The Walls of Orion

by T. D. Fox

  Without a word, W stepped to the side. He twisted the doorknob and tugged it open, forcing her to stumble out of the way.

  Tears stung her eyes. “So that’s it, then? You’re gone.”

  She turned to see him pause in the doorway, his back to her. The seconds scraped by like knives over her skin. She’d almost made up her mind to scream at him to go, to get it over with, when he spoke.

  “Well...” He pushed the door open a little wider. “You could come with me.”

  He turned, just enough for her to see his sharp profile against the cloudy morning. He didn’t look at her. His frosted gray eyes were fixed on the door, half shuttered, still no hint of an expression in them. No hint that this went anything more than one way.

  But... suddenly, she didn’t need one. The wind slipped in from outside, a frigid breath of clarity sweeping over her. She needed no hint, no shove, no final push from a fluttering heart to tip her over the brink. Yes, she had feelings for him. But something ran deeper. This wasn’t about following a man. Courtney got the distinct impression that she’d been toeing the edge of a cliff this whole time, and a stiff breeze had started to blow. The time had come to step back, save herself before her balance gave out.

  Or pitch forward into a freefall she might never, ever recover from.

  Steel settled into her veins. Turning, she grabbed her coat off the hook.

  Her leap would be her own.

  W’s eyes flickered up to her, once, and she caught the first spark of something in them. Surprise? Disbelief? Suspicion? But it was gone in a second as he turned, stepping aside so she could walk through after him.

  Her warm apartment at her back, the cold outside air wrapped around her. Fingers closing around the key in her pocket, Courtney turned. Her hand hovered over the lock as she tugged the door shut.

  Fires. She’d be throwing a match down, walking away down these concrete steps. But this city was already burning, cinders and smoke thick in her lungs, forcing shallow breathing and watery eyesight for far too long.

  She was ready to see. This wasn’t a leap from one burning building to the next; this was flight. Whether or not the landing came soft, for a split second, she’d get a bird’s eye view. She’d find the truth. And she’d snatch that truth out of the dark not Jasper’s way, not W’s way... hers.

  Courtney twisted the key in the deadbolt. With that decisive click, a thousand second thoughts went silent. Phone in her pocket, shoes on her feet—and nothing else. She felt a wild, reckless kind of freedom.

  She’d made the decision to jump a long time ago.

  DEAR READER

  HELLO, NEW FRIEND!

  You've made it all the way through the gritty streets of Orion City to Courtney's final leap into the unknown, so we're officially friends now in my book.

  Thank you so much for diving into the world of Orion with me! Courtney and W's story continues in City of Loons, the fast-paced conclusion of The Walls of Orion duology, coming out in a few months. To keep up with them, and get exclusive character snippets, free short stories, and more, visit my website at www.tdfoxbooks.com and sign up for my newsletter to get first dibs on the new books I'm working on! You can also check me out on instagram at @tdfoxauthor or hit me up on twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

  If you liked The Walls of Orion, please drop me a review, it really helps an indie author out! Thank you!

  I'm so excited to see you again in Book 2!

  AUTHOR'S NOTE & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  IRONICALLY, I BEGAN writing The Walls of Orion in 2016, and finished April 2019, almost an exact year before my country, city, and friends got plunged into a very real pandemic lockdown.

  Luckily I haven't had to live in a city with a two-hundred-foot concrete Wall around it an indefinite curfews. But my real life experience of quarantine while polishing up the final drafts of this heart-child for publishing certainly felt surreal after the last four years of extensive research on, “How would a mysterious pandemic be handled on a city level? On a national level?”

  Imagine my surprise (on top of all the other emotions that come with a pandemic), when, in the middle of finalizing my story's publication, real life beat me to the punch.

  To be honest, it's been a whirlwind.

  I thank the amazing Acorn team for their understanding and willingness to work with me as I lost a job due to Covid-19 shutdowns, then lost housing and struggled to keep my head above water, let alone edit a fat novel, during the pandemic. 2020 was quite a hit to the teeth. But I'm excited to come out the other side, armed with a book and some pretty great new fodder for stories from life experiences.

  I have to shout out my dear friend and writing buddy Kelsey, without whom this story would never have been born. I'll never forget the midnight walk through our college campus under the constellation of Orion, when I threw out the idea of a city with that name. Thus began a fun writing exercise where we played with the idea of creating an origin story of superheroes and villains. She'd write the heroes, and—of course—I'd write the villains.

  Little did we both know I'd fall in love with my villains so thoroughly I'd take their story and run with it, creating a whole new novel from a writing exercise we'd never intended to finish. Not only would Courtney and W get a whole new plot with new direction, they'd get a redemption, and one of them might never become a villain at all.

  The character of the Orion Giant is a tribute to Kelsey's head-child, a vigilante superhero from Chinatown who leaves the gangs of his neighborhood to start fighting crime instead.

  I also need to thank my Mom, who was my biggest fan from the first moment I put pen to paper to tell her a story twenty-one years ago. From editing my (cringe-worthy) first novels at age twelve, all the way up to reading my giant emails stuffed with prose in college, she gave me encouragement, inspiration, and new focus when I felt like scrapping my writing and walking away. This book is dedicated to you, Mom, for always believing I had "infinite potential" and always turning my eyes back to Who made me to be a writer in the first place.

  I would like to shout out my amazing friends: Steph, Emily, Kayla, Rachel and Caleb, Amber, Abigail, Rachel W. and so, so many others that I don't have the space for here. You know who you are. I couldn't have done this without your constant encouragements, late-night talks on the kitchen floor, the midnight runs for boba and the memes—oh so many memes—to keep me laughing and motivated to keep going.

  To my family—my incredible sister, brothers, and my Dad who helped me print out my very first book so long ago on his big workplace printer—words can't fit here how much I love and appreciate you. Thank you for supporting me all these years and helping me grow. I might not get back to Oregon as much as I wish I could, but those mossy green trees and spongy earth will always be home to me in my heart.

  Finally, in loving memory of my dog Jasper. Thanks for sticking by me on my late nights writing this beast of a story, and for being the best boy ever.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A WORLD ROMPER FROM the Pacific Northwest who quite enjoys the label “crazy,” T.D. Fox supplements a hyperactive imagination with real life shenanigans to add pizzazz to her story endeavors.

  Armed with a bachelor's degree in Intercultural Studies, her favorite stories to write usually involve a clash of worldviews, an unflinching reevaluation of one's own internal compass, and an embrace of the compelling unease that arises with vastly different worlds collide.

  When not recklessly exploring inner-city alleyways during midnight thunderstorms in the States, she can be found exploring rainforests without enough bug spray somewhere along the equator.

 

 

 
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