Page 106 of Aviatrix

Eli and I... it’s complicated. That’s all I know right now. Two magnets drawn together, even after everything.

Lark, though? He was the ice water to my fire. Clear. Reassuring. Everything I didn’t know I needed. Until he wasn’t.

“I never meant to throw anything in anyone’s face,” I say. “But Amber’s been through enough. I’ll make sure to keep my personal life private.”

“Thank you,” he says, and for once, he sounds genuine.

I bite my lower lip. “Now, in the spirit of being honest, why were you at a Legion meeting eighteen years ago?”

Lark opens his mouth, but the door swings open.

Sasha stands there, breathless. “Ships,” she manages. “Attacked just north of here.”

Dread pools in my belly.

“We’re not sure,” she gulps in air, “if it was Major Kopelman’s aircraft that went down.”

The floor vanishes beneath me. I don’t know if it’s fear or guilt or the terrifying thought that I may have just said goodbye for the last time. But I lunge for the trash can and empty what little breakfast I had into it.

TWENTY-FOUR

SCREW YOU

I pace the control room, wearing a path into the concrete floor, my stomach in knots.

“Again,” Lark orders. “Play it again.”

On the radar, we track Eli’s flight path. Green background, his aircraft grayed out.

He took off from the north runway, veered west, then looped north.

Three minutes after takeoff, two ships appeared behind him. We can’t make out by radar if they’re black like the alien ships that attacked Langdon. Or gray, the possibly human crafts that decimated the White House. They kept their distance. Moments later, Eli flew out of range, and so did the ships.

“Again,” Lark says.

I can’t watch it again. I slip out into the hallway, my back sliding down the wall until I’m sitting on the cold concrete.

I’m not going to cry. I don’t have time to cry. But I do have a moment. A moment to sit with the heartbreaking possibility that Eli might be gone.

I think about Aunt Lise. Willa. Even Uncle Rod. His family. The people who love him. They’ll be devastated.

But maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe he made it out. Eli’s always outflown, outmaneuvered, and outshot everyone. Even at the Academy.

I want to believe he’s safe. I want to.

But what if he’s not?

“Nova?” Scooter echoes softly down the sterile hall.

I glance up. “Yeah?”

“Can we talk?” He gestures to the corridor where Gary and Thea are waiting.

I push off the floor, swallow the lump in my throat, and follow my team into a quiet room.

We gather around a small table, Gary at the head, his expression somber.

“How are you holding up?” he asks.