Page 16 of Under the Iron Sky

Soraya’s eyes snapped up. Oh, so Raina was in one of those moods today? Fantastic.

“Sorry,” Raina said almost immediately. “I’m a little tense.” She shifted on her chair, strands of long ruby hair swishing as they escaped the pens holding them in her updo, and ran a hand over the side of her neck. “My back has been on the verge of seizing up for days now; if it carries on I might actually need you to make me that brace.”

Soraya’s eyes narrowed at the permanently crooked angle of Raina’s shoulders. While Soraya had been lucky enough to escape on a hovercraft before the second wave hit on Invasion Day, not everyone was so lucky. Although covered from collarbone to ankle in sweeping orange academic robes and gold sashes, burns colored most of the left side of Raina’s back—and then there was the damage to her spine. “Just say the word and I’ll get started on it.”

Raina waved her off. “And waste your time and valuable equipment? No thank you. You already don’t rest enough as it is.”

“It’s no trouble. I have the designs drawn out—and I can build what I need with scraps from unusable weapons.”

“Unusable before or after you break them into bits to get the pieces you need?”

Soraya’s nose twitched. “I don’t do that.”

Raina made a fist and began raising fingers in demonstration. “Theron’s arm brace. Sienna’s wheelchair. That little boy who needed a prosthetic leg—”

“Anymore,” Soraya clarified defensively. “We’re better off if I break the faulty weapons down anyway. The last thing we need is for them to malfunction mid-mission.”

“It’s fine, really.”

“Then at least let me take you to a medic after class.”

“They don’t need their time or resources taken up treating me when they have actual soldiers to heal.”

“What you do here is just as important as what I do.”

Raina laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. “And what good am I in the war if everyone else is dead? I hardly think I could bore the Dar’rak into extinction with one of my lectures. It’s fine, we all have our part to play in this. As long as I stay on this stool, I’ll be fine.” She rubbed at the base of her neck, then shook her head and smiled brightly, as though that little shake could erase all that’d been done to her.

She gave Soraya a swooping glance, marking the sunrifle strapped across her back, the knives and smaller guns holstered on her thighs, and the ring of bombs she wore like a belt. “That’s an awful lot of weapons you’re wearing. Aren’t you meeting your mole tonight?”

Soraya looked toward the open door, cutting her friend a sharp glare when she was sure they were alone. “I am—and you’re not supposed to know about him, remember?”

It’d been a colossal mistake, telling Raina about the spy. In the interest of keeping him as safe as possible, only a small handful of people knew about his existence. Which was perfectly fine with Soraya. The fewer people who knew the better, as far as she was concerned.

But then there’d been that raid that went horribly, horribly wrong. All those bodies. That girl, broken and bleeding in her arms, begging Soraya for a swift end … She’d just needed to talk to someone, to let everything out like tapping a poisonous vein … And then Raina had burst into her quarters demanding to check her over, and that had been that.

Raina arched a brow. “I thought he was on our side?”

“He is.”

“Then why the need for all the weapons?”

“He’s still a Dar’rak,” Soraya said, and she’d be a fool to pretend otherwise.

A beat of silence, then, “Are you sure you have time to be here? I can ask Vander—”

“I’m not meeting him for another few hours. I have plenty of time.”

If Soraya was being honest, she was exhausted. She’d barely slept since destroying the nest, and her body was begging to use this free time to sleep. She’d been in her workshop all morning, now she was here, and then she’d be off to meet Ma’varea.

But being busy was good. Busy meant she didn’t have time to breathe or think. About Delta. Noah … “Where do you want me for the presentation?”

Raina studied her for a moment, her deep blue eyes always assessing, then smiled. She’d known Soraya for long enough to see right through the lie but was friend enough to brush it aside. “These cadets are brand-new, so I wanted to start with the basics.” She pointed to a metal contraption at the back of the classroom. “I could use your help operating that. Then you can give a quick battle brief before we call it a day. I don’t want to overload them too early.”

Seemed simple enough. Nodding, Soraya turned toward the back of the classroom—what in the …

Raina’s laugh was soft as wind chimes. “It’s a projector.”

“From when? The fucking Dark Ages?” Cringing, Soraya inspected the mass of metal and wires that looked like it’d been used as a stalker’s chew toy. “Good Gods, can this thing even use Light?”