Once (18 page)

Even Jo laughed. “
The
Charles Harris? The King's Head of Development?”

I nodded, taking a sip of the drink. It tasted similar to the beer they made in Califia. “I brought them to you as soon as I could.” I stared at Curtis, waiting for him to respond—to say thank you, to apologize, anything—but he kept his eyes on the papers, studying the new route. It was a long while before he even looked up.

We were all watching him. He glanced around the room and shrugged. “You're the King's daughter,” he said, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “What do you expect?”

Jo looked up at me, her eyes rimmed with thick black eyeliner. “We made a mistake.” She glanced sideways at Curtis. “It's hard to know who to trust. We just lost some of our own because of leaked information.”

Harper sat down beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “That's their code for ‘sorry,'” he whispered. He took another swig of his drink.

“With the new plans, it can't be more than a week off,” Caleb offered. He kneeled down beside Curtis and traced the distance to the wall. “I've already alerted Moss to let him know that construction will move forward tomorrow. He's contacting the Trail.”

“I can get thirty workers by the afternoon,” Jo said, looking at her watch. Her blond dreadlocks were tied back with a strip of red fabric. “I'll get the contacts coming off the night shifts.”

“Curtis, I'll trust you to run construction while I'm at the other site tomorrow morning,” Caleb added. Curtis rolled up the papers and tucked them in his knapsack. He nodded, his eyes moving from Caleb to me.

“Which means,” Harper said, jumping up from the mattress, “instead of commiserating, we should be celebrating.” He went over to a stereo on the dresser and popped in a disc like the ones I'd seen at School. The room filled with low music, a silly song with a man speaking the lyrics.
He did the mash
, it played.
He did the Monster Mash. The Monster Mash. It was a graveyard smash!

Caleb laughed. “What is this, Harper?” he asked.

Harper kicked a few crumpled shirts out of the way to clear a dance floor. “This is the only CD I have that works. Halloween songs or not, it's still music.”

Harper spun around, his beer sloshing in the glass as he pulled Jo along in his wake. She sidestepped some crumpled newspapers, laughing the whole way. I sat on the mattress, watching as Caleb joined in, halfheartedly shaking his hips, to Harper's delight. “Woohoo!” Harper yelled. “Atta boy!”

It took me a moment to realize Curtis had sat down beside me. “I doubted you,” he said, so low I could barely hear it over the music. “We've been working on that tunnel for the last three months and because of you, we just might finish.” He offered his hand. “You're one of us now.”

I took it in my own. “I always was,” I said. “The King may be my father, but I've been in the wild, the Schools. I know what he's done.”

The music filled the small room. Curtis was quiet for a moment, considering what I'd said. “It just takes me a long time to trust someone. Most people in the Outlands don't even know my real name.”

“Enough of your yapping!” Harper interrupted us. He grabbed my arm, pulling me up from the floor. He twirled me once, quickly, his limbs loose from all the beer. “Let's enjoy ourselves for one night. Come on, Curtis—on your feet, man! Otherwise I'll do it—I will,” he threatened, grabbing the straps of his robe, ready to open it.

Curtis held up his hands in surrender. He joined in, shuffling awkwardly around the cramped room. Caleb took my hand, spun me around, and dipped me so fast my stomach felt light. His green eyes met mine, our faces just inches apart as we stayed there for a second, listening to the silly chorus.

He leaned in, his lips brushing against my ear. “Do you want to go?” he asked.

He smiled at me, the same smile I'd seen so many times before. I loved every part of him. The smell of his skin, the scar on his cheek, the feel of his fingers pressing into my back. The way he could tell what I was thinking just by looking at me.

“Yes,” I said finally, my skin hot beneath his hand. “I thought you'd never ask.”

CALEB'S HANDS WERE COVERING MY EYES, HIS PALMS SWEATY
against my skin. I held onto his wrists, loving the way his arms felt around me, his feet on either side of mine, his steps guiding me forward. We were inside, that much I could tell, but I didn't know where. “Now?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low. “Not yet,” he whispered in my ear. I shuffled along in darkness.

Soon, he stopped, turning me to the right. Then he dropped his hands. “All right,” he whispered, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Now you can look.”

I opened my eyes. We were in another airplane hangar, much bigger than the one where the tunnel entrance was hidden. Airplanes sat in rows, some large, some smaller, all lit up by the moonlight streaming in through the hangar's windows. “This is where you've been living?” I asked, looking at the plane above us.

He grabbed a metal staircase and dragged it over, its rusted wheels squeaking and groaning with each turn. “Harper found it for me—he thinks I'll be safer here. It's on the other side of the airport from where we were yesterday.” He gestured at the steps. “After you.”

I started up the metal stairs, dwarfed by the plane. It was so much bigger when you stood right beside it, with wings ten people could lie across. I remembered the day we'd read about a plane crash in
Lord of the Flies
. Teacher Agnes had told us about the planes that flew over oceans and continents, how crashes were rare but deadly. We'd made her tell us everything—about the “flight attendants” who rolled carts down the aisles, serving drinks and miniature meals, about the televisions nestled in the back of each seat. That afternoon Pip and I had lain on the grass, staring up at the sky, wondering what it was like to touch the clouds.

Caleb opened an oval door marked
EMERGENCY EXIT
, pulling it out and up with both hands. Seats were lined up, row after row after row, stretching all the way back to the plane's tail. The plastic shades were drawn. Lanterns were perched on trays in the seat backs, giving the whole place a warm glow.

“I've never seen the inside of one of these,” I said, following Caleb down the front rows. The seats were wider. Two were folded down like beds, musty blankets piled on top of them. A knapsack full of clothes and some old newspapers sat on the chair beside it. The top one had the picture of me from the parade,
PRINCESS GENEVIEVE GREETS CITIZENS
written below it.

“Look at all this room!” I spun around with my arms out and still didn't touch anything.

Caleb pushed past me, to the front of the airplane, landing a kiss on my forehead as he did. “Where would you like to fly to? France? Spain?” He grabbed my hand, leading me into the front cabin, which was covered in metal panels and a thousand tiny dials.

“Italy,” I said, putting my fingers over his, as he moved a control in the front seat. “Venice.”

“Ahhh … you want a
real
gondola ride.” He laughed. He slid a tab over our heads, then another, pretending he was preparing the plane for takeoff.

I picked up one of the headsets and covered my ears. I turned a switch on our right, then another, as I settled into one of the chairs. “Fasten your seatbelt,” Caleb said. He pulled the buckle around my waist, one hand resting on my hip.

He leaned forward and gripped the controls, pretending to fly. We gazed out the front window, scanning the dark hangar as though it held the most spectacular view. “We'll have to stop over in London first,” he said, his voice booming in the small metal room. “See Big Ben. Then maybe Spain—then Venice.”

I pointed at the ground below. “Everything is so tiny from up here.” I leaned over him to get a better look at the imaginary world below. “The Stratosphere tower is an inch tall …”

“Look,” Caleb said, pointing out the side window. “You can see over the mountains.” He rested his hand on my leg and smiled.

“We're finally on our way.” The plane was lifting off, my body sinking into the soft cushiony seat, and the City was growing smaller, the buildings shrinking until they vanished in the distance. We were drifting up, over the clouds, the sun beaming down on us.

After a long while, Caleb leaned in and brushed the hair away from my temple, kissing my forehead. He unbuckled my seat belt and stood, pulling me out of my seat, his hands on my hips. He was smiling to himself, his eyes bright in the lantern light, as if he knew something I didn't.

I took off the headset. “What is it?” I asked, trying to meet his gaze.

“Moss granted me leave from the City,” he said. “As soon as the first tunnel is completed, he told me I can go. He thinks it's too dangerous to stay, to be leading the digs. They're narrowing their search. I'll return if he needs me.”

My hands trembled. “So you're going to leave?” I asked, my voice thin with nerves.

“
We're
going to leave.” He stroked the side of my cheek. “If you'll come with me. I want to go east, away from the City. It'll be a risk, but it's a risk everywhere. We'd be on the run again, which isn't what either of us want, but please, at least consider it.”

I didn't hesitate. “Of course.” I brought my hands to his face, watching the lantern light on his skin. “It's not even a question.”

He pressed our bodies into one, his hands moving over my back, my shoulders, my waist, pulling me closer and closer to him. “I promise you we'll figure it out—we'll figure out some way to live.” He breathed into my neck. “This feels right to me. It's everything else that's screwed up.”

“So things begin now,” I said. “I'm here. I'm with you. And in a week we'll leave. It's as simple as that.”

Caleb lifted me up, letting my back rest against the metal wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist. He pressed his mouth to mine, his hands in my hair. My lips touched his, then found their way to the soft skin of his neck. His hands slipped down my sides, ran over my vest, and settled on my bottom ribs.

He carried me into the cabin. Every inch of me was awake, my cheeks flushed, my pulse alive in my fingers and toes. I couldn't stop touching him. My fingers ran down the knots of his spine, lingering on each one, a tiny knot below the surface of his skin. The plane was silent and still, his hands cradling my neck as we lay down on the makeshift bed, just big enough to fit us both. He pulled off his shirt and threw it on the floor. I ran my fingertips over his chest, watching goose bumps appear under my touch. He let out a small laugh. I circled over his ribs, then down to the square muscles of his stomach, watching his lips twist as my fingers moved.

“My turn,” he finally whispered, reaching for the buttons on my vest. He popped them open one by one. Then his hands moved quickly, pulling it from my shoulders and starting in on the crisp white uniform shirt. He didn't stop until each button had been undone, the fabric pulled back, exposing the black bra I'd found in my closet the first day I'd arrived. The folded map was still inside.

He kissed me, unable to stop smiling. My head rested in the crook of his arm, his cheek next to mine as I watched his hand move over my body. His fingertips touched down on my skin, the heat spreading out beneath them as they ran along my stomach, circling my belly button. He traced a line up the center of my ribs to the hard, flat space between my breasts. Then he brushed his hand over each one. He curled his fingers, his knuckles dragging across the soft flesh that spilled over my bra.

That was all it took. Our mouths pressed together, his breath hot in my ear, his whispered words barely audible.
I love you, I love you, I love you
. He kissed me again, his lips hard against mine as I clung to him. His hands were all over me, his body shifting on top of mine. Then the air went out of my lungs, and the world fell away.

The walls went first, then the seats. The floor dropped out from under us, the lanterns disappeared. The voices from School were silenced. I couldn't smell the musty cushions. We were suspended in time, his hands holding my sides, my legs wrapped around his, pulling him into me as we kissed.

THE POUNDING WOKE US. THE PLANE WAS SO DARK THAT I
couldn't see Caleb beside me. I could only hear him and feel his hands searching around my feet for his crumpled shirt. We'd only been asleep for a few minutes. We'd only just drifted off. “Who is it?” I asked, panic rising in my chest.

“I don't know,” Caleb whispered. “Quick—we can go out the back exit.” He reached around until he found my hand. The warmth of it comforted me.

We felt for our clothing on the floor. The pounding continued, each knock jolting my entire body. “Come on, man!” I heard Harper yell. He was jimmying the emergency door, trying to pull it out. “It's me. You don't have much time!”

Caleb yanked his hand from mine. The cushion gave beside me and he was up, his bare feet padding down the aisle. The door finally opened, throwing a long square of light into the cabin.