Feather Dark

Chapter 15

Leigh

"Cobbe," said Sevic, placing a cappuccino in front of me, "let me reiterate how satisfied I've been thus far with your progress. In two weeks, you've done what no one else could do in six months with Blue."

I sipped from my coffee and grinned at the older woman across the board table. "Told you I'm good."

"Would you like to share your secret?"

"A little sweetness goes a long way with the ladies."

Sevic chuckled, almost grandmotherly. "She does seem rather smitten with you. But what about Keira?"

Her question caught me in the guts like a low punch. "I... I don't know what to think about the blondie," I said truthfully.

I'd been trying not to think about her at all. Since the second she'd whispered Noah's name in my ear, I'd created a wall around my heart, complete with battlements and GOT-style dragon catapults. She chose him. I could live with the decision as long as I didn't have to see her or smell her or hear her voice.

But trying to get over someone when you're trapped together in a glorified aviary wasn't simple. No matter where she was in the rainforest room, I could sense her. My keen ears caught her breath on the wind, her scent tantalising me no matter how high I flew.

When I did see her, I repeated my mantra: she chose Noah. She chose Noah. She wasn't mine to lose anymore, because she never had been.

But I was a bird of my word; I'd promised to bring her home safely, and I would. I'd deliver her into Noah's arms, and then I planned to leave the two of them to their bliss while I flew to the other side of the planet and drowned my sorrows in alcohol and as many prescription meds as it took to forget.

So I kept to my character, treated Keira disdainfully so Sevic wouldn't catch on that the 'blondie' was the whole reason I was here. Every now and then, I'd hear my rude tone towards Keira, my words vicious, born from pain and rejection, and I hated myself more. For not being enough, for not being her choice, for not being strong enough to accept it and move on gracefully.

When Blue dropped the bomb at the party that Keira hadn't been able to tell the difference between me and Noah, something brittle snapped in me. She couldn't tell? I'd thought I understood agony and anger before that moment, but hearing Keira admit that Noah and I were interchangeable – it was like discovering a dark basement in my mind I'd never known existed, filled with every kind of unimaginable blackness.

As I kissed her, I was almost brought undone. God help me, she tasted right. She tasted of us, of who we were together. But the taste soured; she chose Noah, and the kiss was stolen.

So when Blue kissed me, I didn't feel anything but I played it up. The stupid sappy romantic inside me still hoped that Keira might see me with Blue and realise she'd chosen wrong. But when I came up for air, Keira had left, as if she'd never been there in the first place. I hadn't seen her since, but whether it was because she was avoiding me or I was avoiding her, I wasn't sure.

Meanwhile, my Cobbe persona kept growing stronger and more natural, like a symbiote I couldn't shake. I flirted with Blue, joked with the guards, and strategized with Sevic, all as a strange, brash, selfish version of myself.

Sevic's eyes studied me as I drained my coffee cup. She said, "I'm afraid I'll need you to work harder with Keira. Your first mission will require all three of you in the air, so you'll have to bring her on side."

I scrunched my nose. "I'm not sure the blondie is going to be all that useful. Why bother?"

"Because she and Blue have grown close." Sevic's smile was sharp. "If the three of you are released for a mission and only two return, I want the one who flees to know they will be responsible for what happens to the one they left behind."