Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,96
thoughts from her head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered now was what happened next. Whoever she’d been in the past, she was different now. She was capable of terrible things, even of looking at her own brother and seeing a Bullet. An enemy.
Stuffing the note into a pocket, Caledonia turned her back on Donnally’s room and rushed from the Ready Racks. Donnally was gone. He’d chosen Lir a second time. And she had promised to let him.
CHAPTER FORTY
Nothing distracted from an aching heart like preparing for battle. Caledonia let the work consume every minute of the day and as much of the night as she could bear before collapsing in her bed. The sounds of ship repair in the harbor provided a continuous melody, weaving night into day into night as work teams rotated in overlapping shifts. The entire town stirred and buzzed with an intense kind of focus, never resting.
Oran made himself a shadow at Caledonia’s side, but she saw the rest of her command crew in passing. Sledge and Pine on their way to or from the perimeter where they continued their efforts to reconstruct one of the two destroyed towers; Hime and Ares as they did all they could to ease the suffering of the Bullets coming through their sweats; Tin and the Mary sisters locating every available resource the Holster had to offer and figuring out how to use it; and Pisces only when she came to report on the status of their fleet.
Two days into their work, Pisces rushed to Caledonia’s side, her eyes bright and a hint of pink darkening her sunny brown cheeks. “Cala,” she said, reaching for her hand and pulling her to a stop. Oran stopped, too, stepping back to give them privacy.
The day was warm, and the sky overhead whirled with gulls and puffy white clouds. All around the harbor was a flurry of sound and action, but it all paled in comparison to how good it felt to hear her sister call her Cala.
“What is it?” she asked.
A smile spread on Pisces’s face before she’d even said the word: “Babies.”
Caledonia shook her head, laughing. “What do you mean?”
“Two. There were two babies born today.” She raised a hand and pointed up the hill, toward the part of town where they’d secured all the children and women bearing them. “The first two born in this Holster. Your Holster.”
Babies. There were babies here. That wasn’t a surprise. She’d known there would be, but as Pisces clasped her hands to her chest and continued to smile that beautiful smile, Caledonia understood exactly why this brought her sister so much joy.
If they succeeded in what came next, those children would never know the devastating pull of Silt. These were the first children of the world they were trying so hard to change.
Caledonia laughed. “That is good news,” she said. “Very good news.”
“It’s good to feel happy about something that isn’t a weapon or a fleet or a battle.” She shrugged and her smile faded so quickly it was like a cloud moved across the sun. “I’m not mad, Cala,” she said. “I know why you used the star blossom bombs when you did. You saved the battle. You saved us. I just wish you’d let me help you.”
“I didn’t want you to have to make that call,” Caledonia said.
“Cala.” Pisces dipped her chin in exasperation. “I have been by your side from the beginning. My job is to stay by your side, even when our choices get terrible. That’s my job. Yours is to let me do it so that you can focus on everything else.”
She was right. Their choices had been difficult before. Even terrible. But not like this.
“What about when our choices are more than terrible? What about when our choices demand that we become like them in order to win? Because that’s what is happening.” Caledonia dropped her voice, letting the confession spill from her like a breaking storm. “I’m afraid I can’t win this war without becoming like them. Like him. And if that’s what it takes, then I’ll do it, but I won’t take you with me.”
Pisces stared at her, her lips parted in horrified surprise, her brow creased with sorrow. “Oh, hell, Cala. You’re protecting me?” she whispered, eyes darting to a spot over Caledonia’s shoulder. “Is that why you take Oran? You think he’s already like Lir?”
But before either of them could speak again, an alarm rose over the town.