Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1)

by Amie Kaufman

A couple of months back at the Foundation Day party, she had too much to drink and told me she likes my dimples, so I smile at her as often as possible now. Hey, if you’ve got ’em, flaunt ’em.

“Zila Madran. Terran. Age eighteen. Science Division.” “She’s clever,” I say. “Her academic record is flawless.” “She’s had thirty-two official reprimands in the last two years.”

“Finian de Karran de Seel. Betraskan. Age nineteen. Tech Division.”

We the Legion We the light Burning bright against the night

Zila Madran is Terran. She’s even shorter than Cat, with dark brown skin and long, tight black curls. The green stripe of the Science Division across her shoulders does nothing for her complexion, but if cute could be weaponized, she’d be a pretty good candidate. There’s something about her stare, though. Like there’s no one home behind those dark eyes of hers.

Leaning against the far wall, our second squaddie is almost the mirror opposite of our first. Like all Betraskans, his skin is the white of bleached bone. The only bright color on him is the purple stripe of the Tech Division on his uniform. His eyes are bigger than a human’s, and the protective contact lenses he wears over them are totally black. His bones are the kind of long and thin you get growing up in zero gee, and that makes him unusual.

Finian’s file says he spent a lot of his childhood on offworld stations. He has short, spiky hair with just enough product to make it look like he might not use product at all. But he doesn’t fool me. The most notable thing about him is the light exosuit mentioned in his file. It’s made of a silvery metal, a half-shell covering his back, his arms and legs fitted with articulated sleeves, gloves, and boots.

Cat sits and leans back in her chair. “Call me Zero.” “As in zero chance of success?” Finian asks, all innocence.

Said Skinnyboy stretches, his suit making a hum and a series of soft clicks. “Finian de Karran de Seel. Just Fin if you wanna be lazy about it. Gearhead. You break it, I’ll put it back together. Can’t promise a hundred percent success rate on anything but my dashing wit, though.”

The fifth Tank is taller. Agile and lithe. He has olive skin and his long ears taper to gentle points. Silver hair is tied back from his face in five long braids, spilling down over his shoulders. His eyes are the kind of violet you only read about in stories and his cheekbones are sharp

“Squad Leader Tyler Jones,” I say, glancing at my uniglass, “may I present your combat specialist, Legionnaire Kaliis Idraban Gilwraeth, firstson of Laeleth Iriltari Idraban Gilwraeth, adept of the Warbreed Cabal.”

I think I’d like to be unconscious again, please.

Lol mood

“So what do you do here?” I mean, I’m assuming the dimples aren’t a full-time gig. “I’m a legionnaire,” he says. “There was a thing back in your day called the United Nations, right?” I nod. “That’s you?” “More or less,” he says. “We’re the Aurora Legion. We’re a coalition between Terrans—humans, you’d say—and Betraskans. Some Syldrathi joined us two years ago when our war ended. We’re an independent peacekeeping legion.

lost.” Such a small word for such a big thing.

“Del’nai,” Kal replies, scoping me with those glittering eyes. “I don’t speak Syldrathi, Pixieboy,” I mutter. “It means ‘always,’ ” Scarlett says. “ ‘Ever and always.’

can see Admiral Adams standing beside her, also in dress, cybernetic arms folded over his barrel-broad, medal-studded chest, washed black and white and gray by the Fold.

Once we walked the dark between the stars, unequaled.

Kal bristles at the suggestion. “That is extremely unwise, sir. She will only be a liability.” “Hey, listen here, Lord Elrond…,” I begin.

I don’t get what makes that big brain of hers work or what the hells she’s doing here or how she can remain calm when we’re all about to become corpsicles floating in space.

ZILA M: I ESTIMATE WE HAVE ONLY A FEW MOMENTS BEFORE THE TDF ARRIVES TO TAKE YOU AWAY FOR “DEBRIEFING,” SIR. AT THE END OF YOUR INTERROGATION, YOU WILL BE KILLED. AND ONE BY ONE, THEY WILL THEN INTERROGATE AND KILL THE REST OF US. Fin types quickly, eyes on Zila. FINIAN DS: DID YOU FORGET TO TAKE YOUR HAPPY PILLS THIS MORNING? ZILA M: NO. I AM ALWAYS LIKE THIS.

And though this pack of losers and discipline cases and sociopaths might’ve been the last picks on anyone’s mind during the Draft, turns out none of them are bad at their jobs. If I can hold this together, get us working as a team, we might even make it out of this alive….

Marc de Vries. Ex-boyfriend #29. Pros: built like a brick wall. Cons: brains like a brick wall.

Tré Jackson. Ex-boyfriend #41. Pros: looks like Adonis. Cons: knows it.

Riley Lemieux. Ex-boyfriend #16. Pros: madly in love with me. Cons: MADLY in love with me.

Alex Naidu. Ex-boyfriend #38. Pros: biceps!!! Cons: unknown.

Jesse Broder. Ex-boyfriend #45. Pros: A$$. Cons: A$$hole.

Squad 312.

Because that’s what I told her afterward. That’s what it was. A mistake.

The girl stares back, lifting her chin, faint challenge in her eyes. Cat clenches her jaw. But I know what she’ll say before she says it. The same thing she said the morning after, lying on those rumpled sheets when I told her a CO couldn’t date a subordinate, that an Alpha couldn’t date his Ace, that best friends who’d known each other since kindergarten shouldn’t risk that friendship to try for something more. “Sir, yessir,” Cat says.

And so I permit myself to feel the hurt. The places I allowed my enemies to touch me. Vowing they will never touch me again.

A surge of sudden enmity roars through me. Territoriality. Aggression. I know that primal instinct has no place here and I fight it, as I have fought it since the moment I laid eyes on her in that cargo bay and she spoke words I will never forget. “I’ve seen you before….” I blink hard. Focus my mind as my mother taught me. “There is no deal between Aurora and I,” I say.

“Look, apologies in advance for this. But whatever you do, don’t punch me, okay?” “Wh—” Tyler grabs the front of my power armor and pulls me close. The door opens and the commtech walks right in at the precise moment Tyler’s lips land on mine. My eyes go wide. The tech’s jaw falls open.

“I didn’t know Syldrathi blushed with their ears,” Tyler muses. “I am not blushing.” “I mean, it kinda looks like you’re blushing.” “I am not blushing.” “Ooookay,” Tyler nods. “I sometimes have that effect on people, is all.” “Is your request not to punch you still in effect, sir?”

I slam back the cheap ethanol in one shot, wince at the chemical burn in the back of my throat. Trying to figure out why I’m so mad.

“Tiir’na si maat tellanai!” (Father of many ugly and stupid children!)

“There is a gravity to everything, Aurora,” I finally say. “Not just planets. Not just stars. Every cell in our bodies, every cell in creation exerts a gravity on the objects and people around it. And…that is what I am feeling. For you.”

“An Ace backs her Alpha,” I say. I meet Tyler’s eyes as he looks up at me. “Always,” he replies. I smile in return. “Always.”

“The only places I fit are the places inside my head,” she continues. “It is as you said, sir. I do not understand people.” She looks around the bridge. “But I believe of all the places I have not fit, I fit here a little better.” Scar smiles. “Who wants to be normal when you can be interesting instead?”

“Do moons choose the planets they orbit? Do planets choose their stars? Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than any constellation in the sky?”