Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,91

lips and the way she pushed a breath out through her nose. Pisces wasn’t furious with her. This was a simmering kind of distress.

“No,” Pisces answered. “Do you want him in the barracks with us?”

“I do. Thank you.” Caledonia wanted to press Pisces to clear the air between them, but she’d acknowledged the tension. She had to let Pisces make the next move. “Third floor. Near me.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Though it wasn’t said with cruelty, Caledonia winced at the title as Pisces turned and left her alone in the alley. Caledonia leaned her back against the wall and tipped her head up to study the narrow strip of sky above. Dusk colored wispy clouds in shades of the bruises along Caledonia’s body and the first pinprick lights of stars were starting to push through the gloaming. Solitary moments like this were fleeting, and her thoughts were starting to tangle around each other. Pisces wasn’t happy with her, and Caledonia didn’t have to reach very far to find the reason for it. But she also didn’t know what to do about it. She’d made the decision, used the star blossom bombs in a crucial moment that turned the tide of battle. She couldn’t undo it.

Pisces was right to be horrified, and with that alone, Caledonia agreed.

She let the cold stone soothe her aching back and then she pulled her knotted emotions back inside and pushed off the wall.

The route from the wharf to the prison was the both new and familiar and she traveled as swiftly as her body allowed. Inside the prison, the air was cool and stale, and the sounds of hundreds of people in the earliest stages of their withdrawal drifted through the building as though the walls themselves groaned. Gloriana admitted Caledonia through multiple layers of locked doors with a weary smile. She’d taken a gunshot to the shoulder during their assault on the towers and her left arm was tightly bound to her chest.

“Checking up on us?” Gloriana asked as two of her staff entered the room with arms full of folded sheets. Their eyes widened at the sight of Caledonia, but at her nod of acknowledgment, they returned to their work.

“I’m here for my bro—I’m here for Donnally,” Caledonia answered. “I’m taking him with me.”

“Right.” Nodding, Gloriana pulled a key from one of many pockets lining her vest. “This way.”

Gloriana led her deeper into the prison, where they passed through three more locked doors before entering a long room lined with cells on either side. Donnally stood inside one with arms locked across his chest. His chin tipped downward so his curls cast shadows over his dark eyes.

“Brother.” She was prepared this time for the quiet tightening of his mouth at the term. Apart from that, he remained still.

Gloriana took a small step back, giving them as much privacy as she could as the shouts of Bullets echoed down the hall.

“Caledonia.” His voice was tired.

“Would you like to come with me?” she asked.

“Do I really have a choice?” he fired back. “What I would like to do is return to Lir. If you’re asking.”

“Lir is in the wind.” She said it before she could stop herself.

A soft laugh fell from Donnally’s lips. When he turned his face to hers, the skin around his eyes tightened as though something had suddenly pained him. He said, “You know better than that. Lir is never in the wind. He has a plan, you just haven’t seen it yet.”

Caledonia swallowed. She might be able to predict Lir’s motives, but Donnally knew them.

“Let him out,” she said.

It only took a second for Gloriana to unlock the door, but it seemed to take an eternity for Donnally to walk through.

“I’m not a prisoner?” he asked.

He should be. She should hold him until this was all over. But of all the things Caledonia was capable of, holding her own brother captive wasn’t one of them.

“Come with me,” she said.

She led him from the prison and out into the night streets of the Holster. The city glowed softly in lines of orange Caledonia hadn’t noticed through her pain last night. Rows of sun pips were placed both in the ground and along the building walls above eye level, ensuring that you could always find your way—or be found.

They walked together in silence, and Caledonia noticed that Donnally seemed at ease here. He wasn’t hyperalert or scouring his surroundings for possible escape. He walked with the effortless confidence of someone who knew where he was. Of