Bonds of Brass (The Bloodright Trilogy #1) - Emily Skrutskie Page 0,104

melts into the Cygnet’s controls, into the cradle of the void, into perfect, natural flight. She escalates slowly, pushing boundaries, testing edges, experimenting with all the ways she can hurtle the ship through the dark. The Cygnet in her hands is eager and athletic, and soon she’s flying it the way she did in atmo, using its mechanical quirks to push it to its full potential.

When she scales the Cygnet’s vector down to a point, she lets out a long, enthralled breath. Our nose is pointed away from Delos, out into the black, and this far over on the night side, the darkness ahead shimmers with a thousand stars she’s never seen under the city lights of Isla. “So?” Wen asks.

“You’re not flying in space.”

“But I’m flying?”

I pretend to mull it over, just to work her up. She nudges me with her elbow—softly at first, then over and over until I give in, laughing and shoving her away. “I’ll have to talk to Iral, but I think we need a pilot with your kind of tricks.”

“I want a ’nottie,” Wen says plainly.

“Someday.”

“Promise?”

I don’t lie to her. I don’t think I can.

“Promise.”

CHAPTER 22

WHEN WE SPILL out of the Cygnet, smiling deliriously and unsteady on our feet, Gal is waiting in the hangar. A laugh drops back down my throat as I meet his sunken, tired-looking eyes. Wen glances between us, then tugs my helmet out of my hands and sets off across the hangar to the equipment lockers without a backward glance.

“Have a good flight?” Gal asks. His voice is flat, but I can’t tell if it’s from exhaustion or something more.

I stuff my hands in my pockets and approach him with a caution I used to reserve for stray dogs. After my breakdown in the cockpit, I know I need to talk to him. I also know this scares me more than any system’s hell.

I can’t lose him, but somehow it feels like I already have.

“Wasn’t all bad. Cygnet handles like a dream, but it’s no Viper.” I try to keep my tone light, but I know it’s a lost cause. Gal can read me better than anyone else, and I’m too nervous to keep my thoughts off my face.

“How’d Wen do?” he asks. His hand finds my elbow, pulling me ever so slightly closer toward him, and the touch should put me at ease.

Should, but doesn’t.

“She’s one hell of a pilot. Took to zero-g like a fish to water after a…slight hiccup.”

“She spun out?”

“She spun out so hard. We were basically humped—” I break off, noticing a slight twitch in his jaw. Something about it makes his whole face shut down. “Gal?”

He blinks. “Sorry, it’s just…Can I show you something?”

Before I can respond, his grip tightens on my elbow, pulling me behind him as he sets off across the hangar.

We move along the highlighted paths that wind between rows of Cygnets, dodging the pilots running back and forth to their exercises. A distant rumble shakes the hangar doors as a ship takes off somewhere beyond them.

The whole place is abuzz, and so am I. There’s an electricity crackling down my arm to the point where Gal’s fingers lock around it, charged by the thought of what I’m going to tell him. I resist the urge to pull free, instead leaning into his grip as he pulls me out a crew door on the far side of the hangar.

I almost ask for an explanation, but then I see the way his lips are pressed together, the way his dark eyes narrow. Gal’s not telling me anything until he’s ready, and he won’t be ready until we get where we’re going.

Under the blazing afternoon sun, we cross the tarmac, the soles of my boots softening in the summer heat. We duck into the shadow of a large hangar, and I nearly open my mouth again. We’ve tried to stick our heads in here during our exploration of the base, but our keycards wouldn’t get us through the door. Gal lets go of