Twell and the Rebellion Read Online Free Page B

he could follow us into the Army of Powers. I
was gonna miss the guy too, he could be pretty funny and I liked
the way he treated Sazika. It was obvious he was crazy about her,
all DNA aside.
    Just then, Mira Raveen
appeared in my line of vision and I snapped back to the present.
Watching her drag a bag almost bigger than herself to the rear of
the pod, my first impulse was to make a snarky comment about it to
Sazika. Then I reminded myself for the second time that day I was
supposedly old enough to be considered mature and to keep my
sarcasm to myself. Also, I needed to go easy on her. She and Chaz
had planned on petitioning a love match, until he’d died. Now she was matched with another guy and I knew she was having a
hard time with it, although she tried her best to hide the fact
with her usual act of indifference. But Chaz’s
death had hardened her. Her hope had been crushed and she’d handled
it by donning a brittle mask of resolution.
    Spotting us, she headed
over. Like Sazika, Mira was also a lot shorter than me (Or petite
as small people seem to like calling themselves) and she wore her
dark hair sharply and precisely around her face at chin length. As
usual, her expression was serious, because Mira took existence in
general seriously. Now that I was actually going off to the AOP I
could understand her attitude a little better, but before the
training, I’d just thought she was a snitty moga. Moga’s are snout
nosed hairy wetland beasts used in popular reference as insults on
Como and we’d both flung this word at the other, until eventually,
we’d even launched ourselves at each other. Yes, I do mean
literally. It was a humiliating lack of restraint and overdose of
hormones, unfortunately witnessed by our trainers and peers. Her
ability to shoot electrical currents with her hands was truly an
unpleasant experience when on the receiving end, I can assure
you.
    I’d detested the way she’d
draped herself all over Chaz in a deliberate ‘ he’s mine and he’ll never be yours’ kind of way anytime I was unfortunate to be
around the two of them together. I’d wasted way too many hours
moaning and complaining to whoever would listen (just Dash and
Meela really) about what an evil, crafty, friend stealing moga she
was. That and I really couldn’t stand her high-pitched whiny voice.
(Okay, so I still wasn’t a huge fan.)
    We eventually worked through our
issues though, once she stopped being convinced I was trying to
sabotage her relationship with Chaz (I had fantasized about it to
be fair) and I’d learned she’d lost family in the first war, which
was why she was so focused (highly strung) during training. We even
used our powers together to fight and capture the Abwarzians. So
yeah, we were on more civil terms now.
    Sometimes I was sorry Chaz
was no longer alive to see how we’d gotten over such petty rivalry.
Other times, however, I was glad he couldn’t see her now. Not now
that she’d been matched with someone else. Even if that someone
was supposed to be her perfect match. I’d met Quin at the
Partnering Ball where we’d all met our matches. He seemed so
different to Chaz, who’d been fair, gentle, and thoughtful. Quin
was dark and solemn with serious brown eyes and he’d barely smiled
throughout the whole evening. Neither had Mira, unsurprisingly,
still grieving for Chaz. However, like Mira, he shared her ability
to shoot electrical currents from his body and shock people. They
were sure to produce really shocking kids. Get it? Yeah, I had to
say it.
    He also seemed to be as rigidly
loyal to the Governing Body as Mira, matching her willingness to
fight and defend Como. They shared that in common, at least. He
came from the city of Marid on the other side of Como, so we
wouldn’t see him until we got to base camp.
    “Hey,” Mira greeted us.
There was no cheek touching to be had with Mira. The warmest thing
about her was the hesitant smile that flickered across her small
mouth. I returned the