Steel Lily (The Periodic Series)

by Megan Curd

  Right.

  Damn it.

  Moonlight streamed in through the massive window across the room, and I gazed outward at the stars. Or maybe it was a hologram. Who knew? Someday I would see the real stars. Someday I would taste life outside of a dome. I knew it.

  I leaned against the kitchen island, rolling an apple across the countertop as Alice rummaged through the cupboards. She hadn’t said more than three words since she’d been tracked.

  “Alice, you know if you hold all your words in, you’ll eventually explode,” I said, trying to prod her. “It’ll be messy. All those words to clean up…you know I hate cleaning. Why would you do something like that to me?”

  She gave me a dirty look, grabbed an orange, and went back to our bedroom.

  I felt like crap. I needed her back. She needed to be back, but her bloodshot eyes were the evidence that my Alice was gone, and I had no idea how to find her behind the hollow emptiness that had been left behind. My heart hurt for her.

  Sari passed her as she came out to the kitchen but said nothing until she got to me. “She’ll come around. I promise. Jaxon did.”

  “And look how he came around. He should have stayed wherever he was.”

  She shook her head. “You know, you’re an angsty bugger when you have a crush.”

  “I don’t have a crush,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “Nope, not at all. You have a head-on collision with loooove.”

  As if on cue, there was a knock at our door.

  She winked at me. “Nine PM. On the dot. As usual. The boy is like clockwork when it comes to you.”

  “We don’t even touch, woman.”

  “Because if you did, the sexual tension between the two of you would explode into amazingness and fireworks of epic proportions,” she said evenly. “It’d be like, the collision of a lifetime.”

  As I laughed, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be more like a crash and burn. I tossed her my apple and went to get the door as it sounded again.

  With the turn of a doorknob, there he was—blue eyed, dreadlocked, and looking at me as if he had a witty comment already planned.

  I gaped at him, not brave enough to challenge him wit for wit. Oh yeah, Sari, total sexpot right here.

  As usual, he extended his arm. “You ready?”

  “Always.”

  “Behave, you two,” Sari called behind us.

  Jaxon smiled. “Not tonight.”

  That caught me off-guard. Mom and I had planned to try to make a dessert for Dad tonight. “What do you mean, not tonight?”

  He cocked his head to the side, and a lone dread fell across his face. “Have you forgotten? You owe me a date, woman. Tonight I’m collecting.”

  “I have plans.”

  His grin was blinding. “I know. With me. I’ve already talked to your parents.”

  I floundered for words. “You what? You asked my parents if you could take me on a date?”

  “It seemed to be what people did in the old days,” he said reasonably. “Why not keep the pointless chivalry alive?”

  “Because you’re Jaxon.”

  “So chivalry doesn’t apply to me?”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  “Oh. Okay then.”

  And with that he grabbed me, lifted me on his shoulder, and carried me down the hall, leaving Sari’s laugh echoing in my ears.

  Or maybe that was my heartbeat threatening to explode out of my head.

  “Put me down!” I hissed quietly.

  He laughed and set me down. “Will you follow me if I do?”

  “Like you’d let me do anything else.”

  “This is true.”

  He navigated the hallways and ascended the stairs to the surface of the dome in silence, leaving me to wonder what we were doing the entire time. Before long we stood on the muddy ground under the overpass that hid the entrance to the academy. Shadows hid the underground city Riggs had created. If I hadn’t known it was there, I wouldn’t have looked twice at the gap that led to the academy below.

  Moonlight lit our path. Jaxon stepped into the light and took my hand. “I’m going to show you something only Sari’s seen.”

  “Oh God, please keep your clothes on.”

  He laughed. “Get your mind out of the gutter, you perv.”

  “I’m just saying, no matter what permission my parents gave you, they wouldn’t want you to blind me with something that scarring.”

  “Blind you with something that beautiful, you mean.”

  Well yes… “You aren’t God’s gift to women, contrary to your belief.”

  “Sure, sure. I’ve seen the way you look at me. I’m not a piece of meat, you know. I have feelings, too,” He winked at me. “This is a first date. Don’t think I’m going to let you in my pants that easy.”

  “This is not a date! This is me giving into your demanding ways and hoping you’ll leave me alone afterward.” I forced myself to mean it. It wasn’t a date. Jaxon was…Jaxon. It would take a lot more than a moonlight stroll to convince me he wasn’t the self-absorbed, egocentric asshat he presented himself to be ninety percent of the time. But the other ten percent of the time made me hope this was real.

  He chuckled to himself as we made our way over the hill and onto the desolate street. My thighs burned, and I found myself hoping that wherever he was taking me was close. Here he was less careful. He kicked a chunk of asphalt that had loosened from the road. It thunked down the street a little way, and when we reached it, he kicked it again.

  “So, you’re a bit of a caveman since you came from Dome Four,” he said without a hint of offensiveness in his tone. “I want to show you a good time, so I’m introducing you to my woman.”

  “A guy like you will never settle down.”

  “A guy like me settles down for four hundred horses of power, let me tell you! And I don’t get to take these horses out to play nearly enough.”

  “Horses? Real horses?” The thought of seeing a real horse excited me. I’d never seen one, except in books.

  Jaxon snorted. “No, not real horses. I’m referring to horsepower. You know, what’s under the hood in a car?”

  “You know how to drive?” The idea of trying to navigate tons of steel stopped me in my tracks.

  “Like I said, perks of being Jaxon Pierce.”

  I suddenly noticed something. “Why don’t you have your father’s last name?”

  “That’s a conversation for another day,” he said evasively. “I want tonight to be fun.”

  “But you said you were letting me get to know you.”

  “Not about that, I didn’t.”

  It was apparent he wouldn’t budge on the topic. I sighed. “Okay, show me these horses.”

  Turning the corner, half of a dilapidated twenty-foot-tall sign stood with the other lying on the ground at our feet. Glancing between the two pieces, I could make out Heckle’s Porsche Dealership with insignias below the words to indicate what I assumed were car logos.

  “Cars take gas…” I said slowly.

  “Yep. Good catch.”

  “And you plan on getting this gas how?”

  He slid his hand over a dusty car with a logo on the hood that read Porsche. Underneath the grime of the body, the paint appeared to be white. As we passed, I noticed the windshield was cracked and riddled with bullet holes. Nothing had avoided the war.

  We entered the display room where multiple cars sat, each one also perforated by bullets. An iridescent puddle of oil had expanded from under one of the vehicles to blanket the surrounding area. The place smelled of oil and gas and rust.

  “Jaxon, I don’t think any of these are going to go anywhere, no matter how many horses you got to pull them.”

  His laugh echoed through the room. “Not these, no, but they had a back showroom that no one got to, and thank goodness this baby was saved.”

  I rolled my eyes as he led us to the rear of the building and through a door on the left. The ground was covered in silt a
nd debris, but a little further into the room, underneath an overhang that shielded it from the elements, sat a jet black car in pristine condition. The only way I knew it was there was the moonlight shining off the paint in the darkness. The smooth, elegant lines made it look fast even while stationary. I smiled in spite of myself. This was a cool car, although I didn’t have much to compare it to.

  He stood by the passenger door with a goofy grin. “Well, what do you think?”

  “It’s pretty cool,” I admitted.

  “Pretty cool? Do you know what you’re looking at?”

  “To be honest, no.”

  He shook his head and opened the door. “Get in the car.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Don’t think. I like to live to the chorus of ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ Makes for more fun.”

  “This doesn’t even seem like a good idea right now.”

  He walked over and took my hands, his eyes pleading. “When have I ever led you wrong?”

  “I’ve only known you a little over a week. It’s early yet.”

  “Then let’s see if it’s now,” he said good-naturedly. “And anyway, you’ll be begging me to drive faster once we’re on the road.”

  “I suppose if we’re going to die trying to escape, you wrapping this thing around a pole or another car would be quicker than anything Riggs could think of.”

  He snorted as he helped me into the bucket seat and clicked the seatbelt across my lap, his fingers lingering on the tops of my thighs. My whole body burned from being so close in such an intimate space.

  “I’ve never met someone so beautiful who could be so macabre.”

  “Queen of Darkness, at your service.”

  The door shut, and suddenly I was in the contraption alone. The leather interior was cold, and I ran my hands across the wooden dashboard. There wasn’t a hint of dust or a speck of rust anywhere.

  The car shifted under Jaxon’s weight, and as he turned the key it growled to life. He lowered his foot onto the pedal, causing the machine to rumble and snarl. “Doesn’t she sound beautiful?”

  “She sounds angry to me.”

  “Same thing. Seems to be the general rule of thumb with women.”

  The top of the car began to buzz, and I realized the roof was bending backward into a small cavity behind us. Great. So now I was in a rolling death machine without a top to protect us.

  He drummed the wheel excitedly and looked at me as he buckled himself in. “My laboratory is on the edge of the dome, and I think you’ll like it. That’s where we’re heading.”

  Before I could argue, he shifted into gear, punched the gas and we shot off into the night, me screaming at the top of my lungs and Jaxon whooping in excitement.

  Boys.

  The onslaught of wind chapped my face, but I had to admit, riding in the car was exhilarating. After realizing Jaxon was an efficient driver, that is. I fought to keep my hair out of my face, but it was useless. It twisted and slapped my cheeks each time I pulled my hand away. I yelled over the howling wind that whipped past us.

  “What kind of car is this? Do they all go this fast?”

  “This is a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo. It was my civil duty to save it from perishing there in the car lot. And no, they do NOT all go this fast!”

  He whipped us around a tight corner as though he’d done this his entire life. The tires squealed in protest under the abrupt turn, and he bellowed in excitement. When the car straightened out, he glanced over. “You having fun?”

  “That depends on if we’re going to survive! Keep your eyes on the road!”

  My face hurt from smiling so much. He seemed to know all the roads that were free of debris and rubble. I gripped the dash in front of me for support, but couldn’t help cheering from the sheer exhilaration of it all.

  He laughed and took another turn, each time cutting it closer to a parked car or derelict building. Just when I thought I might get sick from the constant turns and shifting of speeds, he slowed down.

  “There, up ahead,” he said, pointing ahead with one hand, the other firmly on the steering wheel. “See that big building? It’s my laboratory.”

  As we neared, the shadows enveloped us like a shroud. He killed the engine, hopped out, and walked around the car to open my door.

  “We’re kind of far away still, aren’t we?” I asked.

  “Fifteen minute walk. There’s no more road. Gotta hoof it.” He climbed over a concrete barrier and extended a hand.

  As I stepped over, something gleaming to the left caught my attention.

  His eyes followed my line of sight. “That’s the end of the dome. My lab juts right up against the edge over there, and that’s the end of it on the east side.”

  Curiosity got the best of me. “It looks almost transparent, like we could walk through. Have you tried?”

  “Actually, no.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Will you let us go to the lab if we touch the edge of the dome first?”

  “Yeah. The one in Dome Four never shimmered like that. It was solid.”

  “All right, let’s go touch the shimmery dome, and then I’ll show you my lab.”

  His hand grasped mine. This seemed to be the habit for the night, which made me happy. This Jaxon was someone I could see myself enjoying.

  If only he would stay this way.

  The closer we came to the edge, the more the dome seemed to shimmer in and out of existence like a playful apparition. He let go of my hand and moved ahead of me.

  “I think you’re right, Avery. This doesn’t look solid.”

  It suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea to test the limit. The way the light danced against the surface might have looked playful from afar, but now I wondered if it was an indication of something sinister. The beautiful things in life were always the most deadly.

  Jaxon turned back to me, a daring smile on his lips. “Oh, come on, you made me come over here. Touch it and be done, so we can go to my lab,” he said playfully as he rubbed his arms. “It’s cold out here; I want to warm up.”

  “What if it’s not safe?”

  He snorted. “Really? You went one hundred and thirty miles an hour in what you claimed was a metal death trap, and you balk at touching the dome wall? Fine, I’ll show you it won’t bite.”

  He sauntered over to the wall with his usual braggadocio and turned to face me. As he relaxed his body to lean against it, he extended his arms. “See? No prob—”

  “Jaxon!”

  His body hit the ground outside the dome, and his head smacked the concrete. “What the hell? There’s no real wall?”

  His words rang clear, as though nothing was separating us. He sat on the ground running his hands along the rough surface as he looked at me, astounded.

  “You can breathe all right?”

  “Yeah.” He lifted his palms toward mine and held them barely outside the dome.

  I stepped forward and mimicked his movements, but I extended mine through the dome to touch his. I thought it would burn. Maybe my skin would peel off like his brother’s had. But I didn’t burn, not like that, anyway. Touching Jaxon always made me burn, and this was no different. He was an insatiable flame, not that I would ever want to squelch the fires that he ignited within me.

  He was all business at the moment, though. “I wonder if it’s me. Like I can breathe because of what Riggs did—you read the journal, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “Thanks for not bringing it up.”

  “I figured you’d talk about it when you wanted to.”

  We stood like that for a moment, lost in the revelation that there was no barrier to keep us from leaving, and so far we hadn’t exploded for crossing the threshold. I wanted to see if I could step outside too. After a deep breath, I took one step, then two.

  “Avery, don’t do that! You don’t know if—”

  It felt as though I’d walked through a crisp spring rain, but as I reached th
e other side, I was still dry. Watching Jaxon, I expelled my breath and prayed I would be able to inhale again.

  I could.

  “Hell, yeah!” Jaxon whooped and punched the air with his fist. “Everything they’ve told us about being outside, that the world was ruined, it was all a bunch of lies! Look at us. We’re standing outside, breathing the air.”

  He spun in a circle, then picked me up and took me for the ride. Placing me back on the earth, he cupped my face in his hands. Every neuron in my body ignited at his closeness, his scent, the way his lips curved upward, and his sincere blue eyes.

  “We’re going to escape,” he said. “We’ll take Sari, Alice, your parents, even Gimpalicious.” His words came out in a rush, his excitement increasing with each syllable. He bounced where he stood, too emotionally charged to stand still. He thrust his arm behind him towards the endless darkness we now knew could be ours. “We’re going to go far away from here. Build a life. Build a new world one step at a time. We’re going to do it all, and I want you to be by my side. I want you for myself.”

  Without warning, his lips crushed mine, and I lost all sense of self. His body heat pressed against me like a tidal wave, and I welcomed it. In place of the blood in my veins, I felt electricity, every limb tingling with excitement.

  I had caught fire with him, and I never wanted to quell it, never wanted to let go.

  This was home. Not Dome Seven. Not Dome Four. Not any dome. Home was finding the person whose heartbeat matched yours, then dancing to the rhythm together.

  His lips moved gently and I parted mine, welcoming his advances. We moved as one person, his hands roving along my waist and mine finding the nape of his neck. I wound my fingers through his dreads and pulled him closer to me. His moan spurred me on, encouraging me to hold him tighter. I shivered as he moved his hands across the small of my back.

  He pulled me to the ground with him, and I didn’t even care that we were lying on cement. The fact that we knew we could escape, that our lives could be better than this tyranny and fear, made everything that much sweeter. I bit his bottom lip, and he let out a sigh as he squeezed my sides. He broke our kiss long enough to trace my jawline with his finger. “I know we haven’t known each other that long, but…”