The Aurora Borealis Keeps Its Lament novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Luck With What

The wind took my breath the moment I went through the door.

I had no gloves and no hat.

I ran along the rope line that connected the huts, the rope sliding through my bare fingers, and shouted his name into the storm.

He was at the end of the line, standing by the red marker post with his back to me.

He had stopped there.

"Iker!"

He turned his head toward the sound.

I caught up with him and put both hands on his chest, and my voice cracked.

"What did you mean, you can't?"

"Go inside."

"I'll go inside when you tell me why you let her take it."

"Alba, you'll freeze."

"Then say it quickly."

He did not.

We were in the lee of the generator shed, where the wind came in sideways and threw snow against the wall.

I had shoved him back against the steel, and I did not remember doing it.

His breath smoked between us.

"You made a speech in front of the entire station," he said at last.

"Yes."

"You told them I don't step down."

"Because you don't."

"It was the kindest thing anyone has said about me." He let his head rest against the wall. "And I could not answer it."

"You could have said one thing."

"What?"

"Anything. You've never once answered me, Iker." My voice shook. "You've been silent for eight years. At graduation I stood there with a stupid pen and said good luck, and you said, 'Luck with what? With never seeing you again?'"

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