A Merry-traxian Christmas by Pippa Jay

Author:Pippa Jay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: aliens, time travel, science fiction romance
Publisher: Pippa Jay
Published: 2019-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

KEIR EASED OPEN THE front door then hesitated, listening hard. No sounds of movement from inside, though it was hard to tell with the howling winds. He edged in, still cautious. Nothing.

He gestured for the others to follow, wincing at each footfall and creaking floorboard, and M’linka’s muffled curses as he struggled with the brushbush.

“Shh!” As he made to open the inner door, M’linka dropped the potted plant with a crash. Smothering a curse, Keir threw a warning glare over his shoulder at the clumsy saurian. M’linka looked sheepish as he shrugged an apology. They waited a few moments, but no one came rushing out to investigate the racket.

“Wait here,” Keir said softly then eased open the door to the main living room. As soon as the gap was big enough, he slipped inside.

He froze. Someone else had been at work while he had been gone. Dozens and dozens of candles lit the room, from groups on tables and plinths to evenly spaced lines along shelves. Even the giant mushroom-shaped chunk of coral they had been gifted—too uneven to use as a table—had a clutch of short, rounded candles nestling in the central dip in the top. Barely a single spare surface had been left empty. The room shone like gold and left him dizzy. Only one person could have done this, knowing what the memory and the symbolism would mean to him, and it stole his breath.

“Quin?”

No answer. No sense of her either, though he could feel the sleeping minds of his children. A shiver chased down his back. Surely she would not have left them alone in a wooden hut full of little flames?

He stared at the candles. No. There was something odd about them, something unnatural. He crouched by the nearest group and watched them. The flickering golden teardrops danced in far too regular a pattern, undisturbed by his movement as real ones would be. He placed his hand above them. They gave off no heat.

Not real. Relief washed through him. Whatever these were, they posed no fire threat. Curious, he put his palm down onto the fake flames and they winked out. Removing his hand resurrected the artificial fire. Tapping the candle with his nail resulted in a sharp sound, more like glass than wax.

Some kind of CHI, perhaps. He smiled to himself, warmed more by the thoughtfulness than he could ever be by these not-exactly-candles. While he had chased across the sea to try to fulfil Quin’s unspoken desire for Christmas, she had taken her own steps to do the same for him.

“Keir?” S’rano poked his head around the edge of the door and blinked furiously in the light. “Did you do that too?”

“No. This is Quin’s work.”

The saurians tiptoed into the room one by one, each apparently dazzled by the light like starflies drawn to flames.

“Pretty,” whispered K’rini, her slitted eyes widening until they had gone almost completely black.

Keir cleared his throat. “We should set up the tree while Quin is gone.”

“Are you sure she has?” S’rano still had his eyes fixed on the nearest candles.

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