Unravel by Imogen Howson Page B

“I don’t understand how you could do that to me. I said no and you did it anyway. I don’t understand, Lin. You didn’t have to, and I don’t understand.”
    A flush climbed into Lin’s face, dyeing just the skin under her eyes. “Then why was it okay when I did it before?”
    â€œBefore? When before?”
    â€œWhen we were being attacked on the Phoenix ! Cadan let me, he let me take the controls and fire at the SFI ships! You didn’t give me that look back then. Is it only okay to kill people when he says it is? Am I supposed to have some kind of license in that, too?”
    â€œI’m not talking about it being okay to kill people!”
    Lin threw her hands out. “Yes you are! That’s the thing you’ve always said, the thing I’m not supposed to do—”
    â€œ No , Lin! Jeez, we were being attacked—”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œ Both times. Of course I don’t blame you—or Cadan, or anyone—for firing back. It’s not that you probably killed people—”
    â€œProbably?” Lin gave a furious laugh. “Probably, nothing . Didn’t you see what I did to those ships?”
    â€œ Yes , I saw! Yes, I know what you did! It’s not about that, Lin. It’s not about you killing people.” Somewhere, very faint on the screen of her mind, a word flickered, uninvited,unwelcome. Hypocrite. She refused to acknowledge it. She wasn’t being a hypocrite, she wasn’t —
    â€œThen what ?” said Lin.
    â€œIt’s about you making me kill them!” She’d thought she was mostly just angry, but the words came out on a sob, and when she tried to say something else tears choked her and she had to stop.
    â€œLissa—”
    Elissa shook her head, putting her hands up to her face, trying to get control of herself. She was furious, and beyond furious, but she couldn’t afford to let herself fall to pieces now. The attack was over, but God knew when there’d be another one, and they still needed to get themselves safely—somehow—to the city, to the closest IPL command. But if they couldn’t fly, and couldn’t use the Phoenix , there was no way of getting safely to the city.
    Thinking of all the reasons why she couldn’t fall apart wasn’t exactly helping her not fall apart. She tried to shut them out, tried to just breathe, tried to think of the fact that Cadan was alive and unharmed, that the people in the base hadn’t been killed. . . . But that was it. She’d run, for the moment, out of good thoughts.
    â€œLissa . . .”
    Elissa shook her head again, not looking at her sister. “Not now. I can’t talk about it right now.”
    â€œBut I—” Tears thickened Lin’s voice. “Lissa, don’t be angry. I can’t bear it when you’re angry with me.”
    Then stop making me angry!
    The words were on her tongue, but she refused to say them. She wasn’t going to have this conversation. Lin might not be capable of respecting her—oh my God —her right notto kill people, but she could damn well respect her right not to talk if she didn’t want to.
    She didn’t answer Lin. She didn’t look at her. There was, God knew, nowhere she could really go to get away from her. Partly because they were in the middle of the desert and partly because of— oh yeah , the telepathic link that bound them. But she could walk away. And she did. Through the patches of blackened smoking sand, through the twisted lumps of wreckage, out to just beyond the end of the buildings, past where the light reached, into the very edge of the night that had fallen across the world.
    Behind her, metal still screeched, people called to one another, fire extinguishers hissed onto flames. Her hands still tingled with the memory of the power—Lin’s power—rushing through her. But as she stepped out of