“It’s going to be okay.” Our faces are only a few inches apart. I can see every emotion crossing hers: fear, pain, grief.
Her eyes search mine. “They’re all dead.”
“They’re not all dead.”
“You saw the fire—”
“They’re not all dead, Kamali.” I say it too forcefully, too urgent in my need for it to be true, and it doesn’t help. Tears leak from the corners of her eyes. Now she won’t look at me, scanning the forest around us instead.
I try to temper the fear in my voice. “I mean, we can’t assume that, not until we know for sure, right? Not until we try to get them back.” I have no idea what I’m talking about, but we need some kind of hope. I need some kind of hope, or I’m going to end up curled on the forest floor like Kamali. And she deserves better than that from me.
“Get them back?” She looks at me like I’m speaking gibberish. “It’s us now, Eli. Us against… what can we possibly do?”
I take a moment to look around us. We’re practically buried in ferns. Except for the reality-defying branch hanging above us, there’s absolutely no sign we’re here. The bots would have to literally stumble over us. It’s as good a place to hide as any.
I slide one hand down from her helmet to her shoulder and tug gently. “Scoot my way.”
She frowns, but does it, inching over just enough that the palm frond springs upright. Now it’s covering both of us, and no longer giving us away.
I gesture up at it with my eyes. “See? Now we’re completely hidden. Even if the bots search for us, they’re not going to find us.”
She looks back and forth between me and the branch and seems to decide that I’m not completely insane. “Okay.” Even better, her voice has lost some of the tremble.
“Okay.” I take a breath. “We stay here. We wait. Then later, maybe after it’s dark, we sneak back to the camp. The ascenders should be gone by then. If not, we hide again and wait until they leave. Once all the sentries are gone, we’ll see what’s left. We’ll need food and supplies. Maybe the command pod will still be functioning. We can call for help, maybe get one of the other Resistance groups to come for us. They can help us figure out how to rescue everyone.”
She’s watching me with wide eyes. “You really think they’re alive.”
“I do.” The confidence in my voice grows. “I don’t know what happened, but why would they kill everyone?”
“They didn’t have a problem killing the seventeen.” A shudder works through her body.
I swallow on an already dry throat. I don’t want to say the thought that’s been eating at the edge of my mind since we started running, but she’ll figure it out eventually. “If they wanted to destroy the camp, they wouldn’t have dropped sentries. They would have dropped bombs on the whole thing.” I know what this implies: the ascenders are looking for something. And that something is me.
She nods. “That makes sense.” She frowns, then adds, “So we just wait. For now.”
“Yeah.” Relief flushes through me that she doesn’t immediately blame me for all of it. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“I think I twisted my ankle.” She winces and lets me go enough to work a hand inside her helmet. I’m sure she’s just brushing off the tears, but she leans back enough that our invisibility fields de-link, and I can’t see her anymore. An instant knot forms in my stomach.
I wait, trying to be cool.
She’s back a moment later, eyes wide. I don’t think she expected me to disappear either.
“Stay close,” I say.
She nods in agreement.
I sigh in relief. “How bad is your ankle?”
She shakes her head, then stops because our helmets rub against each other. Instead, she says, “I’ve had worse. It’s just a small sprain. I’ll be fine. Especially if we’re resting before heading back to camp.”
The hope lighting her face calms me even more. “Good. If it’s bad, we can go slow.” I think about the empty, charred camp we’ll be returning to. How everyone I have in this world was there: my mom, Cyrus, even Lenora. I blink, not wanting fresh tears, not now while Kamali is watching.
“Eli?” The concern on her face forces a grim smile onto mine.
I have to clear my throat. “You know, I don’t have any family outside my mom and Cyrus. Even back in Seattle, it was just us. But you have family back in Paris, right?” I’m thinking, worst case, she’ll still have somewhere to go.
Kamali looks away from me again, out at the leafy branches waving in the breeze above us. Then I remember: she told me before that she never knew her mom. Her parents were banished by the ascenders when she was little.
“Oh, hey, I’m sorry,” I say quickly. “I forgot you were raised by your aunt.”
When her gaze comes back to me, there’s a small smile on her face. “It’s all right. I was just thinking Aunt Sophie is probably furious with me right now.”
“Didn’t she know you were in the Resistance?” It’s easy to see every tiny emotion that flits across her face. She’s blinking too fast, and her creamy brown cheeks are tinging red.
“No. I lied to everyone. No one knew but Basha and Delphina.” She sniffs. “Auntie Soph wouldn’t want me back.”
“Because she’s still legacy?” I guess. Her aunt would risk getting banished herself.
“And she’s always been very angry with my mother for—” She stops and flashes me a tortured look, then goes back to examining the leaves.
I hold my breath, waiting, but she’s not saying any more. I realize my hand is still on her shoulder. I give it a gentle squeeze. “You know, I’m the last person in the world to judge you for what your parents have done. Trust me on this. I love my mom—I’d do anything for her—but she did things…” I pause. I don’t want to tell Kamali about the experiments. “Let’s just say, my family’s broken all the taboos there are.”
Kamali’s deep brown eyes are intent on me now. “My mother was with an ascender.”
I’m proud of how I keep my surprise under wraps, but it also squeezes on my chest. Because that story is way too familiar. “Mine too.”
Kamali’s eyebrows hike up.
I grit my teeth. “Someday, when I find that guy, I’m going to give him a flash grenade to the head.”
She laughs a little, and it eases some of the pain in my chest. Then she gives me a curious look. “What did your father think of this?”
I’m speechless for a moment, completely at a loss as to what lie to tell.
But Kamali saves me from it by giving me an earnest look. “Is that why they say you have no father? Did he leave because of the liaison?” She uses the French word for affair, and it almost sounds dignified in her beautiful accent.
“Something like that,” I say.
She nods. “That’s why my parents had to leave Paris. My father said she could remain a domestic or she could leave with him. I guess, in the end, love won out over all the promises the ascenders make.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t your mom’s fault in the first place. The ascenders tend to take advantage of humans.” I frown as I realize that’s why she’s an orphan. “So they left you behind?”
She nods. “It was me and life as a domestic, or life as a dissenter. My mother did not choose me.”
I’m aghast. “Kamali… I’m so sorry.” It seems wholly inadequate. And I wonder if her mother and father are in the Resistance, but I decide it’s better not to ask.
She shrugs. “It was a long time ago. But I still don’t like to see one of them with one of us.” She holds my gaze, and I know she means me and Lenora.
“That’s really not what you think it is,” I say, cringing a little. “It’s complicated.”
She nods, but has a skeptical look. Like she’s trying to piece together all my lies and somehow figure out the truth.
I try to cut off that line of thought. “So, you and Tristan, huh?”
Her lips turn down, and I immediately regret bringing it u
p. After all, he was in the camp. He could be dead. Or captured. We might find his body when we return.
“Kamali, I’m sorry, I’m an idiot, just ignore everything I’m—”
“No,” she cuts me off, and I shut my mouth before I bury myself more. “It’s all right. Like you said, they’re not all dead.”
“We’re going to see them again,” I say, nodding.
She nods as well and looks thoughtful for a moment. I realize we have a long stretch of time ahead of us. Maybe we should get some rest. And stop talking before I say anything more stupid than I already have.
But she’s not done. “That’s not really what it appears, either.”
“Oh?” I can’t help the small surge of hope that wells up in my chest.
“Tristan and I met in Paris.” She gives a small smile. “He was the first member of the Resistance that I knew. Outside of Delphina and Basha, of course.”
“Of course.” I doubt I want to hear the story of how she met Tristan.
She smirks. “He seemed to think I needed a personal bodyguard from the beginning.”
“I’m sure he did.” Now I’m certain: I do not want to hear this story.
She gives a small laugh at the look on my face. “I’m not like Basha, you know. I don’t think I need to kiss a thousand boys before I find the right one.”
My heart sinks at this.
“But one kiss doesn’t mean a boy is automatically my second, either.” Her eyes are boring into mine.
“Makes sense.” It’s pretty clear our first kiss was also our last. Probably. But I’m held captive by her intense look. Maybe she’s saying she’s only kissed Tristan once. “Although, I’m sure Tristan will be disappointed to hear that. When we see him.”
Her expression goes soft. “Say it again, Eli. Tell me we’re going to see them all again.”
The pain is back in my chest. “We’re going to see them all again.”
She nods, but a sudden weariness drags down her face. She closes her eyes briefly. “I’m so tired.”
The shock. The panic. Having Kamali next to me on the forest floor, helmets together, my hand resting on her shoulder. All of it is catching up to me, too.
“You should take a rest,” I say, softly. “I’ll keep watch while you sleep.”
“What about you?” she says, but her words are already heavy with fatigue.
“We’ll take turns. I’ll go first. Close your eyes and rest.”
She does, without any more protest. And then I get to watch as her curved cheeks and arched eyebrows slowly relax. I’ve always been struck by her beauty, from the very first instant I saw her, but in this moment, an innocence steals over her that makes my heart ache. She should be dancing somewhere, laughing and living and deciding which boy she wants to kiss again… not buried in ferns, hiding from ascenders in the wilds of Oregon.
With sinking certainly, I know whatever’s happened back at the camp is my fault. Not that I caused it, but because Marcus finally figured out where I was hiding and decided to take out the entire Resistance just to get at me.
I don’t know what we’re going to find when we return, but whatever else happens, I’m going to make sure Kamali survives and finds a way to get back to Paris or wherever is safe. Because I can’t stand the idea of anything else bad happening to her because of me.
I awake to snarling, drooling, insanely sharp teeth in my face.
I jerk back, which only makes the dog snap at me and growl in a way that freezes every muscle in my body. I can’t believe I fell asleep. My internal cursing is epic. A quickly sucked-in breath over the comm tells me Kamali’s awake. I’ve moved away from her, so I can’t see her—as far as I can tell, we’re both still invisible—but this feral beast must have smelled us. While I’m trying to remember how to breathe, Kamali’s hand flails against my arm. I quickly grab it to keep her from moving.
The dog senses us anyway and unleashes a flurry of barks that nearly stop my heart. He’s practically on top of us, just under the fern branch. He knows we’re here, even if he can’t see us.
“What you got there, boy?” a rough male voice calls from behind the dog. The ferns crunch under his approach.
Kamali is breathing hard over my comm, and I’m right there with her. I have no idea what to do, other than hold still.
The barrel of a long, old-fashioned gun moves the branch aside. The dog growls and snaps again, now that its owner is here.
“What do you see, Mac?” The man is maybe forty with a beard that looks about a month old. His clothes are rough brown wool and handmade. The single barrel rifle has no tech and could be pre-Singularity, but the gaping black hole at the end could easily fire a bullet and kill me very dead. Its aim is wandering all over me and Kamali.
We hold absolutely still.
The man scowls at the dog. “Ye chasing mice now, you stupid mutt? C’mon!” He backs away, but the dog doesn’t leave. He just growls more, then suddenly lunges at me, teeth bared. I throw up my arm, and he clamps down on it. I manage to keep in the half-scream, half-grunt that wants to work loose—I don’t think the dog’s teeth have pierced my suit, but it hurts like ten nails driven into my arm. And I can’t get loose. But none of that matters because the field is now overlapping the dog’s head.
“I said c’mon, Mac!” The man stomps back and pushes aside the branch. “What the—”
The barrel of the gun whips up to point straight at my arm and the dog’s now-invisible head.
“What devil is this?” he hisses under his breath, then shouts, “Nat!”
Another man comes crashing through the ferns, arriving by the first one’s side. He’s older, maybe fifty, with age and sun carving lines on his face.
“Mac’s got some kind of demon!” the first one says.
The older man quickly takes in the situation, then says in a low, gruff voice. “Shoot it.”
Kamali sucks in a breath.
The man hesitates, wincing, I think because he doesn’t want to shoot his dog. But he takes aim with his gun anyway—
“No! Wait!” I jam my chin against the activation buttons for my suit. It takes a heart-stopping second while I’m wrestling with the dog and getting all three buttons—helmet, jacket and pants—but I finally manage it.
My shield drops. Both men lean back in surprise, then a split second later, I have two gun barrels aimed at my head.
“Heel, Mac!” the younger one says, and the dog releases me.
I clutch my arm and sneak a glance next to me, where Kamali is lying. She’s still cloaked. I wrench my gaze back to the men before I give her away.
“He’s using the devil’s tech!” the man with the dog says, his gun still pointed at my head.
“Okay, boy,” the older one says to me. “How about you tell us what you’re doing, hiding yourself in the weeds with the soulless ones’ technology?” The cool tone of his voice sends shivers racing through me. I’m pretty sure my life depends on my answer.
“I was… I was hiding from the ascenders.” My voice wavers, but it’s essentially the truth. I hope they can hear that.
The older one narrows his eyes. “We saw that camp going up in smoke. A fair punishment for laying down with the devil. So, you’re one of those, are you?”
“No.” I shake my head for emphasis. I’m pretty sure that’s the right answer. “I told you, I was hiding from them. I was running away.”
“Is that right?” The older one isn’t convinced, and the younger one looks like he wants to shoot me, regardless.
“I swear.”
“We don’t care much for swearing, son.”
I wince. “I mean, I promise.” My hands are up. “They captured me and were holding me prisoner. I was just trying to get free.”
“Just trying to get home, eh?” The older one scans my face, looking for something. “Where abouts would that be?”
I swallow. These guys don’t know who I am. Which means they haven’t watched the Olympics. So they’re dissident beli
evers who live off grid.
“I was born a legacy in Seattle,” I say, sticking with the truth as much as possible, so I don’t trip myself up too badly. “But I was banished.”
The younger one eases off with the rifle to my head. He nods a little, approving. “You a believer, then?” As if that’s the only reason I would have been kicked out of a legacy city.
I nod. I can’t imagine what Kamali thinks about all this, but she’s doing a good job of keeping quiet.
The older one rocks his gun back and rests it on his shoulder. My body sags a little with relief, now that weapons aren’t actively pointed at my head. Not that I’m out of danger with these two—not by a long measure.
“Well, get on up, son.” He waves me up from the forest floor. “I’m Nathaniel, one of the elders of our community. This is Jacob. If you’re a believer, then you’re halfway to heaven. And we’d love to see you get the rest of the way there.”
That sets my teeth on edge, but I climb to my feet. I have a feeling I’ve just been adopted. But at least that will let me lead these guys away from Kamali. She can slip back to the camp on her own. I’ll just have to break free of them later. Somehow.
“Take the helmet off, son,” the older one, Nathaniel, says. As I do, he asks, “What’s your name?”
I know my mom named me after someone in her Christian holy book, so I give him my full name. “Elijah.”
He exchanges a smile with the younger one, Jacob. “That’s a fine name. A godly name. I’m glad we found you, Elijah.”
I force as much of a smile as I can. “Yeah. Me too.”
“Come on, son.” Nathaniel steps forward to clap a hand on my shoulder. It’s heavy, with muscle behind it, and I’m fairly sure he could knock me out stone-cold with one punch. “We’ve got some folks in our community who’d like a chance to welcome a young believer like yourself.”
I nod and struggle to keep the smile. But we’re already a few feet away from Kamali, which is just what I want. Nathaniel keeps his hand on my shoulder as we head in the direction of the stream. The dog whines behind us.
“C’mon, Mac!” Jacob says.
The dog starts growling and pawing at the ferns again. Right where Kamali still is. I grit my teeth, but Jacob hustles back to retrieve the dog. The growling kicks up a notch, and my heart sinks.
The Duality Bridge (Singularity #2) (Singularity Series) Page 9
