Bree has recovered from surgery, but we’re still scheduling these ahead as we work on a secret project! Mwahahahaha! This serial was originally posted (mostly!) on Patreon, and has been edited and finished to be posted live on our blog over the next few weeks. But for those who just want it NOW, or who hate reading on a blog and would like an epub… Well here is the epub!
Return to the world after the Beyond Series and meet the residents of Sector Three…
When Ashwin asks Six & Bren to take in an emotionally fractured Makhai soldier, there are a thousand things that could go wrong. But they are hard at work building their school and rebuilding their sector, and Sebastian is a genius who can fix anything. Anything. In return for his help, all they have to do is give him a safe place to find out if his emotional wounds can be healed.
Just one traumatized supersoldier in the middle of a school filled with former feral street kids, war refugees from exclusive brothels, and a few dozen kids who barely know what a school is.
What could go wrong?
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DISCLAIMERS: this is a serial meant for existing readers of the series. it contains full series spoilers for the Beyond Series and may not make sense if you haven’t read it.
It is also NOT erotic. This is the first part of a very very very slow burn romance between a broken Makhai soldier and an artist who escaped Sector Two after the bombings. There may also be a few other romances a brewing… consider this more like a TV show with multiple members of the cast up to hijinks, even if there are two main characters.
—
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
Shit.
Callie’s hand shook as she knocked on Six’s office door. “Six? Six. Oh God, please be in there.”
The door jerked open to reveal Six with a gun in one hand. “Callie? What’s wrong?”
“I broke him.” She could barely gasp out the words. “I broke your supersoldier.”
Six’s brow furrowed. “You what?”
Callie brushed past Six and paced the floor in front of the couch. “He was posing for me in my studio. He agreed to let me sketch him if I would tell him about Three and the people here. But then I mentioned the bombing in Two.” The memory of the look in his eyes made Callie shudder. “I didn’t know it would upset him. I’m so sorry.”
After a moment, Six closed the door and moved to her desk. She placed the gun on its surface and gestured to the couch. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t break him,” she said gently. “The Base already did that.”
Callie managed not to flinch–barely. “He was doing me a favor, and I upset him so badly, Six. How do I fix it?”
“Sit, Callie.”
She dropped helplessly to the couch, her hands twisted together in her lap.
Six crouched in front of her and covered her hands with her own in a warm, comforting grip. “Let me worry about him. Are you okay?”
“Well, I’m down a stool in my studio,” she answered tightly, “but he didn’t hurt me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It’s not.” Six squeezed her hands. “Remembering that day can be hard for everyone.”
If Callie closed her eyes, she could still hear the rumbling whine that had heralded the first bomb.
If she rubbed her fingers together, she could still feel the blood drying, tacky and thick, on her skin.
She pinned Six with an open, unblinking look–and told the truth. “I’m upset, but not about that. I promise.”
“Okay.” Six gave her hands a final pat and exhaled roughly as she rose. “I don’t know a lot about Sebastian and his secrets are his own to tell or not. But the one thing I do know is that he disobeyed orders after the bombs, and they punished him for it.” A short, harsh laugh. “Tortured him for it, more like. That’s probably what it is, and you couldn’t have known. It’s not your fault, any more than it’s his. We’ve all got scars, Callie.”
“I know.” She’d seen his. She just hadn’t known they were so intertwined with her own. “So what do I do?”
“Let Bren check on him. He’ll make sure Sebastian’s okay.” A small fridge sat in the corner, and Six pulled two glass bottles out of it and brought one to Callie. “And just…treat him the way you’d want to be treated if someone had stepped on one of your bruises. You don’t need to make a big deal about it.”
Hearing that should have been helpful. Instead, it twisted the knot in Callie’s gut even tighter. If she’d freaked out like that at someone, she would want to crawl into a hole and never come out. Her mortification would never allow her to look that person in the face again.
What if Sebastian felt that way, too?
“I’ll leave him be,” she whispered, cradling the bottle close to her chest. “Give him some time and space.”
“It’ll be fine.” Six dropped to the couch next to her, her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. “You remember what it’s like. So do I. The first time you find a place that’s safe… it takes a while to believe it.”
And some never did. Callie pushed the thought away. “What was it like for you? When you first went to Sector Four?”
Six took a sip of her hard cider and smiled. “Messy. I didn’t trust any of them. Damn near tried to bite Lex’s fingers off once. And I slipped into Dallas’s bed.” She made a face. “Not my proudest moment.”
Callie couldn’t stop herself from grimacing in sympathetic embarrassment.
“Exactly.” Six patted Callie’s shoulder. “If I could come back from that, Bast will be fine. Honestly, I’m surprised he was sitting for you to begin with. Bren got the impression he planned to stay pretty much to himself.”
Guilt surged again, and Callie almost confessed that he hadn’t wanted to. It was true, after all. She’d pleaded, cajoled, even bribed him–everything short of outright coercion. “I’m sure he will, after today.”
“Really?” Six took another slow sip, and shook her head. “My money’s on him tracking you down to try to apologize.”
“Oh, God.” Callie covered her face with her hands. “That would be worse.”
“Possibly.” Six wasn’t always physically affectionate, but her fingers ghosted over Callie’s hair in a soothing touch. “I can’t tell you how to deal with it. That’s your pain, too. Your scars are all tangled up with his. But it’s not your fault. You hear me, Callie?”
Callie nodded, drawing in a slow, deep breath. It would be easier, in some ways, if Six could be right. But the deep, present nature of Sebastian’s pain eclipsed everything else. And even if it hadn’t…
Thinking about the bombing of Sector Two hurt. It always would. But that agony mingled with so many other feelings–relief, righteous indignation, and pure, murderous spite–that Callie couldn’t keep it all straight. And she certainly couldn’t separate them.
But wounding Sebastian was simple. And it had been her fault. “Can you check on him, or get Bren to do it? I would, but…”
“Of course.” Another soft brush of fingers, then the couch creaked as Six rose. “He’s one of ours, now, too. We’ll take care of him.”
Of course they would. Six and Bren were used to calming the skittish strays they collected. They’d fix everything.
And if Sebastian wanted to keep his distance from her, Callie would just have to live with that.