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Sam Jans was dead.

No. Sam Jans was murdered. By the Thurns.

“We can’t stay here!” Marigold pushed me toward the door, smearing blood from her wounded hands on my clima-jacket.

“Young lady,” Mom said from the table, “you aren’t going anywhere. Come here so we can clean your hands.”

“Mom’s right.” I pulled her to the table, even though I wanted to burst out of my house. “You’re hurt.”

“But they’ll kill him.” Marigold sat in the chair next to my mother, her pleading eyes pierced me, urging me to action. “We have to help Jamus.”

Mom stiffened at the mention of Jamus. I don’t know how they did it, but both of my parents had remained calm since I exploded into the house, Marigold right behind me. Seated at the table, their dinner cold and untouched, their surprise quickly turned to resolve when I told them about Sam.

My father instantly used his comm to do see if he could ping some vitals from Sam’s comm. No readings came back.

He closed his eyes long enough to lower his shoulders and exhale. He left the room for a moment and came back with some bandages and disinfectant. “Marigold,” he said as he knelt on the floor by her seat and gently took her injured hands in his, “I have to ask you some questions about what happened to Sam and Jamus.” He looked her in the eyes. “Is that okay?”

Marigold looked away from him and nodded. As my father cleaned Marigold’s wounded hands he probed for the essential details: The where— outside the Thurn’s house; when—right before sunset; who and how—while Sam and Jamus argued with Ma and Pa Thurn, Deek and Boyd sneaked up on them.

“Okay,” my father continued, “but you are certain that Sam is—“

“Yes.” Marigold scrunched her eyes and shook her head. My father didn’t press further.

Then Marigold looked at Mom next her. “But Jamus was alive. Ma had Deek tie him up…”

My mom nodded, a single tear fell down her cheek, escaping her calm demeanor.

My father began wrapping the bandages around Marigold’s hand and asked one last question. “Where were you when this happened?”

Marigold shuddered. Mom rubbed her back. “I was hiding in the orchard, but snuck up to the house when I heard the shouting.”

Mom stiffened a bit. “Hiding?” she asked. “Did your family try to hurt you?”

“No. I’d been hiding from them all since Xander left. Made myself scarce.” She looked up at me. “My brothers were mad I’d sent you off. Pa was lit up about the palm light I gave you. Ma was cooking…”

“I should have taken you with me when I left,” I said.

Marigold looked down. “They would have killed you,” she said, her words barely more than a whisper. “Or worse.”

My parents shared a glance. My father finished wrapping Marigold’s hands and stood next to me. Mom pulled Marigold closer with one arm and reached out for my hand with the other.

“They didn’t see me. As soon as I saw Jamus still moving I ran. I took your shortcut, Xander. That’s what did this…” She held up her hands. She wiggled her lightly bandaged fingers and winced. She tucked her head against my mom, tears and sobs shaking her body. I moved next to her, wanting to help. Help her, help Jamus, help anything, but I didn’t know how.

Mom looked to my father and mouthed, Reese?

My father nodded. He tapped at his comm and walked to the door. I made to follow him, but he stopped me at the door.

“No Xander,” he said, “I need you to stay with Marigold and your mother.” He slipped out and I closed the door after him.

I turned back to find Marigold right behind me, watching through the small door window as my father walked away.

“Marigold,” I said and went to guide her back to my mom.

She looked at my clima-jacket and the blood she had smeared on it.

“I’m sorry Xander.”

“Don’t worry about that. I can go change.” I went to move past her and she grabbed my arms, stopping me. Her green eyes bore into me and her grasp tightened. Specks of blood began seeping through her bandages.

“Marigold…”

“Why’d he leave?”

“It’s okay,” I said and tried to, gently, pull her hands away before she reopened more of the cuts. “He went for the others.”

“Others?” Panic soaked her eyes and she pushed past me to the door. “I have to go!”

“Marigold!” I took her by the shoulders. “You are safe here. Please, you have to calm down.”

“No. No. No.” She struggled from my grasp. “You don’t understand what she’s going to do. We have to stop her before she does it to Jamus!”

“Who? Your mom?”

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Marigold squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head, her matted blond hair whipping around. I knew that struggle—fighting against horrible images burnt into your mind. She pulled me to the door again, had it opened and screamed.

At that point I didn’t know what she saw, it could have been her brothers, or spiders. I was relieved to see only Reese Larkin, Call Orquello, and Dass Gosnan illuminated in the purple moonlight. Each man carried a blaster rifle, which probably set Marigold off. No doubt they knew what happened, or they wouldn’t be armed. With exception to Reese, the long-unused weapons looked foreign in their hands. Call’s gun even had dust on it.

Reese eyed Marigold. He almost seemed amused by her outburst. “I might be ugly, girl, but no need for such a greeting.”

Marigold slunk back, letting the men enter. “So…so you’re not here for me?”

I took her into my arms. Poor girl. The guilt she must have felt purely from association with her family and what they did to Sam, what they might do to Jamus.

Call Orquello snorted. “You’re nothing like your family. You’re too human.”

“But I was there…” Marigold choked on her words. “I could…I should have tried to stop it.”

“Come on, Marigold.” Mom said, taking her hand. “What happened is not your fault.” Marigold melted into her, sobbing. Mom held her, running a hand through Marigold’s tangled golden hair. “Xander.” She needs you right now. Mom mouthed the words at me. Gently, I pulled Marigold from her and sat with her at the table, holding her bandaged hands.

“Emese.” Always polite, Dass slipped his hat off his brown bald head and dipped it to my mom. “Apologies for the intrusion. Absalom wanted us to meet him here.”

Mom looked to Reese. “He’s not with you?”

Reese stayed in the doorway, half in the night’s shadows “He’ll be along in moments.”

“He’s helping Scio and Knox dump the tanks and blades off the cultivator,” said Call. “Without the extra weight we can be to Thurn Valley in two hours if we run the machine at full speed. Plus, any protection from spiders will be welcome.”

That surprised me, but made sense. The cultivator was one of the rare pieces of tech we had. It was essential for prepping the ground and harvesting crops. My father wouldn’t ever risk damaging it, unless things were bad. Which they obviously were.

“It won’t be fast enough.” The sober tone of Marigold’s voice sent chills up my spine.

“It’s our best chance.” My father walked in wiping grease off his hands with a rag. “The cultivator is faster than on foot, and it is armored. Rescue missions don’t work if you get killed by spiders in transit.” His matter-of-fact tone while saying that sent another round of chills through me. He went to my mother, taking her hand. “Will you get some water and food?”

“How can you even think about food?” I stood up from the table. I couldn’t help but question my father. His calm demeanor was offsetting. Both of my parents were too calm—our oldest family friend was just killed and, according to Marigold, Jamus was next.

My parents both looked at me, small, sad smiles overshadowed by tired eyes. My father kissed Mom’s forehead. “The rifle still under our bed?”

Mom nodded and my father headed for their bedroom. Why weren’t they freaking out? Between the fear, the pain, and the anger, I felt like I was about to explode. The only thing keeping me even slightly contained was Marigold—in her current duress I needed to ground her, be a constant. Me panicking would only exasperate the situation.

And looking around the room, I saw the answer—Dass wringing his hat in his hands, Call holding his gun like it was something diseased—these men needed someone to keep them grounded, and my parents were trying their best.

Embarrassed by my outburst, I kept quiet. I wanted to help Mom—do something other than act like a selfish child, and I would have but Marigold was leaning into me more heavily by the second. She was fading fast, adrenaline and shock giving way to exhaustion.

“C’mon.” I pulled her to her feet. “You need to lie down.”

She tried to resist, but didn’t have the strength. “No, we have to go. Jamus—”

“We do have to go, but you aren’t part of the we.” I didn’t like the idea of going back out into the dark, but compared spiders, the Thurns seemed less a threat.

I had to half carry her up the stairs, but we made it to the top.

“Your room?” Marigold said drowsily. She had been in my room many times, when we were a lot younger. Having the all grown-up and incredibly attractive Marigold Thurns in my bedroom, in the dark, was something I’d wanted and imagined many times, but these circumstances were nothing like I’d ever expected. Or wanted.

I left her on my bed, sleeping fitfully. My father came out of his room the same time I left mine. He’d changed, now wearing a lightly armored body-suit. The same suit he wore when we landed years ago on Erimia. His rifle was slung off his back.

“Not fair. My spacesuit doesn’t fit anymore.” I looked down at my own basic clothing. “I can’t show up to the party like this.”

“You’re not going.” My father gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and walked down the stairs.

“Wait.” I followed him, catching up to him outside of the kitchen. “I’m not excited about going, but I am going.”

My father turned back to me. “Xander, this situation… You’re still healing from your fall.”

“I feel better.” I meant it. My head was tender, but the sharp pains were gone and I wasn’t dizzy. I was always a quick healer.

My father eyed me over and nodded once like he was remembering something obvious. “I can’t risk you out there. Your mother would never forgive me if something happened to both of you.”

Past him in the kitchen my mother was packing some oatcakes and water into a satchel. Reese, Call, and Dass were talking quietly, engrossed in their own conversation. They didn’t see Mom wipe a tear from her cheek and quickly get back to task.

“You’re saying that like Jamus is already gone. If you believe that, why are you going?”

“Believe me, son.” My father took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “With every part of my body I want Jamus to be okay, to be alive.”

“But?”

“But I have to take into consideration who he is with right now and what they are capable of.”

“We don’t know what happened. We don’t know why the Thurns killed Sam. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe Marigold saw something that scared her and she was in shock. Jamus is going to be fine.”

“Xander.” Weariness laced my father’s voice. “Think about what you just said. Think about what Marigold gave up tonight to warn us. Something tells me she is never going back to her family. And doubting her now, even if you are only hoping for Sam and Jamus to be alive, isn’t a good start to an already shaky future with her.”

Of all of the uncertainty, one thing was certain—even if Marigold had the choice to go back to her family, I wouldn’t let her and, apparently, neither would my father. I should have been excited. Starting a life with Marigold was everything I wanted, and the doors to that possibility were open wider than ever before, the rusty hinges oiled and set free with blood. My father was right, this was a horrible way to step into the next phase of my life.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Why does her family have to mess up everything?”

My father shrugged. “I don’t know, son. We can make plans all we want and prepare for so many things, but the universe is full of chaos, beautiful and deadly. It was only a matter of time before we experienced it again. We’ll make it, though. We did last time with the spiders.”

“Are you going to kill them?”

“I don’t want to, but they are wild. Surrendering doesn’t seem a part of their nature. I don’t know if there is an alternative.”

“I meant the Thurns.”

“So did I.” With that said, he went to help Mom in the kitchen.