Desire for revenge? Maybe against the High Council, since they’re the ones who accused me of being a traitor, but I don’t have anything against some Etiole truck drivers who’re just doing their jobs. They’ve never done anything to me. But I can’t say that. So I force a smile that I hope matches hers. “You know me too well. I’m looking forward to it.”
10
AL
AFTER TRAINING FINISHES, Trist tries to get me to talk to Lai—again. But this time, he doesn’t give me a choice, telling me I need to report the trainees’ progress to her.
“You’re not good at being sneaky, Trist,” I say. “I know what you’re trying to do.”
“I never said I was trying for sneaky,” he says.
“We haven’t been able to hold an actual conversation in weeks. Me reporting stats to her isn’t going to change that.”
“No,” Trist says. He looks back over his shoulder at some of the trainees who stayed behind to keep practicing drills. My chest swells with pride at the sight of them. I’ve only been teaching for two weeks, but I like it. More than I thought I would. “But it will give you at least a chance. You two don’t even try to speak with each other now.”
I bite my tongue. How does this guy manage to pick up on so much about other people when he’s swamped with work for the Order? “Fine.” I try not to snap it. “I’ll report how everyone’s doing. Just don’t get your hopes up about anything else happening.”
“I don’t understand you two.” Trist shakes his head. “You both know you would be happier if you made up, but you both continue this fight. Why?”
“It’s not that simple.” She’s lied to me about way too much for way too long, even though it was obvious I trusted her. I was responsible for her friend’s death. There’s too much betrayal, too much hurt we both caused. A couple of words aren’t going to fix that.
“Maybe. But it could help if you talked.”
I don’t say I doubt it, because he would just come up with another Trist-ism, so I say, “I’ll keep it in mind.”
But with the look he gives me, I know he gets what I’m thinking. “Take care, Al. Do not worry overly. There are enough worries as it is.”
* * *
I find Lai with Jay and Seung in one of the strategy rooms the top brass usually meet in. Jay sees me first. He smiles and waves, and I wave back with relief. Lately, I feel more relaxed when he’s around.
Lai and Seung don’t look up from the map they’re writing on. “It won’t work if they come up from behind us,” Lai is saying. She arcs a line across the paper. “It would destroy the whole formation, and we already know they have a Nyte with the gift of teleportation. That means anyone could have teleportation power crystals. It’s too risky.”
“All the plans are too risky,” Seung says dryly. “Lai, there will never be a perfect foolproof plan. And certainly not for a fight against Nytes.”
I watch as Lai’s grip on her pen tightens so hard her knuckles go white. Her lips press together into a hard line. “Again. From the beginning.”
I cough. Seung looks up, but Lai’s eyes don’t leave the map.
“I came to report on the combat training’s progress.” My voice sounds stiff even to me. Come on. Just gotta get through this.
“Can we talk about it later?” Lai still doesn’t look at me. “I want to get our plan of attack finished first.”
“It could help you plan your attack if you have a better idea of your fighters’ abilities,” I say.
“I can’t imagine anyone has improved so much since Trist’s report last week that it would alter how we plan our attack.”
“You don’t know that.” Even though she’s right, her impatient dismissal makes my blood boil. Why does she have to say it like that? Can’t she just take two seconds to listen to me and then get back to her planning?
Finally, Lai spins around to glare at me. “I do know that, Al, and even if I didn’t, I know you’re only here because Trist asked you to come and not because you think you have information that could change the tide of our first fight. So just wait.”
“Could you not just go into my head whenever you feel like it?” I snap. My boiling blood starts to catch fire. “You ever hear of something called privacy?”
“Why don’t we just take a step back?” Jay asks. He comes to stand between me and Lai, hands raised in peace. “Everyone’s on edge right now with how busy things have become since the Order decided to join the war. You’re both tired. Let’s just—”
“No,” I say. “No, no more let’s just deal with this later—I want to deal with it now. Fight me, Lai.”
Seung’s eyebrows shoot up and Jay’s jaw drops, but Lai’s eyes harden. “I thought you’d never say it. Let’s go.”
“Wait wait wait,” Jay says. “This is a terrible idea. You both merely need some time to calm down—”
“Jay, this isn’t going to be solved with time,” Lai says. “We’ve had time.”
“Took the words straight out of my mouth,” I say.
Jay looks like he’s going to keep protesting, but Seung comes around and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t bother, Kitahara. Some idiots only know how to speak with their fists.”
Jay looks at all of us, but he’s not going to find any allies. His shoulders slump. “I can’t believe you’re both doing this right now.”
“No time like the present,” I say. “Let’s go.”
* * *
None of us want to draw a crowd, so we head to a private practice room. There’s plenty of space to move around for a fight. Better yet, no one else should stop by.
Even though I was tired from training the Order members, adrenaline replaces my exhaustion now. It only takes a glance at Lai to tell it’s the same for her. She’s looked dead on her feet for the last few weeks, but there’s no sign of that now. Just a fire burning in her eyes that I haven’t seen in a long time.
“You wanted the fight,” she says while we stretch, “so what’s your condition for winning?”
I could make it a first-hit-wins fight. That would make it easier, faster. But I don’t want this to be fast. “Whoever falls to their knees first.”
Her smile sharpens. “Don’t regret that later.”
“Are you really doing this?” Jay asks. I guess he couldn’t stand to leave us alone because he and Seung ended up tagging along. “There are so many other things we need to be taking care of right now. And what if one of you gets hurt?”
He looks to Seung for support, but she just shrugs. “I only came to watch Lai get her ass handed to her.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Fiona,” Lai says dryly.
“Anytime.”
“Are we ready or what?” I ask.
Lai’s eyes flick to me. Nothing about her changes in an obvious way, but it feels like she got sharper, angrier. Good. “Ready when you are.”