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Aerie stared at the door in front of her. The uneasiness of her decision pressed into her again, juxtaposing against the curiosity inside of her.
It was no surprise to her, in the end, that curiosity won out. She knocked on the door, loudly enough not to feel like a coward, and waited.
Aerie had decided a long time ago that curiosity wasn’t just about being intelligent; it was about being brave, and she knew she would need to be brave if she wanted to be accepted into the New Hope Military Academy.
How long ago and far away that life seems now, she thought, amused and grateful for the twists and turns her life had taken in recent months.
A voice called out from the other side of the door. “Come in. It’s open.”
Aerie wasted no time in opening the door. She came into the room just in time to see the flicker of surprise on her father’s face. “General,” she said in greeting.
“Aerie.” The surprise mutated into amusement. “To what do I owe the honor?”
“Huh?” Aerie frowned. “I just wanted to come and ... ”
What did I want to do? Aerie wondered. She hadn’t actually considered that she would be able to see her father. She had taken up her mother’s suggestion without thinking it through.
The General stopped her. “Would you like something to drink?” he asked. “I’ve got plenty of tea here, although your husband was kind enough to make sure I had coffee.”
“He doesn’t really oversee that,” Aerie murmured.
“I don’t doubt on a regular basis that he has more important things to do. But I suspect I am the exception in this case.”
“Why?” Aerie narrowed her eyes. “Do you think you’re that special to him?”
“Not at all,” the General admitted. “But if I had a prisoner, one who was only a step down from an uninvited guest, I would make him happy so he wouldn’t bother me further.”
“Exton doesn’t think like that,” Aerie said.
“I’ve known him much longer than you have,” he reminded her. “And I taught him to think just like that, too. So, chances are I am the one who is correct between the two of us.”
“Maybe he just did it to prove he’s the better man,” Aerie offered.
“He already is. There’s no need to show it or prove it.”
At his admission, Aerie sighed. “I don’t understand you or Mom.”
“Is that why you came to see me?” Her father’s eyes focused on her intently, and Aerie felt the old, squeamish feeling she had when she was going to get into trouble.
“Mom said I should ask you about Exton’s father,” Aerie said, “and about what you told Exton.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“Don’t be surprised,” Aerie bit back. “If you taught him, you would know why he wouldn’t.”
“Your mother and I have always been open with each other,” the General said. “So this is actually surprising to me.”
“Well, we have never been open with each other, and it’s still surprising to me, too.” Aerie glanced down, suddenly wondering if Exton and her father found her able to handle the truth. Maybe it was more her fault than theirs, she realized.
She turned her gaze back to the General. “Mom told me that you were the one who contacted her about my arrest.”
“Do you want an apology for that?”
Aerie shook her head. “No. Ultimately, I was able to be rescued. And I’m glad for that.”
“Do you want me to apologize for the Reeducation Program?”
“No.” She shook her head again. “I would suffer anything to be with Exton,” she admitted. “After I remembered him, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.”
“It’s good to see you love him,” the General said quietly. “I would’ve stopped you from marrying him if I didn’t think he was good for you.”
“You didn’t stop me from getting married,” Aerie pointed out. “You came after we said our vows.”
He waved his hand, brushing the matter aside. “Do you think I didn’t know? Your mother let me know. That’s part of the reason I failed to kill Osgood, believe it or not.”
“What do you mean?” Aerie asked. “What happened?”
“She contacted me and my comm device went off,” General St. Cloud explained. “I have it set to alert me even if I have it turned off. I was caught sneaking into Osgood’s office in New Hope because it went off. As much as I love your mother, I should have left it behind. Rookie mistake, but then, love will unravel the greatest of champions.”
“So you really did try to kill Osgood?”
“Yes. I barely managed to escape. Apparently, even before my comm went off he had been expecting me. He said it was because of your arrest, but signing the form should have derailed his suspicion some.”
“How did he know?” Aerie asked.
“I have an idea. He said after you had escaped, he was right, and he would go and take care of you next,” he said.
Aerie felt a chill go down her spine. She didn’t know much about the dictator of the URS, but she knew enough about him to know he was a threat.
Dictator Osgood, sometimes fondly called “Daddy Dictator” by some of his more adoring circles, was an older man who seemed professional as much as he was congenial. Aerie had never given him much consideration before, other than to think about how he wasn’t nearly as handsome as people seemed to think he was. It was only when she was captured that she started to think of him as evil.
“When I fought with him, it was a very dramatic confrontation. I won’t share the details with you. It’s too graphic for your temperament.”
“Why do you think that I can’t handle it?” Aerie asked through gritted teeth. “I placed high in my combat classes.”
“This is different from combat,” he replied. “Which is good, really. Your mother’s death managed to scar you much more than your brothers and sister. You, out of all our children, have the most compassion.”
“Thanks, I think,” Aerie murmured.
“It is a high compliment,” General St. Cloud assured her.
There was a strange look on her face that made her even more uncomfortable. “If you think that means we’ll be able to get along, don’t count on it,” Aerie warned him. “I know Mom is here because she wants you back down at Petra with her, but I won’t betray Exton to help you.”
“I am content to stay here for now,” he said. “The food is decent, the room is small but comfortable, and I can still listen to the news. I am safe here.”
“Oh. Well. Good.”
The two of them lapped into silence. Aerie stayed by the door, barely entering the room. She glanced around it, taking it in; it reminded her a lot of her old room aboard the Perdition, only it was smaller.
General St. Cloud relaxed, sitting back in the chair at his desk.
Aerie was almost relieved when he broke the silence. “I had fun at your wedding,” he said. He gave her an uncharacteristic smile as he added, “The part I was there for, anyway.”
“Thank you,” Aerie replied stiffly.
“It was really nice to see Marcus again, too,” he said. “And to have everyone there, even though it was only for a few short hours ... well, it was something I never could have asked for or hoped for.”
Aerie bit down her lip to keep from replying. She knew the only reason that he didn’t have that already was because he’d chosen to forsake his family’s happiness for something else. It was his own fault, Aerie thought to herself.
“There is such hope when we get things we don’t deserve,” the General continued. “I didn’t think I would get any time with my family, and at such a happy occasion, too. Maybe one day I’ll get the other thing I don’t deserve—something I hope for, even though I can’t hope to ever have it.”
“What’s that?” Aerie asked, her voice hard. “Your freedom?”
“No. Your forgiveness,” he said.
Aerie did a double-take, before she balked. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.
“No. I’m not.” He met her gaze. “Can you forgive me for injecting you with Memory Serum, for lying to you about your injuries, for being overprotective, and sending you to the Reeducation Program, where Gerard tortured you?”
“I already told you, I don’t need an apology,” Aerie hissed.
“I’m not apologizing. But still I need your forgiveness,” her father said.
Something inside of her retched at the thought of forgiving the General for all his atrocities. She wasn’t just going to give him a free pass, even if he apologized, and even if in some strange, twisted, unlikely way he had done all those things for her own good.
“You’re a liar,” Aerie said quietly. “Exton was right not to trust you. I won’t trust you either. This is a power play of some kind. You can’t be serious, and even if you are, I can’t trust you.”
“I wasn’t lying when I told Exton the truth about his father,” the General said. “He’ll find that out soon enough.”
Aerie said nothing. She turned on her heel and opened the door. “I knew I shouldn’t have come,” she whispered.
“Aeris,” the General called.
Aerie nearly jumped at the sound of her name. “What?” she asked.
“I understand that you’re upset, but you and I still have things to discuss.”
“Like what?” Aerie retorted.
“I wanted to know about your escape,” he said.
“What is there for you to know?” Aerie swiveled around and faced him. “Brock came and broke me out of there, and then we escaped with Serena, and Cal mentioned you had told them to stick with Brock so we all ... ”
Aerie paused as she considered what the General had told her.
“I wanted to know why Comrade Rearden came to get you,” General St. Cloud said. “I informed Merra of your capture, but he went in to save you before Exton arrived.”
“You know Brock wanted to cohabitate with me,” Aerie said, her cheeks flushing over red. She never liked to think about that, especially now that she had married Exton.
“But why did he rescue you?”
Aerie watched her father’s face as he asked that question, and instantly grew irritated. It was clear he already knew the answer, and he wanted to see if she did, too.
“Because he thought he loved me,” Aerie insisted. “And I’m willing to bet you sent him ... to ... ”
Scenes from her rescue, as harsh and terrifying as they were, popped up inside her mind.
Brock had rescued her, even though the General informed Merra. He would have known Exton was coming. So why send Brock? And why have her brothers follow him?
“You didn’t send Brock to rescue me,” she breathed.
“No, I didn’t.” General St. Cloud sat up in his chair and sighed. “I should have guessed Osgood was behind it all sooner. I might have managed to kill him if I had anticipated that, too.”
“How would Osgood have—”
“Don’t be naïve, Aerie. Brock might have loved you, but he was trained to follow orders from the day he was born. And he did an exceedingly good job of it. Osgood has used some of his other subordinates to contact him about military training for years.”
Aerie remembered the rumors about Brock’s PAR assessment, saying he’d been in touch with the military for over a year. She considered the rumor an exaggeration at the time.
“Brock freed you on Osgood’s orders.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Aerie said.
“How else would Brock have known about Petra?” the General asked. “He was flying here from the capital, wasn’t he?”
Yes.
“I don’t know how he figured it out, but Osgood found Petra, even before the Craftcarrier attack.” General St. Cloud sighed. “I’ll have to find out.”
Aerie’s mind reeled at the possibility Brock had been secretly recruited by Osgood. He was currently working down in Petra, with all her friends and Exton’s family. Emery had told her not to worry about him when she left for the Perdition, since she would watch over him, and Serena and her brothers.
“I’ll watch over them and take care of Moona and the Memory Tree for you while you’re gone,” Emery said. She smiled. “Hopefully, you can check in on the Biovid for me.”
Aerie relaxed just the slightest. There was no proof the General was telling the truth; everything was circumstantial.
This isn’t the first time he’s done this to me, either.
Aerie remembered that moment on top of New Hope, standing on the surface of the forbidden world. She saw the Memory Tree had vanished, and the Memory Serum she now knew about was unable to hold back the memories of getting captured by Exton and his crew.
I will not let my father lie to me anymore, Aerie thought determinedly.
She opened her mouth to berate him, but then she stopped. She barely stopped herself from screaming, instead choosing to take a deep breath. There was no use in arguing over this. She needed proof, and once she had it, she would be able to condemn him.
“I have to go,” Aerie finally blurted out, before she hurried out and slammed the door behind her. She didn’t even say goodbye.
The old scars from her broken relationship with her father seared against her heart in new disappointment.
He would have to make me doubt.
She was just thinking about going to find Exton to tell him what the General had told her when, as if he’d known she was up to no good, she heard him call out to her.
“Aerie.”
The edge in Exton’s voice, even from down the hall, was sharp with his own anger. She froze, mid-step, and struggled not to stumble as she swiveled around.
It was an act of self-torment to look into his eyes. “Exton. What are you doing here?”
He crossed his arms. “I could ask you the same question.”
“I was just talking to my father,” Aerie said, her face flushing over in knowing guilt. She forced herself to straighten her posture. “I’m allowed to see him. He is my father.”
“I didn’t give you permission.”
At his words, she was barely able to contain her aggravation. “He’s my father, Exton. I don’t need permission from you,” Aerie argued.
“He’s a prisoner of war, whether he’s your father or not.”
“You can’t order me not to see him.”
“I can, too,” Exton replied, stepping toward her. He took her arm and started walking with her away from the General’s quarters. “I’m the captain of this ship. You don’t get special treatment just because you’re my wife.”
“Ha! I probably got better treatment as a guest,” Aerie bristled. She jerked her hand free of his and pulled back, stopping him.
“Being a guest is different from being an active member here,” Exton said, his voice still brittle, even as his gaze softened.
It was not enough to calm her rage. “Maybe I should go back to being a guest, then.”
“You can’t,” Exton pointed out. “There’s no escaping that when you joined us—and when you became part of my family—you took on responsibilities. Part of that is a commitment not to endanger our crew.”
“Talking to the General was not putting the crew in danger,” Aerie snapped. She brightened. “If anything, I’m one of the only people who can really connect with him, and we can use that to gain access to more information.”
“You don’t know what kind of information we need. And I’m guessing that he didn’t decide to tell you about anything Merra was planning or what sort of plan Osgood has to try to destroy us.” Exton frowned. “I’d bet anything that you just went in there to satisfy your own curiosity, and little else.”
Aerie put her hands on her hips. “I wouldn’t have to if you would just tell me,” she shot back.
She held her breath as he came close to her, almost trapping her. His face, etched in exhaustion and stress, was inches away. Just as she had before, she met his gaze, willing herself not to lose her courage or her common sense as she stood against him.
“I told you I would tell you later,” Exton muttered, softly. “You waited for me all this time, and then the instant you don’t get what you ask for, right when you want it, you go running off? There was no need, Aerie.”
Aerie was just about to tell him about the General’s suspicions about Brock when Exton drew back from her.
“I have rounds to make,” he said. “I can’t be here all day. I was going to ask you to join me, but I can see that would likely be a bad idea.”
“Why?” Aerie scowled, insulted at his disregard. “Afraid that your crew will see that we’re fighting?”
“It is bad for morale,” he said. His voice was flat, and Aerie knew that if he hadn’t been so upset with her, he would’ve laughed at her remark.
Aerie turned away from him with a huff. “Well, we wouldn’t want that,” she said. “I’ll leave you to your work then.”
As she started walking away, he called out, “You’re still not allowed to go and see General St. Cloud, Aerie.”
“What? Why?” Aerie glared over her shoulder. “I wasn’t going to go see him again anytime soon, but that’s still taking it too far, Exton.”
“You’re the one who took it too far,” he replied, “by going in the first place.”
“I told you, you can’t just order me to stay away from my father. That’s not how being married works, and even I know that. I can’t imagine Tyler forcing Emery to stay away from her family.”
“First of all, Tyler and Emery are also not allowed to see St. Cloud without my permission, so there’s no need to pretend that you’re being treated differently because of that. You are my wife, yes, but you’re also under my command as captain.”
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to go down, is it?” Aerie sniffed. “Good to know you can always pull the ‘Captain’ card out while we’re stuck here.”
“It’s not like—”
“What? That you don’t trust me?” Aerie felt a rush of surprise at her own words.
“Come on, Aerie—”
“No, that’s it, isn’t it?” Aerie’s eyes briefly sparkled with angry tears, before she blinked them away. “I should’ve known you were lying to me about that.”
“Aerie, that’s—”
“No. We’re done talking, Captain.”
Before Exton could say anything else, Aerie stomped off, determined to get away from him.