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Authors: Josin L. McQuein
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8
TOBIN
“G ET out of here,” Dad orders me.
“What’s wrong?” Trey asks. No one’s told him how he looks.
This pretty much blows Rueful’s “only willing hosts” line to bits. Trey has no idea what’s happening to him. How can that be willing?
So much for neutrality.
Mr. Pace starts stacking Trey’s drawings into a pile, as though that’s the problem.
“Am I in trouble?” Trey tries asking Annie.
“Move!” Annie’s mom pushes her to her room and uses her override to lock the door.
“Let me out!” Annie screams from the other side. She’s beating on the door, but she won’t even make a dent. “Mom, please! Let me out! Mom!”
Nique won’t do it. She’d rather have Annie locked in and scared than free to roam and turning Fade like her brother.
“What are you doing?” Trey asks. “What’s wrong with Annie?”
“Nothing,” Mr. Pace says. He grabs Trey’s wrist when Trey tries to leave his room. “You stay here.”
“But what’d I do?”
“Go.” Dad shuffles me and Marina out the door when we don’t leave on our own. “Marina, you’re welcome to stay with Tobin, but I want you both out of here. And I’m checking the entry alert, Tobin. You have two minutes to get to the apartment and ping me, or I’m coming to find you.”
Marina doesn’t say a word, but I know what she’s thinking, and none of it’s good. When we get to my place, she keeps going. I’m not stupid—she’ll go to him to sort this out.
I go inside and then stop the door so it can’t close all the way. Once I’ve tripped the entry sensor, so Dad will get the ping to tell him I’m home, I head back out, allowing the door to close behind me. Hopefully, he’s too busy to notice my tracker heading toward the Arc.
If Trey turns, I’m next.
No, Annie’s next. She was exposed first.
What am I thinking? Everyone is next.
“How did you beat me out here?” Marina catches sight of me halfway across the quad and crosses the rest at a jog. “How’d you even know I’d be here?”
“Closest crossing point. I took a different route.”
She stops beside me, at the edge of the Arc. The lamps are conserving power right now. They give just enough light so people can see where they’re going and find their way back. No one’s panicking yet, but they will. Then the lights will go completely hot.
“Were you put back on duty because of Trey?” Marina asks. “Are they tightening security already?”
“They wouldn’t start with me, and they wouldn’t put me here.” Sykes would be patrolling the short side. Trainees get dumped in low-priority sections. “The lights would be brighter.”
We’ll be at Red-Wall as soon as our elders declare Trey a security breach.
“How long have we got?”
“As long as Dad and Trey’s parents can buy us.” So, not long.
It’ll only take minutes to get Trey to the hospital, so long as he doesn’t flip out and fight them. Mr. Pace and Nique can stall Dr. Wolff for an hour or two before he either alerts Honoria out of habit or she hears about Trey herself. If they’re lucky, no one will see Trey en route and they’ll be able to lock down the hospital without details circulating.
Crap. I’m starting to sound like Honoria. Worse, I’m starting to understand her.
The only choices are to hide what’s happened or to start a riot with full disclosure. They’ve got to get Trey contained.
And then they’ll come for us.
Marina knows that, too. It’s why she’s here.
“You’re going out there, aren’t you?” I ask.
“Like you’re not here for the same reason.”
I’m here because I don’t believe in coincidence. Trey’s bait. The shadow-hugger probably planned this. He left Marina a trail of Fade-crusted bread crumbs, and she’s going to follow it until she loses her way home.
“It’s too dangerous,” I say.
“If Rue or one of the others knows something, then—”
“Then what ?” I snap, harsher than I mean to. Louder, too.
She flinches
TOBIN
“G ET out of here,” Dad orders me.
“What’s wrong?” Trey asks. No one’s told him how he looks.
This pretty much blows Rueful’s “only willing hosts” line to bits. Trey has no idea what’s happening to him. How can that be willing?
So much for neutrality.
Mr. Pace starts stacking Trey’s drawings into a pile, as though that’s the problem.
“Am I in trouble?” Trey tries asking Annie.
“Move!” Annie’s mom pushes her to her room and uses her override to lock the door.
“Let me out!” Annie screams from the other side. She’s beating on the door, but she won’t even make a dent. “Mom, please! Let me out! Mom!”
Nique won’t do it. She’d rather have Annie locked in and scared than free to roam and turning Fade like her brother.
“What are you doing?” Trey asks. “What’s wrong with Annie?”
“Nothing,” Mr. Pace says. He grabs Trey’s wrist when Trey tries to leave his room. “You stay here.”
“But what’d I do?”
“Go.” Dad shuffles me and Marina out the door when we don’t leave on our own. “Marina, you’re welcome to stay with Tobin, but I want you both out of here. And I’m checking the entry alert, Tobin. You have two minutes to get to the apartment and ping me, or I’m coming to find you.”
Marina doesn’t say a word, but I know what she’s thinking, and none of it’s good. When we get to my place, she keeps going. I’m not stupid—she’ll go to him to sort this out.
I go inside and then stop the door so it can’t close all the way. Once I’ve tripped the entry sensor, so Dad will get the ping to tell him I’m home, I head back out, allowing the door to close behind me. Hopefully, he’s too busy to notice my tracker heading toward the Arc.
If Trey turns, I’m next.
No, Annie’s next. She was exposed first.
What am I thinking? Everyone is next.
“How did you beat me out here?” Marina catches sight of me halfway across the quad and crosses the rest at a jog. “How’d you even know I’d be here?”
“Closest crossing point. I took a different route.”
She stops beside me, at the edge of the Arc. The lamps are conserving power right now. They give just enough light so people can see where they’re going and find their way back. No one’s panicking yet, but they will. Then the lights will go completely hot.
“Were you put back on duty because of Trey?” Marina asks. “Are they tightening security already?”
“They wouldn’t start with me, and they wouldn’t put me here.” Sykes would be patrolling the short side. Trainees get dumped in low-priority sections. “The lights would be brighter.”
We’ll be at Red-Wall as soon as our elders declare Trey a security breach.
“How long have we got?”
“As long as Dad and Trey’s parents can buy us.” So, not long.
It’ll only take minutes to get Trey to the hospital, so long as he doesn’t flip out and fight them. Mr. Pace and Nique can stall Dr. Wolff for an hour or two before he either alerts Honoria out of habit or she hears about Trey herself. If they’re lucky, no one will see Trey en route and they’ll be able to lock down the hospital without details circulating.
Crap. I’m starting to sound like Honoria. Worse, I’m starting to understand her.
The only choices are to hide what’s happened or to start a riot with full disclosure. They’ve got to get Trey contained.
And then they’ll come for us.
Marina knows that, too. It’s why she’s here.
“You’re going out there, aren’t you?” I ask.
“Like you’re not here for the same reason.”
I’m here because I don’t believe in coincidence. Trey’s bait. The shadow-hugger probably planned this. He left Marina a trail of Fade-crusted bread crumbs, and she’s going to follow it until she loses her way home.
“It’s too dangerous,” I say.
“If Rue or one of the others knows something, then—”
“Then what ?” I snap, harsher than I mean to. Louder, too.
She flinches
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