Galdoni (9 page)

We stopped at the bridge that crossed a deep
chasm through the woods. I could hear water far below, but the fog
stood almost level with the lips of earth on either side of us and
obscured the bottom.

“
It looks like you could
jump off and float forever,” Brie said, her voice
dreamy.

I stared at her.

“
What?” she asked. When I
didn’t answer, she smiled at me. “You’ve been quiet. What are you
thinking about?”

“
Desperate thoughts,” I
replied quietly.

She watched me for a moment as though to
gauge whether I was kidding, then her eyes widened when she noticed
the trench coat I had discarded on the railing. I couldn’t remember
how it had gotten there, but the rush of the breeze through the
feathers of my wings felt more like hope than I had ever let myself
experience.

“
Kale?” she
asked.

Before she could stop me, I was standing on
the railing staring down into the bottomless fog. It swirled below
like whip cream melting in a cup of hot chocolate.

“
Kale?” her voice rose,
alarmed.

“
I can’t live like this,
Brie,” I whispered, my eyes on the ravine.

Before she could protest, I jumped.

The damp wind rushed past; moisture clung to
my clothes and filled my senses with its heady aroma. It took all
my effort not to close my eyes and let it end there, my last
thoughts of the wind and welcoming darkness.

“
Kale!” Brie’s scream
reached me and I opened my wings.

Pain laced through them at the unexpected
force. I closed them for fear that they would break again. The
sound of the river below roared in my ears. I fought past the fear
and opened them enough to catch the wind that rushed by me. At
first, it felt as though the wings were useless. The bottom of the
ravine sped closer with them open, and a grim chuckle sounded in my
mind at the irony. Then the wind caught and they lifted, filling
with air as though they had never been damaged. I skimmed just
above the river; it splashed on my face and I laughed once in
triumph.

It felt so good to fly. I glided above the
water, challenging myself with the dark twists and turns through
the fog that tried to tear me from the air. I kicked off a large
rock and shot upward. My wings ached, but it felt good, so good, to
beat the air down and rise above the ground, above the trees, above
the clouds to the stars. I soared for a few minutes high in the
dark sky.

A peace I had never known before filled my
heart. I breathed the crisp night air and held it in until my lungs
burned. I let it out with a laugh and flew in lazy circles.

The bell tower near the school tolled below,
breaking through my reverie. I remembered.

“
Brie.”

I dove heedless of the dark night and foggy
trees until I saw her silhouette on the bridge. She stood on the
railing, her hands clutching the support wires and her eyes on the
fog below. My heart slowed at the gleam of tears on her cheeks. I
landed quietly on the road a few feet away.

No one cried for me. No one had ever cried
for me; nothing I had done ever instilled that type of emotion in
anyone. I hadn’t been made to cry for.

I took a step forward, fighting the pressure
in my chest. “Brie?” I asked quietly.

She turned, and the relief on her face felt
like the sun after a long rain. “Kale!”

She jumped down from the railing and ran the
last few feet between us. She threw her arms around me and held me
tight. I stumbled back on my bad knee, but managed to keep
standing. Her tears soaked through my shirt and my soul. “Oh, Kale.
Don’t ever, ever do that again. Promise me.”

“
Brie, I-“

She looked up and glared, the expression
comedic with the tear trails down her cheeks and the way her mussed
hair circled her face, but I couldn’t smile. I only saw the hurt in
her eyes, the sorrow that she thought I would leave her like that
after everything, the loss as one who only dares to hold on to so
little feels.

I stepped back, my heart barely beating.
“Brie, you can’t look at me like that. You can’t . . . you can’t
feel about me like that.” I struggled to keep my emotions in check,
to fight past the feeling of a fist encircling my heart.

“
And you can’t go diving
off bridges with a death wish,” she said, her hands knotted into
fists and her eyes burning into mine. “You can’t believe that
flying is the only thing there is. You just can’t.”

“
It’s all I’ve got,” I
replied; my voice catching.

“
No, it’s not. You’ve got
me; you’ve got all of us.” She wiped a fresh tear off her cheek.
“You’ve got me,” she repeated.

“
I-,” I didn’t know what to
say. I rubbed my forehead, then threw my hands down in frustration.
“I’m not worth all that.”

Her eyes softened and she grabbed one of my
hands. “Kale, look at me.”

I shook my head, afraid of what my face
would show.

She put a hand on my chest, her fingers
gentle. I looked back, surprised, and she stood on her tiptoes so
that her lips touched mine.

Fire ran from her lips and filled me with
such intensity my breath caught in my throat. I kissed her back,
carefully, slowly. My hand lifted of its own accord and tangled
gently in her hair. Her lips smiled in response and she lowered her
head so that it rested under my chin.

It was all I could do to stand there. My
knees threatened to give out, and not just the bad one. The scent
of her perfumed hair filled my senses and drowned out my thoughts.
I put my arms around her, afraid to let go and afraid of hurting
her at the same time.

“
Your heart’s racing,” she
said in a whisper after a few minutes had passed.

“
It’s going to explode from
my chest,” I replied when I was semi-confident my voice would
remain steady.

I could hear a smile in her voice. “Is it
from flying or from me?”

“
You, mostly,” I replied. I
felt bare, stripped, as though honesty was the only thing I had
left to offer her.

She tipped her head up and looked at me.
“Does that mean flying’s not as grand as you remembered?” Her tone
was teasing.

I shook my head. “Even better, but nothing
like you.”

She smiled and stepped back without letting
go of my hand. “Good answer.”

A thought came to my mind. It was the only
thing I could offer her, the one piece of my soul that hadn’t been
smashed to bits at the Academy. “Fly with me.”

“
What?”

“
Fly with me. Let me show
you.” At her hesitancy, I smiled, my heart lighter than it had ever
been. “Do you trust me?”

“
Of course,” she answered
without hesitation.

“
Then let me give you the
only thing I have to give.”

She walked beside me back to the railing and
stood where I had jumped off a few short minutes before, minutes
that felt like an eternity of my life had past. I put my arms
around her waist.

“
Ready?”

“
Are you sure you’re strong
enough?”

I beat my wings up and down and felt a grin
spread across my face at the power in them. She nodded and we
jumped.

I pulled up shorter this time, surprised
that Brie didn’t scream or fight against the fall. She merely
clutched my arms around her waist and waited. I heard her breath
catch as the wind filled my wings and carried us up and over the
fog. I pushed down hard and took us above the cloud cover to the
star-filled sky above.

“
Oh, Kale,” she
whispered.

I smiled at her, her eyes on the sparse view
of the buildings through the clouds. Her brown hair tangled in the
wind and when she glanced back at me, her eyes were alight with the
stars and the shine of the moon on the clouds.

I pushed my wings harder and farther than I
probably should have, but it was worth it to finally fly free, to
soar without walls or chains or fear, to just give in to the
flight.

When we finally landed behind Nikko’s house,
Brie stood on her tiptoes again and brushed my lips softly with
hers. She smiled as though she couldn’t smile big enough. “That was
wonderful,” she breathed.

“
Then it won’t be your last
time,” I replied. I didn’t know why I said it, or why my heart gave
an unexpected thump at the way her face lit up, but I knew at that
moment that what was left of my heart was no longer my
own.

She took my hand in hers and walked slowly
toward the front of the house.

The second we crossed into view of the
windows, the front door opened and Jayce burst out, his eyes
sparking with anger. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
He threw something on the lawn and charged down the stairs.

I put my hands up and backed away against
every fiber in my body that screamed for me to get in the first
strike and take the advantage in the fight. Jayce brushed past Brie
and swung for my head. I ducked and instinct took over. I butted my
head against his stomach and bowled him over. He grabbed my
shoulders and pulled me over after him. I rolled over the top of
his head and landed back on my feet in a crouch, then spun back to
face him, my hands loose and muscles tense for his next attack. He
pushed up to his feet and started toward me again.

“
Jayce!” Nikko yelled from
the door. He ran down and stood between us, a hand on Jayce’s
chest. “Jayce, think about what you’re doing.”

“
I know what I’m doing,”
Jayce growled, his eyes locked on mine.

“
No, you don’t,” Nikko
said. He shoved Jayce hard enough to make him take a few steps
back. “Look who you’re attacking. Kale could tear you apart. It’s
what he’s trained to do.”

Jayce’s chest rose and fell as he glared
from Nikko to me. His eyes then widened slightly and he dropped his
hands to his sides. “But the danger. You said so yourself they’d be
on us in a heartbeat if they ever found out.” He pointed at the
pile of cloth he had thrown on the ground. “I found that on the
bridge. What do you think they would do if they found you without
it?”

“
Who?” Brie
demanded.

I looked at where Jayce pointed and
recognized my crumpled trench coat. I walked over and picked it up,
my eyes never leaving Jayce. “The police,” I answered. I clenched
the fabric hard in my fist. “You’re right, Jayce. I put us all in
danger.”

“
Kale, no,” Brie
protested.

I glanced at her. “He’s right, Brie. It’s
too dangerous, and I know better. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“
None of us are thinking
too clearly after all the cramming for midterms,” Nikko said in an
urgent tone. “Let’s get in the house and talk about this. There’s
no need to make any rash decisions.”

I looked at Jayce and he nodded, his eyes on
my wings. The shadow from the porch light behind me pooled at my
feet, and I saw what he did. My wings were open, held out and
loose, no longer bound tightly to my back. In my shadow, I looked
like a huge winged beast waiting to spring.

I pulled my wings in tight and threw the
coat around my shoulders as I walked up the porch steps behind
Jayce. A slight shudder ran through me when the coat settled around
my shoulders; it felt as though I relinquished my freedom with the
simple action, but I pushed the feeling down and stepped into the
house.

Chapter Seven

“
It can’t be like this, we
all know it can’t,” Jayce said with a shake of his head.

“
Then what does Kale have
to do, leave?” Brie protested.

“
Yes,” Jayce and I said at
the same time.

Jayce glanced at me. “It’s not that I don’t
like you. I think you’re great and all; it’s just if they find you
here-“

“
I know.” I stared out the
living room window at the night beyond. “It’d be a danger to all of
you.”

“
And yourself,” he pointed
out. “This area isn’t exactly the safest place to hide from the
cops if you know what I mean. They’re always on the rounds here,
checking for underage drinking parties and what not. It’s only a
matter of time.”

“
But we’re not out of time
yet,” Nikko said. “We just need to be more careful.”

“
But you were meant to
fly,” Jayce replied. He met my gaze. “We might as well break your
wings again; it’s like you’re being held hostage anyway. I know I'm
not the only one who's noticed how often you stare out at the sky.”
He glanced meaningfully at the trench coat. “I can tell how much
you hate wearing that thing.”

“
And where would you like
him to go?” Brie asked. She sat in a corner of the couch with her
knees drawn up under her chin and her hands clenched around them.
“It’s not like places are screaming welcome for Galdoni.” She
looked as though she was fighting back tears.

“
I’ll be fine,” I told her.
I couldn’t bear to meet her gaze. Jayce’s expression was firm, his
fear for his sister in his eyes. Nikko’s brow furrowed and I
assumed he was searching for a way around the problem, a solution
that would make everyone happy. I shook my head. “The plan was for
me to go back to the Academy when I was healed, and I’m good enough
now. I’ve got to stop what they’re doing; it’s wrong and there’s
got to be a way to end it.”

“
But putting yourself in
danger isn’t going to solve anything,” Brie argued. “They’re going
to start the Arena battles again. What’s to stop them from throwing
you back in there?” I could hear the heartbreak in her voice and it
tore through my chest like a dagger.