Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,191

Laterre’s greatest military strategist.

For eighteen years, Marcellus had watched his mind work. He knew the general better than anyone.

What if the only way to defeat him was to be the one thing Marcellus swore he would never be?

Just like him.

“I … ,” Marcellus began haltingly, but he didn’t quite know how to finish. His mind was too tangled. His thoughts still a jumbled blur. He looked back at Alouette and drew in a long, slow breath.

Somewhere on the ground, Gabriel stirred. “Pi … ,” he whimpered again.

Cerise turned to him. “Shhh … It’s okay.”

He twisted under his blankets. “Pi …” Once again, his voice seemed to give out on him.

Alouette ran back to Gabriel and pressed a hand across his forehead. “Are you okay? What are you trying to tell us?”

His eyelids heaved open and he looked straight at Cerise, holding her gaze for an impressively long time. He winced as he attempted to speak again. “My … my pocket.”

Cerise pushed back the blanket and slipped her hand into Gabriel’s coat pocket. “What is this?” she said as she pulled out a slim, curved object with titan plating that glittered in the Terrain Perdu’s frozen light.

Marcellus stared, his gaze fixed on the small floral crest carved into the side. “Is that … ?”

“It’s Lady Alexander’s vapor pipe!” Cerise cried.

“Pi … ,” Gabriel said again. “Pi … pe.”

Cerise turned the titan device over in her cold fingers and gaped at it. “You stole this? From Lady Alexander? How did you do— When did you do that?”

She looked at Gabriel, but he only grinned lazily in return.

“We can use the heating element to light the fire,” Alouette said. Cerise handed over the pipe, and Alouette pressed her fingertips against the seam to pop it open and began fiddling with the mechanism inside. She held the open pipe next to the kindling that Marcellus had layered beneath the twigs and branches. The wood caught fire. And a blast of light and warmth—beautiful, glowing warmth—sprang up, instantly shattering any lingering tension remaining in the air. Hurriedly, Marcellus fed the fire with more kindling, and Cerise protected the newborn flames from the ferocious winds with her coat.

Soon the small fire was roaring, its flames licking and twirling around one another.

Cerise looked back to Gabriel, who was smirking, despite his obvious pain. Her face lit up. Her dark eyes mirrored the flames. She moved closer to him and cradled his cheeks in her hands. “You, Gabriel, are a criminal mastermind.”

Gabriel’s smile widened and he tried, again, to speak. “Sparkles …”

But Cerise stopped him with a stern look. “No. Don’t talk. Just shut up.” Then, she carefully lowered herself down beside him and pulled his hand into hers.

Marcellus turned toward Alouette. She was smiling and staring into the orange blaze, her body seeming to melt from the beautiful heat and the even more beautiful relief.

But as Marcellus followed her gaze toward the roaring fire, he could not feel what she so obviously felt. He could not smile. Nor melt with relief. He felt only a looming dread of what was to come and what he would have to do.

Because he knew that fire—just like the one that had been burning inside of him, spurring him on, sending him across the System Divine and back—was a temporary solution. A fickle flame to ward off the inevitable and keep his fears at bay.

And all flames eventually have to burn out.

- CHAPTER 56 - CHATINE

“NOW PULL BACK ON THE contrôleur and ease into the turn. Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Not too steep. We’re not dodging combatteur fire here. Now gently roll out of the turn and increase airspeed.”

Gripping the contrôleur with both hands, Chatine carefully maneuvered the small ship, keeping her gaze on the beautiful white, untamed wilderness that spread out before her.

“Now trim the nose up just a bit,” Etienne commanded.

Chatine reached for the dial to her left and rolled it forward. The ship started to dive.

“Nope!” Etienne shouted, gripping the edges of the jump seat. “Wrong way!”

Panicked, Chatine lunged for the dial and shoved it as far down as it would go. The ship immediately lurched into a sharp incline, until they were practically vertical and Chatine was staring up at Laterre’s thick layer of gray clouds.

“Too much! Too much! Oh Sols, this was a mistake.”

With her body thrust back in her seat, it was difficult for Chatine to reach the controls. She fought against the gravity pulling down on her arm until her shaky hand