The Spire, Floor 01: GIC Living Qtrs.
“I never imagined you were capable of this, Aurelia.” The GIC leaned against the desk in his office on the Spire’s first floor. Sunlight filtered through the wall of windows at his back, revealing rolling hills of grassland and wildflowers. His mouth formed a firm line as he stared at her. “A CO ended up in critical condition the day you broke that criminal out of Attica. Doctors reported it as a heart attack. Somehow I doubt it now. This behavior, I just… I can’t believe it of you. Is what Tyson told me true?”
The sound of her betrayer’s name widened the gaping wound in her chest. She’d woken up that morning, groggy and with a pounding headache, in an unfamiliar room. It only took minutes to realize Ty had kidnapped her, stolen a shuttle, and brought her to Aurora’s moon, where she was now waking up—three days later. No doubt a tech doctor had needed to stabalize her cyborg systems after Ty’s taser, Indie’s taser and beating, and Marin’s technological attack.
Then she’d received a ping—an order, really—from the GIC. Ty would arrive in thirty minutes to collect her. Failed efforts to send a message to Malachi or Katara told her the GIC had limited her connection to the grid to only receive messages from him like she was a grounded schoolgirl.
Now she sat in a hard-backed chair, being berated by the man she’d looked up to as father…
Once.
“Aurelia,” the GIC snapped, using his command voice. “Attention!”
She shot to her feet, her body going rigid, obeying the word drilled into her at basic. “Sir.”
“Is what Ty told me true? Did you break a volatile hacker out of Attica?”
Her shoulders threatened to curl inward. So Ty really hadn’t spared any details to protect her. She could lie, but what was the point? Lieutenant Aki would place her at the scene.
“I did.”
The GIC opened his mouth to speak but stopped as his eyes unfocused to read an incoming ping. When he looked back at her, he shook his head. “I don’t have time for your insubordination.” Though his tone was gruff, a flicker of pain, of fear even, shone in his eyes before he turned away. “We’ll keep with our annual tradition. You will attend the military ball this evening to show that nothing is amiss.”
She shook her head. “Amiss? The public shouldn’t be concerned. Captain Ishida gave me leave.”
“You had leave, yes.” He sighed and turned to her. “But you left after a public mission that ended poorly. Before the investigation was complete. You would’ve been cleared for duty before this clusterf—” He cleared his throat, tugged on the hem of his fitted jacket. “You and Ty always accompany me to the Obon Festival on Rokuton. This year, you were absent. The press jumped at having something to report other than typical militia violence. Trouble is awakening across the galaxy, Aurelia. I need to show that I’m a strong leader and that I can keep my house in order.”
“I was injured,” she said, unable to bear the disappointment in his voice. “I meant to tell you I couldn’t make the Festival, but I didn’t have access to the grid.”
“It’s too late for excuses. Be at the ball. Your dress from last year has been delivered to your room.”
Auri’s hands clenched into fists. She wanted to argue with him, force him to look at her. Really look at her. How would he react if she spat the question, “Why are you covering up Bleeder attacks?”
The words hovered at the tip of her tongue, ready to shoot from her mouth. To soar through the air as a barrage of laser artillery.
She swallowed them back, relaxed her hands. Hurling that question at the GIC wouldn’t lead to anything. There were other options. Auri still had choices.
So she bowed, mumbling, “Yes, sir. I’ll be there.” Then she fled the office, hurrying past the secretary outside and through the final door. Her fingers trembled as she slid it shut. She turned around, startled to find Ty standing there, waiting.
His face brought her back to seeing him for the first time this morning after realizing his betrayal.
Shortly after receiving the GIC’s summons, someone had knocked on her door. She stayed seated on her freshly made bed.
The door opened and Ty stepped inside, smiling so bright it lit up the room. It had been the happiest she’d ever seen him. He wore a fresh DISC agent uniform, his shoulders erect. He strode in with a new level of confidence.
Questions pounded through her head, her bleary mind refusing to accept that Ty had deceived her.
“Hey,” he said, stopping a meter away. “The GIC wants to see you.” Ty acted as if nothing had changed between them, as if Auri’s heart wasn’t broken into irreparable shards.
Auri’s lips burned with his phantom kisses as she glared at him. “What did you do, Ty?” she asked, voice hoarse with suppressed emotion.
“I brought you back. Birdie too, in case you were worried. I had to taser her—she was inconsolable after what happened. The mutt actually bit me. She’s in a kennel.”
Good dog, Auri thought even while her insides felt hollow. It was as if someone had reached in and scooped out her bones. “You kissed me, knocked me unconscious, and kidnapped me. How did you even manage to hide that taser from Castor?”
“I did what I had to. As for Castor, he wasn’t as thorough as he should have been. Too distracted by that other woman.” His gaze found her lips before returning to her eyes. His voice softened ever so slightly. “I enjoyed our kiss.”
She had, too, until the overwhelming fear of feeling her heart stop and her body go limp around her ruined it. Auri never wanted to kiss Ty again.
Yet she also wanted to drag him to her, to get lost in the feeling of having someone close.
She looked down at her traditional wooden geta and socks. “What did you get in exchange for bringing me here?”
“The GIC invited me to the military ball as his guest of honor.”
Her head jerked up. Ty beamed. The GIC’s guest would be considered an accomplished individual, usually promoted months after the ball, regardless of current rank.
The GIC hadn’t invited anyone in years.
“Come on.” He sat beside her. Auri scooted away, blinking fast to keep her emotions in check. “Don’t be mad. You belong here.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
That made him laugh. “So you think you belong with criminals DISC agents will hunt down after tonight’s ball?”
Cold shot through her. “You really told the GIC about them?”
“Of course I did. They’re criminals, Aur. Not so long ago you wouldn’t have hesitated to report them.”
“You don’t understand what’s going on, the secrets the GIC’s keeping.”
His brows rose. “What secrets?”
Auri faltered. He’d betrayed her, tricked her into thinking he cared for her. But maybe, just maybe, he would believe this. She needed to try.
“There are cannibals, called Bleeders, roaming the galaxy. They’re these humanoid monsters. Incredibly strong and violent. They’ve mostly been attacking districts on the rim, a few on Kaido, but the Fed…” She trailed off at the grin growing on Ty’s face. She clenched her hands into fists. “I’m serious! I was almost killed by them. They were even tailing the Kestrel. My first case with Tanaka Hiroki—”
“Now you just sound stupid. Enough, Aur.” He stood and offered a hand. “You’re already late for your meeting with the GIC.”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
The worst part of all? He was right. She’d gone with him after he threatened to call in the guards.
And now he stood in front of her, yet again.
“Am I going to be escorted everywhere now?” she asked, rubbing at her forehead.
“Trust me, I’d much rather be on assignment than following you around. Orders are orders though. Let’s get back to your room.” He led her along a different route than before. They took a sharp right turn and approached a row of kennels built into a wall. Each cage reached up to Auri’s hip and was wide and spacious, located in a low traffic section of the Spire. Her heartbeat quickened.
The first two sat empty, but in the last kennel stood Birdie, her tail wagging at the sight of Auri. The dog’s tongue flopped out the side of her mouth as she panted. Birdie hated being locked in crates, probably because Auri rarely put her in one. At the sight of Ty, Birdie’s tail stilled. A low growl rumbled in her chest. To Auri’s satisfaction, Ty shifted back a step.
Auri fell to her knees in front of Birdie’s cage, poking her fingers through the bars. “Hey, Bird,” she cooed. “I missed you.”
Birdie whined, licking at Auri’s fingers. She pawed at the cage door.
Auri looked up at Ty. “Can I…?”
He shook his head. “It’s important for you to obey the rules. No dogs in your room.” Birdie bared her teeth at the sound of Ty’s voice. She snapped at him, making her opinion of him known. The way Ty flinched made Auri preen with satisfaction. If they got out of this, she would give Birdie the biggest bone she could find.
“It’s important for me to obey the rules?” Auri stood. “Why? Because you care if I get dishonorably discharged?”
His gaze dropped to his boots. “Honestly, Aur? I’m having a hard time deciding how I feel about you. I’ve hated you for so long, but after that kiss, I don’t know.”
“You… you hated me?” A chasm yawned out at her feet. “Why?”
He glanced over his shoulder, as if checking to ensure they were alone. When he looked back at her, he didn’t meet her eyes. “Did you know, just before the GIC brought you home, that my mom died?”
“I… No. I didn’t.” She’d heard Ty’s mother passed away in an accident when he was young, but that her death coincided so closely to Auri’s arrival? No one ever mentioned it.
“Not only that, but after the shuttle accident, when she lay dying in the hospital bed, my father—the GIC—refused to come home. Do you want to know why?”
She didn’t want to know. Yet she asked, “Why?”
“Because he was with you.” He spat the final word and for the first time, Auri got a glimpse at the hatred festering within. The tarry, seething creature peered at her behind Ty’s eyes. “You were undergoing surgeries of your own. He didn’t know if you’d survive. So I said goodbye to my mom, alone. I went to her funeral, alone. You know what’s even better?”
She remained silent until he continued.
“When the GIC brought you home, all his attention turned to you. He ignored me, even though my mom, his wife, had just died.” He pointed an accusing finger at her, so close it almost stabbed into her chest, just above her heart. “You became more important, and I hated you for it. I tried to hurt you in whatever way I could, but I eventually learned that being friends with you gave me the most leverage.”
Suppressed memories of Ty terrorizing her the first year she lived with the GIC resurfaced. The bugs she’d find in her room, the time he’d cut her hair with scissors, put tacks in her shoes at school. She’d tucked all of those hurts away after the day he walked up to her at recess when she’d been sitting alone and said, “You can play with me.”
“I didn’t know,” she said. “Ty, I’m sorry.” The words left her lips before she realized their meaning. Why was she apologizing for the way he had treated her?
Auri stared at Ty, struggling to match his confession to the boy, the man she loved. He’d spent more than half his life despising her. He’d been her friend only to hurt her.
“Aur… I… I didn’t hate you the whole time. Just so you know.” An edge of guilt softened his tone. “It’s complicated.” He looked as if he wanted to say more but shook his head instead. “We better get you back.”
She pressed a kiss to the tip of Birdie’s wet nose to hide the tears building in her eye. Her skin felt too tight. A mad desire to tear free of her body shot through her. To fly up, up, and up. To forget Ty. To forget his lies. To forget how much, how desperately, she loved him.
Auri straightened and allowed him to lead her away.
Outside her door, she paused. She studied the floor as she asked, “Why are you being so honest now?”
“Something changed when I kissed you. I realized that I might actually care.”
She couldn’t help but ask, “Did you want me to fall in love with you?”
“I did. I just never expected to start feeling something for you.” He laughed, the sound tight and choked. “When it comes to you, my emotions have never been simple.” He leaned forward, as if he was about to kiss her. She closed her eyes, unsure if she wanted him to or not. Instead he whispered in her ear, “Do you still want me, Aur?”
She stayed frozen in place, eyes closed. “Apologize,” she breathed. “I’ll forgive you.” And she would. She knew she would.
“You love too freely and forgive too easily. It’s a weakness.”
She opened her eyes to see his frown. “It also makes me strong.”
“It depends on what you consider strength.” He offered her a lazy man’s salute. “See you at the ball.”
She slipped inside her room. The tumblers clicked as Ty locked the door behind her.