Fate Breakers

Chapter 20

Aviva

Getting to sleep is becoming more and more of a struggle. Reading the recent reports hasn't made it any better. I just kept reading the same page over, and over, and over...

"Viva? Earth to Viva." Rowan waves his hand in my face. "Come back, space cadet."

Bruce snorts, Constance setting down her mug. "Wow," she chortles, "I think that's the first and only time you've made Bruce laugh."

Rowan stabs the eggs on his plate, the yolk spilling across it. "Oh, fuck off! You're just being rude!"

Lenore looks my way, her rosy eyes trained on my face. "This is about Liam, isn't it."

"This is different than before." The words cross my mind, and with the words come images. "He wasn't alone. It was a ship of twenty-eight. They were shot at, eight people died."

Constance raises a brow at me. "So now I take it this is less of you accusing Liam of doing something and more so believing someone is targeting him?"

"I... wouldn't say someone."

I don't have to elaborate. The table falls silent, and my gut twists. I don't like thinking about the Moirai. The idea that my life is already thought out, that I have no control over it, that what happens will just happen... it petrifies me. I'm not a control freak, at least, I don't like to think that I am. I just want agency in my life, and the thought that these higher beings already have it all planned out...

My biggest question is still why: why Liam? Why now? Why? Why? Why?

There's a slam. All of us jolt. My eyes widen at the sight of Master Sergeant Tallan, fuming at the end of our table. August sets down his utensils, looking at him. "Is... something the matter, Master Sergeant Tallan?"

Tallan raises a paper, shaking it in my face. "The fuck is this?"

It would be easier to tell if he'd stop fucking shaking it. "I'm... I apologize, Master Sergeant. I don't know what you're referring to."

"Oh sure you don't." Tallan slams the paper back down on the table, glaring at me. "I've seen you, all buddy-buddy with Ramirez. What a strange coincidence, that the second I put heat on them, something like this gets thrown out."

Lenore rests both hands beneath her chin, eyeing Tallan. "We don't know what you're referring to, Master Sergeant," Lenore says, speaking in a calm, smooth manner. "Pressuring us to admit to a crime or offense we did not commit is, in itself, a crime."

Tallan clenches his jaw, shifting his glare over to her. "This isn't a court, Balor Dena."

Lenore doesn't so much as blink at Tallan's gaze. "But this is a situation where the credibility of two units as well as their sergeants' positions are on the line." Lenore's gaze makes Tallan start to squirm. He looks like a child caught coloring the walls with wax. "We won't be convicted of an offense we have not committed, so unless you are willing to share, you will accomplish nothing, Tallan."

"Master Sergeant," he snaps, baring his fangs at her.

Lenore arches a brow. There's a stare off between the two, Lenore silently waiting to see if Tallan will follow through with the threat he made. He doesn't. He just snatches up his papers and storms off. Lenore goes back to eating. Before he's fully walked off, Lenore sighs, "I can't stand people who fling around a title they haven't earned."

August arches a brow, shifting away from her. "You petrify me."

"I only challenged him because I know he won;t follow through with me," Lenore sighs, sipping from her mug of tea. "He fears my father and my connections to the Court of Fangs. I wouldn't expect to see him around for a hot minute, given he bared his fangs but didn't fight. But about that damn paper..."