Page 31 of Aviatrix

“I fucked up with Gina,” he continues. “I don’t expect you to forgive me and I don’t expect you to marry me. But I promise you that I won’t let anything hurt you. I need you to trust me. I need you to let me protect you. I need you to let me try.”

“I don’t need protecting, Lark,” I argue. “I can take care of myself.”

“You don’t know that,” he says softly.

“I do,” I reply. “I’ve trained for this. You’ve trained me for this.”

“She died because of me.”

I brace myself. “Amelia?”

He shakes his head. “Gina. I ran after you… and she followed. She was trying to protect me. Protect us. And I left her in the open.”

His face crumples and I swear I see tears swimming in his eyes. But then, he blinks them away. “I’ve lost everyone but Amber and you. I can’t lose what little I have left. Even if you hate me.”

I want to hate him. It would make all of this easier. I feel something a lot like hatred for him. But there’s love there, too. I can’t turn it off. I wish I could. I wish betrayal would cut out the parts of me that love him.

“We can’t run forever, Lark,” I say. “I want to go to Colorado.”

“After San Diego, we’ll head to Colorado. We’ll reunite you with your team. But there’s something we need to do first.”

“Okay.” I take a sobering breath. He’s too close. He’s too wrecked with grief. He’s too vulnerable. And it’s making me feel things I can’t right now.

“I need…” I say to him as he presses his forehead to mine. I suck in a harsh, ragged breath as his hands find my hips. This is too much for me. I push him away. “I can’t do this, Lark.”

“I know,” he says.

This isn’t strength. This is drowning. I need air. I need something real.

“I need food,” I whisper, voice hoarse. “I haven’t eaten since…” I trail off, because I honestly can’t remember.

“Food,” he echoes with a nod, like it’s a lifeline we can both cling to. The word settles into the silence like a promise, and for a moment, my shoulders drop and the ache behind my ribs loosens. Maybe I need normalcy more than I thought.

“Then, you can show me what Major Kopelman slipped into your back pocket.”

I freeze, spine stiffening.

He saw that?

How the hell did he see that?

And what else did he see?

EIGHT

PROJECT AVIATRIX

I didn’t sleep much last night. My body twisted in the sheets, muscles taut, jaw clenched hard enough to ache. Every time I closed my eyes, the images came rushing back. The alien’s message, Eli’s voice, the hollow silence where my team used to be. I tossed and turned, cycling through theories about the Legion. Who—or what—they are. Why the aliens obliterated my base just to deliver a message. If it was even a message at all.

Was I supposed to make it to the control tower? Or did I walk straight into a trap and convince myself it was fate?

And Eli.

Why was he there? Why is he always there?

Lark wants the thumb drive. Eli didn’t trust him with it. I’m not sure I trust either of them. Too many secrets, too many scars.

The truth is, the only people I do trust are a thousand miles away, buried in a mountain base that’s been silent since the attack. My team—Gary, Scooter, and Thea. The ones who never betrayed me, never left, never lied.