Kartega
Chapter 23

That night, Sid dreamed of the queen.

Her triumphant smile with all teeth bared as she strolled down the core of dome nine in all her finery. Each tent she passed crumpled and fell, deteriorating in Leona’s path and rotting before her eyes. She tossed and turned, sweat pooling on her brow as she saw small children run after the queen — eager to meet her — only to be met with the same hostile glare that Sid had seen in the throne room. When the children laughed giddily, the queen bent over, her smile unfazed. She whispered something to the young Domers and chuckled when they stood in line at her command. One by one, Leona tapped their foreheads and one by one they fell. Small bodies limp on the ground, disintegrating in moments like they had never existed. Sid screamed but no sound escaped her, her words a silent cry of agony that no one else could hear. She ran to the queen, her hands fisted and ready to strike. Two more steps and she would have her. Two more steps and…

Sid awoke to Ashlan slurping broth noisily at the edge of her cot, his eyes dancing with excitement when she opened hers and he pushed a bowl her way. The liquid was hot and burned going down but she was parched, her throat parched from silently screaming in her sleep.

“So how was yesterday?” Ashlan asked, arching his eyebrows so high she thought they’d tickle his hair line.

“Yesterday?”

Muck! Does he know? Who told him?

“Your day alone? To clear your head?”

Thank the stars.

“Oh, it was fine. Nothing spectacular. It was good to walk around and see another dome in action. I’m happy to be back though,” she lied. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being back in the Starblade tents but happy was not a word she’d use to describe it. Uncomfortable and itchy were a closer match.

Ashlan scratched the back of his head and peered up at her, eyes vivacious and bright. “Good, that you’re happy that is. Not sure I’ve seen that yet,” he grinned. “If you like it here, I’m about to make you even more ecstatic!”

“Oh?”

“We got a lead on the location of three more rebels. Two here and one in dome eighty three. I’m sending Connor and three more Starblades there and the rest of us will handle the two in this dome.”

Two rebels. Two Freedom Runners. In this dome. The panic rose in her chest, her heart constricting like a lightline around her neck. They found out about Nyala and Tann and if they did, it could be all her fault. Perhaps she wasn’t careful enough and he had her followed. Or Abbot had, she wouldn’t put it past the general to distrust her enough to have her tailed. Her eyes felt like they started to sweat almost as much as her underarms. She tried to keep them focused on Ashlan’s face, to decipher what he might know. Was he trying to trick her? Get her to say something to put holes in her story about yesterday and trap her into telling him what happened? She should just tell him the truth. Maybe if she did, he’d go easy on her. Though he wasn’t the one she should be worried about. If news got back to the queen about her betrayal, the feeling of a lightline around her would become a lot more real than she’d like.

“We still don’t know much. Just that there’s at least two in this dome so we might be stuck here for a few more days.”

Sid sighed in relief. It wasn’t Nyala and Tann, at least not as far as they knew. “How many more days?”

“Like I said, we don’t have much. There’s some club in the center of the dome we need to check out. I’d rather not but it might lead us to their identities.”

Magic. No! They can’t go there!

“I’ll come with you!” The words escaped her mouth like gas hissing through a leaky pipe.

“You? To the club? Didn’t take you for the dancing type.”

“Oh, keep quiet, Starblade! I’m not going for the dancing.”

Ashlan puffed out his chest and winked her way, “Just for me then?”

“You wish!”

She rolled her eyes and punched him lightly on the shoulder. Why was she going with him? He was basically giving her an out, a reason to make up an excuse and to disappear from his sights forever. Instead, she did the exact opposite and made sure she was stuck with him for another few days.

Wait, do I want to be stuck with him? Stardaughter, please no! Not this guy!

Sid took a moment to look him over one more time. Her attention moving from his ruffled blonde hair, to his blue eyes and sharp nose — Colton’s nose — down to the defined bulges of muscle under his perfectly prim Starblade uniform. When her gaze paused at the edge of his belt she had to shake herself back to attention. She couldn’t possibly like this guy! He was obnoxious and rude and she didn’t even know if she could trust him. If she should like anyone, it’s Tann. Tann with his beautifully mysterious dark features. Tann who was like her and who was fighting for their people. Whether Sid felt like she belonged in the domes or not, this was her home. The home her parents died to protect.

So why is it that right now she wanted nothing more than to hold Ashlan’s hand and tell him everything she learned about herself yesterday? Share with him the entire story of her life and spend hours on end finding out about his.

No! She couldn’t like him! She couldn’t trust him and that should be enough. And if Colton wanted her to trust his son, he would have told her about him. Though thinking about it now, Colton didn’t even seem to trust her enough to tell her much at all.

“You sure you don’t want to stay here?” Ashlan asked and she realized she had been staring at the stardamned edge of his belt this entire time.

Her gaze snapped up to meet his eyes, cheeks as red as an electrical fire. “I’m sure. And not for you, in case you’re getting any ideas!”

She reached up for her goggles, ready to flap them back over her eyes and end the conversation but Ashlan pressed his hand on her arm to stop her.

“Don’t do that,” he said in a voice so tender she wasn’t sure he was himself anymore.

“Do what?”

“Hide those. Your eyes. You shouldn’t hide them.”

“I’m not hiding them!” She snapped back.

“Sure you are. And you shouldn’t.”

“Oh, and why the muck not?” She asked, noting the way he cringed at her cursing.

“Because they’re beautiful. And they’re who you are. You should never have to hide who you are.”

Stars help me.

Sid blushed. No, Sid burnt and exploded from the inside out. At least that’s what it felt like. Her hands instinctively reached back for the goggles but she stopped herself, choosing instead to fumble around in her pocket for her interface box. She aimlessly entered code sequences into the screen and somewhere behind her, Fred came alive in a jerky motion.

Sounds of metal feet trampling the floor rose from the back of the tent and Ashlan let out a belly laugh.

“Wow! You’re really quite terrible at accepting compliments,” he chuckled, looking past her shoulder.

She turned back to see the droid balancing his very heavy body on one arm with his legs outstretched in either direction. “Stardaughter! Fred! I’m so sorry!” She entered another code sequence and the droid flipped back to stand, oblivious to his recent gymnastics.

“Look, I didn’t mean anything by it. It makes you uncomfortable. I’ll stop.”

“No,” she blushed. “I mean, yes. It does make me uncomfortable but no, don’t stop. If we’re going to be friends, we should learn to be nice to each other.”

“So we’re friends now?”

Tann’s dark eyes flashed in her vision.

“Yes, friends. And as a friend, I have to tell you, that outfit,” she ran her finger up and down his body, “is not going to get you into Magic.”

“So you’re an expert on clubs now, are you?”

She mock flipped a lock of hair off her shoulders, “I’m an expert on Magic.”

Ashlan laughed and the warmth of his cheer made her knees buckle.

“And what title should we give you, miss expert?”

A tiny electric current ran from her index finger to her thumb as she thought about his question. She made sure his eyes were locked on hers before she let her magic loose and felt the heat of it rush from her hands straight into her fast beating heart.

“Magic girl,” she smiled, all teeth bared. “You can call me magic girl.”

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