Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Delaney
Maelic hadn’t said much this morning.
It was Christmas, and it hadn’t felt very fucking merry. Not that she was surprised.
He’d been staring at that weird alien watch thing on his wrist for the past ten minutes. Delaney frowned, sipping her coffee. He hadn’t touched his pancakes, and they were much more reindeer-shaped this time.
“What’s up?” she asked, tilting her head.
Maelic blinked. “The ceiling?”
She snorted. He looked genuinely perplexed but shook his head before she could explain.
The device chirped. Maelic stiffened.
“Katan was able to connect with me.”
Delaney furrowed her brow. “I thought you would have to connect through the escape pod?”
“This is not the same as direct communication. It is something we only utilize during an emergency.” He looked insanely troubled. Her heart picked up.
But his ship was still broken. He couldn’t actually leave.
She felt awful for being a little pleased by it.
Maelic’s face hardened. He took a breath and stood.
“I have to reach out for a connection. I…”
“What are you talking about? You can’t.”
“Del, I…” He paused. “The escape pod’s communication system has been functional for nearly this entire time. I have been unable to send out the signal, but not because it was unoperational.”
Delaney shook her head, not getting it.
“That doesn’t make sense, Maelic.” She stood too, her hands resting on the table. “You said you couldn’t get it to work.”
“I said that I was not able to.”
“Okay, well here on Earth,” she clenched her fists, something sparking in her, “that means you lied. Why would you do that?”
“I did not lie. I just… was not as thoroughly honest as I could have been.” His jaw tightened. “I did not want to leave you here.”
Something snapped in Delaney. Her jaw set.
“Listen, I get that you think I’m your mate or that I’m so fucking pathetic that you need to stick around, but—”
“I never said that! And I do not think you are my mate. You are.” He rounded the table and reached for her hands. Even as mad as she was, she didn’t pull back. The heat of his skin was soothing.
Was she that touch starved?
“So what? Are you going to leave?”
“I must.” He sighed. “I crash-landed here because I was on a mission. I was very close to exposing Barvarti. I was undercover on his crew. I was discovered and managed to escape, but not before I was shot out of the sky.” His grip on her hands tightened.
“If Katan has reached out this way, something has happened.”
Delaney’s eyes widened. He hadn’t exactly chosen to come here, she knew that but this... After what he told her last night…
She swallowed, her throat working.
“Can… can you come back after this?”
Maelic’s eyes softened. His antennae drooped.
“Little human… I have mentioned those laws to you. Those protections for your species. It is referred to as Interdiction Protocol. I am not meant to be here, and once I leave…” He paused. “I cannot return.”
Her heart skipped. She felt a little nauseous. She wasn’t sure what to say.
What could she say?
“Del, come with me.” His voice was soft. Pleading. “I understand you must be unsure. Of course you would be. You would be leaving your planet. But you have nothing here.”
His grip on her hands tightened.
“You know you have nothing here. You have expressed that this farm will not last. I am sure you could survive…” He paused, thinking carefully.
“But you deserve more than to just survive. I want you to thrive. You deserve to put yourself first. Your grandsire would have wanted that for you. If you come with me, I can show you the universe. We can enroll you in whatever studies you wa—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Del snapped at him.
She ripped her hands from his. He blinked, startled.
“What? Do you think you even know me?” Her voice climbed higher. “This is my home. This is everything. I have to do this. I have to save this place! Do you think I’m supposed to just drop my entire life? My entire home and species? This is where I’m meant to be!”
Maelic’s face closed off. He took a steadying breath.
“Del, you have nothing and no one on this planet. You are letting yourself choke to death on the fumes of your grief and misplaced sense of duty.”
Delaney jerked back.
“Oh, and you would know all about that. Wouldn’t you?” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not like you, Maelic. I can’t just run away and traipse across the galaxy because I want to pretend I’m not wounded. You can say you do this to protect others, but that’s not what this is about. Is it?”
Maelic’s wings shifted behind him.
“You do not know what you are talking about.” His tone lowered. Colder than he’d ever directed at her.
She didn’t back down.
“No, I think I do. You haven’t even gone home once, have you? Why is that? You think running will make things better, and maybe it has. But you have never once faced your own trauma.”
“Oh? Am I to wallow in it, like you have?”
“I am not wallowing! I am doing the right thing by my family.”
Maelic snorted. Shook his head.
“No. You are hiding away in this old cabin and pretending that you can fix a situation that has been building since you were a child. You are being a fool.”
Del’s eyes widened.
Maelic blinked. His expression thawed into regret.
“Just go.” Her voice was low.
“Astara—”
“GO!”
He turned and stormed off toward the front door. Her heart felt heavier than ever.
“Good luck out there. It was nice knowing you!”
He growled, then the door creaked as it opened—and closed.
She rubbed her eyes and took a steadying breath.
“Who needs him anyway.”
Delaney paced Grandpa’s room like a caged animal, gnawing on nails she’d already chewed to nothing. This was always the first place she ran when she was panicking.
She didn’t truly know Maelic. But the idea of never seeing him again felt like drowning.
She had no idea how he had managed to get so close to her heart in such a short time. She didn’t think this could be real love. Not yet. But she knew he had become a rock beneath her. One she was sure she’d be washed away without.
Her eyes locked on that red and green box.
Something bubbled up in her. That anxiety that had plagued her for years. She always crumbled under it. Her breathing was ragged. But something was different this time.
She felt rage. At Maelic. At herself. Fuck, even at Grandpa.
She lunged forward before she could stop herself, grabbed the box, and slammed it against the wall with a wail.
There was a small explosion of papers and… white chalky balls? She blinked. Moved over. Crouched down.
Mothballs.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up from her throat. Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Now where the fuck were you when I needed you.”
She sniffed and shook her head. A leather-bound black journal lay among the debris, the source of the scattered papers.
This was Grandpa’s?
She picked it up gingerly, collecting the pages that had flung out. She read the first entry, Grandpa’s messy cursive a little difficult to decipher.
9/5
Hey Dawn, it’s me again.
Silly to keep writing you letters, but I miss you so much. It’s been hard on the farm without you around. This seems to be the only thing that helps me work out my thoughts these days.
Del’s been asking about regrowth timelines. I know she’s just trying to work out payments and keep us afloat, but I have no clue what to say to her. Things are bad, Dawn. Been bad since you passed. Gone to complete hell since the fires.
She’s trying to help me the best she can, but she knows we’re on our last leg. You’d be so upset. I feel like I’m ruining her life.
That kid over at Winter Pines, Scottie’s grandson, has been hard on me to sell this place. He’s a good kid. Just so damn persistent.
Delaney’s eyes widened. This was a few weeks before Grandpa passed.
She swallowed. Flipped through to the last entry.
9/28
Hey Dawn,
I’ve been so exhausted lately. And so has our Delly. She’s too young for all this. She should be out there doing what she wants. Maybe settling down. Starting her own family.
I know she’d never ask me to sell, but I can see it in her eyes.
This farm is a beautiful place. But it needn’t be a beautiful casket for her.
I’ve decided to sell to that kid at Winter Pines. He knows how close me and his Grandpa were. I think he feels bad, because he offered more than enough to pay off our debts and still leave a nice nest egg. Enough to get me and Del settled somewhere. Maybe even get her going at school finally.
I want one last Christmas here, Dawn. I want to set up Christmas village like you used to do and enjoy this place with our girl. Then I’ll tell her on Christmas Day.
She might be mad at me. But this is just a place. I’m tired of making her suffer. I’m an old man now, and this place has been falling apart since our son died. It’s time I stop being so damn stubborn and do the right thing.
Delaney’s mouth hung open. She reread that entry four times.
Her brain was reeling. Grandpa ended up telling her on Christmas anyway.
She couldn’t stop the peals of laughter and tears. She scrambled up and ran down the stairs, yanking her phone off the counter.
There was no way.
It took Russell a few moments, but he answered.
“Hey there, Merry Christmas, Delaney… what’s going on?”
“Rus, I just found something. Anyway, is it true? Was Grandpa going to sell?” She was breathless. Her heart didn’t know what to feel.
“Oh, did you finally read one of those letters I’ve been leaving you? I’ve been trying to tell you for months and I—”
“Rus!” She stumbled over to the living room and snatched up the letter he’d left her the other day. The one that had taken up residence on her coffee table. Her eyes bulged as she read the contents.
It was a copy of the paperwork. All that was missing was her signature.
She swallowed.
“Yes. I swear to you! Now listen. I know this isn’t easy, but Del, think about this. If you would just—”
“I’ll sign.” She whispered it. “I’m going to sign.”
She reached down and grabbed a pen. Scrawled her name across the line.
“Hey Rus, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Good luck with this place.”
“Del, what’s going o—”
She hung up.
She was shaking with adrenaline.
She stared at her signature on the paper.
Her name in blue ink. So small. So final.
The farm was gone. Sold. The thing she’d bled for, cried for, nearly killed herself for—signed away in seconds.
And she felt… Lighter. Like she’d been carrying a corpse on her back and finally set it down.
But Maelic was leaving. Right now. This second.
And if she didn’t move—if she didn’t choose—he’d be gone forever.
The farm or him. The past or the future.
Standing still or moving forward. Her heart was pounding so hard she could barely breathe.
Fuck it.
She shook her head and bolted. Grabbed a duffle bag. Packed only the essentials—clothes, toiletries, the family photo album from the shelf.
She ran to the tree, dropping to her knees in front of it.
The wooden ornaments. The clumsy, lopsided ones Grandpa had carved for Grandma every year.
Her hands shook as she unhooked them one by one, wrapping them carefully in a dish towel.
The carved moth went in too, nestled among Grandpa’s work like it belonged there.
The Christmas lights lay in a tangled heap nearby. The ones he’d used on her in front of this very tree. The ones that had bound them together in more ways than one.
She grabbed those too. Shoved everything into the bag.
They were all coming with her.
Delaney scrambled for the door, her fingers snagging her gloves just a second before she plunged out into the winter air.
And for the first time in her life, she didn’t look back at the little cabin.