Feudlings In Smoke (Fate On Fire Short Story) (4 page)

He realized Ari was still waiting for an answer. Right. “He was in love with her. She refused him and married a rich guy named William. Where my name came from, by the way. I bet he was stunningly handsome.”

Ari rolled her eyes, not impressed at all with his knowledge or comparisons. “So this guy… this Carules, he did it all because he got shot down?”

Good question. Will stared out the window, toward his colony. The Carules he lived with had told him their version of the story, and the Edrens shared theirs, although they had strict rules against arguing over it. That's all they'd need, a mini-war to break out
inside
the wards. So he tried to play it middle-of-the-road. “Some say he lost his mind. Some even say that Ada and the duke were torturing him with experimental spells.” He glanced back at her and shrugged. “I don't know. A lot of people have died for a cause no one believes in but the ones in charge.”

Ari frowned. “The Family. And the Council.”

Will sat down next to her, spilling her healing tea that she wasn't drinking. It would leave a nasty stain on his couch, and getting a good stain remover into the colony was next to impossible. She was lucky she was more powerful than he was, or he would have made her clean it herself. Instead, he distracted her with talk of her new friends. It was clear right away that she had a serious thing for one of them, a boy named Shane and a not-so-serious interest in another — who happened to be Shane’s best friend, a guy named Hunter, and Will mentally cackled like an evil villain at the chance to finally threaten some helpless boys about the consequences if they should happen to hurt and/or touch his sister. And then he rearranged his face before Ari realized he was on to her.

She had made girl friends, too — Charity, Nevaeh, and Olivia — which was such a relief to Will that, if he were the weeping kind, he would have wept. Ari might not admit it, but his sister needed friends. Good friends. Desperately.

Thankfully, she'd gotten enough of the tea down her that it made her sleepy, and when her eyes started to droop he left her there to sleep, and went to work. In his office. Approximately four feet away.

She slept for hours, finally wandering in sometime after three. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked, trying to untangle her wild curls.

He glanced at her and back to his computer. “Working. Some of us have to earn our keep.” He grinned at his computer, ready to duck if she tried to smack him.

“Right. Curse my lazy hide. I'm going for a walk. Want to come?”

A walk. Outside, in the fresh air. What a concept. He nodded, shoving himself away from his computer. “Yeah, I could use a break.”

Ari stayed for several hours, visiting the other Renegades in the colony. And before she went back to school, she skipped out into the real world to grab pizza and his mail, which was always a bonus.

“And that is why I let her leave to live in the outside world,” he told his empty room after she left. “Who else is going to bring me pizza?”

Chapter Three

Over the next few weeks, Ari had to call him three times for a shroud, which meant three times she went into battle without him. The knowledge that he was making her face this all alone ate at him, and sleep was pretty much nonexistent.

So when the phone rang at 3:00 a.m., he was awake, staring at the ceiling. Only two people ever called him. Anyone in the colony would just walk over unless it was a serious emergency. He jerked upright, tangled in the blankets, and careened off the bed in an attempt to reach his nightstand. His hand just caught the phone as he plummeted to the floor, and it sailed after him, landing with a painful thump on his head before bouncing to his lap. Ari's name and face lit up the screen.

“Ari? What's wrong?”

“Nothing, Will. I'm just worried about something. Can you talk?”

Relief flooded through him, but he knew Ari wouldn't be calling if there wasn't something seriously stressing her. “What's up, baby sister?”

“Can I come home? It's hard to talk here. I'm hiding in the bushes right now and I'm pretty sure there are
spiders
all around me. Crickets, too.”

Will smirked. Mighty warrior afraid of bugs. “Yep. Ready?” He counted down, hearing her muttering the same numbers across the line, and then he swirled his hand through the
saldepement
spell. He halfheartedly wished she would bring him food, but the fact that it was the middle of the night gave him little hope.

The doorway shimmered to life and Ari rose to her feet, long black and red curls tumbling loose nearly to her waist. She was in shorts and a tank top and if he wasn't mistaken… yes. His big, tough sister was wearing fuzzy pink slippers.

He fought valiantly to hide a smile. He failed.

“What? My feet were cold.” She strode past him and plopped on his bed, staring up at him expectantly. Their mother had black and red hair like they did — wild curls just like Ari's. Otherwise, he'd never seen anyone like them, but it was rumored Ada Aleshire, the Edren responsible for starting the entire war, had also possessed the black and red hair. Also like him
and
their mother, Ari had big super dark-brown eyes. He knew his sister was beautiful. What surprised him was that he hadn't had to threaten or kill any boys yet. He'd been waiting for that day his entire life. He had high hopes that Hunter or Shane wouldn't disappoint him.

“Come.” She patted the bed next to her, bouncing just a bit. “Sit. Talk.”

Will ran a hand through his hair and flipped on the lamp before collapsing next to her. He stretched out his long legs and propped himself up on his pillows. “What's up, buttercup?”

“Is there any chance whatsoever that there could be a spy in the colony, Will?” As usual, Ari got straight to the point, although she had the decency to wince after she said it, realizing how painful that question must be.

He shook his head. “No. Not a chance. These people are like family, Ari. Better than family. These people don't turn on you like family does.”

She held up her hands, as if warding off his anger. “I had to ask. Something… isn't right.”

He sat forward. “What do you mean, something isn't right?”

Ari didn't fidget. So when she started picking at her nails, he finally had sense enough to be truly worried. “Ari.”

“Usually when Richard sends me into battle, they don't know I'm coming, right? They're usually just mild skirmishes and there aren't a lot of Carules waiting for me. But lately…” she paused, squinting at him as if trying to judge whether he was annoyed at her suspicion. “Lately there are a ton of Carules and they
are
waiting for me. Literally. They're standing around, throwing small spells to stay alive, saving their magic to fight me. It's like someone is telling them I'm coming.”

Will's brain raced as he tried to process the information, annoyed at himself for his sleep-deprived fog. “You've been in a lot of battles. Maybe they just assume you are coming?” It sounded stupid, even to him.

She shook her head, twirling a red curl around her finger. “I've actually been fighting less lately than I ever have before. Like Richard knows something big is coming and he's saving me for that. Plus, there are hundreds of battles all over the world every week. They can't all expect me to show up.”

“Wait, go back to the Richard-waiting thing — why do you think that?”

She shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

“The war is profitable for Richard. He may very well be trying to facilitate a very large battle that will risk many lives and stir up lots of anger.” He leaned back against his pillow, frowning.

“Will, focus. And don't use the word facilitate. It makes you sound old.” She crawled over his legs to the other side of the bed, stacking throw pillows behind and around her so she could spread out like he was. “We both know Richard is always trying to start something. This isn't news. But the Carules thing worries me. Somehow, they know I'm coming.”

And if they knew she was coming, they could bring in their Prodigy. Trap her with too many forces. She was tough, but even Ari couldn't take on an entire army alone. Suddenly, Will was positive he wouldn't be sleeping again. Ever.

“I'll figure it out, Ari. Until then, I don't care what you have to do. Stay out of battles.”

She sighed and leaned her head over against his shoulder. “I know you will. I just have this feeling… I can't shake it. Like something bad is coming.”

Horror made it hard for Will to speak, but he swallowed it. Ari didn't need him to be scared. Ari needed him to save her.

“Get some sleep. I'll wake you up before school starts.” He started to slide out from under her, but she stopped him, yawning as she said, “Will?”

“What, baby sister?”

“Don't go save the day right now. Just stay here and talk to me 'til I fall asleep.”

He forced a laugh, “What are you saying? I'm so boring I put you to sleep?”

She shrugged as he settled back onto the bed. “You did use the word facilitate in a sentence.”

He frowned at her. “Facilitate is a fine word.”

She snickered.

“Okay, fine. You wanna talk? How are things with Shane?”

Her snickering stopped abruptly and she sat up, glaring at him. “Things are fine with Shane. He's a very good friend.”

“And Hunter, too, right?”

Her glare was downright menacing now. “Yes. Hunter too.”

He finally gave up and laughed. “Tell me about your friends, Ari. Tell me about school.”

So Ari told him about Hunter and Shane and Charity and Nev and Livi — all her friends that, if Will didn't know better, he'd be pretty sure Ari loved.

And then his sneaky sister turned the tables and asked him about Dani. What was worse, she fell asleep before he even got to the part about how Dani liked to make him pancakes.

****

“Ari thinks there's a spy in the colony,” Will said as soon as Dani walked through his door the next morning. Ari had gone back to school two hours earlier and since then, he'd gone over the battle maps he and Dani had created. None of the places Ari had been sent to recently should have had a large number of Carules waiting for her. So he had been running through phone records and e-mails ever since.

The phone records and e-mails of his own colonists.

Dani paled, her eyes widening. “What? Why? That's horrible!”

“I know. But she says the Carules are expecting her when she goes to these battles. And since the only one who knows where she's going is me…”

Dani went to the kitchen, flipping on the stove as she dug through his cupboards, hopefully looking for pancake ingredients. Will had forgotten to eat, and pancakes sounded mighty good. “You aren't the only one who knows where she's going, Will. Her grandfather knows, too.”

Will froze, mid-typing. “Richard?”

“Not him, of course. He wouldn't want his precious weapon outnumbered. But someone with him could be jealous of her or afraid of her or just tired of the war. We should check them out.”

Franklin.

His mother's husband. Will had never met him, but if what Ari said was true, the man was the worst kind of slime ball. And he hated Ari. Ari had told him stories… Vivian wouldn’t stand up to him because of her fear of Richard. And when Ari didn’t behave, both men took it out on Vivian. Rumors said his mother was super powerful, but she wouldn’t use that power because she was afraid, then, that Richard would hurt Ari. It was a vicious, vicious cycle.

Thinking of Vivian convinced him. It was time to put in a call to his own Edren spy.

“I'm going for a walk. Hopefully the fresh air will clear this fog trying to smother my brain.” He stood up and wandered out the door, grabbing his phone off the coffee table as he went. Dani gave him a distracted wave from the kitchen.

Once outside, Will scrolled through his contact list 'til he got to the M's. He hit send and waited three rings.

“Will? Is everything okay?”

“Hi Mom. I'm not sure. Can you talk right now?”

He heard rustling in the background, and then the sound of a door clicking shut. “Yes. I can now.” Vivian had the barest hint of an accent. She'd grown up in the U.K., but as far as Will knew, she hadn't been back since she was young.

“Mom, when Ari gets sent out to a battle, who knows?” He wandered aimlessly down the dusty road, waving as friends passed him. He headed toward an empty cul-de-sac so he couldn't easily be overheard.

“I do, usually. Richard does, always.”

“What about Franklin?” Will asked.

She paused before answering. “Yes, Franklin knows. He usually accompanies her. What is this about, Will?”

“Ari thinks there's a spy in the colony. I don't believe that's possible.”

He heard Vivian's sharp intake of breath. “Why, exactly, does she think there's a spy?”

Will quickly told her everything Ari had told him, and the information from his maps. “The Carules know she's coming, Mom. Someone is telling them.”

He could hear her breathing on the other end, so he knew she was there, but she didn't speak for several long moments. “I don't think it's Franklin.”

His mother wasn't strong like Ari. She didn't fight, although it was rumored that she had once been powerful. She hid the fact that she knew Will was alive from everyone, including her father, although that might have been to protect him more than to protect herself. She stayed at the family estate to protect Ari, because Ari wouldn't leave until she could free Will.

So actually, maybe she was stronger than them all.

“I'll look into it, Will, and see what I can find out. In the meantime, I would look at who in your colony has a direct line of communication with the Carules Council.”

Will knew these people as well as he knew his own sister. They were all powerful, which is why their respective sides believed they had to die, but none of them had anyone high up enough that they could speak to the Council and live to tell about it.

Except Dani.

Will's eyes unwillingly strayed up to his house, where Dani, the woman he loved, the woman he one day wanted to start a life with, his best friend and the only constant thing in his life for the last several years — cooked him breakfast.