Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(26)

Which, according to Gavin, is just fine with him. “I like my life. It’s not perfect, but I can do whatever I want instead of following a bunch of silly rules, like curfews.…” He trails off when he realizes these silly rules are probably the same ones I’m forced to obey.

I only ask more questions about his world.

“Can I ask you something?” he asks, and I raise an eyebrow in answer. “I don’t know if you’ll know the answer, but where did all this come from?”

“Of course I know that. Mother is training me to take her place. It’s my duty to know those kinds of things.” I smile. “Mother built it to get away from the Surface.”

“But why?”

I frown. “Because Surface Dwellers are bad. They destroyed their own homes. Their people. Why would she stay?” I stop myself before I can say, “Why would anyone?”

“But that doesn’t make much sense. I mean, why not a cave? Why underwater?”

I don’t really know, so I say the first thing that comes to mind. “She wanted to be completely isolated from the Surface Dwellers.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Okay, fine, but someone would have to go to the Surface for supplies. Right?”

“No,” I say, pride filling me. “We are completely self-sufficient. All of our food is grown here, as is the cotton for clothes. We even have silkworms to make the finer things. Like my dress.”

“But what about this glass? The metal? Where does the oxygen come from? Fresh water? Electricity?”

“We mine the metal—I’m not sure how, but there’s a whole Sector devoted to it. The glass comes from the sand. Freshwater comes from the saltwater, we just remove the salt. Electricity is generated by the geothermal energy of the volcano. The oxygen comes from two things: There is an oxygen generator that takes the ocean water and, after the salt has been removed from it, splits the hydrogen from the oxygen. The oxygen is then stored and sent throughout the facility to mix with the oxygen from the trees and plants. The hydrogen is used to fuel the heavy machinery that’s used for mining, et cetera.”

He blinks a few times, then says, “Right. Sorry I asked. I think I’m more confused now than I was before.”

I have to laugh and it isn’t long before he joins me.

When it’s time to leave, I struggle with it. I know I have to go, but I have the awful feeling I won’t ever see him again. That somehow Mother knows exactly what’s going on in this cell.

My new Suitor walks me back. And I have to stifle more than one giggle on the way back when I realize Gavin was right and the Guard does walk with his arms swinging in front of his body. It’s rude of me to keep thinking of him as just “the Guard,” but I refuse to learn his name. If I wasn’t expected to couple with him, I would just continue to call him by his designation. His name would be inconsequential. Therefore, knowing his name would be to accept what Mother is doing, and I don’t. I’m going to figure a way out of this coupling if it kills me. Which, I have to admit, it very well might.

Mother is waiting for me when I get back to the Palace Wing. She smiles at the Guard, then dismisses him. She gestures to the chair in front of her and I sit, making sure my ankles are crossed and the hem of my dress covers my knees.

“Anything from our guest?” she asks with her eyes fixed on mine.

“No. He refuses to give me any information.” My gaze wobbles. I so badly want to look away. But if I do, she’ll know I’m lying. Then again, maybe she already does.

She taps her fingers against her marble end table. “That’s too bad.”

I look down at my hands. “I am sorry, Mother. I will try again tomorrow.”

“No,” she says, and my head jerks up to look at her. She meets my eyes without wavering. “I doubt anyone followed him. The alarms would have been triggered by now. It was a miracle he was able to get here in the first place.”

Unable to stop my curiosity, I take a chance, and ask, “How did he get in?”

She stares at me with narrowed eyes, while I fight the urge to fidget. I’m sure she’ll ignore me, but she surprises me when she smoothes out her face and says, “I am not entirely sure. That is why I wanted you to get answers from him.” She smiles at me. “It is not your fault, Evelyn. You did the best you could. But his time for cooperating is up. I have no wish to waste any more time on this. He’ll be executed.”

Panic blows through me, tickling my nerve endings and causing my heart rate to accelerate. This is an entirely new sensation. And I don’t care for it.

“No, Mother. You can’t do that!” I say without thinking.

She raises an eyebrow. “Why not?”

I wrack my brain for an answer, but the only one that comes out is “I wish to couple with him.” Oh, Mother. Where did that come from? A flush creeps across me then, thinking about it. I must have only been thinking it because of the situation with the Guard. Surely she will kill him now. Just to spite me. Just to remind me who’s in charge, and that it isn’t me.

But she only tilts her head and narrows her eyes. “Why?”

I can’t back down now, and since she seems willing to at least pretend to listen, I give her the one reason I’m hoping she’ll understand. “Because I’m sure his genetics are superior to those eligible here.”