“I’m glad I ran into you, I didn’t have a chance to contact anyone. I had to turn in my hyperband last night,” she explained as he walked with her the short distance to the transport ship.
Lee didn’t ask about why she hadn’t messaged him any of the other nights. He’d been doing the same thing, hadn’t he? Outside of the health surveys and his due diligence as a squadron lead, he hadn’t contacted any of the squadron, either. He was still getting his bearings with being back here at the Academy and accepting their circumstances for what they were.
“Do you have somewhere to go? Someone to meet you at the docks?” he asked instead, turning to the logistics.
“It’s all arranged,” Levy said, recognizing the crutch for what it was, a gentle smile tugging on her dark lips. But there was also another emotion layered in there. He couldn’t tell if it was more determination or acceptance of her resignation from the program, but he envied the finality of it.
“Four days, huh?” he asked, sensing the goodbye on the horizon and feeling the exhaustion from those days settling in.
“They must really want me gone.” Her joke fell flat, but her voice was steady, the ever-rolling summer rain. He hoped wherever she was headed she might get to enjoy some of that weather firsthand and enjoy her new lifestyle.
“You could still stay, you know,” he tried anyway, even knowing she’d already made up her mind.
But she shook her head, and he had to admire her for it. “I couldn’t.”
As he met her dark eyes one last time, he thought of so many things he wanted to say to her—pleas both for her to stay and for her to make him understand. This was her future she was settingaside. She would have made a brilliant raider. But those wishes and those wants didn’t belong to him. Just as her future was not his to decide.
The dock workers finished loading their cargo onto the ramp, and with only the pilot left waiting to escort Levy onto the ship, it was time for her to go.
The three of them. That’s how she was making her bold departure.
Lee extended a hand out towards her, gripping her hand tightly with his. “Take care, Levy.”
She covered it with her own. He wished her the best, whatever was in store for her. They’d become friends, somehow, through the thicket and tangle of their messy relationship. And as much as she’d complicated things for him and Kat, he would miss her.
“Say goodbye to everyone for me, will you?” She smiled, the sparkle there behind her dark lashes. “And Lee?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t let her string you along forever.”
He cut her a sharp grin, not caring how many of those skittering sparks and heated looks from the past couple of days made it onto his face.
Oh, he didn’t plan to.
By the time Lee crossed into the stairways of the Heptagon again, another outbreak of cheering was cresting up from the levels below.
But instead of that energy thrumming in tune with his blood, it seemed to push against it, having the opposite effect. Every step was heavier than the last, and he found himself dreading the entire spectacle of the sport.
The dread had settled low in his gut by the time he reached the starboard doors to the Spectrum. It was time to face the music, whether he was ready or not.
As expected, the moment he stepped inside, the cheering hit him with a wall of sound, each fresh wave grating against a very raw resolve.
The darkened, starlit stands were packed, but he could pick her out from anywhere. Her long, vanilla-blonde ponytail bobbed from one of the top rows of benches, where she would have sidled in a manner she deemed unnoticeable. Except, Kat never went unnoticed.
“Hey,” he said, slipping up beside her. He held a finger to each of his ears, covering them as one of the remaining contenders in the arena tumbled down to the steamtrap below to more hurrahs. Only three Ultras now made their stand for victor, with the X-ray class waiting on deck, meters below.
“Did you get to see her?” Kat asked, a knowing concern in her voice and in her eyes as they skated over his face.
“I did,” Lee said, amazed as always by the woman beside him.
“Good. She needed someone.”
They’d both turned back to face the competition, their little fingers brushing. And as the stands around them went wild, she linked her pinky with his. Likely remembering, like he, the mission that had led Levy to decide to leave. And the feeling when they’d just needed that physical connection. He sunk into her touch as everything else faded to background noise, dulled in comparison.
The Xs claimed the arena next with a vivacious display of talent and discipline. Somewhere in his brain, Lee was faintlyaware that those cadets painting the arena were the future of the Academy. They would be Gammas before long—the next set of cadets to take on the mantle of prepping future raiders.
If he’d kept a closer eye out, Lee could have picked out the slouched form of Jed and the mischievous workings of the twins. And Nikola and Hanna would be a force to be reckoned with.
