Chapter 20 · The Price of Rian

The fire alarm shrieked through the east barracks at 0200 hours, and Keira was already moving.

Smoke poured under her door. Not drill smoke. The real kind, the kind that tastes like burning insulation and melted polymer and someone's mistake turning into everyone's problem.

She grabbed her boots and kicked the door open.

The hallway was a mess. Trainees stumbling out in undershirts and panic, coughing into their elbows. The emergency lighting painted everything red and wrong. Keira shoved past two Valkan cadets frozen in the doorway and made for the stairwell exit.

That's when she saw him.

Rian Cole, pressed against the wall near the equipment lockers, face pale under the red strobes. He wasn't moving toward the exits. He was waiting.

For her.

Keira's gut went cold.

She changed direction and cut through the smoke toward him. Her eyes stung. Her lungs wanted to cough but she held it down, kept her breathing shallow and controlled the way they'd drilled it into her years ago.

Rian saw her coming. His expression did something complicated.