Aurora moved away from the desk. She didn’t need to look at the list anymore. She had seen their faces every day over the past six months.
Her stomach growled. “Maybe we should get some food?”
“Yeah, I can eat,” Zane responded.
Aurora smiled, pleased that he wasn’t ready to leave yet.
“I can order some food up if you want.”
“I could go for an energy drink,” she admitted.
“I want pizza!” Kaylana jumped up and down. “It’ll be like a slumber party. And I have the most nova idea of what we can do after we eat.” She beamed her huge smile at both of them until they had no choice but to go along with whatever she said. Kaylana’s attitude was infectious, and Aurora thought it would be nice to spend some time together without having to think about the plots against her.
Zane used his techiwatch to order pizza. Fifteen minutes later when Zane was walking out the door to pick it up, Kaylana teased, “Try not to beat up the guard.”
Aurora’s mouth dropped open, but Zane only shook his head and shut the door.
AURORA
Stuffed with pizza, Aurora leaned back against her bed and sighed in contentment. Things always seemed better when she had a full stomach and an energy drink. If Coach Harris saw what they were eating now, he would double their physical training.
“So what’s this nova idea of yours?” Aurora knew it would probably be something crazy, but she wanted the distraction.
Kaylana shoved the last bite of pizza into her mouth but managed to smile anyway.
“Oh, this isn’t going to be good. What is it?”
Zane watched their interaction as he continued to eat.
Kaylana choked down her last bite. “Well, I was thinking we’d use your ladybug and well, fly it into, um, Hailen’s room.”
Yup, that wasn’t a good idea, but Kaylana plunged on. “It’s only like two doors down the hall and we might even find out something to help us. Plus you’ve been practicing, right?”
Aurora fidgeted with the gold chain around her neck. She didn’t really think spying on Hailen would reveal anything useful, but at least this way she’d feel productive. She couldn’t stand being in the middle of all this drama. All she wanted to do was attend classes, improve her piloting skills, graduate, be placed onto a mission, and maybe go on a date.
“What if Hailen sees it and smashes it?” Aurora asked, appalled at the thought.
“Boring!” Kaylana launched a pillow in her direction.
Aurora ducked and managed to catch the pillow right before it would have smacked her in the face. She stuck her tongue out. “Ha, cat reflexes!”
Kaylana laughed. “And I suppose that’s why you were selected for the flight AOC right? Your cat-like reflexes were just too good for them to pass up.”
“Yeah, well, my cat-like reflexes just might save your life one day.”
“Exactly my point. Even if Hailen sees it, she won’t be able to catch it with your cat-like reflexes.” Kaylana winked.
Aurora laughed but quickly stopped when she remembered they weren’t alone.
Zane was still sitting on the floor, watching them. He had a weird expression on his face that Aurora couldn’t quite figure out. It wasn’t a completely happy look because it was also tinged with sadness. Maybe he wasn’t used to friends acting like her and Kaylana?
Aurora glanced away and down at the pizza box. Their extra large pizza had been completely annihilated.
“Oh, all right. Let’s do it,” Aurora said. Now that the pizza was gone, Aurora wanted another reason for Zane to hang around. Maybe if they did something fun he would.
The ladybug was already sitting out on her desk next to its remote control. It was perfectly poised, with wings extended, as if it patiently waited to be flown.
Aurora picked up the remote control.
The ladybug zoomed off the desk and whizzed past Kaylana, sending her blonde hair into her eyes.
“Whoa, that was close!” Kaylana lay back on her bed in the attempt to avoid any more close flybys. Aurora had been trying to learn to better control the ladybug by practicing in their room, but she still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.
“Did you hear Hailen’s conversation in the locker room today?”
“Yeah, vaguely.” Aurora had been more worried about almost suffocating.
The ladybug crashed onto her bed. She blamed her loss of control on the small Vid display on her techiwatch. It was only about seven inches big, which made it difficult to remotely control its flight path.
“I think I need more practice before this little lady goes on her first aerial reconnaissance mission.”
“There’s a seal under every door anyway. There’s no place for the ladybug to slip through,” Zane said.
“Oh.” Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Kaylana, not fazed by the change in plans, continued. “Well, she’s bringing some celebrity named Rowan to the dance.”
Right, Aurora remembered hearing that. Rowan? Aurora would need a last name to even begin trying to figure out which celebrity she was dating, but even then that might be a lost cause with her stance on the media. Just because she promised herself to take a more active role in her father’s life and not to run away from the media, didn’t mean she kept up with the latest celebrities.
“We have to figure out who this Rowan guy is!” Kaylana grinned, jumping up and down. “And now we know where he’s going to be.” Kaylana pranced around the room, her long lean frame gracefully gliding around their furniture.
Zane and Aurora exchanged a glance. The girl had completely lost her mind.
Kaylana turned to look back at them in disbelief. “Hello?” She drawled out as if she couldn’t believe they hadn’t figured out what she was talking about yet. “Hailen is bringing him to the Lunar Moon Festival, and that’s only a few weeks away.”
Aurora looked at Zane. He stood completely still, his face frozen. “What is it? Do you know who he is?”
Zane came out of his trance. “The only Rowan celebrity I can think of is Rowan Dagan. And the only reason I know that is because I just saw him on the news.”
“As in the son of Frontier Solutions?” Kaylana asked.
Aurora felt the blood drain from her face. Why did she feel like the ground was sinking below her?
“Do you think that’s who Hailen is dating? Rowan Dagan?”
Zane shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out. If she gets permission from Ms. Lovell to bring a non-cadet date, then we’ll see him at the dance.”
“I guess that means Hailen definitely stays on the suspect list,” Kaylana said.
Aurora rubbed her eyes. “Let’s talk after a full night’s sleep. We can’t do anything without proof anyway.”
Zane still appeared deep in thought, and Kaylana took this as her cue to leave. “I’m going to take a shower. See you later, Zane.” Kaylana winked and closed the bathroom door, leaving the two of them alone.
Aurora knew where Kaylana hoped this moment alone with him would go and avoided making eye contact with Zane. It would be the perfect opportunity for Zane to ask her to the dance. Of course she hoped he would want to go with her, but she didn’t want it to be because he was suspicious of Hailen and her possible date.
She finally looked at him, hoping he couldn’t read her thoughts. Zane was standing perfectly still, silently watching her, his eyes actively assessing everything. Right now, Aurora wished she was able to hide her emotions as well as he could.
“So,” she said breaking the silence. All she wanted to do was reach out to him, but he was so closed off. This boy had rescued her with such care just a few hours ago, but now an emotional space the size of ten galaxies spread between them.
Zane twitched and relaxed his carefully controlled movements, softening his face. She still couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but the cold light in his eyes disappeared.
“So.” He looked down. “I, uh, wanted to apologize to
you again—”
“For what?” Aurora rubbed her forehead. When she looked back up, Aurora saw some sort of inner turmoil. Aurora gripped the bed beneath her. She wasn’t sure if she could keep herself from walking over to him. In fact, she was stupidly contemplating the idea of just asking him to the dance herself, but she didn’t want to put herself in that position again.
“I’m sorry for what you overheard in the hallway that one day—”
Aurora held her hand up. “Zane we’ve already had this conversation.” And she didn’t want to hear it again. “I get it. Besides, I think you’ve more than proved your true feelings.”
Not only had he saved her life, but their heated exchange in the locker room earlier proved he liked her.
“Just let me finish,” he whispered, his earlier confidence gone.
Aurora was beginning to recognize the switch. If she was right, then Zane felt the need to hide his emotions, keeping anyone from ever knowing what he was thinking. Occasionally, he would let down his barriers, and Aurora would glimpse pieces of his true feelings—but only through his eyes. Aurora focused her attention there.
“I meant some of the things I said.” Zane paused. “But it was mostly to protect myself from my feelings for you.” His gray eyes remained clear, free of their usual cloudiness. “When I first saw you at the Academy, I was shocked but also kind of excited.” He shook his head, re-living the memory. “I kind of made some assumptions I shouldn’t have.” Zane walked over and stood directly before her. Aurora wasn’t sure what he was going to do next. He was actually opening up to her, and for once his eyes matched his words.
“I can’t explain it, but I can’t have the attention that would certainly come from dating you.” He shrugged his shoulders as if a weight had been lifted off him. Aurora knew dating her could be tough, but she wasn’t sure she understood his desperate need to not draw attention to himself. Actually, who was she to judge? She certainly didn’t handle the unwanted attention well herself.
“So . . . I’m sorry. Again.”
Aurora knew she was getting ahead of herself when she hoped that they could move forward the way she’d wanted all along. She was silent, trying to think of what to say. She wanted to ask him to explain, but she didn’t want him to close in on himself again.
“So I guess what I’m trying to say is . . . I like you, but we can only be friends.”
Say what? “Then what happened in the locker room today? Or at the launch pad?”
Zane swallowed. “Aurora, I’m not going to lie. You’re beautiful, and at some point maybe I’ll be good enough for you. But I can only be friends right now, okay?”
Aurora slowly nodded. She wasn’t going to keep pushing him. And this certainly wasn’t the first time he’d asked just be friends. She didn’t understand it, but what else could she do? Aurora wanted him in her life. “You did save my life earlier today, so I’d say you’re off to a good start.”
Zane sobered, and his face lost all expression. Ugh, I shouldn’t have mentioned the attacks! Aurora wanted to shake him when he resumed their original conversation. The words rushed out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Maybe we should go to the dance together?”
Heat flamed her cheeks, and she covered her mouth with her hands, trying to keep anything else from slipping out. Why did I say that?
“Oh, I’m an idiot. You just said you wanted to be friends and here I am saying we should go to a dance together. Look just forget I said that—”
Zane put his finger against her lips, stopping the over-explaining marathon that was sure to follow. “Actually I think that’s a good idea. We’ll go as friends with Kaylana and Akemi.”
Aurora’s mouth parted, and Zane pulled his finger back like he’d been burned. Unsure of what to say, she kept her mouth shut and let him do all of the talking.
“Akemi and Kaylana seem pretty into each other.” He shrugged, rubbing his finger. “It’ll be a good way to ensure your safety while also seeing if Rowan Dagan is Hailen’s date.” Zane’s face grew serious and calculated, his eyes returning to their usual storm clouds. “If she is dating him, that means your dad was probably right to worry about Frontier Solutions.”
Aurora looked down, trying to hide her disappointment. Why did her last name still have to ruin everything?
Aurora wanted to smack herself. Someone was trying to kill her, for crying out loud, and here she was, worried about her non-existent love life. It was time to focus. Aurora hopped up off the bed and opened the door. “That sounds like a good plan. I’ll tell Kaylana.”
SKY
Eight pointy metallic legs dug into Sky’s hand as he squeezed the parasitic device that caused Aurora’s aircraft to malfunction. Before he accidentally crushed it, he forced his palm to relax.
“So you found this in her helmet?” Sky’s feet sank into the carpet as he walked across the room. He grabbed a T-shirt from the closet, pulling it over his sweaty chest. He had just returned from a late workout to find Zane standing outside his door.
“Yeah, I pretty much had to destroy her helmet to find it. But that one—” Zane pointed to the spider in his hand. “That one came from Aurora’s life-support unit during buoyancy training. You know when you couldn’t get a hold of Aurora? It’s because she was passed out. That thing compromised her life support.”
“Shit,” Sky cursed, shifting uncomfortably. “Is that why you hauled ass to the surface? That—”
“That’s not important,” Zane barked out. He held Sky’s stare.
If Sky didn’t already know Zane’s worst secret, he would have thought he was trying to hide something. “Why didn’t you tell me what was happening?”
“Well, let me see. I guess I was too busy trying to keep Aurora from suffocating. And when everything was back under control, Aurora wanted to keep it quiet.” Zane crossed his arms.
“Why?” Sky swallowed. Hailen’s earlier Keep quiet rang in his head.
“Aurora didn’t want to make a big deal of it.” Zane shrugged. “She’s worried her father will make things hard for her at the Academy. Besides, we don’t exactly know who to trust.” Zane focused on Sky’s face. “You were there both times.”
Sky’s body went rigid, and he gritted out, “I’m the one who helped you get to Aurora’s XT-101 in the first place. So you better have another possible suspect because it wasn’t me.” Sky stared at Zane, but his face held no indication of his thoughts.
Sky placed the spider on his desk, praying this wasn’t going to go where he thought it was. He rubbed his hands through his hair. “I didn’t do this, but Aurora is obviously somebody’s target.”
“Yeah, we just spent the past few hours trying to figure out who was close enough to do it.” Zane picked up the spider Sky had just laid down, placing it in the palm of his hand. “There’s something else you should know.”
“What?” Sky’s eyes widened as Zane pulled a magnifying glass from his pocket. What a weird dude.
“Look, we found a clue on the techspider. If you look closely enough . . . ” Zane placed the spider back in Sky’s hand and placed his magnifying glass on the body of the spider. “There’s a product stamp. FS5509. We don’t know if it means anything for sure, but it’s obviously a Frontier Solutions product.”
Sky dropped the spider, its metallic body clinking against the desk where it rested legs up. He clenched his hands.
“Damn.” Sky carefully picked the spider back up. “Sorry. I guess that just caught me off guard.” Sky struggled to compose his face. His heart raced. It was too much of a coincidence for Aurora Titon to be attacked with a Frontier Solutions product. Hailen had somehow managed to blackmail him before he even knew he could be blackmailed. That little bitch!
“Yeah, does that make sense to you?” Zane tilted his head to the side, watching him.
“I don’t think it’s enough evidence to answer anything,” Sky stated. It was the truth. He couldn’t prove anything with just the spider in his hands. Hailen had hi
s hands tied. If he tried to connect her to the spider without proof, she would crush him.
“Oh, and Aurora heard Hailen say she was dating a famous guy named Rowan.” Zane leaned forward, his jaw set.
Sky licked his lips. “Really? What’s that have to do with anything?” He had to distract Zane from this line of conversation. If Sky kept Aurora safe, then there would be no need to share what he knew, and Hailen would keep his secret.
“We think she may be dating Rowan Dagan,” Zane whispered.
“What?” Sky tried to appear shocked. He dropped his mouth open.
Zane shrugged. “If she brings him to the dance, we’ll know for sure.”
Sky nodded. “That’s good to know, but right now that doesn’t matter. We don’t have proof of anything.”
“That’s what we thought too. But what should we do? We can’t just sit back and wait for someone to try to kill Aurora again.” Zane clenched his fist.
“We can’t do anything yet, especially you. If you even hint that Frontier Solutions is attacking Aurora, you’ll be slammed for being an unknown.”
Zane flinched and Sky regretted his statement. He just needed to steer the conversation elsewhere. If anyone understood Zane’s need to keep his past hidden, it would be him.
“Yeah, well, everyone would believe the Academy’s star astronaut,” Zane retorted.
Sky smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “I’m afraid that on this it’s going to take more proof than just my word. Maybe Hailen will be dumb enough to bring him to the dance.” Sky could only hope, though that would be totally stupid of her. Who would be dumb enough to show their face at the Academy if they were attacking one of their students?
The Apollo Academy Page 22
