Obsidian Sky

“Stop thinking you’re your father and brother.”

I blinked. “I didn’t think I had that personality defect, Nash. But thanks for the support.”

Now it was Gemma’s turn to glare. Unlike Nash, I was sure she would hit me if I kept pushing her.

“That’s not how I see it,” continued my quarter master. “You’ve tried to prove for years that you’re not like them. Why stop now?”

“I guess the idea of being stabbed in the back doesn’t appeal to me.”

“Then make them win your respect,” he urged, voice rising. “Sawyer, you helped bring the Behemoth down. Something we all thought was impossible. Hundreds of people saw that. Maybe all of Westraven saw that.”

Nash took a breath and lowered his voice. The intensity remained in his eyes, however.

“Do you really think they cared about your name that day?”

Yes.

It was the automatic answer. The common one, the truthful one. I’d gotten used to it, no matter how much it annoyed me to do so.

But thinking back to that day almost six months ago, walking out of the wreckage and into the ruins, seeing the disbelieving faces of the survivors who came to witness the destruction of the ship that had terrorized them for so long…

I’d never felt so proud of anything in my life.