Page 1 of Catalyst

Chapter 1

Callie

It’d been approximately fourteen weeks since my boyfriend passed away.

Not only had he been tragically ripped away from me, he’d also been posthumously labeled as the world’s most dangerousterrorist. But I didn’t believe any of it. Sulien Seo was a lot of things, but he wasnota villain. I would scream his innocence from the rooftops if I could.

Unfortunately, that’d do me no good. No matter what I did, he’d still be dead, and I’d still be mere months away from becoming a single mother. Sulien and I hadn’t been dating for very long beforethishappened, but I’m grateful to have this piece of him.

Our relationship, while short, had been a whirlwind of emotions, ones that came on too fast and burned too strong. Ones that would never have burned out if he hadn’t.

I let out a soft whimper as I rubbed the curve of my stomach. The gentle flutter under my hand was the only thing that stopped me from crying.

A few weeks ago, my sister, Aurora, told me that babies feel everything their moms do. I was pretty sure she only said that in the hope of getting me to stop crying so much. True or not, it was working.

A soft knock came at my door, one I ignored. It didn’t matter if I answered or not; whoever was coming in would do so anyway. Plus, I didn’t need to look to see who it was.

If it was Mom, I’d be able to smell flowers the second the hinges squeaked. Dad would bring a gust of wind with him, and Aurora would say something before invading my space. This time, a chill began creeping in as soon as the door swung open.

At the moment, Jack was my least favorite person in the family. It wasn’t anything he’d done in particular, but more that I couldn’t look at him without thinking about Sulien. Not only were they in the same hero class, but he was also Sulien’s partner during the school showcase. The one that went so horrifically wrong that my sweet, strange, loving boyfriend was branded as a terrorist.

So, instead of acknowledging my brother, I pretended to be asleep.

“Cal, are you awake?” Jack whisper-shouted. “I’m heading out on patrol. I wanted to see you before I did.”

I forced my breathing to stay slow as I buried my face farther in the pillow. His boots shuffled along the floorboards as he inched toward me. His icy presence loomed over me, and I pulled the blanket up to my chin. I wondered: was he staring at me? Was he trying to decide if I was asleep or just avoiding him? Did he even care?

“I know you’re not asleep.” He let out a sigh as he settled beside me. My bed dipped under his weight. “You’ve been snoring since you’ve started looking likethat.”

The disgust in his voice caused my eyes to snap open and shoot him a glare.

“Fuck. Off.” I hissed, trying to hide my wounded pride.

Jack blinked twice before a smug smirk twisted his lips.

“There’s my beautiful baby sister.” His tone was lighter, almost joking... But,boy,did it piss me off.

In response, I smacked him with my pillow.

“I’m serious. Just goaway,” I pleaded before pulling the covers over my head.

“Cal, it’s your birthday. You can’t just hide in your room and mope the day away.”

Jack snatched my blanket, suddenly exposing me to the frigid air around him. I tried my best not to react, even though all of my cells wanted to shiver.

“Actually—it’smybirthday, which means I can do whateverIwant.”

And what I wanted to do was hide in bed and watch reruns of cooking shows while pretending I didn’t exist. Plus, it was my last day to relax before the next semester of college started, meaning this was aperfectway to spend my day.

Jack rolled his eyes before standing up and walking over to the curtains. Before I could formulate a proper protest, he threw them open. Sunlight invaded my room, revealing the mess of blankets and unwashed clothes I’d been doing my best to ignore.

“Mom’s making breakfast—remember, you’re not allowed to skip meals. You opened your legs for a villain, now you have to deal with the consequences.” Jack pointed to my stomach. He must have regretted the words as quickly as he said them, though, because the smugness in his expression faltered.

“He wasn’t a villain!” I snapped, chucking the pillow at him as hard as I could.

Jack didn’t bother dodging, allowing the projectile to hit square on his chest.

We’d been over this a thousand times. I’d defend Sulien; Jack would remind me how the rest of the world saw him. We’d go in circles, and I’d silently wish that I’d been one of the thousands of casualties of last year’s showcase. If I was dead, I wouldn’t have to deal withanyof this.

---