Breaking Sky(86)

He held her tighter, and she spilled her heaviest ache into the twisting silence.

“He didn’t make sense,” she said so quietly that she almost didn’t hear herself. “Well, he told me he was confused. He was trying to diagnose himself. To joke even.”

“That sounds like Pippin,” Tristan said gently.

“He knew exactly what was happening, which was kind of annoying, and then his words got all mangled. That freaked out both of us.”

Up…and down. Fools fly. No.

Listen, Chase.

The tears came. Heavy and ugly and unstoppable. It felt like drowning, and Tristan made her sit up and drink water. He shook her by the shoulders but nothing stemmed. Chase remembered the trials on repeat. No rewind this time. She saw the terrible, straightforward truth. The drone. The tight spin of the cockpit.

The sand and lake and that curse-blue sky.

She said Pippin’s name, and it made her feel like she’d been set on fire.

When her heartbeat became a dragging limp, Chase felt his lips on hers. She pushed back with a mouth desperate for anything else. He pulled himself on top of her, and his weight held everything still.

He was real. The thought was a sole star in her gone-black sky.

And he was right there. Her hands found every inch of him. His back, arms, and neck—his long fingers and wide palms that opened like an invitation when she reached into them.

She didn’t remember the breath when her lips finally left his or the moment she fell asleep. She didn’t remember anything except his skin. His weight. The link of their bodies and the emotional back and forth that let her overflow.





39


    BORESIGHT


   Eye on Target


Romeo woke them far before she was willing to get up. He was in his flight suit, hair ruffled, with a crescent shading beneath each eye. He didn’t seem at all surprised to find Chase and Tristan together in a semi-naked sort of way. He merely mumbled something about getting food before the hop and shut the door behind himself.

Chase saw the same shape of exhaustion in Tristan’s face, only it was worse. How much sleep had he lost in the hours of comforting her? “You can’t fly again. Not right now.”

“Have to relieve Sylph.” He stood, and his body popped at the joints.

“I could fly for you. Romeo’s not as beat. Let me go.” Chase watched him get dressed.

“You’re on the Down List, Chase.”

Every piece of her wanted to be Nyx. To take his comment as insult. To be hard and uncaring. But she stopped herself. She stood. “I’m going to get my wings back today.”

He smiled. “Don’t be impatient. Go to your appointments with the psychiatrist. Talk to Kale. Beat the simulator,” he said. “Let Riot help you.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.” She tried a small smile, and although it felt stiff, it was real.

He wove his fingers through hers, and they left together.

In the hangar, Tristan met with the deck officer while Chase watched the state of high alert in action. The frigid concrete palace was half empty with so many jets out patrolling. Airmen hustled nonstop. The energy was shrill, taxing.

Romeo sidled up, gnawing on a banana with inhuman-sized bites. He looked like he had been beaten up, but his flirting skills were as intact as ever. “Hello, pretty lady. How’s our boy holding up?”

“Is he ours?”

“Oui. You’re the only girl I’d share him with.”

“I suppose I can live with that.” She didn’t know what came over her, but she leaned into Romeo and hugged him.

“I knew it,” he said when she let go. “You’re totally into me. Am I right?”

“Not even a little.” Chase watched Tristan from the other side of Phoenix. He flipped through a file and pointed something out to the deck officer.

“What’s the chatter?” she asked Romeo.

“Base side says we’re all about to die from Ri Xiong Di bombs. Academy side has been talking about Tourn being your dad. They’ve been saying he got you into the Star and you didn’t earn your wings and that’s why you crashed. I think Riot the weasel let the cat out of the carton.”

Her body turned as cold as the concrete floor.

“No one believes either side though,” Romeo said. “Talk is just talk. Nerves and all.”

She looked at him for a long moment. Pippin had loved him. It made Romeo seem more real all of a sudden. Someone who mattered. “I’ve been worried about people finding out about Tourn my whole time here, and now, well, it sucks.” She paused. “It should be worse than that, right? But it’s not. It just sucks.”

“People will move on to other gossip. They always do.”

“Pippin was afraid too,” she started to admit. “He thought that if he was out, people would treat him differently. He was so afraid that he couldn’t even tell you he had a crush on you.”

“Really?” Romeo grinned.

She was shocked by his rather blissful reaction. “You liked him?”

“Nah. I like women, but it never feels bad to hear someone likes you.” Romeo’s face turned serious. A little sad. “Doesn’t happen to me all that often to be perfectly honest.” Chase needed a solid minute to do the math: although she’d seen Romeo flirt with practically every girl at the Star, Chase had never witnessed him having any success.