The air over the Eastern Region didn't smell like the home I remembered from my childhood. Gone was the sweet, heady scent of blooming jasmine and the crisp, clean wind that used to roll down from the high mountain peaks during the rainy season. Instead, as the Lunar Alliance transport hovered over the precise coordinates of the Black Mountain Estate, the atmosphere was thick with the acrid, choking stench of old smoke and chemical suppressants used to kill the forest. It was the smell of a m******e that had been frozen in time, preserved by the cold efficiency of the men who had occupied our land.
"Don't look, Mama," Liam whispered, his voice sounding small and fragile in the quiet cabin of the ship. He and Leo sat huddled together on the transport's metal bench, their eyes—once brillia
