The Final Showdown - The Moon Trilogy - Book 3

Chapter nineteen:

   Rachel faded away from the circle as soon as the sun peeked over the buildings to the east, heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. It had become a routine, a safe place. She could lose her worries in the mixing, banish her stress in the baking.

   But she could only cook so long, and as soon as she'd informed the others that the food was finished, she left.

   She knew what the topic of conversation would be, and she didn't care to listen to more of it all morning. It was nothing against Clarity, of course. It was just too much focus on something they couldn't change. When something substantial changed, then Rachel would join in.

   The quickest and closest fresh air would be found on the roof, so Rachel aimed her steps in that direction. She sprinted up the short flight of stairs, and out into the soft morning sunlight.

   She froze when she saw what was waiting there. Four people, three of which were tied up in a cluster, and one of which was clearly acting as a guard.

   The three: her alien kidnappers.

   The one: Xenia.

   Rachel almost found it hard to believe that she'd missed Xenia back down in the living room. She was, after all, a bit of an elephant in the room whenever she was present, seeing as she was so tall and... well, black.

   Rachel didn't know what to say. Her mind swirled with questions for Xenia, all of which were completely pointless, because she didn't even speak English.

   She still asked one, though.

   "What are you doing?"

   As expected, there was no reply at all. Not even any of the clicking that apparently counted as a language.

   Rachel sighed, crossing her arms. Why was Xenia on the roof in the first place? Was she in cahoots with Johnathan? It looked like she was guarding the three aliens, and Johnathan was the only one that spoke her language, so it made sense. He'd asked his alien buddy to guard the other alien buddies.

   Rachel sighed again and shook her head. It was clear that no one else had the same thoughts on the matter. It would be easier to give it up.

   She walked to the edge of the roof, and looked down. It was just as far to the ground as she'd been expecting, but it still sent a wave of dizzy nausea into her gut. She wasn't particularly afraid of heights, but she was scared of things that could kill her, and a fall from that height could certainly finish her off.

   She backed up, content to enjoy the view from a safe distance. It was strange to think that something so ugly when seen from close up could be pretty, but she had to admit, it definitely wasn't ugly. If only the things that went on in such a nice looking city had the same pleasant looks...

   The freshly-risen sun was coming up over the buildings. Endless windows and gleaming sheets of metal sent the light flashing out in every direction. Solar panels latched to the tops and sides of buildings, polished to a gleaming shine. Terrariums and mini-gardens sprouted from a good half of the buildings, primarily the residential ones.

   She jumped slightly when a crunch on the gravel broke her from her trance. She spun around to see who it was.

   It was Johnathan, of course. She nodded shortly in greeting, then turned back to look out over the city.

   An idea popped into her head.

    It was crazy, but it might just be worth it. Was a might worth the risk? Would she really do something so insane, just to prove a point?

   It was simple logic, but simple was also dangerous. She knew he could fly, and he knew she couldn't. If she happened to fall from a very, very tall building, he could save her. But he could just as easily let her fall and write it off as an accident that he was too late to prevent, therefore killing off the only person suspicious of him. If there was a reason to be suspicious at all...

   She stepped right up to the edge of the buildings, taking a deep breath as her heart spiked. Was she really doing this? She could tell herself it was for Clarity all she wanted to, but she knew herself well enough to know that she just wanted to prove a point.

   Stupid. Falling to her death was the dumbest way to make a statement on earth. On anywhere.

   But when she moved to take a step back, something shifted beneath her feet. Or her feet were the things that shifted.

   Either way, she was no longer standing on anything.

   He plan had been put into effect against her will. The air rushed up to meet her, whipping her hair into a tangled frenzy. Her heart hammered in her chest and she squeezed her eyes shut.

   Come on, Johnathan. Please prove me wrong. She really, really wished she was wrong for the first time in a long while.

   With the ground rushing up to meet her at a deadly pace, she realized how stupid it was to weigh losing her life with losing an argument. Had she even been thinking clearly? She found it hard to believe that the same Rachel had been thinking such moronic thoughts not minutes before.

   Her thoughts were jerked along with her body as something big secured a bruising grip on her upper arms. She opened her eyes and looked up, breath catching in her throat.

   It was a big, black dragon that had caught her. Obviously, it was Johnathan, but was still dumbfounded every time she saw a huge, medieval fantasy creature in the place of the normal looking guy she was used to. Or was the normal guy the thing that came later?

   She thought she saw something akin to annoyance or anger in his cat-like eyes, but she wasn't entirely sure.

   She did know one thing for sure, though: she'd never been so glad to be wrong.

   When they were back on the roof, he shifted back into his humanoid form.

   Rachel wanted to see how he did it, but the whole thing happened so quickly, that she barely had time to register what was happening before Johnathan was standing in front of her. Human Johnathan, that is.

   "Why did you do that?" he asked. His voice matched the expression in his eyes, but she still couldn't decide if it was anger or annoyance.

   "I'm pretty sure I trust you now." she took a huge breath in, willing her heart to stop its frantic beating. She was safe now. She was perfectly safe.

   "Pretty sure?" he countered, raising an eyebrow, like he was so prone to doing.

   She nodded, putting on her best smile that probably looked fake. She'd never been good at smiling, especially when she'd figured out that having fangs and smiling wasn't a good mix, unless the goal was to scare people.

   "I'm not sure if I'll ever trust you completely, Johnny-boy." Or anyone, for that matter. Except maybe the girl in a coma, a floor down...

   She smiled again, and patted him a couple times on the shoulder as she walked back to the little doorway in the middle of the roof.

   Sure, she still thought there was something off about him, but due to her partially-accidental trust exercise, she trusted him a tiny bit more. At the very least, he cared enough about her to go out of his way to make sure she didn't end up a pancake.

That was something, right?