Your One & Only(31)

“Will you go back down, then?” she asked, watching the rivulets of water run down the hill where they would pour into Blue River. The rain would cause the river to swell, changing the character of the channel like a living thing.

“I don’t know,” he said.

She regretted asking the question when his eyes darkened. He was remembering whatever had made him run up to the cottage to begin with. He leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling and closing himself off from her again.

“Neither of us can go anywhere if the rain keeps up,” he said. “Sleep downstairs if you want. I’d rather be alone.”

He lay on the bed, turning away from her with his hands tucked under his arms.

Jack’s face was still strange to her, and his mannerisms unfamiliar, but that night, even if he was trying to hide his feelings from her, he was failing. He said he wanted to be alone, but everything in his eyes, his whole being, made it a painfully obvious lie.

Althea sat next to Jack on the edge of the bed. Without being able to commune with him, she didn’t know what would comfort him, so she touched his hair. It was what her sisters did when one of them was upset. They touched each other, seeking that calm they felt when they were all together, the soothing brush of fingers in their curls.

He didn’t pull away from her this time, but his back stiffened. “I don’t want to do anything,” he said. “I don’t want to Pair.”

“Okay.” She didn’t lift her hand, but her face reddened thinking about how badly she’d wanted to touch him only moments ago. “I wasn’t offering,” she added with a slight scowl.

The room was quiet except for the rain and their breath, and she watched his chest rise and fall as the lines in his forehead faded with sleep. She stayed, brushing the hair from his closed eyes until it had dried, smooth and pale as corn silk, under her hand.





Chapter Ten


JACK


Jack awoke to a low resonant crack followed by what seemed to be a rumble of thunder. He lay quietly for a few moments, remembering he was no longer in his bed in the labs; remembering that he’d planned to leave last night but had fallen asleep instead. The blanket at the foot of the bed was spread over him, and his muddy shoes had been removed. It must have been Althea, though he didn’t remember her doing it. He remembered her weight on the bed next to him and her hand in his hair. Then the memory of what had happened with Nyla flooded over him, and he groaned softly.

Althea, standing by the window, glanced in his direction. He covered his face with his arm.

He wondered if they were all laughing at him. Sam, the Council, the Gen-310s, who’d probably heard all about it by now. Laughing at his ridiculous human response to their everyday rituals. To them it was nothing; it was just what they did. But maybe they weren’t laughing at all, maybe they were disgusted by his behavior the same as they were by his music.

“Jack,” Althea said, staring out the window toward town.

He sat up. The rain had stopped, and it was still dark, but the first light of dawn outlined the window in a gray veil, silhouetting Althea against it. He wondered if she’d slept.

“Jack,” Althea said. “There’s something down there.”

Jack got up and looked out. At first he didn’t see anything, only the light through the trees, and then he saw it. A plume of smoke rising snakelike into the sky, and a thin finger of gold.

“Fire,” Jack said.

“I think . . .” Althea said, trying to figure it out, “I think it’s near the labs.”

Jack’s unease turned to alarm. The noise that woke him hadn’t been thunder. It was an explosion. “Nyla,” he said. He pulled his shoes on, jerking the laces closed.

“What about Nyla?”

“She’s down there. She’s locked in my room.”

Jack raced down the stairs. Althea followed behind, calling his name, trying to figure out what he was talking about, but he couldn’t wait for her.

He barreled down the path, outstripping the branches and vines catching his clothes, misting him with dampness from the rain. The sting of a thorn caught his face, and a sharp stick scraped his arm. At the wall, he grasped the top in one jump and hauled himself over, then tossed the ladder to the other side for Althea. He couldn’t stop to help her.

The Commons was empty and still, the town unaware of the raging fire half a mile away, though someone must have heard the explosion. When Jack finally reached North Lab, flames had burst the windows on the far side and black smoke rose from within. The first door he tried was locked. The second was blocked by something. He backed up and smashed it in with a swift kick. Someone had barred the door with a wooden board from the inside, trying to keep people out.

He didn’t know this side of the building well. He tried to avoid the labs unless he was in his own small part of the complex. He ran up a stairwell, down a hallway filled with smoke, and then at last reached the door to his room. He unlocked it, opened it wide, and found it filled with smoke, black and choking. Nyla lay unconscious on the floor at the far end. A chair was tipped over next to her, as if she’d tried to use it to break through the glass in the door.

He rushed to her, swearing and searching frantically for the alarm. It should have gone off, everyone in Vispera should have been there putting out the fire, but there was nothing, only snapping flames punctuating the silence. Then he saw the alarm, wires dangling from the bottom. Someone had disabled it. He cursed again.