****Jupiter Eclipsing is a sequel to Jupiter Opposing, which itself was written as the sequel to Jupiter Ascending.****

Starlight, struggling through Chicago's steady orange glow, flickers against the lens of a small, brass telescope. Centermost is the largest star, a planet, actually, flashing colors of reds and yellows, Jupiter, the king of planets.

Leaning back against the rough shingles of her cousin's home, Jupiter Jones gently rotates the telescope's lone shining eye aside, lifting her chin to face the stars herself. She pulls a dark jacket tighter against a growing chill, and wraps her arms loosely around her knees, while, beside her, Caine Wise leans forward, his arm alighting across her shoulders, then follows her gaze skyward. Both swathed in black on black military style cloth, their bodies meld with the dark sky, their pale faces held Cheshire cat-like against the Fall night.

'Technically speaking, I am Ruler of the Solar System, as if Queen of the Planet wasn't crazy enough, and, based on the word of a once enemy, and the auspices of a corps of space cops called the Aegis, I pretend I understand this is a truth. The real truth is that I think I've been damn lucky. I survived a plot to murder me hatched by my oldest genetic son, my youngest son to marry me, and then murder me, and my daughter, well, I know there must be something dark and hungry brooding behind that bright cheery smile of hers, which I expect I'll only discover once I give her a reason to bite. My destiny certainly proved bigger and badder than anything I could imagine. And, which would surely warm my aunt's , and I imagine I've barely glimpsed the beginning.'

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Jupiter ducks her head slightly at Caine's murmured question.

"You aren't scared, are you?" she replies half joking, half mocking. She nudges him with her shoulder, eliciting a small smile from his otherwise stoic lips.

"Once it's done, there's no going back." Jupiter rolls that thought around for moment, knowing full well there is an alternative, one she detests, one that Cain himself rejected when he accepted a life at her side.

"I didn't know just how tiny my world really was until I met you. There's room to make it a little bigger." Caine nods, and hops lithely to his feet. His hand reaches back for Jupiter, and she accepts it warmly as he pulls her up to meet him. "This could go very badly," she warns with a rueful grin.

"And that would be different how?" He lifts a strand of her loose, dark hair from her face, and they meet in a gentle, deep kiss filled with as much trust as longing. A rustle, a lump expands beneath his jacket, and the tips of long feathers peer from beneath the heavy leather. After a long moment, Jupiter pulls away, laying her cheek against his chest, peering across the receding rows of average human homes, quiet homes, naively ignorant homes.

'The worst part is, I think I know what I have to do, and nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to like me much once I do it.'