Page 10 of Interion

“You, running?” He stopped at the curb, waiting for a military truck to pass. Breathless from his own run, he looked up at the sky, pretending to search for something. “A storm's coming!”

Breno crossed the street to reach me. I took in his golden blond hair, his fair skin dotted with freckles, and eyes so blue it was impossible to look away during even a simple conversation.

“No storms, just warming up for tomorrow.” I gave him a genuine smile and squinted as the sun blinded me. “How are things around here?”

Besides being a friend, he was my favorite training partner and the one who went easiest on me in wrestling classes. Like me, he was also feeric.

“You'd know if you spent more time with us and less time with those boring people who smell like corpses.”

I smiled at Breno's impression of elmedics and kept walking toward the grove.

“Better clean corpses than a bunch of sweaty teenagers,” I grumbled, narrowing my eyes at him. “And you know we don't smell like that.”

“Of course I know. But seriously, Kay, you could spend more time with us during the holidays. Dominic and I miss you.”

Dominic was his eleven-year-old brother. We'd only met a handful of times, but it was enough for us to hit it off.

“I was busy studying for the hospital's final tests. I can't afford to rest during the holidays.”

He laughed and placed his hand over his heart, hamming it up.

“I felt that dig. You break my heart, Kay.”

I smiled and picked up my pace again as we passed through the wooden archway marking the grove's entrance.

“How's the internship going?” I asked.

Breno was a blocker. His gift let him create force fields that blocked magic or any physical matter. It was a rare and valued power, just like mine.

“Good. I think every house in the military district has a defense system I built, and last week I bottled up so much of my gift that the pharmaceutical industry will have enough blocking supply for the whole year. I just think it's unfair they pay us so little because we're interns.”

Beyond defense, Breno's power also worked well in medications. The thing was, sometimes a gift could become a problem. Take someone with impenetrable skin trying to get blood drawn—impossible. That's why the pharmaceutical industry made millions of dunas a year selling temporary blocking capsules.

“The word intern should be a curse word,” I grumbled. “Don't complain about your salary—mine is worse. I've been saving dunas for years to buy a phone. The pittance they pay us must be some tactic to force us to finish the academy faster.”

The duna was the continent's currency. After the trade treaty between nations was reestablished, the leaders had opted to switch from physical money to digital. But the transition was still in progress, so physical coins were still common around the neighborhoods.

“But you're rich,” Breno replied, indignant. “Why don't you use the general's money?”

“You know why,” I grumbled, not wanting to get into the same subject again. The truth was, I didn't even know if I should still be living in Zion's house. “How am I supposed to use money from someone I barely know?”

After a few minutes of running, I noticed my friend open his mouth to say something, then change his mind. He glanced at me sideways, sighed, and let it go.

“I know that look—you look like a fish out of water, opening and closing your mouth. What happened?”

He looked at me, surprised.

“Nothing, it's just that…” He ran his fingers through his hair, awkward and flustered at being caught. “I saw Zion today,” he blurted out. “He was walking around the academy with that thing you guys call Kiara.”

I maintained my pace, trying not to let my emotions show. Breno was the only person I'd told about the marriage. About two years ago, his teasing started getting intense, and I worried he was developing feelings for me. I ended up telling him about the union but left out the part about the bond. That put an end to his feelings. Still, the guy was a natural-born flirt, and even without romantic feelings, he kept up the teasing.

“She's not a thing, she's a chimera. I've already explained this to you.”

“Yes, yes, the pet chimera. I know, Kay. But that doesn't change the fact that she's terrifying.”

I couldn't help but laugh. Very few people had seen the chimera with me—to avoid wagging tongues, I preferred to keep her hidden from the world. Zion, however, never cared about being seen with the creature.

“Stubborn and grumpy, yes, but terrifying? Never! Kiara is a sweetheart.”