Rebel (Legend, #4)(26)

“Can I see you again?” I finally say.

She nods. The politeness has returned to her smile, the distance to her posture. But at least she doesn’t turn away and leave. At least she looks like she still wants to stay here and linger. That’s something, isn’t it?

“When are you free?” she asks.

When are you free? My heart lifts. “I’m attending the gala in honor of Anden’s arrival in a few nights,” I reply. “Will you be there?”

“I’ll be there,” she answers. My heart hangs on to her every word and gesture, every tiny step between us as I try to read her the way I once used to. She gives me a faint smile. “See you at the party.”





EDEN



I toss restlessly in a series of nightmares. My mother, getting shot over and over again. Me, locked in a glass cylinder in a forever-rocking train car, weeping and waiting for someone to let me out. The blurry haze that blankets my vision after the plague finishes with me. The man named Dominic steps out of that haze to talk to me. Drones zip by overhead as I run down strange streets, searching for a family that isn’t there. It all swirls together into one long, endless dream.

I wake in a panic, as I always do. I spend the rest of the night pacing in my room, scribbling down more engine ideas to distract myself, until the first light of dawn appears.

Then I head off to the university before Daniel’s even awake.

The final day of exams passes before me in a blur. I finish my tests early, even though I’m exhausted, and hurry out into the school’s halls as fast as I can in an attempt to avoid talking to anyone.

The halls are still pretty quiet, but some of the other classes have already let out, and a steady stream of students are making their way down the halls and out of the university. I walk down the path alone. My shoes echo against the tiles. Simulated afternoon light from outside the city’s biodome is streaming into the halls, painting everything in gold.

A few loud voices drift to me from somewhere up ahead. I stiffen, slow my walk, and listen more closely.

Damn. Emerson and his crew.

He’s laughing his head off at something that Jenna has said, and from the sound of it, they’re hanging out at the end of the hall, blocking the entrance of the university.

I stop in the middle of the sunbathed hall and try to figure out another way to leave the campus. On a normal afternoon, there would be two other entrances and exits in this building. But because of today’s finals, I know the back entrance is already locked. I think about trying the side entrance to see if it’s open, but it doesn’t connect to the elevators that lead back down to my floor. I’d have to take a long, meandering route down to the Mid Floors in order to get back home.

Maybe I’ll be lucky today. It’s the last day, and he must be in a good mood, too busy celebrating with his friends to notice me slipping out of the university.

I hesitate there for a moment too long. In that instant, I hear his voice suddenly turn in my direction, followed by a shout that echoes down the hall. “Well!” he shouts. “Looks like the Wing boy’s out early, as always!”

My palms break out in a cold sweat. Emerson chuckles, the same sound I always hear whenever he’s thought up some new way to mess with me. I curse under my breath, then whirl around and start walking toward the side entrance.

But I can hear him catching up, along with the laughter of his friends. My eyes dart to the timer floating in the corner of my virtual view. Other students won’t get out for another fifteen minutes.

I’m only halfway down the hall before an arm grabs the back of my shirt and forces me to turn around.

Emerson’s cheery brown eyes are staring straight at me. He grins. “What are you in such a hurry for, Wing?” he says.

My eyes dart to the two behind him. Jenna and Alan smile back at me.

It’s the last day you’ll ever have to deal with them, I tell myself over and over again. Just get through this.

So I shrug out of his grasp and mutter, “I’m late to meet up with my brother.”

Alan grunts in surprise. “I thought you and your brother weren’t talking much these days,” he says.

“Doesn’t he have another brother?” Jenna pipes up.

Emerson’s face lights up. “He did! But I think he died in front of a firing squad.” He shakes his head at me in mock sympathy. “I remember seeing the leaked video of that online.”

John. I still in Emerson’s grip. My heart freezes. Emerson senses my tension and knows he’s hit a nerve, because the edges of his lips tilt a little in grim satisfaction.

I’ve never seen the video of John’s death before. But I’ve read enough descriptions of it in the news to visualize it. It happened in a prison courtyard with high stone walls and a dirt floor smeared with dark stains. Republic soldiers dragged in a struggling figure and chained him in place against one of the walls. John’s execution, when he had taken Daniel’s place so that Daniel could escape.

I can’t breathe. The world around me—their laughter, the footsteps of hundreds of students—sounds muffled. I don’t say a word.

Emerson, Alan, and Jenna are all staring at me, daring me to look away from them. “Poor thing,” Jenna says, her voice dripping with just a little too much sympathy to be genuine. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring him up.”