, was like the feel of velvet across her skin. She shivered, and he continued, “Everything here is still so pure, so…pristine. Especially the snow.”
    By the gods, the lieutenant was actually conversing with her—and opening up to her. It was the first time in all these months, the first little breakthrough since their “moment” in the meeting room.
    â€œDo you miss it?” She leaned forward in her seat, just slightly, yearning to be closer to him.
    â€œMiss our home?” He shook his head. “Not very much, I’m afraid. It’s easy to grow accustomed to our more peaceful existence here.”
    Peaceful? They spent all their time on the run from Antousians and humans, while trying to just protect humanity from the same fate that had befallen their own planet.
    â€œI’m surprised you would call things on Earth peaceful.”
    â€œI haven’t been shot in the six years I’ve spent here.” His husky, throaty laugh rang in both her ears.
    â€œYou were shot back on Refaria?” she asked incredulously. This was something she’d never once heard about the man.
    â€œThree times,” he told her in a formal, clipped tone.
    After a long moment of waiting for him to elaborate, she pressed, “When? Which battles?”
    He made a sudden adjustment with the throttle, and her unanswered question hung suspended between them for what felt a near-eternity. “Sir?” She reached forward and touched his shoulder, wondering if perhaps he’d not heard her question. “Which battles?”
    She kept her gaze trained on the back of his helmet, watched as he turned to glance at her hand briefly. Still, he said nothing.
    Blowing out a heavy sigh, she stared at the black sky above the plane’s canopy. Probably way too loud—so loud, in fact, that the lieutenant could read her frustration with him.
    â€œLieutenant Draekus,” he told her gently, “as my fellow soldier, surely you understand the ghosts that still haunt me…ghosts from our home.”
    Unbidden, tears prickled Anna’s eyes. Tears of comprehension and sympathy; tears of the connection that they shared in their lost home world. Nothing on Refaria would ever be the same again, and she understood that it wasn’t the battles so much; it was the heartbreak of what had befallen them all that kept Nevin Daniels from talking.
    â€œOf course, sir,” she whispered into the comm link, and gave his shoulder a slight pat before removing her hand.
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    He brought the craft in low over the lake, and it was a perfect, routine approach until the last moment when a loud scraping sound began beneath the underbelly of the plane. There was a jolting jerk that sent Anna’s head slamming into the side of the canopy. For what seemed a long time, everything went black until she heard herself muttering a string of expletives in low Refarian. Her head felt as if a grenade had exploded inside her helmet, and strange lights were flashing in front of her eyes. She clasped at her helmet, wishing she could rub the side of her skull.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” she slurred, feeling the craft tilt and gyrate. Dimly, she realized the terrain below looked all wrong, that they weren’t anywhere near their planned landing area.
    â€œHang on, Anna!” Nevin worked frantically with the controls, flipping switches and struggling to control the craft. A bright red warning light flashed within the cockpit, then a woman’s urgent voice began, listing off a series of malfunctions. Funny, but even though she should have been upset, Anna felt oddly calm, noticing that the