Breaking Sky(32)

“Are you asking if I brag? Of course I brag. You should like that.” Riot’s frown zapped all the cute out of his face. “This is about the stupid Phoenix team. Everyone loves Arrow and Romeo. You too, I bet.”

“I don’t.” Chase was still staring at Tristan. Busted. She looked away in a hurry, catching Riot’s doubt. “I’m keeping an eye on them for Sylph.”

“Don’t be a skank, Nyx,” he yelled. He left, and every cadet on the green, including the Canadian contingent, was looking at her. She put on a small smile and lay back in the grass with her arms behind her head.

What a morning. The emotions that had been so new earlier—like waking up in a strange room—now made her feel like being stranded on a different planet. She’d fought with Pippin, found out that the trials might be reorganized, pissed off Sylph, and dumped Riot.

Then there was the X factor: she still hadn’t figure out what to do about Arrow.

To make matters worse, the loneliness that she hadn’t felt since before she’d come to the Star trickled over her. She wasn’t supposed to feel this here. She was supposed to be surrounded by peers, flying in one proud direction and striving for an end to the Second Cold War. Tears sprang forward, and she made herself whistle “Another One Bites the Dust”—that crazy old song Pippin loved to sing after one of her affairs flamed out.

Her faux nonchalance was heavy and hard to maintain.

And it crashed in a heartbeat.

Beneath the nearest tree, Tristan and Tanner watched Chase as one. Tanner appeared to be mid-swear, his back hunched sourly like a gargoyle. Chase sat up. They were talking about her. Clearly.

Tristan must have just told Tanner about her dad.





16


    LETHAL CONE


   Left Vulnerable


Chase wasn’t nearly as swift on the ground as she was in the sky, but she knew how to maneuver. She caught Tristan’s arm when he bent to tie his boots and hauled him so hard and fast through a door that the cadets he’d been walking with didn’t even notice.

Once she was inside, she lost speed. She’d thought the room was a closet. Nope. It was a classroom. A big one. At least it was empty, although that just meant it echoed the slam of the door a little ominously.

“Hello, Chase,” Tristan said, rubbing the arm she’d manhandled him by. “Let me guess, you want to talk to me?”

Her mouth was suddenly dry, but she twisted the front of his uniform in both fists and pressed him to the wall. “What did you tell Tanner?”

“What?”

“I saw you talking to him. You were looking at me. I’m not an idiot. I know what you told him.” Tears spotted her eyes, but Chase only tightened her hold on his shirt.

Tristan looked even more boyish close up. “I didn’t tell him anything. He was telling me about you.”

“Wha…why?”

“Because I asked.”

Chase let go but not without a small shove. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you saved my life a week ago, and now you won’t make eye contact with me. It’s a little strange.”

Chase stared down his blue eyes pointedly, and something tightened in her chest. “Happy now?”

“Not really,” he said. “You look like you’re going to clock me.”

“Well, you can’t tell anyone…” She dug for the words but only succeeded in feeling the tears again. “What you heard…you can’t just tell people…” Oh God, was he going to make her say it?

“I wouldn’t.” Tristan straightened his uniform. “I know a life-altering secret when I hear one.”

“Um, all right.” She wrapped her arms around her chest. Could she believe him? “Tell me why you were eavesdropping in the hallway after the JAFA debriefing.”

“I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose. I was waiting for you.” He unhooked his ponytail and finger-combed his hair. Chase thought it looked a lot softer than normal boy hair.

“Why were you waiting?”

“I wanted to talk to you. I didn’t know then just how hard that is.” Tristan showed his frustration a little, gritting his teeth when he swore. Chase found it strangely endearing that she’d gotten under his nerves. “I wanted to ask you not to tell anyone about how I kind of…went catatonic in the hallway. Remember?”

“I do.”

He pushed his hands through his hair, and Chase wondered why that was supposed to be sexy. It looked reckless. Like he needed to get a hold on himself and every other part of his body was unsteady.

“Oh. I know why you’re worried,” Chase said, blinking hard as if the sun were dawning over the SMART Board and right into her eyes. “You think they’ll take your wings. It’s an act, isn’t it? You want everyone to think you’re nice so you don’t get put on the Down List. That’s why you’re befriending everyone.”

“I happen to think I am nice, at least under normal circumstances. When I’m not mourning the death of some of my best friends.” Whatever light had come with understanding Tristan went out. He was warning her off, carefully choosing his words. “Maybe it’s cliché to claim revenge, but I won’t fail before the trials. I want my chance to face down Ri Xiong Di.”