Rising Tides | 2

05 | A d a r a

—

I was freaking out. Well, internally. At least, I think I appeared calm. I hope I did. General Hatis had assigned me to this mission that involved combat and civilians and the likely occurrence of casualties. Once again, there were a handful of us against the Guard. Only this time, we had to worry about the lives of other people along with ourselves. The thought of letting an innocent person die on my watch made me want to throw myself out of the plane I was sitting in.

The sudden hum of the engine as it started up brought me back to reality. I gripped the seatbelt on my chair as I buckled myself in. It sounds crazy, being a child of the sky, but flying made me nervous. I hated the idea of being trapped in an airborne metal box. Why would I do that if I could just fly myself?

August started flipping switches and turning knobs on the panel in front of him. He called a set of numbers and pilot gibberish into his headset before giving a thumbs up to Everly Argover and pushing forward on the control wheel. We lurched forward and away from the line of stationary planes.

I gripped Wren's hand. He rubbed his thumb over mine in response, assuring me that everything would be just fine. I breathed out in anticipation of the task ahead.

The plane started to move at a greater speed, heading toward the runway. This part scared me the most. The rapid acceleration, the sudden cutoff, the explosion out of the middle of the ocean.

"I'll never understand you, Ada," Wren whispered in my ear.

I looked at him, forehead creased. "What do you mean?"

"You love sitting on roofs and being one with the sky, but an airplane scares you? Aren't airplanes one with the sky?"

His comment made me squirm in my seat. "I guess it's more of a control thing. Also, I think I'm more afraid of messing up this mission. I don't want anyone to die because of my mistakes."

Wren nodded. "I understand. For me, something like that makes me work harder so there's no doubt in my mind about failure."

By now, we were moving up on the ramp. People from House Peros were stationed at the end, ready to part the waters for us. As we approached, part of the ceiling folded open. I was so afraid that at that moment, the water would come crashing down on us; instead, the room opened up to the light. August pushed us forward, faster.

We broke through the base, flying up and into the clouds. As the plane leveled, Wren released my hand. It was only then that I realized how tight I'd been gripping him.

"Sorry," I muttered.

Rhea cleared her throat, playing with the end of her braid. "Well, now that we're moving, I suppose I should go over how we'll execute our task," she began, unbuckling and standing in the middle of the plane. She lifted her left arm to reveal a black sleeve with what looked like a screen. When she tapped it, a hologram of Auchterton appeared. Rhea tapped it again, and the hologram immediately zoomed in on the small city of Mosica.

"We believe the hostages are being held in this quarter of the city," she said, zooming in once more. Three-dimensional buildings and streets appeared, along with miniature figures of people, filling the back area of the plane. "The Guard will be spread out along here, here, and here. August will fly us into an area outside of the target. Waverly, this is where you come in. We won't be landing due to the high chances of being seen, so you'll have to transport us to the designated area."

Waverly nodded in response.

"From there, we'll split up. Adara and Ragan, you take the left. Wren and Waverly take the right. Ember and I will stay middle. We'll ambush the Guard from there. We have no way of knowing how many of them are out there, so keep your heads up. Try to remain as covert as possible to ensure the hostages' safety. When you clear your area, move in. Each person will escort a group of the hostages out of the city. Take as many as you can."