Page 16

ELEVEN

K el pulled Savita’s harness reins taut and squeezed her buckled legs.

In one long, violent movement, Savita launched into the night sky.

A small, flaming hurricane encircled them, sending them upward until Sav leveled out and screeched in joy.

Sharp, cold air bit into Kel’s skin and the world shrank, a muted patchwork of darkening paddocks and city lights.

Kel’s breath caught in her throat. A familiar brew of fear and awe thumped through her and she let her mind go blank, worries drifting below them.

Her peace was short-lived, though. Sitting behind her, Coup was forced to awkwardly wrap his arms around Kel’s waist for support.

“Can you move forward? I’m half off the saddle,” Coup called, voice strained against the rising winds.

Reluctantly, she inched forward. “You’re lucky I don’t shove you off.”

Coup scoffed. “If I fall, you’d have no one to complain about. You wouldn’t survive.”

Kel ground her teeth as Coup fumbled for balance, legs fastened with the saddle’s rarely used secondary buckles, much too close for her liking.

Savita tilted to the right, curving to follow the property’s borders.

Her collar restrictions allowed her to soar as high as she’d like, so long as she remained within the outer fence lines of Kel’s home.

Their home. For as much longer as they could call it that.

Kel’s tears had dried last night, after Bekn and Coup eventually left and Dira had appeared to swathe her in too many blankets. She’d spent the day fussing over Savita, muttering lies and reassurances about their future.

The officers had told her that outdated wiring and overloaded circuits had caused the fire. The aviary and her adjoining office had been reduced to a lifeless skeleton, dark ash and blackened rubble heaped over the ground in scorched clumps.

She wondered if Savita’s rebirth would look the same. If it would leave Kel with nothing but black dust and the ghosts of her favorite memories.

Savita twisted again and Kel moved with her. Without thinking, she pulled Sav’s reins back, her right elbow colliding with Coup’s stomach.

“ Alchemists! That was intentional,” he grunted, breathless.

She almost wished it had been. Against the chilling gale, she shouted, “Can you just shut up, if you have to be here? I wanted to fly to clear my head. Not fill it with your whining.”

She hadn’t lost Savita’s saddle or her own riding leathers to the fire; Kel had left both in her cottage, planning to take the former into Fieror for a technician-for-hire to look at.

When the stars had begun to twinkle behind the dusk, Kel had realized just how long it had been since she’d flown Savita at night.

She didn’t want to waste the chance—not when it might be her last.

Unfortunately, Coup had been equally keen for his first ride atop Sav.

“I can’t believe you forced your way up here,” Kel murmured. Sav had remained traitorously nonchalant as Coup had approached. He’d made it clear that, unless Kel instructed Sav to slice through his hamstrings, nothing could stop him from joining them.

She’d been tempted to try to call his bluff, let Sav cut through a few muscles. But she needed him—and the money his riding could bring—now more than ever.

Coup huffed. “You think I’d waste an opportunity to get comfortable on my new phoenix?”

“Your what ?” she spat. “You remember that Savita’s home burned down, right? There’s plenty of more important things she’ll have to get comfortable with soon.”

The words made her wince, her heart clanging in her throat.

“I am aware, Varra. But even if the band has to break up, it’ll be a while before I can find another team.” He jostled at her back, lifting his head. “It’s such a clear night.”

The wonder in his voice made her swallow her retort. The sky darkened around them and Savita’s wings lit up the muggy night. Their outline branded the air like handheld fireworks, tracing red lines around gray clouds.

Coup’s whining continued, though if Kel focused hard enough on the gale in her ears, she could block most of it out.

She watched the arcing patterns of Savita’s glowing wings, waves cresting and falling, as clouds sifted around her wings like sea-foam.

She tried to focus on the star-studded night and rhythmic grace of Sav’s wings.

She tried to focus on anything but the feel of Coup, tense behind her, seeping heat into her back, an infuriating contrast to the evening air.

Every minor shift of his weight made her squirm. She hated how aware she was of his every move—how his warm breath sent goose bumps pricking at the back of her neck, how much his body affected hers.

Both of them leaned forward as Savita rose higher through the charcoal clouds. Kel closed her eyes and tried to ignore the feel of Coup pressing closer, muscled torso tight against her back, fingers momentarily clamping on her hips.

As they finally broke above the frail clouds, Kel opened her eyes.

The night stretched before them in streaks of shadow and starlight.

Savita plateaued and stretched her wings wider, glimmering with sunlit magic.

Kel wondered if, from the ground, they looked like a shooting star.

Maybe Cendorians would wish upon Savita.

Maybe Kel could collect those wishes, like coins in a fountain, and steal them for herself.

Coup loosened his grip and leaned back in the saddle.

Kel sucked in a breath as the cool air replaced his heat at her back.

She relaxed her hold on Savita’s reins and splayed her gloved fingers across her phoenix’s neck feathers.

She’d spent years wondering what Sav’s feathers would feel like without gloves.

Sunlit silk? Thorned fire? She lowered her gaze, memorizing the pattern of Sav’s feathers, the colliding colors. Memorizing everything .

“If you could escape up here—just keep flying… would you?” Coup asked softly, breaking her reverie.

Her eyebrows arched. “That’s a very existential departure from whining.”

Coup leaned forward again, until his warm breath hit her ear and made her shiver. “Indulge me, then I’ll shut up.”

“You promise?” Kel huffed. “Escape what, exactly?”

“Everything.”

Kel pursed her lips.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she admitted. Even if there was somewhere she could go where her debts wouldn’t chase her, Cendor—in all its fiery, raging glory—was her home.

Curiosity pricked through her. “Where would you go?”

She felt Coup shrug. “Somewhere without sketchy public aviaries and undiagnosable diseases. Somewhere Bekn could… somewhere he’d be happy.” Coup chuckled, a strange, hoarse sound, so different to his usual ease.

Kel chewed on his words. She’d known his mother had died of AB years ago. Though that might not stop her from hating him, she understood a small piece of his past. They both had scars that refused to heal.

She felt Coup shake his head, as if catching himself. “I’m not surprised you’d stay. Misery loves company.”

Clenching Sav’s reins, her knuckles turned white. “ Misery should’ve let Sav slash a few of your muscles,” she muttered.

Coup gave a breathless laugh. In her peripherals, she spotted him running a gloved hand along Savita’s side. “All this power, and you’re still the scariest thing in the sky.”

Good , she thought, and sent up a silent thanks to the Alchemists when Coup remained silent.

She let her mind drift, as the frigid wind and high altitude built pressure in her ears.

She tugged and loosened Savita’s reins as they glided in endless loops around the property’s parameters.

Savita responded intuitively to Kel’s guiding, and it loosened something inside her.

No matter who raced Sav in CAPR, they would always belong to each other.

Flying on Savita had always been the only kind of escape she’d craved. But that too would soon be ripped away if she didn’t find a new solution, a way to protect them both.

Despite what Dira had said, despite how much of a hypocrite it made her to admit it, there was only one place she and Savita could escape together.

Cristo Industries.

A job with Cristo would give Kel the power to ensure their future. It would give her the money to repair the aviary and the chance to earn a reputation beyond her father’s legacy. One that would make sure no one ever doubted her—or Savita—again.

Despite the night’s chill, warmth spread through Kel. The heat awakened her, for the first time since the aviary’s destruction.

“I’m going to ring the recruiter and accept Cristo’s offer,” she said, as much to Savita as to Coup. “I’ll convince him to take Dira, too.”

The hard part would be convincing Dira to come. Kel doubted her best friend had the same moral objections to working for Cristo, but she did have pride. The recruiter would need to acknowledge Dira’s merits as a winger—regardless of Kel’s ultimatum.

Coup rustled behind her. “Is there a question in there, somewhere? You know they wanted us as a package deal, right?”

“I’m not exactly thrilled about it, either. But we have nothing to lose.”

If she accepted Cristo’s offer, she’d be working even closer to Coup than she had in the last twenty-four hours. But what other choice did they have?

Coup bristled again. “You’re assuming I’ll just follow your lead. I made it clear I won’t go without my brother.”

“You can convince him to take Bekn, too,” Kel said, voice filled with iron.

When Coup was silent, she added, “If they plan on keeping us working on the same team, we just need to make it clear that Bekn and Dira will help us to… gel more than two strangers would.”

More silence, before Coup said, “This isn’t just a gamble for me, Varra. If I agree to this, you need to be all in. I don’t have the luxury of time to move on, and I don’t have a family legacy to fall back on to secure me another job down the line.”

“Are you serious? I don’t have—”

“No—I don’t care if you agree.” His voice cut through the icy gale. “Your surname gives you a safety net I don’t have. If you fuck this up, that’s it for me. I won’t get any more chances. If we do this, we’re all in.”

Kel seethed. What other choice did he think she had? Knowing her father didn’t mean he knew anything else about her.

She couldn’t do this. She’d have to find another way. She—

Savita released a loud screech. Kel ran her hand along her phoenix’s neck, taking a deep breath. For Sav… she could swallow her pride. But five minutes alone with Warren Coupers had the magic of making her forget.

If she was going to work closely with Coup at Cristo Industries, she knew she’d be spending plenty of time arguing with him. She didn’t want to add any more headaches to her future ones.

Silently, she began guiding Savita to the ground. Coup sat up in the saddle and wrapped his hands around her waist as they descended. He didn’t ask Kel to make any promises, and neither did she.

After landing and settling Savita, Kel hurried up the hill toward her cottage.

With Coup just a few steps behind her, they entered through the back entrance.

Kel wasn’t surprised to see Dira slumped across her tatty brown couch—she’d had a key for years—but she was unsettled to see Bekn banging away in her small kitchen, rattling pans against the stovetop and filling the joined rooms with faint smoke.

Kel coughed, inhaling the smell of burned meat. “I thought you’d gone home?”

Bekn half-turned. “We’d both rather be here, for you.”

Kel stiffened at the unexpected sincerity. “I’m glad you’re both here—I…” She swallowed, turning to Dira. “I think we have to accept Cristo’s offer.”

Dira raised her eyebrows. “Wow, Kel, cut right to the chase.”

Kel stepped further into the room, Coup a shadow to her left, leaning against the doorframe. “I know what you’re going to say—but Cristo will take all of us. We’ll make him. We won’t go to Vohre unless he does.”

Dira watched Kel, unblinking. “You really think Savita will be safe at Cristo Industries? Just a month ago, you showed me an article about Cristo and said, He’s a plague on Cendor and Savita would be safer living with Ebrait’s sea monsters. ” Dira shook her head. “The fire hasn’t changed that.”

“What other choice do we have?” Kel shot back.

“There’s always a choice,” Dira hissed. A muscle ticked in her jaw. “I left Dresva to have a say in my own future. You really think working for Cristo is going to give us any more freedom?”

Frustration flared behind Kel’s temples. They had no way of knowing what Cristo would ask of them in Vohre, but this was the only way Kel could protect everyone she loved without losing sight of them.

Finally, she said, “Yes, I do.”

Dira poked a nail into the couch’s tattered fabric. “If I hadn’t seen the reports, I’d think you’d set the aviary fire to get us to agree to this.”

Her stomach twisted at Dira’s words. She forced herself not to bite back.

“What do you think, mitigator?” Dira asked dryly.

Slowly, Bekn wiped his hands on his trousers and turned to Dira.

“I don’t think there’s a mitigator alive who can solve the problems that Cendor stirs up.

Money like Cristo’s would go a long way.

But…” he paused, raising a hand half-covered in what looked like breadcrumbs, “… if we do this, you two need to get along. At least when there’s cameras around. Understood?”

Kel and Coup glanced at each other. Coup’s amber eyes hardened to copper, a fire in them that made Kel admit that, even if they had nothing else in common, neither would abandon those they cared for.

“Understood,” Kel said.

Coup pulled his tele-comm from a pocket and dialed a number. He handed it to Kel.

“Savita is your phoenix,” Coup said. His voice was low, almost reluctant. “Make the final call.”

Surprise rattled through her, parting her lips as Coup handed her the tele-comm. She hesitated for only a moment before grabbing the device and pressing dial .

It was late enough in the evening that she doubted the recruiter would answer. Yet, after just one ring, a voice asked, “Hello?”

She cleared her throat. “This is Kelyn Varra. You approached Warren Coupers and me about a job.”

A brief pause. Then, “I’m very glad to hear from you, Ms. Varra. Can I assume this call means you’re accepting our offer?”

“Yes—on one condition,” she said, voice unwavering. “You take my entire team.”