Renegade (28 page)

The fluttering happens again and I realize it’s Gavin’s breath on the side of my neck. I slowly turn so I’m facing him and watch him sleep for a few minutes. He looks like a little boy lost in dreams. Well, except for the shadow of hair growing along his jaw.

I smile as I remember last night. Shortly after he’d kissed me brainless, weariness overtook me. I must have been lulled into sleep in his arms. The only true solace I can ever remember.

Tentatively, I brush back some hair that’s fallen over his face. His eyes fly open, wary at first, but then they lock onto my face and clear instantly.

He smiles. “Guess we fell asleep,” he says, his voice husky.

It makes me shiver. “I guess so. Good morning,” I say, even though I’m not exactly sure what time it really is.

He leans forward and kisses me gently, just a light press of his lips against mine. When he pulls back, his eyes are worried again. “How are you feeling?”

He doesn’t mean my general health. He’s asking how I’m handling Macie’s death. The one thing I don’t want to remember.

I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I stick to the one part I’m willing to talk about. “It’s hard. Knowing I’ll never hear her voice again. But you were right. It’s not my fault.” My whole body tenses and my voice hardens. “And I swear I’ll make Mother pay. No matter what, she’ll pay for taking Macie from me.”

Gavin leans over and peers into my eyes. “Evie, I know how you feel. But it’s not worth losing your life over.” I shrug and look away. He takes my face in his hands and makes me look at him again. “Don’t do something stupid, Evie. I can’t lose you now that I found you. I need you. We need each other.”

“Found me? When were you looking for me?” My voice is still hard. Harder than I intend it to be, and I try to soften it with a laugh, but Gavin doesn’t seem to care about how I said it.

“I didn’t know I was looking until I found you,” he says seriously. He looks deep into my eyes, his thumb caressing the side of my face.

My heart gives a little thump and my breath catches, but I don’t say anything.

“Promise me you won’t do something stupid.” I still don’t say anything and he gives me a little shake. “Promise me!”

I sigh. “All right. I promise.”

His eyes search mine and, after a few minutes, he smiles again and kisses me. Slightly angry with him for making me promise, I don’t kiss him back, but he doesn’t give up. He just changes the angle and takes my breath away. It doesn’t take me long to give in and try to pull him closer to me.

We both tense when Mother’s voice emits from the speaker above our heads.

“Attention Citizens of Elysium: Festival is cancelled until further notice.”

Gavin and I exchange a look. What is she doing now?

“I know you are all asking yourselves why. It is my deepest regret to inform you that for the first time in the history of our city there has been … a murder.”

She pauses here and I know it’s for dramatic effect, not to give people time to let that news sink in.

Gavin whispers in my ear. “What is she talking about? She murders people all the time.”

“Yes, but it’s in the form of punishment. People don’t see it as murder. Besides, most people don’t realize what happens to the people who are being punished. They think they just vanish.”

“And they don’t question where they go?” His voice is incredulous.

I tilt my head to the side. “Would you?” He opens his mouth to answer, then promptly closes it.

Mother finally continues. “I’m devastated to say that it appears the murderer is none other than my own daughter. Evelyn.” Again she pauses, but it’s shorter this time. “I know how you all must be feeling, but let me just say that it appears she is being coerced by the Surface Dweller. There is evidence he has seduced her into helping him.” She sniffles and I narrow my eyes. “I blame myself. If I hadn’t been so lenient with her, she would have already been Coupled and this would not have happened.”

“What? Lenient? She had you
brainwashed
whenever you disagreed with her. She turned you into an Enforcer, then breeding stock. What’s lenient about that?” Gavin’s eyes flash and his hand clenches, fisting into the sheets beside my head.

I shush him so I can hear Mother, who has lost all trace of her “tears.”

“However, I cannot be wholly responsible. The majority of the blame rests squarely on this Surface Dweller’s shoulders. He has invaded our home, and enticed Evelyn with his savage and destructive ways. He must be stopped. At any cost. We must take precautions to keep innocents from being hurt. Therefore, I am closing Festival and instituting a city-wide lockdown.”

“Lockdown?” Gavin mouths.

“House arrest,” I say. “She’s shutting everyone up in their quarters, but I doubt it’s to keep them safe. It’s more than likely to keep them out of the way.” Then I lay my finger over his mouth to keep him quiet.

“Due to the leak in Sector Three, Citizens from that Sector should report to the Square for reassignment. This is a terrible inconvenience and I apologize. But they have already shown they lack restraint.” She pauses again, but this time I sense glee in the silence. I shiver because I know what she’s going to say next, and I know the only reason she’s saying it is to hurt me. “Because, besides the dozen or so Guards she took out when they tried to arrest the Surface Dweller, the victims are none other than Evelyn’s closest friend, Macie Beaumont, and her betrothed, Nick LeFavre.” She makes a clicking sound with her tongue. “It’s such a shame, as these two were approved to couple and were preparing to cohabitate. I had approved the paperwork a few hours before their deaths. This is a great loss for our city and for their families. Our hearts and prayers go out to them. Before I conclude and let you return to your homes, let us have a moment of silence for these two unfortunate souls.”

Gavin gathers me into his arms, and it’s at that moment I realize I’m shaking—but not from sadness like yesterday. Pure, unadulterated hate and anger rages through me. She hadn’t approved anything. I did. Me. How
dare
she use Macie like that? Like she was nothing more than a … a pet!

My blood boiling, I shove away from Gavin to stalk around the room. He watches me for a bit, then grabs me and forces me to sit with him again.

“I know what you’re going to say,” I say when he opens his mouth.

“Good,” he says. “Then I can save my breath. But it’s true and you need to listen to it.”

“I know. I know.” I throw my hands in the air. “She makes me so angry—using Macie like that.”

I glare at the speaker when Mother continues. “Now, please calmly and safely return to your homes. And under no circumstance are you to engage Evelyn or the Surface Dweller. If you see them, report them immediately. Thank you for your understanding.”

The speaker crackles again and all is silent.

“How long before they clear out?” Gavin asks, and I know he’s thinking what I’m thinking. That now’s our chance. If we’re ever going to escape, it has to be now, while the city is in chaos.

“Probably less than fifteen minutes.”

“Then we’d better hurry.”

Before he leaves the room to change clothes, he tosses me something from the closet. I glance down at the material in my hand. It’s another dress. It’s only then I realize I’m not wearing any clothes. Slightly embarrassed, I laugh as I look at the dress, hoping we don’t run into any more ladders.

That reminds me of the wound on my shoulder. I glance over and see more blood has seeped through the still sopping-wet bandage.

I wish I could shower the blood off again and change the bandage, but there isn’t time. Unsure what to do, I bite my lip. If I leave the wet bandage, the wound could get infected. If I take the time to change it, we could miss our chance to get to the trains and to the other side undetected.

Gavin walks back in with my bag slung over his shoulder. His face is hard, and I wonder if this is what he looks like when he’s hunting. It’s sexy and scary at the same time.

His gaze follows mine and lands on the bandage, before flickering away and resting just a few inches above my head. That’s when I remember, again, I’m not wearing any clothes. I cross an arm over my chest.

“We’ll fix it when we get to this other Sector. We have plenty of bandages. But we should hurry,” he says.

I nod. Of course that’s what we should do. I knew that. So I toss on the new dress, hissing at the soreness and tightness of my shoulder, before following him out of the apartment to the wall-door that will get us back to the Square and eventually to the Tube station. It surprises me no one is guarding the Sector, but then, the Enforcer was quite certain I wasn’t there. And it had been several hours. If there was anyone waiting, they probably were removed—or got bored and left. The Guards can have an annoyingly short memory if there’s no one around to supervise them.

“Evie, wait.” Gavin places a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from bolting out the opening. “If Mother was able to see that you fixed Macie’s coupling thing, wouldn’t she have just removed us from the computer again?”

I give him a thin smile. “No. I made it ‘read-only.’”

He stares at me for a minute, before he barks out a laugh. “That had to burn her ass. We’d better hurry anyway.”

We hurry through the opening, and I run to the left only to be stopped again by Gavin who frowns at me.

“The Tube’s this way, right?” He points to the right.

I stare that way for a few seconds, blinking.

“Yes. Of course. Sorry, got turned around.”

He continues to watch me for a second, then shrugs and we dive back into the crowd, ducking our heads and hoping no one will notice us. Thankfully my dress strap covers the bloody bandage.

But it seems we have nothing to worry about. Everyone is too busy talking about the murders in hushed tones. They don’t even look at anyone. It’s as if they’re afraid they’ll find us and don’t really want to.

We follow the crowd making its way to the Residential Sector, then break off and follow the much smaller group heading to the Tube station, where we slip into an empty car of the train that’s heading to Sector Three.

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing about the leak in Sector Three. But then, I suppose it doesn’t matter either way. If Mother is watching through the cameras, she’ll react anyway, whether there are innocents around or not. The bloodstain on the floor of the Tube station is proof of that.

We hold our breath until the doors slide closed and the train leaves the station with an automated announcement about holding on to the handrails set throughout the car. At first the tunnel is dark, but it lightens up when we leave Sector Two and head into the open water between Sectors Two and Three.

The water glows with an orange color from the lava tubes. Gavin gets up and touches a hand to the glass of the windows.

“Why is the water orange?”

I sit on the floor and lean back against the wall, letting my eyes close. “Lava flows.”

“Lava flows?”

“It’s amazing, really, that such a deadly thing is the only reason we’re able to live down here. The geothermic energy it produces is used to heat the boiler, which in turn creates steam, which turns the turbines to create electricity and provide heat throughout the facility. We use the steam engines to power everything, from the lights to the Tube and everything in between. How Mother got this city to function like that … well. I guess it really wasn’t her. It was her father.”

He’s quiet for a moment, then asks, “How does the train work when we’re underwater?”

I open my eyes to look at him. “The train is in a tube, hence the name, which is made of reinforced glass. The tracks use magnetism to keep the train moving in the right direction.”

“Magnets?” He whistles softly and turns back to watch the water out the window. Without warning, the train stops, sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the car. I rush over to him and help him to a sitting position.

“Are you okay?” I ask, looking for injuries.

He rubs the side of his head. “Yeah. I think so. Ugh. What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

I help him stand. Then a holograph flickers to life in the center of the car and Mother stands in front of us. Gavin immediately pushes me behind him. I know it’s useless—she’s not really there—but I let him try to protect me. I peer over his shoulder.

Mother laughs. “Well, well, what is this? So the hunter is a protector, too? Very interesting.” She shakes her head and gives me a disappointed look. “I thought you were smarter than this, Evelyn. What a shame it has come to this. You know, I don’t have to wait. I can just press the button now, if I want to.” She focuses her attention back on Gavin. “It’s useless to protect her. You have nowhere to go.”

“What are you talking about, Mother?” I make a show out of examining my nails. Inside, though, I’m getting nervous. What is she planning?

Turns out I don’t have to wait long to find out.

“Why don’t I just show you?” she says with a wide smile. The hologram shuts off and the doors open, revealing the tunnel.

Gavin turns to frown at me. “What’s going on?” he asks as my veins turn to ice.

I don’t need to hear the screams from the passengers in the cars up ahead to realize what’s happened.

“She’s flooded the tube,” I manage to say before a wave of freezing water rushes into the car.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-THREE

Caution: For your safety, Sector Three is under quarantine until further notice. There is a possible biohazard situation due to leaks in labs and mechanical areas. Failure to follow instructions could result in injury or death.

—SIGN LOCATED IN
T
UBE STATION,
S
ECTOR
T
WO

It takes no time at all for the freezing water to fill the car. The saltwater sears my eyes and the wound in my arm, but I bite the inside of my cheeks to prevent myself from screaming out. I need to get to the rebreathers. I know they’re around here somewhere. It’s not like I haven’t done countless emergency drills for just this occasion, but I can’t remember where they are.