Page 94 of Aviatrix

And maybe he is.

“He needs to leave,” Lark mutters.

“The General put him on Alien Warfare,” I say flatly. “He’s not going anywhere.”

“Not if I get my way,” he snaps.

I blow out a slow breath. Lark and his overprotective theatrics. “Good luck with that.”

Eli’s footsteps sound behind me just before he reappears, both our bags slung over his shoulder. Amber trails after him like a lost puppy.

Only when she gets close enough to make eye contact does she finally look at me.

“Kinley,” Amber says, stepping around Eli to hug me.

I wrap my arms around her as Eli and I share a look. A charged one. The kind that says neither of us wants to be here, but here we are.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” I say to her as she pulls away.

She dips her chin, but she’s not looking at me. Her eyes are already drifting back to Eli, looking anything but fragile.

“You ready to head inside?” Eli asks me.

As he passes me the bag, our fingers graze. Amber doesn’t notice the way our eyes linger, but Lark does. Guilt floods my chest, thick and suffocating. He just lost his dad four days ago. And ten days ago, we were still engaged. Either way, I don’t want to hurt him. Even though he deserves it.

Lark clears his throat, sharp and territorial. “Briefing in fifteen,” he snaps, then turns and ushers his daughter inside.

We follow, and Eli bumps his shoulder into mine with a smirk. “That was fun.”

“Oh, really?” I deadpan. “I thought it was more like being court martialed.”

We drop off our bags in our respective rooms. I’m bunking with Thea while Eli gets a solo room across the hall. Then, it’s off to the mess hall for rations before we’re forced into a briefing with Lark.

“It’s so stupid,” I mutter to Eli as he sets an apple on my tray, then grabs one for himself. “I don’t want to be on Alien Warfare. I have other things I need to do. Like, you know—” I lower my voice “—find the Legion.”

“I think you’re overthinking it,” Eli says with a shrug.

I reach for a bowl of oatmeal. “I’m really not.” I exhale. “I need to find a way out of it.”

“The General thinks VAL might be the key to winning this war,” Eli divulges. “You have no choice. Might as well accept your fate.”

VAL could be the key? I’m not sure how I feel about that. Uneasy, maybe. She wasn’t built to fight. She was built to learn, to adapt.

“Wait. He told you that?”

“Do you think she could?” He ignores my question. “Aid in winning the war?”

“I don’t know. Stealth Mode was pretty impressive.”

“It was,” he agrees.

“Lark can deal with the alien attacks,” I decide. “I’ll get off this team if it’s the last thing I do. I’m not letting the Legion vanish while there’s a target on my back.”

“Or,” he counters, “you could use this as a chance to figure out what your ex-fiancé knows about a top-secret faction that may or may not have orchestrated the death of said ex-fiancé’s father.”

I narrow my eyes. “You really think Lark knows something?”

Eli raises a brow and hands me a cup of coffee. “You don’t?”