Breaking Sky(41)

“Tristan won’t say anything. That guy has got the warm squishies for you.”

“No, he doesn’t,” she said. “He’s trying to be my friend. It’s…awkward.”

“You didn’t see him bust into the centrifuge when you blinked out. He got his head right on your chest to listen to your heart. I pointed out that the wrist has a pulse, but he seemed rather driven. Come to think of it, he might have been sneaking a feelsky.” Pippin mimed grabbing a pair of boobs.

“Pippin!” She hit his arm hard enough to make his humor sour.

“Don’t act surprised, Chase. Everyone gets into you at some point. You’re a beautiful disaster, and apparently that’s irresistible.” He crossed the room and held the door open. “I’ll never understand my sex’s obsession with inaccessible love.” A strong feeling backfired in his words, and he stared at the ground.

“Love is pointless, Pip.”

“Should I go tell Riot how pointless his mangled hand is?”

“Hey.”

He scrubbed his wavy hair. “I’m sorry. But you kind of ask for it, you know?”

This was her chance to find out what was plaguing him. “What do you…” It took her so long to put the words together that he arched an eyebrow at her. “If you’re so…” This wasn’t working.

“We always ate together,” she managed. “Until the Canadians arrived, and now you eat with them or in the room. Are you mad at me about something?”

Pippin’s face was a blank wall. “My problems have nothing to do with you.”

Chase couldn’t stop herself from comparing this exchange to opening up to Tristan in the locker room—the way they’d traded their feelings until it felt, well, good. This felt terrible. The more Chase spoke, the more closed down Pippin became.

“I need more space than usual,” he finally said. “You know how that is.”

He left, and the slam of the door made her jump backward.





20


    UP TO SPEED


   What’s at Stake


Chase headed to the chow hall alone. She swallowed hard, but the feelings wouldn’t go down. Pippin was…upset about something. Did it have anything to do with the Canadians?

With Chase?

She caught herself searching the crowded cafeteria for Pippin. She watched for him in the food line, swathed in loud conversations and moving toward the buffet a few steps at a time.

Until Sylph stepped in front of her.

Instinct kicked in. Chase held her tray before her face.

“You’ve finally done it. You’ve broken my RIO. His hand at least.” The blonde sighed and pushed down her shield.

“Are you going to kill me?” Chase watched Sylph’s expression morph into an assassin’s smirk. “Oh God, you really are going to kill me.”

“I should,” she said. “But I’ve been making a study of you, and I think you can’t help it. You’re drawn to people only to push them away. It’s like a disease.”

“Better step back, Sylph. I might cough on you.”

“There was even a moment freshman year when we could have been friends, but you had to be so bizarre.”

“You mean the forty-two seconds you were my roommate before you demanded to switch?”


“I don’t remember it that way.” Sylph plucked a few grapes off the fruit bar and popped them in her mouth. The chow line moved forward, and Chase elbowed Sylph out of the way. Sylph didn’t seem bothered, though, and her calm was a lot more frightening that her usual fervor. “Nyx, I’ve decided you should use your unhealthy skill set on our new enemy.”

“Excuse me?”

“You should slay Arrow. It’s obvious he likes you.”

“You want me to seduce him? On purpose?” Like Pippin, Sylph must have read into the way Tristan pulled her out of the centrifuge. “You’ve got the wrong idea, Sylph. Nyx was the Daughter of Chaos. Not the goddess of lust.”

“Like you even have to try. Just do that thing you do. Lead him on…and then…” She lifted the corner of Chase’s tray and let go so that it slapped down on the food-serving cart like a gunshot. Three people in line spun around until they saw it was Sylph—which made them turn back even faster.

“Why do you hate them so much?” Chase asked. “I’ve never seen you so motivated. Except when you were trying to beat me during the pilot ranking.” Sylph had been merciless in those days. They hadn’t known then that there was more than one Streaker, and Sylph wanted it so badly that she did everything outside of poison Chase. When Kale revealed that the top two pilots would be chosen, Sylph had backed off like a tiger receding into the jungle.

Something clicked. “Sylph, why don’t I go ask Kale if they’re going to cut one of us? Then you don’t have to do this ‘snake in the grass’ thing.”

“Maybe I like being a snake.” Sylph’s face was sly and leaning in. “So what do you think about seducing the Canadian?”

“I think you’ve finally started drinking your peroxide shampoo.”

“I’m not the one getting summoned by the shrink. Kale asked me to pass this on.” Sylph tucked a slip of paper in the front of Chase’s uniform and stole her tray, hip-checking her out of the line. “Oh, and Kale said no ducking out if you want to fly the hop tomorrow.”