Page 15 of Tears of Tungsten
He didn’t point out that he was already hurrying. Maybe he realized why I’d deemed it necessary to make the request.“I know.”
I should’ve given him more credit. He crossed the academy in record time, making his way through throngs of confused, agitated students. No one was evacuating, which seemed to indicate the incident wasn’t serious. But I’d already determined that people at the academy didn’t have a lot of sense, so I couldn’t rely on that alone.
My worst fears were proven correct when Knox burst into the hangars. He deposited me down, at which point I realized August was in a worse situation than I’d thought. There had clearly been another clash between him, Pollux and the Harpy Squad, because the members of The Lower Chimera Unit had been thrown back by the blast I’d heard. None of them were unconscious and their wounds weren’t too severe. Even so, I knew it was only a matter of time until the situation escalated.
It would be so easy for August to kill them. I could see it in his eyes, in his stance. In fact, he’d have already done it had Pollux not been there, holding him back.
But Pollux could only do so much, and it was my turn to help him, to help them both. I didn’t know what could have determined August to lash out like this, but I did know one thing. I would not let August throw his life out the window, not while there was still breath in my body.
* * *
Pollux
The day had started well enough. We’d woken up together in our quarters and indulged in a quickie with Selene. After that, we’d grabbed breakfast in a rush and had run off to our respective classes.
Astronomy had gone well. Dr. Achebe had an interesting syllabus for us this semester, addressing some of the questions I had about more distant galaxies. It did make me wonder if The Grand Judiciary had plans for another jaunt in apsid territory, but I hoped that they knew better by now.
The day went downhill from there. Brendan had to go speak with his father, and although he swore up and down that The Grand Judiciary hadn’t made a decision yet, I wasn’t too reassured. Knox offered to pick Selene up from Tachyon Firearms and escort her to her next class, which left August and me to head onto Chimera Technology alone.
We shared Chimera Technology with the students from the Harpy Squad, as well as a couple of other young men who were being considered as possible pilots for chimeras. After Jared’s death, the Zephyrus had been left without a tamer, and several candidates were already lined up to take his place.
In hindsight, that should’ve been a warning that something would go wrong. Originally, there had been rumors that August might pilot the Zephyrus until Charybdis awoke, but The Grand Judiciary had changed their minds.
It didn’t occur to us to dwell on it, not until we entered the hangars that day. The other students were all already present, and when they turned toward us, their hostility settled over us like a physical weight.
Our chimeras weren’t present, but I still reached out to Scylla, exasperated.“They’re going to give us a hard time, won’t they?”
“They’re going to try. But I’m confident you can stand up to them. They’re insignificant insects anyway. I’ve always believed the Harpies choose their tamers out of sheer sadism, to make everyone else miserable by forcing us to share space with a maximum amount of idiocy.”
That made a lot of sense, and it would explain some of the dumber exchanges I’d had with the Harpy Squad over the years. The harpies were certainly petty enough to do something like that just out of spite.
Scylla was right, though. These assholes were no threat to us. We’d pretend to be civil, and once the class was over, we’d go back to ignoring them.
Since the teacher had yet to arrive, we didn’t bother interacting with the Harpy Squad too much. We nodded silently, acknowledging their presence while still keeping our distance from them.
The other tamers weren’t nearly as wise. Vincent Glass took a step forward and made a beeline for August. “Cavallero, I’m surprised they still let you in the hangars. Haven’t you done enough? You’ve already killed the Charybdis. Do you want to take out all of our chimeras with your incompetence?”
The idea that a piloting mistake had caused Charybdis’s dormancy had been circulating in the school—and outside of it—for a while now. The official statement from The Grand Judiciary cleared August of all blame, but that didn’t mean everyone believed it. I’d just never expected them to throw it into his face like this.
“Shut your mouth,” August snarled at Vincent. “You don’t know anything about me and Charybdis.”
“I know plenty. She was your chimera and you failed her.”
August didn’t flinch, but the twitch in his brow told me that had hit a nerve. “Charybdis is still August’s chimera,” I said. “That hasn’t changed. She’s gone dormant for now, but I have no doubt that she’ll come back.”
Encouraged by our lack of physical hostility, Scott Argyle joined Vincent. In the past, he’d been a little more cautious in his behavior toward us, but today, he seemed to have lost all sense. “She won’t return. Your boyfriend well and truly fucked up, my lord Donadieu. But then again, what can you expect from someone of Terran origin?”
I wanted to throw something at him. This was the last thing we needed now, when we were on the brink of disaster because of the recent orders Brendan had received. August’s parentage had never been an issue, since countless people were recruited by The Grand Judiciary through the Terran Star Fleet Program. It was stupid to fixate on it.
Scott almost seemed to agree, but it changed nothing about his attitude. He smiled at me, an unpleasant twist of lips that gave me a bad feeling. “Then again, it might not have been you. Maybe it was your pretty Terran slut. I bet you’re all so distracted by her pussy that—”
Tachyons rushed out of August in an outburst that would’ve undoubtedly thrown me off my feet had I not been next to immune to his power. Vincent and Scott were violently thrown back, straight into the crowd of students.
I grabbed August’s arm, keeping him from continuing his attack. Tachyons were already dancing around his body in a furious, infernal rush. It reminded me of the sun’s corona, and I knew it could burn him as badly as it burnt other people if he wasn’t careful.
“Breathe, August. Don’t let them get to you.”
“You heard what they said, Pollux. I can’t just let them get away with it.”
