Don't Poke the Luna (Xena and Ryder)

Chapter 245

Xena's Pov

Logan walked toward the pile of wood where Dad's body lay. The tor flickered in the breeze, casting dancing shadows across his face. When he touched the flame to the kindling, the fire caught immediately, crackling and growing with each passing second.

"Goodbye, Dad," Logan whispered, his voice barely audible over the sound of the flames.

I closed my eyes as the fire grew higher, the heat warming my face ven from this distance. The smell of burning wood filled the air, and I knew that soon there would be nothing left of the man who had shaped my entire world.

Ryder's arm tightened around me as my body shook with silent sobs This was really it. Dad was gone, and there was no bringing

him back.

the pit, he finished the planting with his shovel. "We're not moving his ashes. We're letting them become one with the land where he died. This is what Dad wanted, Logan said as he walked over to sit beside Penelope. Leonard took a seat in the second row,

the distance told us a storm was approaching. How

return to their homes or safe places. Logan and I just sat there, watching what little remained of Dad until the flames died out.

tore my gaze away from the freshly dug grave

Not sad, not angry,

slower than Logan's, so I fell behind as we quietly walked down the hillside toward the pack house. Ryder never tried to make me walk faster, didn't even try to take

climbed the steps, my heart started pounding violently. More than once I reminded myself that Martha wasn't here, that I

open since he and Penelope had arrived a few minutes before us. When we walked in, he was doing something on the computer. Penelope sat in an armchair, so I took the other one. Ryder stood behind me as we waited to

me. "Dad left you this letter. He wrote it this morning. Logan handed