Shymers (36 page)

“What is taking so long?” I whisper to Bree.

“He’ll be back,” she promises, patting my arm.

The moments crawl by too slowly. I hold my breath for most of the time he’s gone, trying not to fear the worst has happened. He finally reappears, holding a stack of folded clothing. “The people in the next cavern must be away at the music festival.”

I take a shirt and a pair of shorts from the pile. He hands another set to Bree and is left with only a fresh shirt for himself. We withdraw deeper into the tunnel to change under the cover of the darkness.

I quickly slip into the new set of clothing. They are a bit large on me, hanging off my shoulders and at my waist. Still, everything smells clean and fresh. The only thing that would feel even better at this point would be a bath.

I look up in time to witness the smooth lines of Harrison’s bare skin in the glimmering light. From the corner of my eye, I can see Bree wrestling with her shirt. Almost of its own will, my hand darts out to touch Harrison’s back. He twists around to look at me, shocked, but my hand doesn’t lose contact with his body. I run my fingers along the ridges and bumps of his chest, marveling at the smoothness of his muscles underneath his skin.

I suck in my breath. “You’re beautiful.”

Balancing on the edge of my toes, I reach up to kiss him softly. When I draw back, he grins down on me for a moment before I help him to bring the stolen shirt down over his head. We are exchanging goofy smiles when Bree rushes to our side.

“Let’s do this,” she says brightly.

Harrison wraps an arm around my shoulders. Keeping to the shadows, we try to act normal as possible so as not to draw any attention, going as far as we are able before coming to a dead end. The only way out is through the crowd.

For a moment we stand silently next to each other, wondering what to do next. The music suddenly switches to a melody that is fast paced and energetic. The people in the crowd begin jumping again, pumping their fists into the air.

“Let’s go,” Harrison says, motioning with his head toward the crowd. “They won’t notice us now.”

“Are you sure?” I ask fearfully.

He squeezes my shoulder and nods. “Just keep your head down.”

Bree holds on to the back of my shirt when we start mingling in with the crowd. Some people are getting really into the music, and we are jostled around by their erratic movements. I wince loudly when someone’s elbow lands in my already tender rib cage. Harrison’s grip on my shoulders tightens.

Couples around the edge of the crowd engage in passionate kissing. My eyes skip past them to discover men dressed in identical hooded cloaks made from a dark material. They each stand unmoving, their arms crossed in front of them and their eyes darting through the crowd. Without a doubt, their purpose is to guard the city.

One of them spots me through the wild dancers and tilts his head from side to side in small, slow movements. The oversized cloak does a good job of obscuring his identity, but I gasp when I notice his eyes.

“This way,” I say as quietly as I can to Harrison and Bree, steering them directly toward the cloaked man. My pulse quickens along with our steps. We are only a few yards away from my brother when the music stops and the crowd becomes still.

“Good evening!” a voice calls out.

We also stop moving and turn to where the musicians had been. Thaddeous stands in the center of the crowd, his arms held out wide as if he is bestowing his blessings upon them. The people around us clap, although the action seems obligatory and doesn’t last very long.

Thaddeous continues. “Welcome, everyone, to our celebration!”

The cheers of the crowd drone out as I slowly look back to my brother. His hand appears from underneath the cloak, beckoning for us to join him.

“C’mon,” I whisper to Harrison and Bree. “Kendall is here.”

“What?” Harrison asks a little too loudly. “Where?”

A middle-aged man close to us turns to stare. He is covered in ink with intricate designs and the piercings in his ears are stretched out to hold little metal spikes that poke out from underneath his long brown hair. His eyes narrow as he takes the three of us in, like he is wondering why he doesn’t recognize any of us.

On impulse, I pull Harrison to me roughly and begin kissing him the way the couples at the edge of crowd had been. He resists at first, as if he is wondering why I would kiss him in this moment. Before long, however, he becomes more wrapped up in it than I am and pushes his body against mine.

I open my eyes for a moment to see if the man is still staring. His attention has returned to Thaddeous. I have to push Harrison back to get him to stop. “Let’s go,” I whisper, my lips brushing up against his ear.

It’s hard to ignore the tingling raging through me from our kiss as we continue to where Kendall stands. Once I am standing next to my brother, he leans in slightly. “Don’t make any sudden movements. We’re being watched.”

He tips his head to the cliffs above. More hooded men stand watch with their arms crossed, gazing at the crowd below. Although their eyes still sweep over us on occasion, they aren’t showing any added attention to our small gathering.

Suddenly, Thaddeous’s voice cuts through the crowd. “It’s time we deal with our uninvited guests.”

Fear trickles through me, thinking he has discovered us. But when I turn, he is not looking in our direction. He has a strange, twisted smile on his face as he continues on. “If we want to continue living in peace without Society discovering us and making us their slaves, we cannot let people intrude into our home! It will not be tolerated! When the sun rises, we will make sure these intruders don’t destroy the peaceful world we have created!”

More applause follows, this set sounding a bit too excited, too eager.

Harrison wraps his free hand around my waist to pull me closer. His eyes dart around the crowd nervously. Bree is staring down my brother, probably deciding if we should really trust him.

Thaddeous says a few more words and the applause turns wild. The music starts back up, sounding more like the angry and harsh tunes Kai’s Rebel friends had been playing. The crowd begins to thrash around once again.

Kendall tips his head for us follow him through the crowd. Harrison wobbles at my side and Bree follows close behind, holding tight to the back of my shirt. We don’t make it far when I spot another hooded man walking directly toward us from the side of the cavern.

“Someone is coming,” I whisper to Harrison. Although I struggle to help him walk and keep up with my brother’s much faster pace, the sight of the other man gives me the determination to quicken my steps.

“Just keep walking,” Harrison whispers back.

We weave our way through the crowd. They are so wrapped into the music that they merely move aside with the disturbance. The large mouth of a tunnel at ground level comes into view.

Kendall falls back to my side. “This opening isn’t very steep or high. You should be able to crawl through it without feeling too much pain.”

“Harrison’s leg may be broken,” I tell him with wide eyes. “I don’t know if he will be able to crawl at all.”

Kendall glares over at Harrison, still limping along my other side. “He’s going to have to try. We have no other choice.”

I glance over my shoulder in search of the hooded man, only to find him standing directly behind Bree. When I whirl around and open my mouth to yell her name in warning, the man shakes his head, drawing a finger to his lips.

My brother and Harrison have both turned alongside me and stare at him also.

My eyes sweep over the man’s features underneath the hood. He looks all too familiar. All at once, my head becomes light and the city begins to swirl around me. I grab Harrison to keep from fainting.

Harrison

25 – I Know What I Must Do

I hold Olive tightly. She stares at the man, frozen. “Father?” she whispers.

Confused, I look down on her. She said her father had died. Who is this man?

He removes the hood from his head, the corners of his mouth spreading into a wide grin. “Olive. It reall
y
i
s
you.”

Olive trembles in my arms. I bring her to rest in the crook of my arm and see her eyes brimming with tears. All color in her face has drained away.

“Are you okay? Who is he?” I whisper to her. But her watery stare is vacant and unresponsive. She continues to tremble.

“What are you doing?” Kendall yells at the man, stepping closer to him.

“I had to see her for myself!” the man snaps back. “I can’t just sit back and let it happen to her!”

My eyes dart to the clocked man, furious. “Olive told me her father died. Who are you? Le
t
wha
t
happen to her?”

“This was not a part of the plan,” Kendall says to him, as if I didn’t just demand any kind of answers. Apparently, they have decided to leave me out of this completely messed up conversation.

“Yo
u
kne
w
he was alive?” Olive yells. “Why didn’t yo
u
tel
l
me? How many secrets and lies does this family have?” Her glossy stare has turned into a look of total outrage.

Glancing back to the city, Kendall seems unable to look her in the eye. If he has the answers to all of her questions, he is too much of a coward to give them to her. “We can’t have this conversation here. We need to leave before someone sees us.”

Olive shakes her head stubbornly, her hair whipping around her face. “No! I won’t leave until you tell me the truth! Why would my mother tell me he died? Did she think he was?”

My stomach roils with her continued questions. Who is this Kendall guy to Olive, and why do they speak to each other like there is more going on between them than I know about?

“He’s right, Olive,” I tell her. “We need to get out of here before someone discovers we’re missing. We’ll have more time to figure everything out once we get you somewhere safe.”

Tears roll down her face as she glares at the man claiming to be her father. “First I’m told I have a brother I know nothing about, and now I discover you didn’
t
reall
y
die. Why did you all lie to me? What else should I know? How will I ever be able to trust anyone ever again?”

The anguish pouring from her breaks my heart. She didn’t say anything about a brother until now. Why didn’t she tell me everything? I wipe the tears from her face with my hand. “Olive, tell me what is going on. Let me help you.”

“I’m sorry, Olive,” the man claiming to be her father pleads. “We didn’t want to lie to you, but we had to. It was the only way to protect you. Please, you must understand.”

Olive finally pivots to face me, but her eyes—filled with pain—look away. “Get me out of here,” she whispers. “Please.”

Closing my eyes, I kiss the top of her head. “Okay.”

Bree rushes to Olive’s other side and slips her arm behind her waist. We turn back to the tunnel that promises our escape from this city. Olive is still too choked up to speak and I can feel the energy draining from her—she can barely support my weight as I hobble at her side.

“Olive, wait!” her father calls after her.

We don’t stop or turn back. When we reach the mouth of the tunnel, I glance behind me to discover Olive’s father—or whoever the man really is—did not follow us. He disappeared, as if the moment never really happened. I’m glad for his distance from Olive. She is so upset I worry he has broken something inside her.

Kendall crawls into the dark tunnel first, closely followed by Bree. I send Olive in behind her and follow through last. Crawling turns out to be difficult for both myself and Olive. I have to pull my body along with my arms, dragging my bad leg behind me.

Olive winces loudly with every movement, probably a mixture of grief and pain to her ribs. We aren’t very far when she collapses to the side of the tunnel and sobs. The light from the city has faded from within the tunnel, making it difficult to see much of anything. Still, I can see where Bree and Kendall stop up ahead by the whites of their eyes.

“I’m sorry your father lied to you,” Bree whispers. “I don’t understand why he would do such a thing either. But we can’t stop now. We have to keep going.”

“She’s right, Olive,” Kendall agrees. “We don’t have far to go, but we have to hurry.”

“You hav
e
no righ
t
to talk to me,” Olive warns him sharply. “By not telling me the truth, you were lying to me. I don’t care who you claim to be. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

Kendall’s head drops. He looks at each of us before turning back and continuing on. Bree pauses for a moment to lock eyes with me before following him.

“Was that really your father back there?” I ask her.

“I don’t know,” she cries. “It looked like him and sounded like him, but my mother told me he was dead. I don’t know what to believe is real anymore.”