Epilogue
“You know sooner or later you’re going to have to talk to me.”
“Fuck off,” I grunted.
The blister in the crux of my thumb finally burst as my pickax connected with hard earth.
A pathetic sigh left my lips as fluid gushed down into my palm, soaking the fabric I had wrapped around my hand, forcing me to grip the handle tighter.
The rupture did nothing to slow my momentum.
I pulled back, engaging my core as I made contact again.
A gray band once again adorned my left wrist.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The vibrations worked up my tired arms as I attempted to siphon off the anger that boiled in my veins since I had been reassigned.
Since I became a member of Expansion again.
Since Unit Seven fell apart, Levi now their commander.
Auction would be happening soon. I wondered who would replace the two members they had lost. Would it even matter?
They were stuck in that damn shack, stagnant and stifled.
Forced to watch as their old commander went above without them. My anger squeezed my soul.
I adjusted my hold on the handle and slammed the ax into the wall of dirt.
My breaths were labored, but they had been for hours.
It didn’t stop me. Sweat dripped down my neck.
I quit trying to hold myself back. I pummeled the wall like it was Burdon before me.
Resentment for the woman ate me alive. She wouldn’t win.
My arms barked at me as dirt fell. I swung again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
It did nothing to stanch the guilt that twirled around my anger, spinning me lower and lower, my lungs searing as burnout licked at my heels.
I’d push through it. I wouldn’t crumble.
I had wrongs to right. Debts to settle. People to fight for.
I had Tristian…When I actually got to see him…
Or a version of him…I slammed into the wall as an ache in my heart ripped me apart.
I had my own mission now. Failing wasn’t an option.
“You’re covering me in dirt,” a sly voice drawled next to me.
“If you were working, I wouldn’t be,” I bit out. He had yet to pick up his ax.
“You seem intent to do enough work for both of us.”
An infuriated, strangled growl slipped from me as I hit the wall again. My body refused to slow as it ran from what peeked out behind my fury. My eyes stung relentlessly. I had finally found something, someone, and people being fucking people took it from me.
You have to survive now, little flower.
My father was wrong. He had been wrong all along. This was no longer about surviving—I was going to live. I had people to live for. I let the petals fall, allowed the things beneath to take root—to push me on.
“You’ll make the place cave in, Phoenix.”
“You have no right to my call sign.”
“Do you think cave-ins happen often here?” he asked, his brutal face staring at the dirt ceiling.
“I don’t care.”
“Accidents with these axes have to be frequent, right?”
I hit the wall again. “Shut up.”
“Charming,” he muttered, dusting dirt off his lap. A bell sounded. Our shift was over. My pickax thudded against the ground as my head met the earth I had just berated for the last eight hours. I had barely made a dent. “How many people from Expansion usually made up the death toll?”
“Why do you care?” I demanded.
“Thinking about options, Phoenix.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“We’re both exiled Force members. Yet another thing we have in common. We might as well stick together.”
“No.”
He picked pieces of dirt from his clothes, piece by piece. “You really couldn’t find those charts Rumi asked you to find, right?”
My eyes narrowed as I took in some fucked-up joke I hadn’t figured out. Kaleo smirked back at me as I asked, “You really were in on that?”
“We were in on everything together.”
I still couldn’t believe it—wouldn’t accept it. Kaleo and Rumi. “No, I couldn’t find them. Why?”
Kaleo stood, swinging his ax over his shoulder. He grinned at me. “I’ve been thinking about dying. Haven’t you?”