Fireteam Delta J. Halpin (top 10 books of all time TXT) 📖

the ground for a moment before meeting his eyes.

“Okay . . .”

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It was a few hours later when the others woke to join them. Asle wiped at her face as Nowak and Cortez sat, looking just as haggard as Summers felt.

“Your eyes look better,” Nowak noted.

“Yeah . . .” Summers mashed a palm into his forehead. Over the past few days, his eyes had begun to fade back to their old selves, much like the redness of the fog had—everything except the iris, that is. Those had stayed pitch black. Most of the servants still had trouble looking directly at him, but it was at least an improvement.

He didn’t blame them, either. Even during the fight, he’d recognized something, instinctively, about the creature . . . he hadn’t felt the same hunger toward it. Even as it bled. Instead, he felt a sort of kinship.

That was what worried him the most.

“So, what fresh hell are we looking at today?” Cortez tried to keep her tone light.

“I convinced Pat to let us into Rhodes’s room,” Summers answered.

“Any luck getting our weapons back?” Nowak looked at him with interest.

“He hasn’t made any promises.”

Cortez chuckled. “Surprised he didn’t roll over so you could rub his belly.”

“He’s an all right guy.” Summers voice sounded a little more defensive than he’d intended, but Cortez didn’t seem to mind.

“Not saying he isn’t. It’s just pretty clear he’s got a huge man-crush on you.”

Summers gestured to Nowak. “You want to take the room? I don’t think I have the brain cells for something like that right now.”

Nowak nodded.

Summers doubted Rhodes would have anything useful, but the man had known something about the base in Nevada, and the strange creature the locals called the hamr.

Summers flexed his hand, remembering what Rhodes had asked him. Somehow, the man knew there would be something wrong with him. He’d recognized something. And he’d died before Summers got any answers.

“Asle, you up to tagging along?” Summers nodded to Nowak. “Pat’s a bit of a talker.”

Asle thought for a moment before nodding. He appreciated that she was pushing herself to help them and hoped some familiarity might do the same for her. Or at least, offer a distraction.

“Speaking of, his pops . . . or whoever’s in charge set up some kind of ceremony for the dead.” Nowak pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know you’re all tired, but they’re expecting us to show. Logan’s going to be a . . . Asle, how did he put it?”

“Honored,” Asle replied. “He’ll be honored by the city.”

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Summers lifted a boulder the size of his head a few inches before setting it down in the street. He’d been acting as a human excavator while others, mostly refugees and volunteers, helped to clean up the remnants of what used to be the market.

Nobody had tasked them to do it; in fact, most of the city’s guards had looked to them to take over for Rhodes.

They were largely uninterested in that, though. They’d learned the army that had been waiting outside the walls finally began a very hasty retreat after the explosion, and Summers couldn’t help but feel they’d lucked out there. If they attacked now, he wasn’t sure they stood a chance.

Cortez cursed in the distance. A few elves milled around in a half-collapsed warehouse.

“Dangerous.” She spoke in Nos, emphasizing the word while she pointed.

Summers had done his best to help the others with some shorthand during their time training, and it was mostly effective, even if it was supplemented with plenty of hand gestures and cursing.

“Summers, tell these fucking morons this thing’s going to fall,” Cortez shouted.

He sighed before dusting off his hands and heading over.

Sure enough, Cortez was right. Summers was no engineer, but he knew a building that size needed more than one working support.

“It clear?” Summers looked back at Cortez.

“My team’s the only one here.”

Summers nodded.

“Stand back.” He gestured to the elves around them, and they backed up more than a few steps.

Summers put a foot against a wall and pushed. It tilted before collapsing entirely. The rest of the building followed shortly thereafter.

He waved a hand, coughing as the rubble began to settle.

“I ever tell you you’re bullshit?” Cortez surveyed the building with a distinctly jealous look in her eye. “Dangerous.” She pointed to Summers as he walked away, trying not to laugh. “Very dangerous.”

He returned to his pile, picked up a stone, put it on the street. Lift, step, drop. It was like that for a long few hours before he’d hit the floor of what would have been a small shed in the market district.

Then Summers saw a familiar face and froze.

As it turned out, Beorn’s family had made it to the city.

He put the rock down, took a deep breath, and began to walk.

He’d at least see they got a proper burial.

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Asle sat on Rhodes’s sleeping furs, swinging her legs back and forth. They were plusher than she would have expected.

A servant walked by, watching the room with more than a little fear in her eyes. The city as a whole had blamed Rhodes for what happened, and there were rumors that he’d been speaking to the creature in the nights leading up to the disaster.

None had so much as looked in her direction.

She didn’t know how to feel about that. Every time she’d acted, someone close to her died. And now, no matter how she looked at it, every person that monster killed was laid bare at her feet.

The others had tried to explain that it wasn’t her fault. That she was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

She wasn’t so sure about that.

The payrst spoke excitedly with Nowak