Exton refused to let Brock make him doubt he was doing the right thing, but he had to admit he had already caused Aerie a great amount of pain.
An amount of pain, he thought bitterly, that Brock had been able to save her from. In the end, Exton knew Brock was his rival for Aerie’s affections, but their goal was the same. They both wanted her to be safe. And if that was the only common ground they had between them, he could find a way to respect Brock.
Of course, respecting someone doesn’t mean I have to like him.
“What would you have me do?” Exton asked.
“You should let her go somewhere else.”
“Aerie has been able to walk away from me for some time,” Exton said evenly. “She has a right to refuse me, too. But she doesn’t. She wants to stay with me, and I want to be with her.”
“She’s not yours,” Brock hissed. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll bet anything she didn’t tell you about our kiss on the cargo ship.”
Surprise briefly fluttered through him, but Exton remained calm. No, she didn’t, Exton thought, but she didn’t tell you about me, either.
If Brock thought he would get away with creating division between him and Aerie, he was a fool.
“You should give her the choice.”
“You don’t really mean that.” Exton frowned. “What you really mean is that you want her to choose you.”
Brock’s eyes darkened as he scowled.
Exton stood his ground. “Like it or not, she is mine, and she has been mine since she was captured and brought onto the Perdition.”
“She was supposed to be mine!” Brock yelled. “I was the one who rescued her from the Reeducation Center. I was the one who took care of her after she was injured.”
“You mean after St. Cloud injected her with Memory Serum?” Exton asked. “So she’d forget all about me and the Perdition?”
“I didn’t know about that.” Brock faltered only slightly. “But I still looked after her. When we were in school, I helped her train and made sure I earned her unit director’s respect so he would approve of me.”
“I know she considers you a friend.”
“I was her only friend in the URS.”
“If you are her friend, then you should be glad she’s here,” Exton pointed out. “She’s been named an enemy of the State. I might be on their enemy list, but now she is, too. She might be in enemy territory, but they don’t know about Petra.”
Outside of St. Cloud, he added silently to himself.
“If you don’t think they know about this place, you’re crazy. They will find you, eventually,” Brock said. “And then Aerie will die if you don’t let her go.” He turned on his heel and stormed away.
Exton felt his suspicion deepen as he considered Brock’s warning. Did Osgood know about Petra? Exton wasn’t sure, but there was the question of where Brock had been planning on taking Aerie once he’d freed her. Where else would he go, but Petra, especially with a cargo ship like the one he’d taken?
But then, how did Brock know about Petra anyway?
Either way, he did save Aerie, and I owe him for that.
“Brock,” Exton called out to him. “You are welcome here, since you have no other place to go, and because even though you hate me, I am grateful for how you helped Aerie escape the URS.”
Brock whirled around. “I can go anywhere I want,” he said. “But I’m not leaving without Aerie.”
“She’s staying here.”
“We’ll see about that,” Brock snapped.
“I suppose you can think that you can leave at any time,” Exton remarked, “but I know the punishment for betraying the URS, and even you don’t deserve to pay that price.”
Brock fumed even more, but he said nothing as he stared murderously at Exton.
“I think it’s fair to give you a warning,” Exton said. “I’ll be monitoring you. I won’t have you hurting my community, Aerie included.”
“How is this place any different from the URS then, if that is the case?” Brock grumbled.
Exton didn’t get a chance to answer as Brock walked away.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Emery. “If you want, I can get see about arranging that transport for him.”
“I’m tempted to let you,” Exton muttered. “But I don’t want to risk Aerie’s wrath. And I don’t think you should, either.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Emery said with a small smile.
“What are you doing up?” he asked. “Did your comm go off, too?”
“I was the one who contacted you,” Emery said. “When you didn’t answer, I thought I would come get you.”
“Something wrong?”
“Henry’s got an update for us,” she said. “The Perdition has been working to find and locate the different Craftcarriers, now that we have some more intel on them. One of them just went off course.”
“Headed toward Petra?”
She grimaced. “It looks like its headed for the area where the cargo ship crashed,” she said, “but we’re not sure.”
Exton felt a familiar, unwelcome feeling. “What else is happening?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else is happening around the URS capital and their bases? If we can check their movements, we might be able to get a better idea of what they’re planning.”
“I don’t know,” Emery admitted. “But I’ll have Henry and the others check.”
“We’ll have them check,” Exton said, as he headed down the hall with her.
“Henry said that there are a few shuttles from the Perdition that will be making rounds to Chaya and here.”
“Delay their arrival here,” Exton ordered. “I don’t want anything coming here until we see what the Craftcarrier is up to.”
“You think an attack is coming, then?” Emery asked. Her eyes were worried.
Exton knew it was not the time to lie to her. “There’s a good chance,” he said. “St. Cloud told me that he wouldn’t tell Osgood about Petra if we returned Aerie. He could still attack us, but now we have the added pleasure of her brothers and her sister here. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“I can’t believe he would really attack with all of them here.”
“Loyalty to the State is everything, Em,” Exton reminded her. “St. Cloud shot up a Redbird at the Perdition. He allowed the SBD Heatseekers to launch, while Aerie was onboard, no less. He signed the arrest warrant for Aerie to be assigned to the Reeducation Center. Merra faked her own death to escape him. What further proof do you need to know he’s a ruthless, sociopathic monster only loyal to the URS?”
“I guess you have a point,” Emery said with a sigh.
“There’s also the not-so-small matter of how he killed our father,” Exton continued, barely registering that Emery had agreed with him. “And now, our brainwashed friend Gerard is in third command of the entire country, and he was responsible for Aerie’s torture—”
Emery’s gasp pulled Exton out of his tirade. He took one look at her face and realized he was losing control of himself. He cleared his throat as he mentally berated himself.
I’ll have to work on that. I can’t let St. Cloud get to me. That’s how Aerie got into trouble the first time.
“Sorry, Em,” he muttered.
“Meredith will be so sad.”
“She saw it, apparently.”
“I didn’t know that.” Emery’s face crumbled. “She must know that we’ll likely have to kill him. I was worried about that.”
“I don’t want to think about it,” Exton said. “I know she was in love with him before, and they were going to get married, but she has to see that the man she loved is gone.”
“She’ll be devastated, but she’ll understand. In time.” Emery glanced up at him. “What are the chances we can capture him and bring him here?”
“I thought about that. I’m not sure we would be able to cure him at all,” Exton said. “Just having him here could be dangerous to ot
hers.”
“I guess so. Maybe there’s a chance he’ll remember who he is, especially if he’s away from the URS.”
“I hope so.” Exton sighed. “I’d hate to hurt Meredith, especially after Tyler and I promised her we would try to save him. If she’s been content to work at the Reeducation Center just to be near him all these years, she’ll probably need a lot more time to recover than we have.”
“We’ll have to give her all we can,” Emery said. “She’s Tyler’s sister.”
Exton nodded. We’ll find a way to make it work out.
They entered into a command hub, and Patty glanced up from over a console. “Hey, kids,” she called. “Early day?”
“Henry just contacted me,” Emery said. “We’ve got a problem.”
“And possibly a big one, too, by the looks of it,” Exton said.
Patty picked up her large container. “Thank God we have coffee then. Tell me what’s wrong.”
♦24♦
Of all the things that Aerie thought were impossible, sitting around the breakfast table with her mother and her siblings seemed to be one of the most impossible.
Exton said that I was his miracle, and Emery said their god was a god of miracles. Maybe this is one for me? Aerie wondered humorlessly, as Merra finished reintroducing herself to the others.
She sighed as she barely looked at her food. Since she had intercepted that call from Chaya, her life, and her appetite, had never been the same.
Or at least, she decided, her appetite for food had diminished. She thought about Exton, and how she woke up to find he had taken the time to tuck her into the covers before he left earlier. A small smile came to her lips at the memory; while Aerie had woken up from a disconcerting sleep after he left, the knowledge he had seen to her care before he was, she assumed, called away, was touching.
A loud bang on the table jerked her attention away from her thoughts. She glanced up to see Serena had slammed her cup onto the table.
“What are you smiling about?” Serena asked, glaring at her from across the table.
“Nothing,” Aerie muttered, blushing, embarrassed she had been caught daydreaming, and further embarrassed because she had been caught daydreaming about Exton.
“I guess you think this is amusing?” Serena asked. “That having our mother show up out of nowhere after all this time, in the enemy’s base no less, is funny?”
“Why would I think it’s funny?” Aerie asked. “I was just as surprised when I saw her yesterday.”
“You saw her yesterday?” Serena fumed. “You always were her favorite.”
“You know, girls, I’m right here,” Merra said. “And since I’m the adult here—”
“We’re all adults now,” Serena snapped.
“I’m still your mother,” Merra reminded her with a scowl.
“Well, technically, you haven’t been for the last six years,” Cal said, as he continued to wolf down his breakfast. Aerie could tell the shock of seeing his mother again was over, as his hunger returned.
“I have always been your mother,” Merra insisted. “Whether I’ve been around or not.”
“Phoebe is supposed to be our unit director now,” Serena said.
Aerie was surprised to see Merra’s lips tighten bitterly at her statement. “Let’s not talk about her,” she said. “I would rather discuss other things.”
“I guess you can ask Serena why she hasn’t gotten any offers to cohabitate,” Dorian said with a laugh.
“Hey! I’ve gotten plenty of offers,” Serena said back. “I just don’t accept any of them.”
“And they’re all secretly relieved,” Cal said. “They know you’d never make a good unit director.”
“At least I wasn’t breeding material, like Aerie.”
“Maybe it would make you a more pleasant person to deal with,” Dorian said.
“Says the person who can’t even get a girl to look at him, let alone cohabitate.”
Merra glanced over at Aerie as the others continued arguing with each other. “I always wondered why you wanted them to accept you so badly.”
Aerie was suddenly torn between laughing and crying, but she settled for remaining stoic.
When her mother left her as a little girl at the budding age of twelve, Aerie had felt lost. There was some part of her that was glad to have Merra back, especially since she did have a way of helping her see things in a new light. But there was so much more to settle still.
Aerie glanced back at Serena and her brothers, as they continued to give each other dirty looks and make even worse comments.
When she turned back to Merra, she felt an overwhelming amount of warmth in her gaze.
If Aerie had been younger, she might have grinned. Now that she was older, she just stood up and frowned down at her siblings. “Stop it!” she shouted, making the other people sitting at nearby tables glance over. She fought hard not to feel embarrassed, and not to let them see she was uncomfortable.
Aerie lowered her voice. “You guys have to stop it,” she said. “As much you might not like it, you are guests here. Exton can throw you out at any point.”
Serena leaned back. “Great. She’s bringing her boy-toy into this.”
Cal and Dorian laughed.
Aerie frowned. “He is in charge here,” she shot back. “And you’re only here in the first place because I insisted on it. Otherwise, you would still be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a busted ship.”
“Bravo, my girl,” Merra murmured, as Serena, Cal, and Dorian all glanced away uneasily.
“And you!” Aerie turned on her. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing, or what you think you’re doing, but calling us for breakfast like we’re all still children is wrong. You stepped out of our lives, and we have the right to choose to let you back in. Or not,” she added, lowering her voice some.
Unlike her siblings, Merra didn’t even flinch. She smiled. “That’s fair,” she said.
“Fine.” Aerie felt her face flush over. “Fine. Now, what did you want from us? Director Ward was going to give us work assignments today.”
“I’m okay with skipping that,” Cal muttered.
“You’re lazy,” Dorian said.
“Hey, you can’t blame me for not being excited,” Cal said as he leaned back in his chair. “I didn’t even want to come. I only came because the General told me to follow Brock.”
Aerie turned her full focus on him. “What do you mean, the General told you to follow Brock?”
“I don’t know. I figured the General was probably watching him since he was trying to get you to cohabitate with him,” Cal said, shrugging his shoulders
“That’s why we both came,” Dorian said. “Didn’t you know that?”
Serena huffed. “She wouldn’t. She’s always had us looking out for her, even when she had no idea of what was going on.”
Aerie felt her earlier embarrassment morph into anger. “I don’t need your protection,” she snapped.
“Well, you obviously needed someone to rescue you,” Serena said. “Brock wouldn’t be here otherwise, and neither would any of us.”
“Brock asked you to come!”
“And you know, a long time ago, I was told by our mother—that lady right there, in addition to our father—to watch out for you!” Serena frowned. “You’ve always been protected, and you’ve always been the one stupid enough to get into trouble anyway.”
Aerie thought about how she’d been accidentally captured by Exon’s shuttle the first time, and how she was arrested later on. “I can fight my own battles,” she insisted, pushing past her doubt. “I was trained the same as you were, and I tested higher in combat than anyone else in the family. It’s not my fault that I didn’t make it to military—”
“If you really need to place the blame for that,” Merra said, “you should blame Victor. He didn’t think you would be happy in the military, and he didn’t think you would do well there, either. That’s why he wanted you in Comms Sec.
”
“What?!” Aerie swiveled on her. “He did that on purpose?”
“Of course.” Merra sat back and sipped at her tea, smiling over the rim of her cup. “He really does love you, even if you don’t believe it.”
Aerie felt her mouth drop open, as Serena huffed. “It’s not his love we’re here to question. It’s yours.”
Merra nodded, still unfazed by the attacks and accusations leveraged against her. “As Aerie stated, you have the right to believe what you want.”
She’s been expecting this, Aerie realized.
Merra leaned forward. “Let me start by apologizing for deceiving you,” she said. “I know this is a shock, and I know this is not the best time for this, with the world at war and everything.”
“You think?” Serena scoffed.
“My reason, not defense, for such a move has a lot to do with the situation the world is in,” Merra said. “I have been working to undermine the URS for many years now.”
Aerie felt another rush of shock at the revelation; the identical look of shock on her twin brothers’ faces seemed to indicate they were experiencing a similar reaction.
Serena, on the other hand, stood up. “I knew it!”
“You always were the most intuitive,” Merra said with a glowing smile. “I wasn’t surprised to hear you were put in the medical field. You’ll make a good doctor one day.”
It was Serena’s turn to blush, but she held still. “I won’t be flattered into doing what you want me to.”
Aerie was about to say that their mother had only wanted to meet them for breakfast when Merra interrupted her.
“You don’t even know what it is that I want,” Merra said. “You might be interested. Fighting along with the defectors and the resistance movement would be good for you. And you, too, boys,” she said, turning her attention to the twins. “I have a few fighters that you could easily pilot.”
Cal and Dorian exchanged glances. Aerie knew they were both disconcerted with the idea, even if they both loved to fly.
“What about Brock?” she asked, trying to buy them time.
Merra shrugged. “I haven’t met with him yet,” she said, dismissing the concern. “I’d like to, frankly, since I have a few questions for him, especially where it concerns you, Aerie.”
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