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Authors: Pittacus Lore
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then the Lecture Hall goes dark.
“I’m not one of your gadgets,” I shout into the darkness. “You don’t get to just control me.”
Starbursts of light flash across my vision as my eyes try to adjust to the darkness. I can’t quite see Sandor, but I can hear him shakily climb to his feet.
“I don’t—I don’t think that,” Sandor says. I’m thankful I can’t see his face, the hurt plain enough in his voice. “Everything I’ve ever done, all these years—” He stops, searching for words.
As I come back down to earth, the memories of the night come back to me. I realize what I’ve done.
“Nine. . . .” I feel Sandor’s hand on my shoulder. “I—”
I don’t want to hear this. I shrug his hand roughly away and run.
Chapter Eighteen
The sun is beginning to rise. The air is still cool, chilling my skin under my sweat-dampened T-shirt. I fled the John Hancock building with nothing but the clothes on my back—the same clothes I wore on my ruined date the night before—and my cell phone and iMog tucked into my back pockets.
A part of me knows that I’ll need to go back to Sandor eventually. But right now, I’m ignoring that part as hard as I can.
I want to know how long I can last out here on my own. The day is just beginning. I can do anything I choose with it.
I feel like Spider-Man, using my newest legacy to stand on the outside of an anonymous Chicago skyscraper, fifty stories up. Beneath my feet, inside the windows, the office building’s automatic lights are coming on. I gaze down at the streets below, the city just starting to wake up.
Thanks to my antigravity Legacy, I’m seeing Chicago from angles I never imagined.
I sprint across the skyscraper’s windows, then jump across the narrow gap between buildings. On the next building I jog upward, bounding over a stone gargoyle until I’m balancing right on the roof ledge. I walk across the ledge, my arms spread out like a tightrope walker, even though there’s no chance of me losing my balance. Hundreds of feet above the ground and it’s as if I’m on the sidewalk.
This would have come in handy that first day at the Windy Wall.
Across the street, I catch sight of an executive type settling in behind his desk with his morning coffee. That’s my signal to rein it in. I don’t need Sandor around to tell me it’d be a bad idea to be seen strolling around on the sides of buildings.
I hop onto the roof. For a while I just sit and watch the sun coming up. I’ve got no place to be. It’s peaceful. When the sun hangs in full view above me, the noise of the city below increasing to rush hour decibels, I decide to check my cell phone.
Three voice mails and four text messages. All of them from Sandor.
I delete them.
Suddenly I’m very tired. I didn’t sleep at all last night. It’s a nice day and there’s a sense of calm on this rooftop. My eyelids start to feel heavy.
I curl up in a shady spot near the edge of the precipice. The roof is hard but my body is too exhausted to do much complaining.
For some reason, my mind drifts to the dream I had of Lorien. I think about the way I flung myself at Sandor, getting us both all muddy, and the way he lifted me into the air afterward, grinning. That was a nice memory. I hope I dream it again.
I don’t dream at all. It’s a deep sleep, and when I finally wake up the sun has almost set. I slept away the entire day. My body aches, both from the exertion of the night before and from passing out on a slab of hard rooftop.
Groaning and stretching, I sit up. I decide to check my cell phone again, even though I know what’s waiting for me.
More voice mails and texts from Sandor, the texts increasingly panicked as he begs me to let him know where I am, that I’m all right. My stomach turns over with guilt. I’ll let him know eventually, I decide. I just need more time.
And then I see it. A single text from the only other number programmed into my phone.
Maddy.
“Maybe we can try
“I’m not one of your gadgets,” I shout into the darkness. “You don’t get to just control me.”
Starbursts of light flash across my vision as my eyes try to adjust to the darkness. I can’t quite see Sandor, but I can hear him shakily climb to his feet.
“I don’t—I don’t think that,” Sandor says. I’m thankful I can’t see his face, the hurt plain enough in his voice. “Everything I’ve ever done, all these years—” He stops, searching for words.
As I come back down to earth, the memories of the night come back to me. I realize what I’ve done.
“Nine. . . .” I feel Sandor’s hand on my shoulder. “I—”
I don’t want to hear this. I shrug his hand roughly away and run.
Chapter Eighteen
The sun is beginning to rise. The air is still cool, chilling my skin under my sweat-dampened T-shirt. I fled the John Hancock building with nothing but the clothes on my back—the same clothes I wore on my ruined date the night before—and my cell phone and iMog tucked into my back pockets.
A part of me knows that I’ll need to go back to Sandor eventually. But right now, I’m ignoring that part as hard as I can.
I want to know how long I can last out here on my own. The day is just beginning. I can do anything I choose with it.
I feel like Spider-Man, using my newest legacy to stand on the outside of an anonymous Chicago skyscraper, fifty stories up. Beneath my feet, inside the windows, the office building’s automatic lights are coming on. I gaze down at the streets below, the city just starting to wake up.
Thanks to my antigravity Legacy, I’m seeing Chicago from angles I never imagined.
I sprint across the skyscraper’s windows, then jump across the narrow gap between buildings. On the next building I jog upward, bounding over a stone gargoyle until I’m balancing right on the roof ledge. I walk across the ledge, my arms spread out like a tightrope walker, even though there’s no chance of me losing my balance. Hundreds of feet above the ground and it’s as if I’m on the sidewalk.
This would have come in handy that first day at the Windy Wall.
Across the street, I catch sight of an executive type settling in behind his desk with his morning coffee. That’s my signal to rein it in. I don’t need Sandor around to tell me it’d be a bad idea to be seen strolling around on the sides of buildings.
I hop onto the roof. For a while I just sit and watch the sun coming up. I’ve got no place to be. It’s peaceful. When the sun hangs in full view above me, the noise of the city below increasing to rush hour decibels, I decide to check my cell phone.
Three voice mails and four text messages. All of them from Sandor.
I delete them.
Suddenly I’m very tired. I didn’t sleep at all last night. It’s a nice day and there’s a sense of calm on this rooftop. My eyelids start to feel heavy.
I curl up in a shady spot near the edge of the precipice. The roof is hard but my body is too exhausted to do much complaining.
For some reason, my mind drifts to the dream I had of Lorien. I think about the way I flung myself at Sandor, getting us both all muddy, and the way he lifted me into the air afterward, grinning. That was a nice memory. I hope I dream it again.
I don’t dream at all. It’s a deep sleep, and when I finally wake up the sun has almost set. I slept away the entire day. My body aches, both from the exertion of the night before and from passing out on a slab of hard rooftop.
Groaning and stretching, I sit up. I decide to check my cell phone again, even though I know what’s waiting for me.
More voice mails and texts from Sandor, the texts increasingly panicked as he begs me to let him know where I am, that I’m all right. My stomach turns over with guilt. I’ll let him know eventually, I decide. I just need more time.
And then I see it. A single text from the only other number programmed into my phone.
Maddy.
“Maybe we can try
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