Read Online The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) by Courtney Grace Powers - Free Book Online

morbidly curious. It looked like Ariel had tried to add another slap on top of the first, but Gideon had caught her wrist.
                  “That hurt,” Gideon said simply.
                  “It did?” Ariel sounded pleased. “Oh, Creed, I'm sorry. Please don't be angry with me.” Using the wrist Gideon was holding as leverage, she twirled into his side and settled beneath his arm. “I'll go get us some chocolate tea, alright? Then we can talk.” Smiling victoriously (in an evil warlord sort of way, Hayden thought and then gave himself a mental reprimand), Ariel rose onto her toes, kissed Gideon, and then sidled out of the room.
                  Muttering, Gideon collapsed onto the leather couch and rubbed his face.
    “ What did you say?” Hayden asked curiously, lowering his book.
                  Gideon closed his eyes. “That I was leavin' and might not be comin' back.”
                  Cold queasiness twisted Hayden's stomach. “Why would you say that?”
                  Opening his eyes, Gideon looked at him, seeming resigned. “You don't think there's a chance?”
                  “I…why would there be? You're just returning Aurelia, you're not…”
                  “Comon' Aitch, quit kiddin' yourself.” Rolling his shoulders deeper into the couch, Gideon shut his eyes again. His eyebrows remained slightly drawn. “Just ask Nivy Girl, she knows. Reece does, too. This ain't a normal job. All of us are goin' knowin' full well this could be it.”
                  Hayden looked at Nivy, expecting her to throw off Gideon's words with a shrug, but she met his eyes and smiled encouragingly instead. It was the worst thing she could have done. She was trying to comfort him. Comfort him, and he was the one staying behind while his friends went off to face possible death.
                  A thousand horrible images compounded in his head—an explosion in the engine room with Po, a gunshot wound to Gideon's chest, Reece, always throwing himself in front of other people so recklessly—he had to be there to fix them. How could he walk away from that responsibility? There and then, for better or worse, he made his decision.
                  Hayden started repacking his bag, trying to appear unobtrusive as Ariel returned with two tall pewter cups. “I need to talk to Reece,” he said as if just remembering, standing. He was a terrible liar, but no one—or no one on the couch, anyways—noticed. Po and Nivy shot him pained looks as he went looking for Reece.
                  “Reece?” he called, walking down the dusty corridor with a sneeze caught in his nose.
                  Reece stuck his tousled head out an open door, a fountain pen in his mouth. He waved him in cheerfully.
                  The room was completely square and windowless, empty save for a tall, boxy table obscured by layers of unrolled parchment. A single photon globe hung from a chain over the table, swinging slightly, making the shadows on the parchment twist and twirl.
                  “What are you doing?” Hayden asked, following Reece around the table.
                  Reece picked up a fist-sized cube entirely composed of silver buttons. The dimensional projector hummed softly as he turned it on and sat it amid the sprawling mess on the tabletop. With a flicker, the cube threw out a constellation’s worth of miniature transparent stars that hung suspended in the air.
                  Reece thrust a hand into the stars, pointing. “Nivy outlined our expedition from Honora to The Ice Ring. I've been double-checking the planets between here and there, trying to track down The Kreft's haunts. The duke said Cronus 12 has a strong Kreft presence—”
                  “They just instated a new prime minister,” Hayden realized,