Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(72)

Gavin walks back in with my bag slung over his shoulder. His face is hard, and I wonder if this is what he looks like when he’s hunting. It’s sexy and scary at the same time.

His gaze follows mine and lands on the bandage, before flickering away and resting just a few inches above my head. That’s when I remember, again, I’m not wearing any clothes. I cross an arm over my chest.

“We’ll fix it when we get to this other Sector. We have plenty of bandages. But we should hurry,” he says.

I nod. Of course that’s what we should do. I knew that. So I toss on the new dress, hissing at the soreness and tightness of my shoulder, before following him out of the apartment to the wall-door that will get us back to the Square and eventually to the Tube station. It surprises me no one is guarding the Sector, but then, the Enforcer was quite certain I wasn’t there. And it had been several hours. If there was anyone waiting, they probably were removed—or got bored and left. The Guards can have an annoyingly short memory if there’s no one around to supervise them.

“Evie, wait.” Gavin places a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from bolting out the opening. “If Mother was able to see that you fixed Macie’s coupling thing, wouldn’t she have just removed us from the computer again?”

I give him a thin smile. “No. I made it ‘read-only.’”

He stares at me for a minute, before he barks out a laugh. “That had to burn her ass. We’d better hurry anyway.”

We hurry through the opening, and I run to the left only to be stopped again by Gavin who frowns at me.

“The Tube’s this way, right?” He points to the right.

I stare that way for a few seconds, blinking.

“Yes. Of course. Sorry, got turned around.”

He continues to watch me for a second, then shrugs and we dive back into the crowd, ducking our heads and hoping no one will notice us. Thankfully my dress strap covers the bloody bandage.

But it seems we have nothing to worry about. Everyone is too busy talking about the murders in hushed tones. They don’t even look at anyone. It’s as if they’re afraid they’ll find us and don’t really want to.

We follow the crowd making its way to the Residential Sector, then break off and follow the much smaller group heading to the Tube station, where we slip into an empty car of the train that’s heading to Sector Three.

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing about the leak in Sector Three. But then, I suppose it doesn’t matter either way. If Mother is watching through the cameras, she’ll react anyway, whether there are innocents around or not. The bloodstain on the floor of the Tube station is proof of that.

We hold our breath until the doors slide closed and the train leaves the station with an automated announcement about holding on to the handrails set throughout the car. At first the tunnel is dark, but it lightens up when we leave Sector Two and head into the open water between Sectors Two and Three.

The water glows with an orange color from the lava tubes. Gavin gets up and touches a hand to the glass of the windows.

“Why is the water orange?”

I sit on the floor and lean back against the wall, letting my eyes close. “Lava flows.”

“Lava flows?”

“It’s amazing, really, that such a deadly thing is the only reason we’re able to live down here. The geothermic energy it produces is used to heat the boiler, which in turn creates steam, which turns the turbines to create electricity and provide heat throughout the facility. We use the steam engines to power everything, from the lights to the Tube and everything in between. How Mother got this city to function like that … well. I guess it really wasn’t her. It was her father.”

He’s quiet for a moment, then asks, “How does the train work when we’re underwater?”

I open my eyes to look at him. “The train is in a tube, hence the name, which is made of reinforced glass. The tracks use magnetism to keep the train moving in the right direction.”

“Magnets?” He whistles softly and turns back to watch the water out the window. Without warning, the train stops, sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the car. I rush over to him and help him to a sitting position.

“Are you okay?” I ask, looking for injuries.

He rubs the side of his head. “Yeah. I think so. Ugh. What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

I help him stand. Then a holograph flickers to life in the center of the car and Mother stands in front of us. Gavin immediately pushes me behind him. I know it’s useless—she’s not really there—but I let him try to protect me. I peer over his shoulder.

Mother laughs. “Well, well, what is this? So the hunter is a protector, too? Very interesting.” She shakes her head and gives me a disappointed look. “I thought you were smarter than this, Evelyn. What a shame it has come to this. You know, I don’t have to wait. I can just press the button now, if I want to.” She focuses her attention back on Gavin. “It’s useless to protect her. You have nowhere to go.”

“What are you talking about, Mother?” I make a show out of examining my nails. Inside, though, I’m getting nervous. What is she planning?

Turns out I don’t have to wait long to find out.

“Why don’t I just show you?” she says with a wide smile. The hologram shuts off and the doors open, revealing the tunnel.