Into the Churn

by Hayley Reese Chow

If you kept your head down, then you didn’t have to accept what you were marching toward.

“Here’s to team Hart/Sterling.” She took it, her hand sliding over his warm, smooth palm, her fingers barely able to squeeze around it. “I like Sterling/Hart better.”

Then she spread her arms and screamed, loud and long. Just because she could. Laughing, Foster stepped up beside her, his gaze meeting hers before he turned and yelled with her. And together they howled at the Belethean sky.

“I always come to get you.”

“We hold on as tight as we can.”

“You’re more than good enough, Ezren,” he murmured, his lips trailing down her neck. “Winning or losing or doing nothing at all.

“Heads in,”

“Be strong. Be swift. By legs, wheels, and fists, we go into the churn. We race, we fight, and we live to do it again. For ourselves, for Belethea, and for each other. May Casolla keep you safe, the suns keep you warm, and the storm winds blow you to the finish.” Her ice-blue gaze met each of theirs, her voice growing stronger. “Belethea, mother of mountains and skies…” “Protect us,”

“Because I’m in love with you, Ezren. And people who are in love protect each other with everything they have. They fight for each other, holding on no matter what.”

“I’ll fight the whole ’verse before I let go,” she breathed, wrapping her arms

around him. “I love you too much, Foster Yunin-Sterling. I think it might shatter me.”

easing. “Then I’ll just have to hold you together.” With that, he bowed his head and ...

And even though a hundred hovercams flashed all around them, Ezren knew this kiss wa...

“But in the end, it’ll just be you and me climbing mountains no one has seen, leaving footprints on unmarked dirt. Us and Belethea. Just how you like it.”

“We go home.”

“We?” Ezren’s face tilted up toward him, and he could hear the note of hope in her voice. That sliver of uncertainty

he wanted to crush out. He pressed his lips to her forehead. “We.” She tilted her face higher until her mouth found his in the dark, pressing a kiss soft and sweet against his lips. “Have I told you I love you yet?” “Only the once,” he whispered back to her, trailing a line of kisses down her neck. “That’s not enough,” she s...

will you follow me? She glanced at him, his irises reflecting the navy of the twisting clouds above. Foster: Anywhere.

He leaned down, kissing her forehead and then her lips. “I have never believed in anyone more than I believe in you.”

Suns, it was way easier to be hurt than to watch the person you loved hurting.