The Gemini Age: Book One

[5-3] Burning at Both Ends - Part Three

    Without a full complement of foot soldiers packed into the passenger compartment, Trigger's SUV was imposingly spacious. The flexibility of the seatbelts did nothing to ease the anxiety the ride generated, nor did the temperamental suspension that vanished upon contact with anything more significant than a pothole-ridden speed bump. Before they even reached the main road back to Edinburgh, Skye needed both hands to count the number of bruises she expected to have along her back and legs come sunrise. The odds of her sleeping in peace tonight were slim.

    Trigger fiddled with his rear-view mirror, waves of streetlights flitting over the car's windshield and isolating the red tones of his thick beard. "Yer da' teach ye to fight, then?" he asked as the car slowed behind the late-night traffic that haunted the city region right up until the early rush hour took its place. The pavement beyond the walls of the vehicle buzzed with young crowds of various levels of intoxication.

    Sat in the rear passenger side of the SUV, Skye saw the side of his face move, yet she refused to turn towards him. "Father doesn't have time to teach," she muttered through sewn lips, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "My brother taught me. He insisted on doing so from the moment he saw me make a flame, and Father was never in any mood to argue."

    "Ah, ye'll be meanin' that Sammy," Trigger smiled as he weaved through streams of traffic with one hand on the wheel. With the rear windows of the vehicle locked to passengers, Skye could not rescue them from an accident even if she anticipated it, yet that fact did little to ease his casual approach to motoring. "Last I 'eard, things between 'im and yer da' weren't so cosy. They 'aven't been since yer Ma, uh, passed on, or so they say." He brought his free hand to the wheel, only to relax his other hand and use it to pull at his beard.

    Skye looked out of the window, though her own tired face attracted more of her attention than the rows of suburban housing. "What you heard were rumours," she said as she balanced her chin on her fist. "Idiots spouting nonsense, nothing more. My family is fine."

     Recognisable parts of Edinburgh began to come into view ahead of them. Trigger tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "Aye? Because it seems like –"

    "My family is none of your business!" Skye kicked against the back of the empty seat ahead of her and left a sizable muddy bootprint on the material. Flakes of dirt fluttered to the footwell as she removed her boot, and the sound of hard mud crumbling into dust lingered beneath her racing heart. She caught her breath and slumped back into her seat, surprised at how far she had lifted herself out of it. "Focus on what matters, thug, like how and when we're capturing that Gemini."

    "We aren't doin' anythin', girl," Trigger yawned as he guided the car around a bend that Skye recognised as being no more than a few minutes from home. "I wasn't kiddin' around when I said that I've got a plan, and ye won't be needed for it yet."

    The seatbelt tugged at Skye's shoulder as she launched forward, and the friction against her skin stopped her crashing into the firm, mud-stained seat in front of her. "You're really sidelining me? Did you not see her power? How easily she tore through your thugs? Do you not understand how dangerous she is? Mere goons like you can't face her alone, idiot. You need me."

    Trigger rounded another bend, now steering with a single finger. "Yer still young, girl," he sighed as the wheel fell into his hands again. "Ye wanna brute-force everythin' 'cos ye don't know a thing about strategy. Be smart, and we won't 'ave to face 'er at all. Now, get out before yer da' gives me an earful for keepin' ye too long."

    In her disbelief, Skye had not noticed the car roll to a halt. The lights of the clustered townhouses sat beyond the chained gates of an unlit park, the very same trail she had used to leave her house and meet up with the driver earlier that day. It was unrecognisable in the twilight, and the trees cast further shadows over the gravel path she was to walk along. The door beside Skye clicked as it unlocked, and she cursed under her breath before unclicking her seatbelt and throwing the door shut behind her. "Enjoy yer walk home!" Trigger called through the open window, smirking. Skye disappeared over the fence without replying, a flame rising from her palm as she landed on the dusty ground.