Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,15

on the other side of the dock. His strong brown hands were braced on either side of his narrow hips and he watched Caledonia step off the lift with a private smile. Recently, Caledonia had come to know how often Oran’s expressions looked like one thing but meant something else. He laughed when he was worried, a frown that lit his eyes meant he was amused. But this slight narrowing of his warm brown eyes, the tightening of his lips, the tuck of his chin; these were things he only did when he wanted to kiss her.

The second Caledonia stepped off the lift, the five of them swept around her like a cloak. The entire group of twelve moved as one, a swarm of bees skimming through an orchard. As they traveled down a walled channel toward the stronghold, they gathered guards who moved ahead and behind until Caledonia was thoroughly and safely locked away in the center of the mass.

“You can’t keep bringing people into my city like this, Captain.” Hesperus dove right in.

Caledonia almost laughed.

“Our resources are strained as is. We don’t have the capacity to keep feeding these Bullets. Especially if all they’re going to do is sit there and sweat and eat my food!”

“They chose to be here,” Caledonia reminded him, patient but firm. “And it’s better than the alternative.”

“We can stretch our stores, Hesperus.” Kae spoke with the tone of someone tired of repeating themselves.

“But we can’t stretch our beds and I’m running out of room. I’m certainly running out of goodwill.” Hesperus spoke loudly now.

“There wasn’t much of that to begin with.” It wasn’t in Ares’s nature to seek out conflict, but when it came to what they did with defecting Bullets, he found all his sharp edges.

Hesperus’s expression darkened. Without breaking his stride, he said, “Show me their worth and maybe I’ll find a little to spare.”

“Can we build?” Amina spoke up from the rear. “There’s plenty of wood to be had in the forest. And there are plenty of hands to do the work.”

“There’s room to expand the current barracks,” Kae supplied, her eyes darting once to Hesperus. “And we can spare the supplies.”

“The Blades volunteer to provide labor,” Sledge added, his long brown braid swaying behind him.

“First they come for my city, now they come for my forest,” Hesperus muttered. “Yes, fine. If there’s space in the Orange Quarter to expand the barracks, then you have my blessings, but that sector stays firmly secured or I’ll burn it to the ground myself.”

“Make it fast,” Caledonia ordered. “Kae, you and Sledge coordinate crews and materials. Let’s get it done before housing becomes a problem.”

That was how problems went these days. While she was away, command decisions fell to Oran, but the second Caledonia returned she was bombarded with every issue that hadn’t been resolved in her absence. In this case, the problem of the former Bullets she’d sent back a mere day ahead of her own return. Relations between Oran and Hesperus remainded tense, but once a decision had been made, they moved on.

Up ahead, the stronghold of Cloudbreak ribboned out of the mountainside in layered concentric circles. From inside Cloudbreak, it was a fortress sitting high above the city. But from outside, the fortress melted into the stony face of the mountain. The only exception was the topmost tier, where Hesperus’s observatory capped the structure with a doomed roof.

“Captain,” Ennick’s voice darted in. “We’ve had three more ships come to join. Small vessels, I’m afraid, but each with willing crews. Eighteen in all.”

Every time Ennick brought a report, Caledonia’s heart leapt before she could stop it. Rogue ships were almost always small vessels. Too small to make much of a difference in a battle, but they were incredibly useful for noncombat missions—scouting, foraging, or quick transport. They were the ancillary fleet, filling the gaps that the primary fleet couldn’t.

“That’s good news, Ennick,” Caledonia said. “Ares?”

“Other than needing more space, detox is going well. The new recruits are more resistant than usual, but nothing we can’t handle.”

“There’s always the other option.” Hesperus tossed the comment over his shoulder.

Before Ares could respond, Caledonia asked, “What do you mean, more resistant?”

Ares took a second to consider before answering. “Seems like most of them are already in the early stages of detox, so they’re coming down faster and with fewer casualties, but fighting us a little harder.”

Caledonia stopped in her tracks. The rest of the group stopped around her, some more gracefully than others. She