by Wendy Knight
Galvan stared at him for several long seconds, unable to form any sort of sentence. When he finally did, the words seemed highly inadequate for the situation. “I’m so sorry.”
Flint nodded, jabbing at something on his tray.
Neither of them had heard Aquis come in. Galvan had no idea she’d been standing there, had no idea what she’d overheard, but she sat next to Flint, her eyes wide.
“That’s your baby too,” she said quietly. “She has no right to keep him—or her—from you.”
Flint put his head down on the table, but Galvan was unable to tear his eyes from Aquis. He hadn’t seen her up close in so long. She was as beautiful as ever, but the spark in her eyes was gone and she just looked... tired. She bit her lip, meeting his gaze, and it felt like all the holes in his soul healed with that one look.
How he was still so in love with her after all this time was a mystery, especially since he’d done everything in his power to forget her.
“We’ve got some time off coming up,” Flint mumbled. “Maybe I can find her.”
Aquis nodded, poking him in the side with her fork. “I don’t know why you couldn’t. Mara’s mom lives here in the city. She’s gotta be nearby.”
Flint sat up, rubbing the back of his neck as he slouched down in his chair. “I tried talking to her mom. She... wasn’t kind.”
“Rene is the worst.” Aquis nodded, although Galvan wasn’t sure she was agreeing with Flint or her own statement.
Galvan hadn’t had much dealing with Rene, although he’d seen her from a distance. She was outspoken, ambitious, always shooting for positions that she wasn’t even remotely qualified for, and yet—suspiciously—she was always getting them.
Aquis and Flint must have had to interact with her more than he had.
Flint stared down at Aquis’s fingers, now interlaced in front of her on the table, and then he met her eyes. If possible, his gaze became even more tortured.
“I have to go. I’ll see what I can find out. See you guys around.” He hesitated as he turned away, glancing back quickly. “Thanks. For listening.”
“Yeah.” Galvan swallowed hard, because if Flint left, it meant he’d be alone with Aquis, and he wasn’t sure he could handle that. “No problem.”
She sat back in her chair with a thunk, blowing a stray strand of hair away from her face. It fluttered rebelliously back to her cheekbone and Galvan itched to brush it away. He didn’t, because of the Pyra burn.
And also, because he was supposed to be forgetting she existed.
“I can’t believe he’s got a kid out there somewhere. With Mara, no less. I thought he hated her.”
Galvan swallowed hard, trying to come across as normal as possible. “I think he does. I think he just wanted love so badly he took it where he could get it—since his mom is pretty much MIA in his life, and we—” Galvan didn’t know how to finish that and Aquis‘s cheeks reddened as she looked away.
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“Aquis, you didn’t fill out your forms,” an Amazi said, poking his head around the corner. Galvan didn’t know him, but he’d seen him around. He wondered if he was who Aquis had replaced them with.
Sighing, she pushed to her feet. “Yeah. Right. I forgot. I’ll be right there.” She paused next to Galvan and he couldn’t help but stare up at her. The harsh florescent lights seemed to frame her like a halo, and she looked more angelic than ever.
“It was good to see you. I wish we would have had more time to catch up.”
Galvan fought. He really did, but he failed. “We have some time off coming up,” he said weakly, mirroring Flint’s earlier sentiment. “Want to get together?”
Aquis smiled, and when it reached her eyes, they lit in a way he hadn’t seen for ages. More holes in his soul healed despite his best efforts. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Maybe if Flint isn’t out baby-hunting, he can join us,” Galvan said, bracing himself for her disappointment, but she only nodded, still beaming.
“That would be nice.”
GALVAN waited at the entrance to the city, pacing anxiously. Wondering if Aquis had heard.
She had to have heard.
Everyone had heard.
Galvan himself couldn’t believe it.
She appeared through the shadows like an angel, her hair tumbling around her shoulders and down her back in bright waves. Her black rimmed glasses were pushed up on her head and she was scrubbing at her eyes.
Tears.
She was scrubbing tears from her cheeks.
She’d heard.
“Hey,” he said as soon as she was within hearing distance.
She smiled, but it wavered, her lips trembling. “Hey.”
“Flint’s news reached you, huh?”
Aquis pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes tight but still a tear escaped. “Yeah. He’s a Firestarter. How could we have missed it? He’s so powerful. I mean—even Blaise could barely keep up with him. And we knew what she was already.”
Flint had, in the past week, nearly blown up half the barracks, watched his mother get arrested, and then disappeared, having volunteered for every mission they had open.
Because he’d found out he was a Firestarter. Which could only be caused by a parent trying to kill an infant within the first two months of life. If the child survived, they took the parents’ powers within themselves, leaving the parent bereft.
And themselves the only one who could call fire from within instead of needing an outside source.
It was a powerful, powerful ability. But no one wanted to find out their mother had tried to kill them as a baby.
Galvan hadn’t heard what had caused Flint to blow up like he had though.
“He’s going to be okay, right?” Aquis whispered. “I’ve tried to call him. And email. And any other means necessary. He isn’t answering.”
“Last I checked, he’d disconnected his personal phone. He’s probably just using comms now.” Galvan sank onto a nearby bench, hoping she’d sit next to him.
Praying she wouldn’t.
She did, although she kept her distance. “So now what? How do we find him?”
Galvan watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was heart-wrenchingly beautiful, even with swollen, red eyes. He would have sold his soul to be able to reach out and brush the tears from her cheeks.
But he couldn’t do that, for a myriad of reasons, so he answered her instead. “Flint won’t be found if he doesn’t want to be found. He’ll come to us when he’s ready.”
Her lips trembled again, and she pressed her fingers against them. “What if he doesn’t come back, Galvan?”
Galvan leaned back against the bench, careful to keep distance between them. “Then we figure out who we are without him, I guess.”
She hesitated, closing her eyes. “Who are we without him?”
Galvan finally looked at her, really looked at her. She was devastated and he didn’t want to hurt her again. Not like he had before. He never wanted to see that kind of pain in her eyes and know he was the cause.
“We’re friends. Always.”
She nodded, as if the answer satisfied her even though it didn’t satisfy him. He didn’t want to be her friend. He wanted so much more.
Even if he could never touch her, he wanted more.
“So.” He forced a cheerfulness into his voice he didn’t feel and pushed himself to his feet. “Should we grab dinner? I want to hear about how you’ve conquered officer training this year.”
Aquis rose next to him, unsteady on her feet. She swayed, almost falling into him, and the smell of her lilac perfume and the heady scent of her silk-like hair nearly undid him.
“I’m actually—I’m not feeling up to dinner. I’m sorry.”
He nodded slowly. He didn’t really want to go socialize with strangers either. “Movie? At my place? I have popcorn.”
She smiled, even though it wavered just a bit. He tried to memorize her in those few moments, with the d
ark mist of the night swirling around her, carrying lilacs through the crisp air.
“A movie night would be nice.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AQUIS made sure to hold tight to Galvan after that. She texted him every few days and made sure to meet up for lunch at least once a week.
She’d lost Flint.
She couldn’t lose Galvan, too.
Maybe he would never admit he felt the same way about her that she felt about him, but that was okay. She didn’t need his love. She needed his sarcasm, his biting humor, and his calmness in the face of madness. She needed his familiarity in a strange world.
A dark force called Chaos had arisen. She had a suspicion that it had been gathering strength for years, and only now had the Elites and the Counsel become aware of it. She’d gone up against them a couple of times in missions, but they were highly disorganized and untrained.
What they lacked in discipline they made up for with power. Double elementals that were unlike anything she could have imagined. Luckily, they had a hard time controlling that power.
Or all would have been lost.
She had no idea how they were created or where they came from. She only knew they seemed to be attacking more and more frequently, and the Elites were having a hard time containing them.
Everyone in her unit had been called out on a mission to fight them, but she’d been left behind. She didn’t understand it. She had been the top of her class before officer graduation. Her superiors only had positive things to say about her strength and work ethic. The Elites even called her a legend because of their last few missions together.
And she’d been left behind.
Galvan had decided she needed ice cream to cheer her up.
She secretly watched him out of the corner of her eye while she attempted to keep said ice cream from dripping to her fingers.
“Any word from Flint?”
It had been months. She knew Flint was alive but had no idea how to contact him. He was quickly becoming one of the highest ranking officers in the Elites, but he was like a ghost. No phone, no emails, no contact with anyone outside his team. And seemingly had no desire to come back, even when Galvan and Aquis had both graduated, which meant he missed his own graduation. Becoming a Firestarter had messed him up.
A lot.
Unless there was more than that going on. Maybe the baby he’d lost.
Galvan shook his head. “I heard he decimated some Chaos forces though. So at least he’s still alive.”
Aquis nodded. She’d heard the same.
“At this rate, the only one able to hold a candle to Flint’s legendary status is—well, you.” Galvan gave her a lopsided smile. “You rode a river like your own personal mode of transportation, and took out an entire forest fire last week. That was impressive.”
She beamed, secretly pleased he’d heard.
“Desperate times. We weren’t making any headway, and I couldn’t run fast enough to keep up with the flames.”
Galvan nodded, turning his cone around as chocolate ice cream threatened to drip down his hand.
Her phone beeped and she frowned, raising it to her ear.
“Hello?”
It was her commanding officer, gruff and to the point. He hadn’t the time or the patience for hellos or pleasantries. “Officer Hillcrest, we have a mission for you. I need you in my office in two minutes.”
She glanced down at her watch. Two minutes, but she was clear on the other side of the city. Galvan took her cone, having overheard, and waved her on. She bounded to her feet, waving as she sprinted away.
“Yes sir.”
She raced through the city, dodging pedestrians and pods and bike carriers and buildings. She burst through the doors at thirty seconds after.
Officer Jenkins was not pleased. He glared at Aquis over the rim of his glasses. “You’re late.”
She struggled to breathe, cursing that last dog she’d nearly killed herself avoiding. “Sorry, sir.”
“Do you want this mission or not?”
“Yes, sir. I do.”
He nodded toward the chairs on the other side of his desk. “Sit down.”
She sat, trying discreetly to suck in breath while her knee bounced and the leather of the chair squeaked and crackled under her weight.
He steepled his fingers under his chin, staring at the papers before him. “As you know, this war with Chaos is getting out of control. We want to hit them where it hurts.”
Aquis nodded.
“But we have to know where that is exactly. We found a suspected lair. We want to send in a recon team to gather information and report back to us before we send in the majority of our forces. That is all. No engagement. Understood?”
Aquis stifled a disappointed sigh. No fighting? “Understood. Who is mission lead?”
“You are.”
Her eyes flew open, breathing forgotten. “Me?”
He nodded, handing her a manila folder. It was smooth and cool against her suddenly warm hands. “Here’s your team and everything you need to know. Be ready to go within the hour.”
“Within—within the hour?” Her first mission lead and she had to be ready to go within the hour?
“Is that a problem?”
She shook her head so emphatically her brain seemed to slosh against her skull. “No sir.”
“I don’t think I need to impress upon you the importance of this mission, Officer Hillcrest. You’re the youngest mission lead we’ve ever had, and we’re counting on you to not make us regret that decision.”
“No sir. I won’t, sir.” Her hands shook, and the papers within the folder rattled.
“Officer Galloway and his team will be in the area should you need to call for backup. You’re dismissed.” The man turned his back on her, already moving on to more important things, and Aquis rose uncertainly to her feet.
Flint would be in the area?
Maybe they’d be able to see him. Maybe he’d be there and she could talk to him. Find out if he was okay.
But all she could do was hope because she didn’t have time for anything more. She rushed back to her house in the Elite sector and grabbed her mission bag, dropping it on the table. She sat next to it, setting the folder in front of her. She should probably know who she was going in with before she went to the pod. Surprises on missions were never a good thing.
The Ceali on the team was Akash Crowborn. Aquis had known his wife before she’d been dismissed from Elite training. She’d been too hard to work with and lacked the power to make it worth it. Aquis had never met Akash but she’d heard he was strong. Scanning his file, she realized he’d been top of his class in Elite training, just like her. Except he was Ceali.
She thumbed through the others. Araceli Youngbow and Ciel Eran were Terras, and also ranked in the top ten of their class. Raine McCormic was another Amazi, and Aquis knew her well. They’d often fought for top marks in training. They’d gone on several missions together since graduation. It would be nice to have a friendly face.
She froze on the last page.
Galvan Heathrow.
Second in his class.
Second only to Flint.
Her Pyra on the mission.
Something coiled in her stomach, warm and hopeful. She hadn’t fought alongside Galvan since Vitolas Academy. She would get to battle at his side again.
Even if there would be no battle.
Recon only. They wanted information, not blood.
She grabbed her bag and tucked the folder inside the front pocket before hurrying out the door. The pod would leave in less than ten minutes, and she didn’t want to be the last one on board. She wondered if Galvan knew she was lead.
And if he was dreading working with her or secretly excited, as she was.
By the time she got to the hangar, he was already there, leaning against the pod with his arms crossed over his chest and his bag at his feet, his black and red uniform tight across his broad shoulders. So heart-stoppingly gorgeous
she couldn’t think straight for several seconds. No one else had shown up yet.
“Well well well. Just like old times.”
Except she couldn’t remember an old time that he’d made her mouth run dry. Swallowing hard, she nodded.
“You ready for this? First mission lead, right?” He raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to kill us all, are you?”
She snorted. “No. It’s recon. We won’t even see any fighting.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s their plan, but they obviously haven’t met you if they think you’re going to follow orders.” He smirked, so familiar it made her heart ache.
“I am the most obedient of all the new officers. Always well-behaved and—”
Galvan laughed. “Right.”
Raine showed up next, squeezing Aquis’s hand as she tucked her short white hair into her helmet.
“Congrats on your first mission lead. And youngest leader in history. Very impressive.”
“Thanks. It’s just recon—”
“Still dangerous. We’re going near a lair, right? You never know what we’ll find. That’s why they saved this mission for you.” Her blue eyes glittered as she tossed her bag in the pit and climbed into the pod.
The others trickled in one by one, but they were all on board and buckled in exactly on the hour. The pilot glanced back at Aquis, flipping switches. His eyes weren’t visible through his visor, but she recognized him. She’d flown with him before, and she trusted him.
That was a nice start to the mission.
“Ready, Hillcrest?”
“Ready.”
He lifted the pod into the air, and they shot out of the hangar and into the rapidly darkening sky. They would go in under cover of shadows, gather information on size and estimated forces within the lair, entrances and exits, and then they’d get out.
Easy.
And if it wasn’t, Flint was in the area.
So why were her hands shaking and dread coiled in her stomach like an angry snake?