Aquaria adjusted the blossoms in Eri’s hair. “You look ravishing.”
Eri blushed. “I just want to look presentable, so don’t overdo it, okay?”
She stuck another stem above Eri’s ear. “Just one more of these cute pearl berry flowers. They are absolutely adorable. And they match your hair.”
“Adorable isn’t what I’m going for either.”
Aquaria shushed her. “Not you! The flowers. Shouldn’t a linguist know what ravishing means?”
Eri shook her head. “Ex-linguist, remember?”
“Of course, Eri, coleader of the native clan.” Aquaria circled around her. “You’re going to be much busier trying to work with Litus to blend our customs and make sure no one gets jungle fever.”
Eri smiled. Both of her dreams had come true. She had the lifemate she’d always wanted and an essential job where she could make a difference to go along with it. “I like it that way.”
Aquaria tightened the back straps of Eri’s dress until her breasts shoved up like a table in front of her. She wore the ceremonial lifemate pairing gown from the
Heritage
embroidered with beads made by the women in Striver’s village. “Ouch. What are you doing?”
“Making you less adorable.”
Bone flutes trilled and a low drumbeat began. Anxious excitement bubbled in Eri’s veins. “That’s our cue, Aquaria! I don’t want to be late.”
“Showing up a few minutes late is fashionable. Besides, it increases the expectation.”
“Ugh! I should have picked Uncle Ral to walk me down the aisle.”
Aquaria took her arm and they headed up a mossy incline. “Nonsense. You picked me because you knew I’d be the best.”
“Or because I had two sets of parents and couldn’t choose between them.”
Aquaria slapped her hand and they crested the hill. Rows of people turned to watch Eri descend. On the right sat the villagers who’d lived on Haven 6 for hundreds of years, wearing their crudely knit clothes, blending in with the long grasses of the meadow. Carven sat with his large family, two toddlers squirming on his wife’s lap. Behind them, Riptide sat with Riley, matching heads of midnight hair. On the left, the colonists wore their white flight uniforms from the
Heritage
, matching the ivory hull of the
S.P. Nautilus
behind them. Eri spotted her birth father sitting with his assigned lifemate and her birth mother, three rows ahead, sitting with hers. For a moment she wondered if her mom and dad still loved each other today, but she put it aside to honor their rightful matches. No longer would such pairing pains arise, no longer would any child feel second-class.
Eri’s gaze gravitated to the center row, where Striver waited. He wore a loose white shirt and leather pants with new black boots, shined to catch the rays of the sun. He’d threaded white feathers through his long, wavy hair.
She remembered the day she first saw him, running at the Lawless to save her. Eri’s heart skittered. He was standing there for her. To be with her. Her own lifemate, a better fit for her than anyone on the
Heritage
could ever be.
The flutes rose in pitch as she approached and the drums quickened, in synch with her heart. Only months ago, she’d been a nobody, punching keys in deep space, and now she was a hero, a warrior, and a future wife.
Aquaria kissed Eri’s cheek as they reached the platform. “Good luck.”
Eri glanced at Striver and the intensity in his emerald eyes made her feel like he saw no one else. She turned back to Aquaria and smiled. “Thanks, but I don’t need it.”
The music trailed off and Phoenix stepped to a stone podium decorated in climbing vines. “This is the exact spot where Striver’s ancestors, Aries and Striker, took their first steps on this world, the spot where I flew for the first time. Now it will be the first union of your peoples, where they will take their first steps united on Refuge.” He glanced at the colonists. “Or as you call it, Haven 6.”
Eri wove her fingers through Striver’s. His hand felt warm and reassuring in hers. He whispered in her ear, his lips tickling her lobe, “I love you.”
His fingers pushed a small, hard-edged object into her hand. Making sure Phoenix wasn’t paying attention, Eri glanced down and opened her palm. A bead carved with two figures holding hands stared up at her. The man had a bow across his chest and the woman had short, curly hair. She had no idea how Striver could put so much detail into something so small.
She glanced back at him and mouthed, “I love you, too.”
Phoenix gave them a questioning tilt of his head.
Striver laughed and bowed. “Go on.”
Ruffling his feathers, Phoenix gave them an admonishing quirk of his beak before continuing. “This is the first
chosen
lifemate pairing ceremony; the first of many yet to come. As our cultures blend, you have agreed to uphold the prime directive of our founding ancestors, and freedom of choice will reign.”
Applause erupted behind them, and Striver squeezed Eri’s hands. Her dream and his were one.
Epilogue
As the universe expanded, humankind spread across the stars, sprinkling the galaxy like dandelion seeds in the wind. Some civilizations reverted to simpler means, living in the solitude of their chosen star system, while others developed new ways to speed travel through deep space, thereby reconnecting with the colony ships strewn across paradise planets.
The people of Haven 6 lived in symbiotic codependence with nature and the Guardians, developing a democratic society with deep philosophical values and pure ideals. The mysterious golden liquid continued to draw dreamers into its grasp, but fewer and fewer ventured each year to make the choice of an eternal, though hollow, life. Tundra 37 became a bustling metropolis as the planet warmed, and scientists worked for generations to build another colony ship to complete the voyage they had abandoned so many years ago. After five hundred years, a
New Hope
embarked for Paradise 18. Paradise 21 turned out to be less than paradise, with poison pod plants, and wars with aggressive alien species for planetary rights.
All civilizations shared the same past, a common thread binding them together. In the darkest of times, when battles had still raged over resources, it had been this single heritage that brought the different factions together, instilling peace before the wars raged out of control like on Old Earth.
Made cautious and wise, humans learned from their mistakes of the past and flourished.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my agent, Dawn Dowdle, for believing in my manuscript and finding such a wonderful publishing company. Also, thank you to Liz Pelletier and Heather Howland at Entangled Publishing. Thank you to Kerry Vail and Stacy Abrams, my eagle-eyed editors, who worked so hard to polish this manuscript and find more depth in every plot strand. My beta readers come next: the best sister in the world, Brianne Dionne, and my mom, Joanne, for giving me support and intriguing insights. My awesome critique partners deserve numerous thank-yous: Cherie Reich, Theresa Milstein, Lisa Rusczyk, Kathleen S. Allen, Lindsey Duncan, and Cher Green. My flute teacher and life mentor, Peggy Vagts, comes next, for encouraging me to pursue writing and flute as dual dreams. And lastly, my husband, Chris, for allowing me the time I needed to work on edits, do research, and most of all, write.