19. Chapter 19
Elias
Ileaned against the car, watching as the door slid closed. Her scent, honey and oats, still lingered inside my coat as images of her smile, her eyes alight with amusement, filled my mind.
Maryn was always guarded. Careful. Tonight, she had been more honest with me than in any of our other interactions.
Not her truth about the steak. I was still kicking myself over that small detail. I made a mental note to never offer it again. But I was beginning to understand that everything Maryn said and did had purpose.
She chose her community service act knowing it would shed light on an issue the public probably wasn’t aware of.
My fingers tugged at the button on my coat sleeve.
A girl from the Middle, who hadn’t been coached all her life on what it meant to have the eye of the people on you, knew the power it gave her.
Perhaps understood that strength better than I had.
Suddenly, I wanted to know what her loyalty test revealed.
The door clicked open, and I looked up.
Abi Hymn stepped out of the front door, a dove-white coat pulled tightly around her shoulders.
I straightened, stepping forward. “Good evening, Abi.”
She peeked up from under her lashes, offering a shy smile.
I smiled back and hoped she couldn’t read me as well as Maryn had.
“Are you hungry? I have a surprise for you.”
She nodded, holding out her hand. I took it, leading her to the passenger side and holding the door. She slid in without hesitation.
I moved around the front of the car, shaking out my hands and retraining my focus on what came next.
We drove in silence, Abi glancing at me several times, but try as I might to produce a kind word, a compliment, my thoughts were elsewhere.
Abi’s file had said she had a fondness for coffee. I’d chosen our date with exactly that in mind. I hadn’t known at the time I’d be delivering bad news today. But this was better than a message on her tablet. Better than finding out alone in her room.
We pulled up outside my favorite bistro and parked. The silent chaperone who had been with me all afternoon slid out of the back seat and trailed us. I felt her eyes on me. Judging.
“Oh Elias! I found this cafe only a few weeks ago!”
I painted a smile on my face. I’d hoped she wouldn’t know the place, being so new to the center. I should have had Micah do better research.
Moving in front of her, I held the door. The chaperone slipped through behind her and I released it, tugging at my collar as I caught up.
She spun in a slow circle, admiring the empty space, the twinkling lights I’d had strung for our private date.
“It’s magical.”
I pulled out her chair, then took my place across from her, sliding my hand over the table.
She laid her fingers in mine and stared up at me.
I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat. “Before we begin—” I gave her hand a squeeze. “I have something to tell you.”
Her eyes widened, but her smile held.
The twinge of discomfort I’d felt from the moment she stepped outside grew; I was thankful she wore gloves so she wouldn’t feel how sweaty my palms were.
“Your brother—”
She released my hand. “My brother?”
I folded my hands in my lap. Her composure crumpled, and my chest tightened.
I’d wanted to do this right. “He’s ill.”
She covered her mouth. “Is it serious?”
I nodded.
Tears welled in her eyes, sliding down her cheeks.
“Can I see him?” she whispered.
My jaw flexed. “It’s not generally…” I cleared my throat. “Once you move into the house, contact with family and friends outside the Rite isn't permitted.”
Abi dabbed her cheek with a napkin. “I understand.”
I rubbed my sweaty palms together in my lap.
“Abi.”
“May I go home?”
Her eyes met mine—a rich brown. It had been my favorite thing about her when we met.
So warm and innocent. Now, I saw that innocence slipping away, the truth of her situation sinking in.
If her baby brother, not yet four months old, didn’t survive, her family would lose their home and their place in the center.
But she was expected to go on as if nothing had happened.
I dipped my chin, signaling our waiter. “Box up our order. Thank you.”
We sat in silence.
Two boxes were set between us and Abi pushed back her chair. I did the same.
She marched ahead of me, and I searched for a consoling word, something to offer, but nothing I said could help her family in this moment. I was certain her safety as one of my matches was little consolation for her seven sisters, mother and father.
In the car, her leg bounced the entire way back to the Rite house.
My finger tapped the steering wheel.
I pulled to a stop outside, and before I could open my door, hers slid open, both boxes in hand. I raced around the car to beat her to the door, but she flung it open and was across the foyer before I reached it.
“Night, Abi,” I called.
She didn’t look back.
I stood at the door for a moment before returning to my car.
***
I pressed my thumb to the door, and pulled it open, Blight barked once before resting his head on his paws when I stepped into the foyer.
“This isn’t the kind of thing you fuck up!” my father shouted. I stopped outside his office. I should keep walking, let whoever was receiving his wrath be his punching bag. But I had been on the wrong end of those fists too many times to walk away.
I pushed the door open, and a man with more hair on the sides of his head than on top rushed past me.
“Get in here,” August yelled, and I stepped inside.
“Father.”
“We need good press. This shit with Jonath is bad.” His eyes narrowed on me. “Your next dates will be public. Give the people something to be hopeful about. They’re all worked up about the boy this Rite has cost them.”
My jaw tightened.
“You have something to say?”
He picked up a glass, pressing it to his lips.
“The point is to keep them in suspense. If we recap what’s happening now, they’ll be bored by the time Trial Nine comes around.”
His cup hit the desk.
“If you have a better idea, let’s hear it.”
He turned toward the far wall, and I followed his gaze to the row of photos. He said nothing.
Pictures of August beside the war hero who took this city back from the infected lined the entire back wall.
The man who gathered the last desperate people in a dying world and constructed the first wall—thrown together from salvaged concrete and reinforced steel—in under a year.
Who later brought the world’s sharpest men together to build the central wall, and then the outer one.
The man who should have been our leader.
If he’d survived.
“I’ll host a charity ball.”
“Another ball,” August scoffed.
“If you and mother attend—”
“Leave your mother out of this.”
I straightened. “If not a ball, then a day with me.”
“They’ve been on your charity trips one too many times.” August lifted his glass to his mouth again. He had shot down my ideas, but his rage had simmered.
“They were beside themselves over the Middle girl who got to come inside the wall.”
He eyed me.
“Raffle a chance for someone from the Middle to spend a day inside the wall.” He stroked his chin.
I straightened.
He sipped again. “Yes. You’ll be their guide. Show them a good time.”
I dipped my chin.
“Make sure she’s pretty.”
He looked over my shoulder, lost in thought for a moment.
“Why are you still here?” he snapped. “Go see your mother. She wants to hear about your dates.”
I turned, marching from the room.
Mom was sitting on the couch, staring out into the dark. I wanted to sit beside her, but there was something I had to do first.
I shut the door to my room, pulling the files out of my desk drawer, sliding them aside until I found the one marked: Maryn Veil. I opened it, jotting a quick note.
Loves the water. Wants to see Lake Michigan.
My gaze slid to the stack of metal disks I’d never returned to Charles. Until I got to the bottom of that nagging edit, I didn’t plan to.