BooksBarbecue
Back Stormbreak
Chapters (57)
  1. Cover
  2. PRAISE FOR
  3. Dedication
  4. Before
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  54. EPILOGUE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  56. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  57. What’s next onyour reading list?

Oran stilled. Moonlight pooled in the rings of his brown eyes, making them sad and deep. “Because the only thing I know for sure is that I am alive right now. Tomorrow might change that. And even if I somehow manage to survive this whole fight, I don’t see how I fit in the world after it changes. So, I have to say it. Because being in love with you is the best thing I’ve done with my life.”

Caledonia nearly stopped breathing. It was impossible to parse all he’d just shared, but her mind hung on one word: after.

When she imagined the future, she imagined a world where her crew and everyone who had ever felt the pressure of Aric’s thumb might live without fear or constant coercion. She imagined cities that weren’t founded on violence and the ruined lands to the north covered in verdant crops. She imagined Nettle in command of her own brilliant crew; Hime working to ensure soiltech and medtech traveled far and wide; Sledge finding ways to help Bullets transform their lives.

She imagined herself . . . not at all. She imagined the end, the moment her fight would be finished, but there was never anything after except a feeling of relief. A kind of absence of feeling, as though she had been so focused on this fight for so long that without it she might cease to exist.

“How can I possibly love?” she asked, horrified. “I keep asking you to do terrible things, to endure terrible things and—” She nearly gasped. Tears threatened in the back of her throat, but they weren’t for him. “I will probably ask you to do something just as terrible again.”

“And I’ll do it willing—”

“No.” She stood abruptly. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t love you, Oran. Not until this ends.”

She turned, biting down on an incomprehensible maelstrom of emotion, and walked away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Pine, Gloriana, Tin, Ares, Folly, and eight others of Caledonia’s crew gathered on the low docking level of the megaship the next morning. Early dawn washed their figures in shades of purple and gray as they met with Tug and the additional twelve Bullets appointed by Tassos. Twenty-six in all. The team was to sail behind the Net all the way to the southernmost tip of the peninsula, where twenty-five would disembark and the remaining Bullet would return with the boat.