High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,8
aurora, the crazy zigzags like pure, colorful energy. The heartbeat of the sky.
It never got old.
She'd been born on the Verdant String planet of Themis, had spent all her life there until the military had sent her to Faldine to fight, and even the deep green forests of home had nothing on the Faldine aurora.
Whatever had gotten inside her in that terrible accident during the war, whatever was responsible for what she thought of as her upgrade, seemed to respond to the aurora as well, to fizz a little in her blood whenever they appeared. It was both disturbing and exhilarating, a moment when whatever it was made itself known, rather than crouching silently inside her.
She thought of it as tiny organisms in her blood, but couldn't quite remember why she thought that. She didn't remember much of what happened.
The crash, her staggering out of the Dynastra and then collapsing.
She just, at the very edge of her memory, thought she curled her fingers around a short string of metallic beads as she lay on the ground beside her burning runner. Half the time she discounted that out of hand. It just seemed too absurd.
What would beads be doing at her crash site?
She worried--worried a lot--that whatever it was, it wasn't as obvious to her anymore, not because it was fading away, but because she was more integrated with it. That it had become an indistinguishable part of her.
“Where did you go?”
Iver's question forced her to turn to face him.
He had lain back on the grass, but he wasn't looking up as the aurora washed his face in blues and reds, he was looking at her.
“You don't want to know.”
“That's the kicker. I do want to know. I want to know everything about you.” He made it sound as if he wasn't happy about it, either.
She gave a chuckle at his aggrieved tone. “I really like you too much.” She went still as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She hadn't meant to say anything more, let alone tell him the truth.
“And that's a problem because . . .?”
She sighed. “It's complicated.”
He gave a snort. “That again? What isn't?”
He went back to looking at the sky and she wriggled down onto her back and pillowed her head with her hands, looking up at the light show.
“You stopped taking women to fancy planetary and city events.” She didn't know why she said it.
“Because you were the only woman I wanted to take.”
She knew that was what he was saying to her when three weeks into working for him he'd stopped taking anyone to the many dinners and social events he attended as the VSC's head of planet for Faldine.
She was honest enough to know she'd appreciated it. And yet, she'd been a coward and hadn't faced what it meant.
“I . . . I was glad.”
He turned to her and grinned. “Now this is progress.”
She quirked her lips. “Lancaster noticed what you were doing, and he didn't like it.”
“Fuck Lancaster.” Iver's tone didn't change, but she read the fury at Lancaster's betrayal in his eyes. “He convinced me you'd walk if I was too obvious, which is the only reason I never pushed.” He gave a sudden bark of laughter. “Bet he regrets convincing me to add the guns to the Sig.”
Hana grinned. “Yes, that was a poor decision on his part. Probably he never thought he'd take you in the Sig. Maybe he never planned to kill you at all, he hoped you just wouldn't know what he was doing.”
Iver gave a slow nod. “He definitely has more access to information where he is, with me in charge and trusting him, than he would with someone new who would want their own people.”
“He must have been desperate to organize the hit on you, then.” She was uneasy with the resources Lancaster had been able to harness and his escalation to violence.
She suddenly yawned and with a last look at the flickering lights overhead, she forced herself to her feet. They had a day's walk ahead of them tomorrow. “I've got a spare toothbrush,” she said, bending over her pack and pulling out the small bag with her toiletries. When she turned, Iver was standing right beside her, crowding into her space.
She handed the toothbrush to him, refusing to back down, and he feathered his fingers over her forehead, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“What would you have done if I hadn't followed Lancaster's advice, if I'd pushed a little