Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Liora obediently took Baylin’s hand and followed him as he guided her back to the bedroom. Her stomach did an excited little flip, but instead of stopping at the bed, he guided her into the attached bathroom and turned on the shower.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he made no move to undress.
“I know we can’t really hide anything from ARIS, but perhaps it’s time to have a conversation without it listening in.”
Her eyes widened. The idea had never occurred to her before. “Can we do that?”
“The pipes run through the maintenance shaft. I could hear the water flowing when I was climbing up. I think we’ll be able to talk without being overheard if we stay in here.”
She watched him for a moment, then nodded. He turned away to give her privacy as she quickly stripped off everything except her undershift and stepped into the shower. Once the door slid closed behind her, he joined her.
She was disappointed but not entirely surprised that he hadn’t removed his pants before taking a seat on the small bench and pulling her onto his lap. With a small sigh of pleasure, she curled up against his broad chest and let the hot water relax her muscles.
“Does this make you uncomfortable?” he asked.
“This isn’t uncomfortable. This is wonderful.” She shifted so that she could look up at him. “So what’s your plan for when we escape?”
When. Not if. She’d already accepted the necessity of leaving.
“I’m taking you to Rykan and Ember. They have the resources to provide you with protection and the kind of security that doesn’t require cages.”
“You trust them.”
“With my life.” He turned his hand over, lacing his fingers through hers. “And with yours. And there’s something else. Your father must have been the one to make the arrangement with Ember’s father for the supply drones. He kept that secret all this time.”
She nodded thoughtfully. No matter how it turned out, her father had been trying to protect her. If he could trust the Duvain family, then she thought she could as well.
“Then we should start planning. How do we get past ARIS?”
“I intend to investigate the other rooms in the lower level and look for a way to override the system.”
“I may be able to help,” she said slowly. She’d never thought about escape before, but she’d been documenting everything she observed for years, including ARIS’s responses.
“You’ve been building a comprehensive map of the entire system without even realizing it.”
“I was bored. Twenty-one years in the same seven floors. You develop hobbies.”
“Most people wouldn’t choose ‘inadvertent systems analysis’ as a hobby.”
“Most people don’t grow up with an AI as their primary companion. But I know that power usage spikes every third day around sunset. A power draw indicates some additional activity which may provide a distraction.”
Or it might mean nothing. Automated systems often had quirks that defied explanation.
“It’s worth a shot,” he said finally. “When is the next one? The longer we stay, the more time ARIS has to figure out what we’re planning.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “I’m sure it already knows.”
“Then we need to move fast. I’ll make another trip down the maintenance shaft later tonight and tomorrow I’ll start gathering supplies.”
“I can prepare food as well.”
He placed his hand under her chin and lifted her face. “Are you sure about this?”
“Very, very sure.”
“The world outside isn’t safe.” His voice was rough. “You understand that now. What your blood can do, what people might—”
“I understand.” She cut him off gently. “I understand that there are dangers out there I can’t begin to imagine.
I understand that leaving this tower means giving up the only security I’ve ever known.
I understand that I’m choosing uncertainty over safety, risk over comfort, the terrifying unknown over the suffocating familiar. ”
She squeezed his hand.
“I’m choosing it anyway.”
For a long moment, he didn’t respond. He just looked at her—that intense, searching gaze that made her feel like he was seeing past all her defenses, all her carefully constructed understanding of herself, straight to the core of who she really was.
“I can’t promise you safety. I can’t promise that everything will work out, that we’ll reach Rykan without incident, that you’ll love the life waiting for you outside these walls.”
“I know that too.” She smiled, and it felt like the first genuine smile she’d managed in days. “I’m not asking for promises, Baylin. I’m asking for possibility. The chance to find out what I’m capable of, what I might become, who I might be when I’m not defined by four walls and a sealed door.”
“And you want to find out with me.”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway.
“Yes.” The word came out certain, more sure than anything else she’d ever said.
“I trust you. I trust you to keep me safe when you can and to help me survive when you can’t.
I trust you to tell me the truth, even when it hurts.
I trust you to treat me like a person—not a precious object to be protected, not a problem to be solved, but a person with agency and choices and the right to make her own mistakes. ”
She reached up and touched his face, her palm resting against the sharp line of his jaw.
“I want to go with you when you leave. Not because I have no other options, but because I can’t imagine choosing anyone else.”
Something shifted in his expression. The careful control he always maintained cracked, just for a moment, revealing something raw and fierce beneath.
“Liora.” His voice was rough, almost breaking. “Do you have any idea what you’re asking?”
“I think so.”
“I don’t think you do.” He caught her hand, pressing it harder against his face.
“My beast has already decided that you’re mine.
That I’m supposed to protect you, keep you, never let you go.
If I take you into the jungle, if I spend weeks at your side, if I watch you discover the world for the first time. ..”
“Then what?”
“Then I don’t know if I’ll be able to let you choose anyone else.” The admission seemed to cost him something. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand aside if you decide you want a different life, a different person, a different future than the one I’m imagining.”
Her heart was pounding, but not with fear.
“What future are you imagining?”
“One where you’re beside me.” His thumb traced across her knuckles. “One where I wake up every morning knowing you’re safe. One where I get to watch you discover oceans and cities and stars and everything else you’ve been denied.” A pause. “One where you choose to stay.”
“That sounds like a good future.”
“It sounds like a lot to ask of someone who’s never had the chance to explore other options.”
“Maybe.” She nestled even closer, until there was almost no space between them. “But maybe I don’t need to explore other options to know what I want. Maybe twenty-one years of isolation has given me excellent clarity about what matters.”
“And what matters?”
“Connection. Trust. The way you look at me like I’m the most fascinating thing you’ve ever seen.
” She was blushing now, she could feel it, but she refused to look away.
“The way your hands shake when you touch me, like you’re holding something precious.
The way you promised to never lie to me and then kept that promise, even when the truth was devastating. ”
“Those are just—”
“Those are everything,” she said fiercely. “Those are the things I’ve been dreaming about my whole life without knowing what to call them.”
She took a breath.
“I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know if we’ll survive the jungle or reach your friends or build the kind of life I’m imagining. But I know that I want to find out. I know that I want to find out with you.”
He stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, the tension in his body eased. The fierce protectiveness in his eyes didn’t fade, but it shifted—became something warmer, something that looked almost like hope.
“One more day,” he said. “We prepare tomorrow, and then we leave.”
“Together.”
“Together.” He pulled her closer, and she went willingly, pressing her face against his chest and breathing in the warm, wild scent of him. “Whatever happens, Liora. Whatever we face out there. I will do everything in my power to give you the life you deserve.”
“I know.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight. “That’s why I trust you.”
They stayed in the shower until the water ran cool, then dried each other with rough towels. Something had changed between them. The hesitation that had marked their previous interactions was gone, replaced by an easy familiarity that felt like it had been years in the making rather than days.
They dressed quickly. Baylin collected his weapons and prepared to leave, but paused at the door.
“Be careful,” he said. “Don’t do anything to alert ARIS that we’re planning something.”
“I’ll be very boring,” she promised.
“Good.” He gave her one last long look, then disappeared through the door.
She spent the next few hours in the library, selecting books to bring with her, trying to balance practical knowledge against the limited space she would have for personal items. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she couldn’t suppress her excitement.
Tomorrow, she would leave. Tomorrow, she would see the world she’d only ever read about.
Tomorrow, she would begin the life she was meant to live.