Etheria (The Halo Series Book 1)

by Melody Robinette

  “It’s red. It cost, like, six hundred dollars, and it has my passport and everything in there. Someone must’ve stolen it." With each word, her voice rose in pitch, until only dogs could understand her.

  “Gray,” Aurora said urgently. He turned, assuming she was going to tell him not to bother with the girl. But, instead, she nodded towards the open pub door. Looking up, his eyes locked on a hooded man, dressed all in black, exiting the pub. In his left hand, he clutched a red designer purse.

  AURORA

  Aurora watched Gray’s body tense when he spotted the hooded man with black eyes glowing from beneath his hood, like coals. Gray turned back to her, their eyes connecting for approximately 1.2 seconds. Then, they were both on their feet. Aurora leapt off her stool so quickly it toppled over. There was no time to alert the girl, who was, likely, too dense to understand what they were saying before the hooded man got away.

  Jumping over her fallen stool, Aurora dashed out the open pub door, tailed closely by Gray. It didn’t take long to locate the hooded man crouched down on the sidewalk across the street from the pub, digging through the girl’s red purse like a rabid wolf tearing through a carcass.

  “We have another pervert on our hands,” Aurora remarked.

  Gray barreled past her towards the man, who looked up with chilling eyes. He smiled slyly before dropping the purse on the cold concrete and vanishing into the shadows of a nearby building.

  Gray knelt down beside the bag when Aurora caught up with him.

  Items were strewn around the cobblestones: lip gloss, money, jewelry, passport, bobby pins, what looked like a miniature Bible and—

  “Look,” Gray said in awe, holding up a silver paper with the word Etheria written across it.

  Aurora’s eyebrows met. “I wonder—”

  “Hey!” a grating voice exclaimed from behind them. “That’s my purse!”

  The girl from the pub approached them looking livid. Distaste turned Aurora's stomach. She knew this girl. Not personally, of course, but in general. She knew her type. Designer clothes. Designer handbag. Designer hair that probably took two hours to style. She was beautiful in a too perfect way. Aurora felt a jolt of envy the same color as the girl’s pale green eyes.

  “Give it back,” the girl snarled like an old, bitchy cat that hates everyone. Her bottom lip jutted out, as if pouting was the only thing she knew to do to get her way.

  Gray stuffed the silver ticket back into the red bag and handed it over to the girl, who snatched it from his hands.

  Aurora crossed her arms and leaned into her hip. “You could say ‘thank you.’”

  The girl tore her eyes from Gray long enough to shoot Aurora an incredulous look. “Thank you for taking my purse and dumping it all over the sidewalk?”

  “We didn’t take your bag, you—”

  Gray cut in before Aurora could say precisely what the girl was. “We were actually returning it to you,” he said apologetically. “Our bags were taken earlier, too, by the same guy that took yours. He was wearing all black with a hood pulled over his head.”

  The girl looked them over—well, mostly Gray—and seemed to come to the conclusion that they were telling the truth. “Well, I guess I should thank you then…” she said after a moment. “What did you say your name was?”

  The question was directed at Gray. Aurora’s dislike for the girl grew considerably, watching in disgust as the brunette batted her long eyelashes in Gray’s direction.

  “I’m Gray, and this is Aurora.” For a few seconds, he rested a hand on Aurora’s shoulder, causing a wave of energy to involuntarily course through her. Then, he moved it...and the feeling remained. Aurora would've rolled her eyes at herself if there weren't two people there to witness this.

  “Nice to meet you, Gray,” the girl drawled in a voice dripping with such sugary sweetness it made Aurora nauseated. “I’m Brielle.”

  “I couldn’t help but notice the silver ticket you had in your bag…” Gray said.

  “To Etheria?” Brielle said. “Why? Have you heard of it before?”

  Gray nodded. “We both have one too.”

  “Oh, that makes me feel so much better! I was beginning to think it was some kind of scam. We will for sure have to hang out on the ship,” Brielle said with a broad smile directed at Gray.

  Aurora snorted in amused disbelief at the girl’s forwardness. Brielle took her eyes off of Gray for just a moment, looking Aurora up and down with a face that suggested she was unimpressed by Gray’s female companion—probably because she could smell non-designer clothes from a mile away. “Well, thank you for saving my bag, Gray. Looks like there are gentlemen outside of Texas, after all.”

  Aurora had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. But then Brielle started up on a tangent about how few good guys there were nowadays, running a hand down Gray’s arm, and Aurora had enough of the southern-belle.

  “Well, this has been super fun,” Aurora said, her voice bleeding with sarcasm. “But I’m going to go buy some Alaskan fudge or something. Nice meeting you, Brianna.”

  “It’s Brielle,” the girl corrected, but Aurora was already walking briskly away, leaving Gray alone with the doe-eyed brunette.

  GRAY

  A frown tugged at Gray’s face as he watched Aurora’s swift retreat. Was she angry with him? Or had Brielle simply given her the perfect excuse to get away from him? Either way, he didn’t like it, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. They had, after all, only known each other for a handful of hours. But they had started this journey together and, for reasons unknown to him, Gray wanted to finish it together. Besides, if he had to choose between a spoiled, overly complimentary brunette, and a blunt, sarcastic blonde…he would take the latter.

  “I’m sorry, Brielle, I—” Gray began.

  “Have to chase after your girlfriend?” she interrupted, looking disappointed. “I understand.”

  “Uh…yeah.” He didn’t correct her, maybe because he didn’t have time, or perhaps, because he didn’t want to. Either way, he had little time to dwell on it, because Aurora was now disappearing around the corner. “It was nice meeting you, Brielle,” he called over his shoulder. “See you on the ship, probably.”

  “I sure hope so,” she returned, sauntering back towards the pub, six hundred dollar bag in tow.

  Without hesitation, Gray bolted down the street after Aurora. Up ahead, he could see her mane of golden hair bobbing through the lunch crowd like a beacon of light.

  Rain began to fall heavily from the overcast sky. People scattered for shelter like insects seeking a dark refuge. Being from Seattle, Aurora was likely accustomed to rain; after all, she was one of the few people remaining on the wet sidewalk. Gray sped up until he'd nearly reached her.

  Aurora had neglected to pull up the hood of her scarlet trench coat, and her previously straightened hair was now springing into loose curls. Gray had always had a weakness for women with natural curls, partly because he had a head full of them himself.

  “You’re gonna catch a cold if you don’t cover your head, you know,” he called ahead to Aurora.

  Stopping abruptly, Aurora turned slowly on her heel to face him. Her expression was hard to discern. Was she relieved? Upset? Overjoyed? Well, probably not that last one.

  “You don’t have your hood up, either,” she said after a moment of looking at him with an indecipherable expression.

  The corner of his lips twitched, but he repressed the smile. Slowly, he reached back, grasped his hood, and pulled it over his head, so the rain now pelted the material like pebbles on concrete. Aurora watched this with an impassive expression, before pulling her own hood over her head with equal slowness.

  They stood there in silence, not breaking eye contact. The red hood brought the blue out in Aurora’s striking dark eyes. They were the most unusual colored eyes Gray had ever come across, a sort of sapphire blue. Not like the lab created sapphires, either—real sapphires, so dark they could almost pass for black. When she wasn’t tryi
ng to be sarcastic or devastatingly blunt—when she looked at him like this—he understood why something within him was whispering for him to stay beside her.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said without thinking.

  Aurora’s eyes widened fractionally at this, and her mouth fell open in apparent shock. Clearly, she hadn’t been expecting him to say this, no more than he had expected to say it.

  He opened his mouth to apologize for his bluntness when she hurriedly interrupted him. “I want to get an ornament for my mom.”

  “Uh—an ornament?” Gray said, taken aback by the abrupt change of subject.

  “Yeah. My mom collects ornaments for her Christmas tree from places she visits. I bet they have ornaments in those tourist shops we passed before.”

  She did a half pirouette and began walking again. Gray followed, realizing that this girl was exceptionally skilled in the art of running away from her problems, which apparently now included him.

  Six

  AURORA

  Usually, when Aurora ran from people, no one followed. But Gray did. Though, she did wonder why. It wasn't like she'd been particularly kind to him.

  The two of them walked the streets in search of a Christmas shop. Gray's eyes cut to her every so often. "You know, you look like Red Riding Hood in that coat," he noted.

  “Yeah? That must make you my sick grandmother,” she said deprecatingly.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of the handsome axman who chops you out of the wolf’s stomach.”

  “It was a huntsman, not an axman," Aurora corrected. "And he cuts her out with scissors.”

  “My apologies. I was unaware I was speaking with a fairytale expert.”

  She sent him a side-eyed smirk. “I’ll let it slide, just this once.”

  “You read a lot of fairytales then?”

  “I read the Grimm Brother’s stories to my brother sometimes, when he won’t go to sleep,” Aurora answered. “My mom did the same for me when I was younger.”

  “How old is your brother?”

  “Sixteen.”

  Gray's right brow moved upwards. “You read fairytales to your sixteen-year-old brother?”

  “He has special needs,” said Aurora in a defensive tone. “And he’s my adopted brother. He was in my mom’s class six years ago. His caretaker mistreated him, and CPS was going to put him in a foster home, but my mom volunteered to adopt him. He’s been living with us ever since.”

  “That’s incredible.” Gray shook his head in awe. “Your mom sounds like an amazing woman.”

  “She is. When she isn’t doing paperwork, she’s usually reading the stories with us. We like to huddle together in the dark closet filled with pillows and read like we’re on a camping trip or something. It started when Danny first came to live with us, and he would get scared at night. I think the small space comforted him. Sometimes we’d even fall asleep.” Aurora laughed softly, reminiscing.

  “If you don’t mind me asking… What happened to your dad?”

  Aurora was quiet a moment, considering whether she minded him asking this or not. Evidently, she didn’t because she answered. “I don’t know. My mom doesn’t talk about him. All I know is that his name is Jason. My mom gave me her last name on my birth certificate, so basically, his first name is all I will ever know about him.”

  “That’s funny,” Gray said.

  Aurora cut her eyes at him as they stopped on the corner, waiting to cross the street. “You have a strange sense of humor then.”

  “No. I mean, I don’t know my dad’s last name either, and my mom never liked talking about him. When I asked about him, she would just change the subject and pretend nothing had been said.”

  Aurora frowned down at the pavement. “Yeah, that’s what my mom does.”

  “If you did know your dad’s last name, would you look for him?”

  “No,” Aurora answered almost instantaneously.

  “Really?” Gray said, doubt emanating from his voice.

  “Yeah, really. I’ve learned a few things about men in my life. They will almost always let you down—it’s in their DNA or something.”

  “That’s amazing,” Gray said as he pressed a hand to her back, indicating it was safe to cross. She tried to ignore the tingling sparks sizzling across her back where his hand rested. She was wearing a thick coat for God’s sake. It wasn’t like he was feeling her up.

  “What’s amazing?” she asked.

  “That you’ve managed to meet and get to know every man on the planet; quite an accomplishment.”

  Aurora rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Oh, so you haven’t met every man on the planet? I suppose that means you’re making this judgment by compiling data from what? Three men? Four, maybe?”

  Aurora pointed ahead to a storefront decked in snowflakes, lights, and pictures of a way-too-jolly-looking Santa Claus. Christmas music blared loudly out the open doors. "There's the Christmas shop."

  “Have I told you that you are exceptionally skilled at changing the subject?”

  “What’s with all of this bear stuff?” she asked as they entered the shop. “Is that their national animal or something?”

  “Okay, you win.” Gray sighed. “Where are the ornaments?

  “Should I get the bear or the fish?” Aurora asked Gray, holding up the two ornaments to compare.

  Gray leaned against a display of snow globes, holding one in his hands. “I thought you didn’t like the bears.” He tipped the glass sphere over to make the glitter pool at the top before turning it right-side up, watching it sprinkle back down on the miniature town inside.

  “They’re growing on me,” Aurora admitted, plucking one of the bear ornaments from the shelf. “Danny loves bears.”

  “Well, if your brother likes bears, get the bear.”

  “But the fish has a sign with Alaska written on it, and the bear is just a bear,” Aurora protested.

  “Then get that.” Gray sighed. “Better yet, get both.”

  Aurora pursed her lips and turned the ornament upside down to see the price. “Holy shit. They’re fifteen bucks each.”

  “Here.” Gray reached up to the top of the display and pulled an ornament down. “This one has a bear with a fish in its mouth, and the bottom says Juneau, Alaska on it.”

  “Perfect. I knew I was keeping you around for a reason,” she said, taking the ornament from him and replacing the rejects on the hooks. “Are you going to get something?”

  Gray shrugged. “Nah. No one to get anything for. Except, you know, the guys at the firehouse. But they’d probably laugh if I brought them back a fish ornament.”

  “Those are the only people in your life? Your co-workers?”

  “Well, when you say it like that…”

  “I guess I can’t talk,” Aurora admitted, thinking about the less than extensive list of people she knew and interacted with: her mom, her brother, and her friend, Shawn, who she only ever saw on weekends. “I’m sort of a lone wolf, myself.”

  “Why?” Gray inquired. “Because the less people you surround yourself with, the less there are to hurt you?”

  This brought Aurora up short, and her eyes narrowed at him. “Looks like the bear is calling the tree brown, I see.”

  “What?”

  “Like the pot calling the kettle black…only less cliché.”

  “Sorry. I’m not trying to be a hypocrite. It just seems to me that—”

  “Well, it was fairly hypocritical, Grayson, seeing as how you’re basically in the same boat.”

  Gray made a face at this. “Don’t call me that.”

  “Then don’t try to psychoanalyze me. You’re a fireman, not a shrink,” Aurora said, turning away from him and trudging to the register to pay.

  After Aurora and Gray had left the Christmas store, they sought out a local coffee shop to re-energize and, more importantly, eat something. Gray seemed both surprised and impressed when Aurora ordered a brown sugar latte, a Caprese Sandwich
with chips, and a colossal cinnamon roll dripping with thick icing.

  “What?” she said in response to his amused face. “I’m starving.”

  “Nothing.” He chuckled and then turned to the barista. “In fact, I’ll have the same. Except, not a latte. Just coffee.”

  “Will you two be paying separate or together?” the barista asked.

  Gray said, “Together,” as Aurora cut in, “Separate.”

  “I can get it,” he insisted, pulling out his worn wallet that looked like it was about to disintegrate into his hand.

  Aurora knew Gray was just trying to be courteous or chivalrous or whatever, but she remained resolute. She didn’t let guys pay for her because that was just one step away from them thinking they had some sort of control. “That’s okay.” Aurora handed the barista her debit card before Gray could. “We can just pay for our own.”

  Aurora caught the barista shooting Gray a sympathetic look and had to keep herself from snapping at the girl. It was a bad idea to anger the person who was about to make your drink. So, she squeezed her mouth shut and turned away from the bar, rolling her suitcase to a pair of armchairs in a dark corner, well out of the way of everyone else.

  Gray plopped his yellow duffle bag beside the chair catty-cornered to Aurora’s and looked at her expectantly for a moment, as if he wanted her to strike up a conversation. She took out her novel instead, opening it to the page marked by her tickets. Out of the corner of her eyes, Aurora watched Gray pull out a thin spiral notebook and a pen. Her eyes went to her novel for a brief moment then back up to Gray who was now writing continuously in the notebook.

  She couldn’t stop herself before she said, “What are you writing in there?”

  His hazel gaze flashed up to hers. “Nosy, are we?”

  “Fine, don’t tell me.” She shrugged, feigning indifference. “Go back to writing your smutty romance novel then.”

  Gray threw his head back in a loud laugh. “How did you guess?”

  “Just a feeling.” A reluctant half-smile pulled up the right side of her face; the left tried to remain aloof and apathetic as always.