Page 41 (1/1)
My heart thuds as we stare at each other The wispfire growing all over the ceiling washes her skin with blue-green light Her dark eyes are wary, but not afraid I’ to think she doesn’t have that in her "We’re keeping this door locked" I break the silence,to keep it with me at all ti to sit up a little straighter where she’s leaning against the wall, but says nothing in return If she’s relieved, she doesn’t show it, gaze skittering away from mine to fix on the door "You called him McBride" Her own voice is hoarse
I flinch "Yes" And I knohy she’s asking McBride’s been at the top of TerraDyn’s most-wanted list for the last decade To so her hands on hi our hands on her
"He’s got one of our guns"
"He likes the poetry of it" Killing soldiers with their oeapons
She speaks through clenched teeth "He’s , I want to say Instead I stay silent, reaching for the ht with me She flinches when I reach for the bottom of her shirt, but she lets me ease the bloodstained fabric up and away frorazed her side is oozing, and above it I can see the beginnings of the sharp, draht a lantern, but I don’t want anyone to catchour precious first aid supplies on a trodaire Safer to work by the diht of the wispfire I clean the worst of the blood aith a boiled rag, then reach for a se to her voice as I prize the lid free and sniff the brown muck inside to test its freshness
"Microbioticto concentrate on the wound, and not Jubilee’s bare stoers across her skin and test for the heat of infection
"Mud" Dubiousness cuts through the pain in her voice; she’s eyeing me like I’ve lost er, no doubt, or pain
I pull my hand away and scoop out some of our makeshift antiseptic "Mud," I echo "It’ll help keep infection away" I carefully start to smooth it over the wound as she flinches and hisses with pain Her skin twitches underintently at the ceiling with her lip caught between her teeth
"The light," she says finally, voice tense with pain, but softer now "How do you do that?" Her eyes are on the bioluh her face betrays little except that she’s braced againstacross the ceiling with so like wonder In this moment she could be one of us I don’t think I’ve ever seen an outsider admire any part of Avon before
"It’s a kind of ; it’s hard not to watch her face "We’ve always called it wispfire"
She’s silent for a long time "It’s like a nebula," she lance at her, and though her eyes are glazed a little with pain, she’s still gazing upward
"A nebula’s sothis process easier for her, and I want to get through it as quickly as possible Or--and I can barely admit it even to myself--perhaps it’s because this softer, quieter version of Jubilee is fascinating "I’ve wondered before if that’s how starlight looks"
She blinks, refocusing with some difficulty on my face "You’ve never been off-world before" It’s not quite a question--but she’s surprised
"Hoould I get off-world?" Despite ood intentions, I can hear the bitterness in my voice "Avon’smyself for a snapped retort, but it doesn’t co at her face, replacing the tin in the kit and reaching for the bandages instead
"I’ve always thought nebulae were beautiful," she says finally, her voice still quiet She sounds tired, and I can’t bla make my own side ache in sympathy "When a star dies, it explodes; a nebula is what’s left behind" She’s still gazing up at the blue-green swirls on the ceiling "Eventually new stars grow inside thenant star" I s when she flinches "I like that"
The strangeness of the conversation seems to strike her at the same time it strikes ed side "Look, why are you doing this?"
"Because not all of us are like hi my voice carefully even "Soun and shoot than it is to talk, doesn’t ht"
"And yet you ith men like McBride"
"You think I don’t knoe’d be better off without hiback "If it were as si it, maybe it would already be done"