Steel Lily ARC (17 page)

I thought this would remind you of home.

Sari held out her hand expectantly and swapped items with me. She was right; the necklace was gorgeous.

The thin black corded leather and silver clasps were simple. It was the pendant that made the necklace extraordinary. Nestled between golden glass beads sat the insides of an old watch. Its gears and cogs ticking perfectly to time, I watched them move.
Tick, tick, tick
. The top layer of larger cogs were silver, but underneath lay smaller brass and copper counterparts. It was held together by metal wire that had been smelted into place.

I trembled as I looked at the piece of jewelry. My father had worn a timepiece that I kept on my dresser back home. The comforting tick always made it easier to go to bed. My eyes filled with tears.

I turned the pendant over and my stomach lurched. The carved initials of my father, J.P., were etched into the back of the golden watch. This
was
my father’s watch.

It was beautiful.

It terrified me.

I hadn’t brought this with me. Someone had been in my home. Someone here. I could think of only two people. Riggs and Jaxon. Neither struck me as the type of people to give a gift simply for the sake of being nice.

“Who do you think it’s from?” I asked Sari as she folded the piece of paper back to its original state.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “But whoever it was must be very interested in getting on your good side, and I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

Feeling the weight of the timepiece in my hand gave me hope. Having a tangible reminder of home made me feel better about being in Dome Three, even if the person giving the gift might be Riggs. The cogs also reminded me of something that occurred to me when I saw Riggs’s mechanical arm sitting stationary in the library.

I stood up quickly and swayed from the rush of blood to my head.

Sari was standing beside me the next instant. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You said you controlled the cameras,” I said as I thought through my idea.

“Yeah, so?”

“So would you be able to keep me off the radar if I went to check on Legs?”

“I could manage that. Stick to the shadows to make it easier on me.”

“Easy enough.”

Sari shook her head. “You’d think so, but Riggs never makes anything easy. Get there and get back before anything bad happens.”

She made it sound like it was a matter of
when
something bad happened, not
if
.

Always reassuring.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Sari talked to me as I dug in my closet for dark-colored clothing. I felt like we were planning a burglary, not a visit to Legs. “I wouldn’t tell Alice. Not about this.”

I glanced back at her, surprised. “Why? I tell her everything.”

“Because some people are better off not being liable. The less she knows, the less she can get in trouble for if things go south.”

I digested her words. “A lot of your information is guesswork. Sure, you think Riggs has Resistance beliefs, but you also said he was part of the Alliance at one point. And Alice won’t let a guy change her, no matter what,” I added defensively. Alice would never betray me; that I was sure of. “Maybe Riggs is misunderstood, you know?”

“Would you consider blowing your friend’s arm off misunderstood?”

I flinched at the reminder of Legs. He had gotten himself in so much trouble because of me. I turned to leave to check on him, but Sari put a hand on my shoulder. “Look, Riggs isn’t necessarily all bad. What I know is that the guy is a zealot for what he believes in.”

“And what is it that he believes in?”

“I haven’t gotten into all the files yet, but from what I’ve found, I think he believes that the Resistance—the ones that caused the war, that caused us to live like this—” she gestured out the dark skylight to the fake twinkling stars in the sky, “should rise again.”

A visceral shudder ran through my body. I rubbed my upper arms to keep the goose bumps at bay. “I don’t know much about the war,” I admitted, “Our history class started discussing it the day Jaxon came for me. Do you know what happened?”

Sari looked as though she was warring with herself.

I waved my hand. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you’re uncomfortable.”

“You deserve to know,” she said with a fierceness that I hadn’t seen before. She took a breath and started again. “You deserve to know. Most of the histories are in the library in the restricted area. Riggs allows us to read them for courses, but he never sides with either agenda in public. In private, though…” she trailed off.

“In private he’s an asshat,” finished Jaxon, who stood in the doorway, his hands balled into fists. The vein on the side of his head was visible and his jaw was clenched. If he bit down any harder, I was afraid he’d break his teeth. “And that would be why allowing him to corral the best and brightest together in this little ant farm could make things very, very bad. He’s a man with power, means, and an agenda. Now come on, I’ll take you to go see your homicidal friend.”

***

The glow of the gaslights threw shadows in front of us as we slunk down the hall, careful to stay in the dark.

Inside, I was seething. Jaxon had no right to eavesdrop on my personal conversations. “How long were you listening to Sari and me?”

“Long enough to hear you wanted to go see Legs, so we’re going to see him. Now be quiet.” Jaxon said in a bored tone as he reached inside a niche and found the cord for the electric candles. He yanked it and threw the hallway into darkness. A moment later he intertwined his fingers with mine in the darkened corridor.

Electricity sizzled in my fingertips where I touched his smooth skin. Why was he holding my hand? Why was I allowing him to? I followed him in the darkness and hoped we wouldn’t run into a wall, all the while wishing the darkness would go on a little longer. He kept running his thumb along the back of mine, and it gave me butterflies.

Damn it, if he wasn’t such an ass, I might have been willing to admit I liked him.

When we reached the atrium and moonlight illuminated Jaxon’s face, I found him looking at me in amusement. “What I don’t get is why you’re all about this guy. What’s he got that I don’t have?”

“He isn’t arrogant, sarcastic or rude for starters,” I said, making sure my eyes caught his when they widened in surprise. My insides bloomed with warmth. So he
did
have feelings.

Jaxon puckered his lips in mock deep thought before replying. “Yeah, I can see that. Not many have such great qualities like him. He seemed drug-addled to me in our first encounter. And an attempted murderer, to boot.”

“He didn’t try to murder you.”

“Oh really?” Jaxon thrust his arm out into the low light, the shadows from the twisting around it like vines. “This looks like attempted murder to me.”

I laughed. “Oh yes, Legs barely missed a crucial artery.”

Jaxon stopped dead in his tracks. He tipped his head like little bird to the side. It was the first time I’d actually seen him look hurt. The mask of indifference returned quickly though, and he fastened on a sardonic smile. “How long have you known him? Do you even know his real name?”

“I’ve known him since I was little, and he only goes by Legs.”

Jaxon leapt on my avoidance like a wolf on weak prey. “So you
don’t
know his real name.”

“No one knows his real name! It’s something that’s private to him, I guess.”

“As though we have any privacy to begin with,” Jaxon said somberly.

“Indeed,” I agreed darkly.

“Which means I’ll be finding out his real name.”

“Why does it matter to you?”

“Because you like him, and I need all the information on my competition that I can get.”

I blanched. “I never said I liked him.”

“But your actions tell me otherwise. You call him by his preferred name, not his given name, not to mention the fact that we’re out after curfew going to check on him.”

“Are you really that butt hurt that I’m going to see the guy that has saved me time and time again?”

Jaxon shrugged his shoulders. “I saved you last.”

“I’ll be sure to keep the tally from now on.”

“You won’t call me Jax.”

“Oh, for the love of God, you’re not back on that kick, are you?”

“I’m trying to figure you out.”

I sighed and darted into the central area of the Academy, keeping close to the walls to avoid detection. “That’s going to take longer than you have, Mr. Pierce.”

Out of nowhere his breath ran like warm water over the back of my neck. I closed my eyes for a moment, then forced them back open. No. Not Jaxon. Nothing for Jaxon.

“Now it’s Mr. Pierce, eh?” he breathed as he put one of his large hands at the small of my back to lead me toward Xander’s office. “I think I’m going backwards.”

“
You
are backwards, Jaxon.”

He laughed and muscled around me, putting far too much of his toned body against me as he slid past. His chiseled chest pressed against mine as he leaned in, inches from my mouth. I sucked in a breath through my mouth to avoid his scent.

No dice. It still overpowered me. His smile was evident even in the low light, and I bit my lip to keep from sighing. His hand brushed my cheek, and he ran a finger down the side of my neck that sent shivers through me. “If I were backwards, I’d be Noxaj,” he whispered huskily, “What kind of name is that? It’s not sexy at all.”

“I never said you were sexy,” I whispered as his hands roved through my hair at the base of my neck.

“No, no you didn’t…”

His lips were on my neck. His hands worked down my back.

I stood there like a wet noodle, incapable of responding.

Do something! Touch him back!
My brain screamed, but my body felt detached.
Do something, or he’s going to think you’re on the relationship short bus.

He pulled away to look at me. His eyes were searching, but for what, I didn’t know. I willed myself to give him something. Anything.

An awkward grin, accompanied by a cough was all I could muster.

Really, Avery? Seriously?
I knew later replays of this moment in my mind, no matter how awful, wouldn’t compare to the actual event.

Jaxon took a step back and cleared his throat. “I guess that was out of line. I just thought…never mind. Wow, yeah. Legs is lucky to have someone like you.”

Even if my brain had been working properly, I wouldn’t have had a chance to respond. Without another word, he disappeared down the narrow hallway that led to Xander’s office.

No, Jaxon, no. It’s not like that. Legs and I aren’t anything. You and I…

A small voice laughed as I thought through the magnificent opportunity that I’d shattered into a million pieces.
You and Jaxon aren’t anything, either, Avery,
said the voice inside.

I shook myself out of the moment and refocused on what my initial plan had been. The corridor that led to Xander’s office felt like it was an afterthought; as though someone busted out a portion of an already-existing wall to accommodate him. He certainly didn’t have much of a medical wing.

Jaxon’s body was swathed in bright light as he wrenched the door open. His eyes caught mine, and I saw the embarrassment of me denying him. Part of me was horrified, the other proud. It looked like it might have been the first time he was turned down.

But I didn’t want to turn you down,
I thought to myself. In that moment, I knew I wanted to kiss him. I
would
kiss him. My body agreed, and I took a step toward him, resolve spurring each step.

He was there only a second before the door closed behind him and left me in darkness once more.

Little git. Chivalry was most certainly dead when it came to Jaxon Pierce.

And at some point he will be too, if he keeps being so stubbornly rebellious about everything
, I thought to myself.

It caught me by surprise.

Not the thought, no—that was as true as the rising sun—but that my insides squirmed with concern for him. Why should I care about him? He was obnoxious. Still, part of me thought that deep inside that mess of derision and disdain was a person capable of actually feeling something.

The only way someone could hate so deeply was to have loved twice as much and been hurt because of it.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

My eyes watered from stepping into harsh light of Xander’s office. Jaxon leaned against a white bookcase that matched the rest of the sterile décor in the room. He eyed Legs, who sat on the examining stool in the opposite corner, with trepidation.

Legs looked like he was asleep. He was shirtless; the cuts and bruises on his torso made me hurt just to look at them. His chest heaved with each labored breath he drew. An IV and blood bag snaked along his forearm and rested in the crook of his elbow.

“He’s calmed down enough that I thought I’d try to give him a little boost with your generous donation,” said a voice to my left.

Xander was sitting in a miniscule recess on the other side of the bookshelf. I would never have noticed the niche had I not heard him. The room looked like it’d been carved out of the earth; the walls were still dirt and the floor, simple boards. It was an afterthought, perhaps, or maybe Xander created this niche on his own, not bothering to hire anyone to fix it up. Either way, I wondered how it didn’t collapse.

Xander, however, didn’t seem concerned in the least. He sat in a brown leather chair, tattered book in hand. The spine was broken, the binding threatening to pull away. He looked up from the pages and gave a tired smile, dark circles evident under his eyes. “I figured you’d come back to check on him.”

His scrubby chin showed signs of a five o’clock shadow and steam rose from the cup on the wobbly table beside him. It smelled like dark, rich coffee and made my mouth water.

“What made you think that?”

“You have a good heart, Robin Hood.”

His eyes returned to the book and he turned over a page with utmost care.

The silence wasn’t awkward, but I didn’t know what to do, either.

Riggs’s thought that I could manipulate elements came back to me. I focused on the steaming mug and the image of snow danced in my mind.