The Moon Dwellers (60 page)

“Nice to meet you,
Mr. Rose
,” I say
.

“Just Ben
is
fine.”

“
Thanks.
And I won’t do anything to hurt your daughter—that’s a promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he says
, leaving me and going
to Roc and Elsey, who a
re dangling their feet in the reservoir.

I crouch
down, put
a hand on the stone.
I imagine
that
I can
feel small vibrations through the ground, the soft patter of her foot
steps in the distance.
I close my eyes and picture
her
green eyes
looking up at me, her
soft lips
slightly parted
.
It had felt like she was about to kiss me—God knows I wanted her to—but then she didn’t.

I hope I will
get the chance to ask her why.

I fear for her.
The caverns are a dangerous place, and get more dangerous the deeper you go.
Cannibals, marauding gangs of thieves, and now legions of star dweller troops roam the depths, preying on the w
eak.
Adele is not weak—she’s proved that every step of the way with her fighting, with the slingshot—
but she’s also not invincible.
Like when I started this adventure, I hope I will see her again.

I still do
n’t know what our
feelings a
re for each othe
r, or why they feel so strong, but I want to find out.
She is like no one I have
ever met
before.
So strong and capable—
but tender and comp
assionate
,
too.
At least that i
s my first impression.

My only regret: I didn’t tell her what I kno
w.
It just never fe
lt like the right time.
I vow to tell her the next time I see her.
Until then, she’ll
live in my dreams, like my mom.

I kiss the tips of my fingers, touch
them to the ground.
“Farewell, Adele
Rose
,” I whisper
.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adele

M
y dad says that the purest love is that which is unlived.
I am
begin
ning to understand what he means by that.
I do
n’t
think
I am
in love with Tristan.
At least, not yet.
I mean, how can
I
be
?
We
just met.
But whatever we have, it i
s certainly pure, unscarred by
the filth of the world we live
in.

I hope I wo
n’t regret having not kissed him.

The tunnel is right where Roc said
it wou
ld be.
He i
s wrong about there
not bein
g any guards
,
though, but they a
re both dead, lying
awkwardly at the bottom of the stone staircase leading
to the tunnel entrance.
They’
ve
been shot and
thrown down the stairs.
I try
not to l
ook at their faces as we step
over them.

We reach
t
he top of the steps and I pause
, looking back over the city.
Thick smoke
roils
over
the
crumbling rooftops.
A cheer ri
se
s
up in the
distance.
The star dwellers have
taken subchapter 26.

“Th
anks for coming with me,” I say
to Tawni.

“I didn’t have
anything better to do,” she says
.

I laugh
.
“You know, you’re not like your parents at all.”

Her face li
gh
t
s
up, her gray eyes shining slightly under the glow of the overhead cavern light
s.
“That means a lot,” she says
, tearing up.
“Cole said the same…”
She ca
n’t get the rest
of the words out as she stifles
a sob with
the back of
her hand.

“I know,” I say
.
“Cole said the same thing.
Because it’s true.
He would’ve come with us, too
.
I know it.”

Tawni hugs
me once
, still afraid to speak,
and turns
to the cave mouth.
A year ago it would’ve looked ominous, like the mouth of a monster, the stalactites hanging from above its teeth, ready to eat u
s alive.
But now it just looks
like a cave.
Another challenge.

And I am
ready.

###

Keep reading for a peek into the exciting sequel,
The Star Dwellers
, which will be published in September 2012.

Acknowledgements

Oh wow, where do I star
t? Unlike The Evolution Trilogy
where I mostly did things on my own,
The Moon Dwellers
was
a team effort. First, I’d like to thank my wife, Adele, for letting me use her name and for always supporting me and saving me from myself.
You’re the best thing in my life and you always will be.
Also,
I’d like to thank
my parents, of course, who read everything I send them (which is A LOT). 

To my editor, Christine LePorte, for helping me turn my rough-cut gemstone into something sparkling and beautiful, and for your patience in my many technical shortcomings.

To my marketing team at shareAread, particularly Nicole Passante
and Karla Calzada
, who have been instrumental in hel
ping connect my words with your eyes.

Thanks to my incredible team of beta readers who gave me so much positive feedback to keep me optimistic, while slipping in those precious nuggets of constructive criticism that allowed
The Moon Dwellers
to transform into something beyond what I was capable of on m
y own.  So thank you Laurie Love
, Alexandria Nicole, Christina Maness, Christie Rich, Danielle Dundas, Kay
leigh-Marie Gore
, Nicole Marie Passante, Kerri Hughes, Terri
Thomas
, Krystle
Jones
,
Lynne
Chattaway,
and
Tamika Dartnell-Moore
.

Next up are my incredible cover artists/designers at Winkipop Designs. Thank you for all your hard work and for giving my story the absolute best first impression I could ever ask for. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the second book!

To all my friends on Goodreads, I am a better person and writer from having met you. You make me laugh, bl
ush, dance, sing, read, and write
. I will never forget any of you.

And most importantly I’d like to thank all my readers who took a chance on me with this book or with Angel Evolution. Without you, my work would just be words on a page.
You are the reason I write.

Discover other books by David Estes available through the author’s official website:

http://
davidestes100.blogspot.com

or through select online retailers including
BarnesAndNoble
.com.

The Evolution Trilogy by David Estes:

Book One—Angel Evolution

Book Two—Demon Evolution

Book Three—Archangel Evolution

Connect with
David Estes
Online

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Estes/130852990343920

Author’s blog:
http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/davidestes100

Goodreads author page:
http://www.goodreads.com/davidestesbooks

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/davidestesbooks

About the Author

After growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David Estes moved to Sydney, Australia, where he met his wife, Adele. Now they travel the world writing and reading and taking photographs.

A SNEAK PEEK

THE STAR DWELLERS

BOOK 2 OF THE DWELLERS SAGA

Available anywhere e-books are sold in September 2012!

Chapter
One

Adele

N
ot for the first time since we parted ways, and surely not for the last time, my thoughts turn to him. Our lost kiss.

I wonder where he is, whether he’s thinking about me, whether he’s getting on okay with my dad. I hope my dad’s not giving him a hard time. I’m not sure what to expect, as I’ve never really had a guy interested in me before. For all I know, my dad might put on a tough guy act, even though he’s really a softy. The weird thing is, soon my dad will probably know Tristan better than I do.

We’ve been walking for two solid days, Tawni and I, trudging down an endless inter-Realm tunnel, making our way slowly to the Star Realm. Although I know we are, I don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere. Every step forward feels like two backward. It’s like wading through water, as if the air has substance, its viscosity slowing our every move.

It’s not just the act of walking that frustrates me. It’s the monotony of the tunnel. The tunnel is wide enough for half a dozen people to walk side by side, and tall enough for me to give Tawni a piggyback ride, although given she’s about eight inches taller than me, the physics might not work so well. The tunnel floor is smooth, packed hard by thousands of tramping feet, but the walls and ceiling are rough and jagged, as if it was excavated haphazardly by a century-old tunneling machine. Modern day tunnelers create perfectly arched passages, with smooth edges and glassy sides, at a rate of 5 miles per hour. This tunnel looks more like three guys with shovels and pickaxes carved their way through at about 5 feet per hour.

For two days, the tunnel has sloped gently downwards, which should make the hike easy, but it doesn’t. It’s as if gravity has reversed itself, pitting even the laws of nature against us, making the downhills feel like uphills. We haven’t spoken for at least three hours, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

Recently I’ve had Tristan on my mind, but before that I thought about my mom. Is she okay? Although I rescued my sister, Elsey, and my dad, I don’t dare to hope that my mom is still alive. How could she be? There are no happy endings in my world. Not even happy beginnings. And the middle parts, they are the saddest of all.

“Can we rest?” Tawni asks, snapping me out of my grim mood.

I nod, lick my dry, chapped lips, try to swallow. The water is running low, so we’re rationing. I sling my pack in the corner between the wall and the floor, sit down next to it, lean my back against the rough stone.

“Why haven’t we seen anyone?” I ask.

Tawni sits down next to me, her long blond hair shimmering across her face, illuminated by the flashlight I’m holding.

“I don’t think the star dweller troops are going home anytime soon,” she says. “Not until they get what they want, anyway.”

Just before we entered the tunnel we are in, two days earlier, we saw thousands of star dweller troops pass by. They looked rough and weary, but determined. Determined to get the moon dwellers to join their rebellion…or die trying.

“So many people will die,” I say.

“Not if your dad and Tristan can get the moon dweller leaders to listen. I mean, they
will
get them to listen. I know they will.” Tawni is just being herself. Optimistic by nature. Despite all she’s been through, still optimistic. I marvel at her character.

“I’ll agree with you the second the sun dwellers invite us all up for a big Tri-Realms unity party,” I say.