Page 159 of Coldwire
“I couldn’t,” he returns. “By the time we had that exchange after the nightclub, I suspected enough that I didn’t want to risk it, even if it wasn’t fully you. It couldn’t hurt to bring you along. Then we could make a merge rather than have a fragmented copy of your mind existing as Eirale Ward.”
It’s an odd notion to wrap my head around. That there could have been a split, Lia Ward and Eirale Ward as two different people. When Eirale melded into my larger consciousness, I could accept that those actions were mine and those days spent on the run with Nik Grant and his teamwere my memories to carry. All the same, she was a branch. A sector. Closer to me than the Lia Bot I’d put in Kieren’s handheld, but still not entirelyme.
“It was Threto, wasn’t it?” I ask. “The zip line.”
Kieren’s hand hovers up to my temple. He smooths back my hair.
“The zip line,” he confirms. “The saving my life from bird flu. The hand-holding.”
My pulse stutters. “I didn’t realize you were awake for that.”
“Incredibly delirious. But aware in some capacity.”
I swivel suddenly, intent on confessing everything that unfurled afterward, about Teryn and what she demanded. As soon as I tilt my chin, I bring us much closer than I realized.
The kettle is going to whistle any second. My heart is hammering in my ribs. The tracker in the well of water reactivated the moment the stove burner turned on. I’ve made my choice.
I could explain myself, or I could trust that he knows me. Use this time to clutch the one thing that I haven’t let myself long for, because it would be too terrifying not to be understood, too heartbreaking if it wasn’t accepted.
Kieren breathes out softly, holding still.
I lift onto the tips of my toes, and he reads my gesture in an instant. When my lips touch his, he is gentle, soft. His hands skate onto both sides of my face, and for once in my life, I can’t think of what more there is, what more I need. I am satiated, I am satiating, I am tucked safer than a creature in a shell. I am organic, I am strange, and I wrap my arms around Kieren’s neck, bringing him closer. He kisses me, he murmurs my name. It isn’t the sort of hunger I’ve seen described, it isn’t some distant yearning for an abstract body. It is him, only him, within reach in my grasp after all this time he’s spent searching for my pieces to get me back.
The kettle whistles at a high shriek.
We pull apart slowly. I hear the first thud on the rooftop. Kieren doesn’t notice. The pit in my stomach is fathomless. This is all I can have for now; it must be enough.
“I promise,” I whisper, “that I’m doing this for you.”
The explosion blows through the house with a colossal noise. Kieren’s quick to duck, pulling me down, but it’s hard to escape the sudden onslaught of debris and ash falling from a hole in the ceiling. The fumes are in my nose, in my ears, stinging my eyes. There’s screaming, distantly, from the back of the house. Miz and Blare, woken from their sleep.
Don’t hurt them,I plead.Please don’t hurt them.
“Clear!”
“Lia? Lia, what—”
Someone grabs me. I recognize the NileCorp-issued gloves, their rough grip scraping against my bare arm. Kieren is fighting back. Through the haze of smoke, I can hear the commotion, the grunts, but before long they must have him secured because he goes quiet. My arms are pulled behind me. I’m cuffed as tight as possible. They’re shoving me into the living room and I’m scrambling to perform a quick count of how many soldiers NileCorp has brought, whether they’ve called in more backup after losing so many at Offron’s data center. Then I’m pushed outside, the ash from the explosion left behind.
The night is brisk. The stars are out in full force in Offron, the air cleared after decades of inactivity from the factories. No plumes, only velvet swaths sweeping atop the mountains. The Medan soldiers who were guarding our perimeter are all down. With merely one aircraft, NileCorp has brought enough people to overwhelm them. By the time a warning signal is sent to Medan federal for backup, we will be gone.
“Eirale Ward.”
I close my eyes before I can turn to face Teryn. I search fast, digging through the swirl of panic trying to rise. I scrub off every trace of Kieren that remains. Forget him off my skin, off my hands, off my lips. When I open my eyes, I know she’s back, retrieved from whatever hidden channel she was shoved into. Amenable, dutiful Eirale Ward.
LoyalEirale Ward.
“There’s no need to handcuff me,” I say. “I sent for you.”
Teryn isn’t in her combat suit. She’s wearing a formal uniform. The issued gear of high-ranking NileCorp private forces. Surely she hasn’t ascended to that already.
“Your tracker went down,” she says tightly. “When a survey unit checked out the data center, they were shot by Medan authorities.”
“Because Medan authorities rescued Nik Grant,” I offer. “They have new tracker-blocking capabilities. I waited until I was alone before forcing it active.”
They’re hauling Kieren out. Then Miz. Then Blare. My friends see me speaking to Teryn. Miz yells out, confused, but Kieren stays deathly silent.
“Are you familiar with Project Wit?” I ask.
