by Everly Frost
“None.” She bit her lip. “You should know that when he ousts President Scott, his predecessor will come out of the shadows, too.”
“Alexander.” Ruth sucked in a breath, fidgeting with her hair. “Would Olander be so bold?”
“Maybe not at first, but eventually. Step by small step, they will institute change according to Basher policies.”
I frowned at the space between the two women and all the things they weren’t saying. Josh had mentioned someone named Alexander in his message. He’d said that Alexander was the former leader of the Bashers and that he’d stepped aside, willingly no less, for Olander to take control. At the pause in their conversation, I threw my first question at Michael’s mom.
“Why do you know all this about the Bashers?”
She blinked at me. “Because I was one of them.”
I stared at her. She had to be kidding. Except she wasn’t, and I should’ve seen it coming because she and Michael were the same, rarities even among the fast healing. At least he’d turned them down. Of course, he never said whether his mom had something to do with that. Judging by her expression, her association with the Bashers wasn’t something she was proud of.
“I hid Jason from them for three years. Because of the way Michael is, they didn’t have any reason to suspect Jason wasn’t the same as us.” She stared at her lap. “Until they did. And when they found out he was a slow healer, everything they despised, things got very dangerous for my boys. Michael’s father did everything he could. He…” She glanced at Ruth as though she thought Ruth wouldn’t like what she was about to say. “Robert traveled the earth looking for a cure for our son.”
Nectar.
She wasn’t saying it but I could sense the word on her tongue. He’d found the cure but it was too unstable. They’d developed it and tested it on my brother instead.
“It wasn’t enough. Even with a possible cure, Jason was an abhorrence to the Bashers. He was flawed.” Her hands shook. She hid them in the folds of her clothing. “They actively sought the power to end him, along with anyone like him. I kept them at bay as long as I could, making deals, doing things … but in the end it wasn’t enough. As soon as they found out about your brother, Ava, it was only a matter of time before they formulated the weapon they craved.” She met my eyes, so intense. “My people have sought mortality like yours for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years.”
“Your people?” I frowned.
“The Bashers adhere to the principles of the ancient Seversandian tribes. I’m sure Michael’s told you about them.”
I remembered Michael mentioning that his father had studied some ancient tribes, who would ritually test their children at birth to identify the weak. The children who didn’t heal fast enough were buried in tombs and left to succumb to a death-sleep for the sake of the genetic pool. Michael said that the members of the tribe became so strong that they lived, not hundreds of years but thousands. True immortals. On a genetic level, it made sense that Michael could be descended from them. He was the fastest healer I’d ever seen.
I studied Michael. “I didn’t know you were Seversandian.” Maybe I could see it in the darkness of his hair, the hint of olive in his skin. He gave me a wry look in return.
“I traced back my family tree after Michael was born,” Helen said, “but there are gaps in it. No proof either way. But to keep my sons safe I convinced the Bashers I was a direct descendant of the ancient tribes. It was a means to an end. Whether we’re truly the last descendants, we’ll never know.”
Ruth had been quiet. “What could be doesn’t matter. What matters is what is.”
Helen turned to her. “If Olander comes to power, he’ll change everything.” Then she stared at us. “The Bashers will come for you.”
Michael’s hand tightened on mine. “Let them try. Nobody’s taking Ava away again.”
“Not just for her.” Michael’s mom shook her head at him. “They’ll come for you, Michael.”
His expression was incredulous. “Me?”
“You’re everything the Bashers stand for.”
He snarled: “I turned them down once, I’ll do it again.”
“This won’t be a request.”
“I won’t join them.”
“To protect the people you love, you might.”
Michael’s words were harsh. “I won’t be like you. I won’t leave Ava. Not for any reason.”
His mom’s voice almost broke. “If I’d brought you with me, Alexander would’ve torn the world apart looking for you. He needs at least one of us to drive his cause, to show people what the Bashers can be, what they want the world to be. We’re proof that immortality exists and is attainable. I had to choose, and I knew that nobody would hurt you. Not Alexander, not your father.”
Michael’s expression was dark. “Hurt me? Not in any way you can see.”
She blanched. Her mask finally cracked and her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Michael. I didn’t know what else to do.” Her head dropped, her hair fell over her face; her shoulders shook.
I felt her pain. If faced with the same choice, I didn’t know what I’d do. Arachne said she’d been thrown into a Basher cell, and somehow I didn’t think it was the same as an endless sleep. Michael’s mom was trying to protect Jason from that.
“Michael.” I leaned into his chest, dropping my head into the crevice between his shoulder and head, sensing his heartbeat.
Forgive her.
“I can’t.” He stood and pulled me with him. “I’m staying with Ava tonight.”
Ruth spluttered. “At my place? I don’t think so—”
Michael cut her off. “Your place is covered in surveillance. I’ll sleep in a separate bedroom and, if I don’t, I’m sure you’ll know about it.”
I thought Ruth would argue more but she asked, “And if I say no?”
“It’s this or I’m out on the streets tonight.”
She glanced at me, knowing full well I’d go with him. We’d done it before, living on what we could find. At my determined expression, she caved. “Very well. But the mid-summer festival is tomorrow and I expect you to respect Ava’s schedule.”
He didn’t promise anything. “Can we go now?”
Ruth nodded and gestured to the staff member standing at the door; a woman waiting for us to follow her.
We trailed the woman through the maze of security, one elevator after another, heading further and further upward, until we left electricity behind and reached a world that was far less like Evereach and more otherworldly. Michael didn’t speak the whole time and I sensed his inner turmoil like it was a hot iron.
Inside the final elevator, I said to our guide, “Is there any reason we have to go straight back to Ruth’s apartment? I need some air.”
In response, she hit the button for the ground floor and I took that as an okay.
Within moments, I gulped fresh air, Michael beside me, breathing in the sight of the winter blooms and flowering trees outside Tower Seventeen. “It’ll be okay.” I gripped his hand, feeling like my words were empty but I had to believe them. Michael paced beside me, anger and frustration flowing off him. He needed to walk, and I eyed the pathway to the train station. It wasn’t long enough.
As we exited the building into the early morning sunlight, the reprieve was short-lived. Michael’s brother waited outside the door to the building, and jumped forward when we arrived. “Are you okay? They sent for Mom and wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Yeah, buddy.” Michael’s expression softened for the first time. He took a deep breath, keeping it all in. “Can you give us a minute?”
There was a bench beneath the spreading cherry tree down the path, and I sank into it, struggling to keep my eyes open. I ignored the people walking by, trying not to watch Michael and his brother, especially when the discussion became animated. The distance between them seemed to grow the more imploring Jason’s expression became. It made me think of what I’d do if I could talk to my parents o
ne last time. I’d probably yell at them, maybe even tell them I hated them for what they did, when what I really needed was for them to hug me and tell me it was all okay, that they didn’t abandon me, that they never would again.
But they were asleep underground.
My brother was dead and the girl he loved was the only thing standing between the president and exile, although any hope of that seemed unlikely after what Michael’s mom had said.
And me … I didn’t know where I fit in. The president wanted me safe, but not only for my own benefit. Especially when he talked about a cold war with Seversand. His relief at knowing I was safe in Starsgard was all tied up in Evereach’s safety. Cheyne had told me that Seversand hadn’t stopped trying to find a weapon ever since the nuclear bomb failed to bring Evereach to its knees, that they’d continued threatening and infiltrating Evereach. He said they’d only stopped because of me. But how could I be responsible for the safety of millions of people and at the same time the greatest threat they’d ever known?
I wanted to go home, but not to Evereach—I wanted to be wherever my home was meant to be, wherever it was I belonged, where I could be me and not a weapon.
But that was nowhere. Not even here in Tower Seventeen.
Like Michael, I didn’t belong anywhere.
I leaned back in the seat and focused on a pale pink cherry blossom, its delicate shape and faint perfume soothing my thoughts. The sunlight caught my eye through the branches, and I blinked. In the distance a train whistle blew, echoing across the mountains. The sunlight flashed again. Looking away from the branches I blinked again, but it didn’t go away.
Even when I closed my eyes, the blip remained.
I shivered as I recognized it—the same light I’d seen when I was trying to find my parents underground and the fireflies had pointed me to the maple tree.
Shadowy text poured down my vision, faint this time, as though the effect had almost worn off. I didn’t know what question I’d asked or what information it was about to give me.
The light blipped three more times and then the text slowed and said:
Home is this way.
The words faded like the sun disappearing.
I jumped to my feet, causing a young woman walking past me to swerve out of the way with an annoyed look. As I tried to pull myself together, I noticed another glimmer of light, except that this one was not inside my eyes but on the opposite side of the wide footpath.
The glimmer was too fast to follow, but as it faded, I saw a boy standing on the other side of the walkway. His skin was very pale, his hair white-blond, his eyes so pale I couldn’t tell what color they were.
For a second, a smile tugged the corner of his mouth and his eyes met mine…
Jason touched my arm. His expression bled confusion and hurt. “Ava, I’m going home, but Michael isn’t coming with me.”
Michael stood at the door to the building, his face unreadable, arms crossed over his chest.
Jason said, “I’m not sorry Mom got me out of Evereach.” His shoulders rose and fell. “I wish he could forgive her.”
Then he was gone, away down the footpath toward the platform, disappearing into the crowd waiting for the next train.
The boy across the way was gone, and so was the light in my vision, and I hoped the effects had completely worn off. As much as an instant information system inside my head could be useful, it didn’t seem to have any answers that I liked—or could understand.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I joined Michael at the door, taking the hand he held out for me like it was an anchor.
“C’mon, star girl,” he said, with a sudden grin. “Let’s go upstairs and see how uncomfortable we can make Ruth.”
I laughed despite myself. “Somehow the thought of kissing you with a whole bunch of cameras watching isn’t that appealing. And I have to admit…” I stifled an enormous yawn and didn’t finish the sentence.
He grinned even more, but this time there was more lurking behind it. “I’d settle for breakfast right now. Say what they will about immortality, I’m hungry. Then you need to sleep.”
We made our way upstairs to the apartment, where the plant lights glowed softly, and I found fresh bread and cheese, and picked salad leaves off the wall garden. I made sure to plant another seed when I took the last of the rocket leaves.
Michael helped me, and when we were finished preparing the sandwiches, he said, “You know, for a second there we could’ve been alone in the world. Just us. No Evereach. No Mom and Dad.”
I stopped, my own plate hovering. Mom and Dad.
He noticed the change in my mood immediately. “What did I say?”
I tried to focus on his face and not seek out the hidden glass panels on the walls that were being used as surveillance. I wondered if they were in my bedroom too. I wanted to tell him about Josh’s message and about my parents, but that information was buried deep for a reason, deep within the bark of a tree that only I seemed to be able to access.
I shook my head, looking to the ceiling, trying to show him that I couldn’t tell him, even though I wanted to.
He put down his plate and rounded the table, gathering me against his chest. “Hey,” he said. “It’s okay. Whatever it is I know it’s complicated.”
I tilted my head back and kissed him, thinking at first that I could whisper against his lips, tell him that way.
But then he was kissing me back, his hands working up into my hair, pulling me closer. He lifted me to my tip-toes, his arms encircling me in warmth, and all my thoughts disappeared into fog. It seemed like a wonderful forever before he pulled back, but he didn’t let go of my hand as he scooped up both our plates. “C’mon.”
We headed to the balcony doors. I turned the handle and he nudged them open. Frosty morning air filled the living room, but the cool freshness was invigorating after the stifling underground. We sank into the chairs and Michael pulled his closer to mine so that we sat with our shoulders together and our elbows bumping as we ate. We finished our food in silence, staring into the endless blue sky. The day was so clear that I could see Towers Sixteen and Fifteen in the distance.
Finally, Michael exhaled, and it seemed as if he was attempting to expel everything that had happened over the last two months.
“This must be amazing at night.” He gestured at the expanse. “Tell you what, let’s sneak out here tonight after lights out. Then we can really see the stars.”
I smiled, but the doors opened behind us and Ruth returned, her shoulders heavy. “I’m not staying long,” she said. “I wanted to make sure you were settling in okay.”
Time to take our plates inside. As we washed them up in the sink, Ruth pulled fresh sheets and towels from the cupboard in the hallway, popped them on the end of the table, and told Michael to take the room opposite mine. She didn’t seem that worried about his presence anymore. I guess he was the least of her worries.
“Ava, you need to get some sleep before the festival tomorrow. I’ve sent a message to Seth that you won’t be at final practice today. I’m sure he won’t be happy about it but there’s nothing we can do.”
Luke and I knew our dance routine really well, so I wasn’t worried about missing the day, and I could do without seeing Seth again.
“Your mother was right,” Ruth said to Michael before she left, making him tense up all over again, until she explained: “Arachne hasn’t found anything on Olander. It seems there’s nothing to find. I’m about to contact President Scott and break the news.”
She stopped on her way out and came back to us, brushing my cheek and placing a hand on Michael’s shoulder, soaking up our faces. “I just wanted to remind myself why we’re doing this.”
When she left, Michael pulled me into his arms and kissed me again. He headed to his room and I hit the shower, grateful for the soothing water. When I emerged, he dropped a kiss on my forehead and told me to get some sleep.
“There are books in my room. I won’t be far.”
“Okay.” I crawled into bed and was asleep within moments.
I slept most of the day, and when I woke I found Michael in the dining area, staring through the double doors. “I can’t get enough of this view. It’s like there’s no limit to it.”
I wrapped my arms around him and we spent what little was left of the day making dinner and talking about anything except our parents and what was happening in Evereach.
Ruth didn’t return for a meal, and I figured she wouldn’t be back until late, so we prepared for bed. Despite having slept at least five hours in the day, my eyelids were heavy and I was grateful for the chance to sleep through a full night, but before I could say goodnight in the hall outside our rooms, Michael grabbed my hand, led me out to the living area, and pressed the manual light panel, flicking off the overhead lights.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust, and then I couldn’t tear them away from the sparkling expanse beyond the balcony. I raced to the door and pressed my face up against the glass, unable to peel myself away from the enormous white moon and the thousands of bleach-white stars beyond. “No wonder they call it Starsgard.”
Michael pulled me close to his side. “It’ll be even better outside.”
“And freezing cold. I don’t have your body heat.”
“I could share it.”
He grinned, and I laughed.
“Fine,” I said, sliding my arms inside his jacket and pressing close. He closed the jacket around my back as far as it would go and pushed on the doors.
Outside, I had to catch my breath. The temperature was biting, but the clarity of the night sky dazzled me. It sucked me in and consumed me. I tipped back my head and let it all in.
“Amazing, huh.” Michael searched my eyes, and for the first time I realized that the look he was giving me now was the same look I’d given the night sky. I turned my wonder on him, meeting and matching his own.
He bent to kiss me. Hesitated. Touched his lips to mine in a soft, slow motion that made my legs wobble.
Too soon, he pulled me back toward the doors. “We should get out of the cold.”
“No,” I said, surprising him. “We should stay here and never leave this moment.”
