A Hero Rising Read Online Free Page A

Laser fire pinged through the alleyways, echoing over the city. Grease wasn’t kidding around. The battle had begun.
    A cloud shielded the sun, and the roof darkened. Skye shivered in the absence of the warm rays, wishing she’d taken another minute to dig out a coat for herself. She wasn’t accustomed to the rush of raw wind on her skin.
    Carly tugged on her arm. “I want to go back. I don’t like it up here.”
    “The sun will break through again.” Skye tried to sound reassuring, but her voice broke on the words.
    Grease may not. He already tried his luck once.
    Behind them, the sky rumbled like thunder. She spun around as five large military hovercrafts sped over their heads. Carly ducked, holding her hands to her ears.
    One word came to Skye’s mouth and sat on her tongue, unable to be spoken.
    No.
    Her words from their fight came back to her. You saw what they did to Utopia.
    What if it was a trap, meant to catch the remaining gang members? Her stomach pitched. Missiles, swelling as large as whales, clung to both sides of the hovercrafts.
    Skye’s fingers gripped the railing so hard the rust cut into her skin. Carly hugged her leg, unable to stand. The hovercrafts glided to the golden dome and surrounded the perimeter. Skye strained her ears, but she couldn’t hear anything above the engines’ roar.
    Would the government destroy the one building that kept the city unified? Maybe the pilots were bluffing. She dug her toes into the bottom of her sneakers and hoped.
    An eternity passed with the ships hovering like giant wasps. She should have tied Grease to the couch or hit his head hard enough to knock him out. She breathed in guilt like air, and it spread through her body, making her fingers shake. She didn’t have the gumption. Her problem in life had always been inaction, and now she had paid for it.
    Other spectators cluttered the buildings around them, everyone staring at the last pillar of civilization, hoping the same thing she did.
    Don’t blow it up.
    One of the hovercrafts parked on a loading dock toward the top of the government building. Skye squinted to see farther, wishing she’d found a decent pair of glasses in her scrounging days. It looked as though a few people were running from the ramp to board it. Had the governor gotten away? The hovercraft rose to the sky and flew off.
    In unison, the other hovercrafts backed up, and relief tingled through Skye like rain on her skin. She gasped in and held her breath, waiting for them to withdraw and fly away as well.
    Suddenly, the hovercrafts fired in unison, twin sets of missiles from each vessel plunging into the golden dome. The building shattered and collapsed inward. Flames sparked from the center, and black smoke rose to congeal with the smog in the sky.
    Skye’s knees weakened, and she collapsed to the ground.
    “Grease!” She shouted his name repeatedly at the burning inferno until her voice gave out. Uncontrollable sobs wracked her body. She hugged Carly tightly, shielding the little girl’s eyes from the searing smoke blowing in their direction. Without him, she was all the girl had. That wasn’t very much.
    “Was Daddy in there?”
    Skye looked away. Her eyes stared at the horizon, but she couldn’t focus on anything. She lacked the courage to reply.

Chapter Three
    Meteor
    James raced through the grimy blackness of the subway, checking his wristband every five seconds and cursing the unforgiving tick of time.
    Just wait until a moonshiner gets in my way now.
    He ran with his laser ready to fire, and knew exactly where to aim. Every step brought back another memory: the first time he saw Mestasis crouched behind machinery, holding a small kitten. Her skin shone so dark she blended in with the shadows. The whites of her eyes had given her away, bright as the moon before the mining began. Bright and hopeful, not like anything else ever gracing the lower levels. He remembered their first kiss in the coffee shop, an electric charge