I’d done my job. I was a distraction enough for Emery to sink her teeth into Logan, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the information I’d unknowingly been given meant more than even Governor Wallace knew.

  Chapter 15

  Sienna

  We waited until it was dark to leave Ava’s place. The wounds she had healed still stung when I moved or coughed, but the drained feeling I’d had this morning had ceased with food and more tea. Emery had returned in the afternoon to let us know Vic was safe and waiting for our return. She also informed us a post had gone out for us, both reported missing by the Guards of the DEZ.

  The walk back to the DEZ felt longer than usual, and the tension between Theo and I was awkward and strained. I thought back to what I’d said to him when I believed I was going to die. I love you. I didn’t know if I had said it out loud, or if it was all a dream, but the tension in his body told me something was wrong.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  He tilted his head. “Me? You’re the one who almost died.”

  “Yet, you’re the one who looks like every thought in the world is running through your brain.”

  “Just trying not to get caught.” He shrugged.

  “Oh, really. That’s why you’re so quiet?”

  “Yes,” Theo said simply. “Is it so hard for you to believe I just want this day to be over?”

  “No, but it’s very hard to believe you have nothing to say about it.” I crossed my arms. “Don’t you want to scold me and tell me how I could have died? How I should have been smarter, and that risking coming out here in the first place was a bad decision?”

  “I don’t have to say any of that. You’re already thinking it.” Theo shrugged. “And in case you forgot, all three of us were on board with this plan. So, how can I lecture you when I agreed to it, too?”

  A tinge of guilt in his voice made me pause. “Did I ever tell you how Vic and I became best friends?” I asked.

  Theo shook his head.

  We began walking again, slowly down the muddy alley. “We met when we were six, but we didn’t become best friends until just before we joined your graduation class. I was only twelve, but I think part of me had always known the DEZ wasn’t a place for a dreamer like me. I would spend my nights picturing what my mom and dad might have looked like. I imagined there had been a mistake, and they had been looking all over for me.” I smiled at the memory. “Vic would do the same. She’d tell me her parents were Warriors off on a mission far away where they couldn’t bring her, but they would come back one day, and they would find us. We bonded over those dreams, until a dream wasn’t enough for me, and I had to know.”

  I had never told anyone this story. It was a part of me I didn’t want people to see: weak, vulnerable, stupid. But Theo had to know why I was doing all this, why I had been willing to risk my own life for hers because she had done the same for me. And I could never forget that.

  “An older kid at school was telling us about this place in Cytos where you could find out who your parents were. He claimed there was this huge database in City Hall, and if you just gave them your name, you’d be reconnected with your parents. I shouldn’t have believed him. I’d always known that if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was, but I wanted to believe. So desperately I wanted it to be true.” I let out a shaky breath, and Theo placed a hand against my back. The warmth was a comfort, and I found the strength to keep talking. I needed him to know everything. “I snuck out of the DEZ for the first time that night, and didn’t tell anyone where I was going. I went into the city, following the lights and sounds and people. I asked some strangers I passed where City Hall was, and they pointed it out. This was my first experience with the people of Cytos, and I was surprised to find them…normal. They weren’t afraid of me then, and I’m not sure if it was because I was only a child or if something changed, but I felt connected to this city and knew somewhere out here my parents were waiting for me to find them.”

  We reached a corner where the alley intersected with a main road. People walked by, chatting and laughing loudly. Theo and I hung in the shadows until they passed, then we skipped across to the other side, sliding back into a dark alley.

  “City Hall was enormous. Like a castle in a story book, it went up four stories and was filled with thick, wood panelled walls, elaborate paintings on every wall, and these large, red chairs that would engulf me if I tried to sit down they were so big.” Again the memory brought a smile to my face, until I remembered the ending. “The lady at the counter was puzzled by my request but she was polite. She said she’d see if she could find my parents, but she needed my family name. I realized then that none of us Marked Kids had been given a family name. I was just Sienna, that was my name, and I couldn’t understand why this lady couldn’t just type that in and find my parents. It was supposed to be easy. I was supposed to find them.” My voice cracked. I swallowed, my throat too dry. “It took four people to explain they couldn’t find my parents. They had called the guards of the city to bring me back to the DEZ, but I didn’t want to accept it. I was screaming at them, begging them to just tell my parents where I was so they could come get me, but they didn’t listen. And what I remember most about that night, so strongly that I sometimes think I hear his voice in my dreams, was the guard pulling me outside and telling me, ‘You don’t have parents. You never have and you never will.’”

  A shudder shook through me, and I had to close my eyes to finish the rest. Theo had his hand still firmly pressed against my back and the other holding my elbow, as if I might fall at any moment.

  “I wouldn’t go back there. I wouldn’t return to the DEZ, so I ran. I didn’t know where I was going or what I would do, but I knew that I couldn’t live my life alone. I couldn’t go on knowing there was no one looking for me, no one who missed me.” A tear fell down my cheek. “I ended up at a large chasm in the northern part of Cytos. There was a deep pool of water churning and swaying against the turbines, pulling and pumping water into the city. I’m not sure the plan had formed in my mind fully before I jumped, but I knew I couldn’t swim.” Theo’s fingers tensed against my back. His grip on my elbow tightened, and I didn’t have to open my eyes to see the worry and concern in his. “I didn’t even know she had followed me. Didn’t see Vic there until she was right beside me, one arm gripped around my waist as she kicked against the rushing water, pulling us both out. When we got to the edge, we both laid on our backs for a long while, gasping for air, watching the stars. Until she finally said, ‘I can be your family,’ and suddenly a part of me broke and I sobbed for hours. She just held me tight, but she didn’t say anything else. She didn’t have to.”

  Finally, I opened my eyes. Theo was only a few inches away, his hand warm against my body. He brushed a tear away from my cheek.

  We were quiet for a moment before he said, “I’m glad she was there. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it.” His voice was soft, almost sad. Though his eyes were on me, his gaze felt far away, as if he were looking at the twelve-year-old version of me, and I was broken and lost and miserable, but he couldn’t save me.

  “What happened last night?” I whispered. I could see something was bothering him, something more than seeing me almost die. It was the same look Vic had given me that night when she’d saved me. Worry? Fear? Yes, both, but more than that. A look that told me no matter what—even if I didn’t need it—I would be under her protection for life. She was my family, and nothing would ever change that.

  Theo tensed, and he opened his mouth to say something, but instead he shook his head.

  “Tell me, please.”

  He hesitated, glancing down at the ground, but I took his face in my hands and forced his gaze up. The torn look in his eyes threatened to break me. A look I’d never seen on him before. Concern, terror, longing, agony, all in one look, and I wanted to erase them all.

  Finally, he said, “I could have killed them.” His voice was barely a whisper. “I wanted to. I wanted to destroy them for what they did to you. I almost did.”

  “But you didn’t,” I said.

  “If you hadn’t, if you didn’t…I almost killed them, Sienna,” he repeated.

  “If I hadn’t what?”

  His brow scrunched. He shifted on his feet, observing me and waiting for some flicker of recognition at what he was referring to. “You don’t remember?” he finally said.

  “I remember pain. I remember seeing you standing above me and then…then you were carrying me and I was…” I couldn’t finish the words. And I was dying.

  Theo’s shoulders dropped. “We should go.”

  He moved to leave, but I gripped his wrist. “Wait? What happened? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “If you don’t remember, then it’s not important. You can’t be liable for what you said when you weren’t even fully there.” His voice sounded strained, and he wouldn’t look at me again. “Come on, we’re already in enough trouble. Let’s get back before Vic sends out a search party of her own.”

  I tried to pull him back, but he was much stronger than me, especially now. By the look on his face, I knew I should leave it alone. He wasn’t going to tell me anything.

  The images of the night before flickered back to me: the pain erupting through me, the look on his face, a rage I had never seen. A shiver danced down my spine at the memory. He had been ready to kill them. What had stopped him?

  My mind ran through everything that had happened. What had I said? What could I possibly have said that would cause Theo to act like this?

  And then I remembered.

  My steps faltered. “I need you,” I whispered and Theo froze. “That’s what I said. I need you.”

  Theo didn’t turn around, but he gave a nod.

  “Why?” I didn’t know how to ask why what I’d said haunted him more than what he saw—what he had done.

  “Because it was the first time you’d ever said anything like that to me,” Theo said. His voice was small, and he still hadn’t turned around. “And it was the first time I truly admitted to myself that I needed to know that, needed to hear those words from you.”

  “I’ve always needed you and Vic—“

  “No, not me.” I could hear the hurt in his voice. “You rely on me, you care for me as a friend, but you’ve never needed me. Not the way I need you.”

  My throat closed up, and an aching filled the pit of my stomach. I wanted to say the right thing. I wanted him to know I’d always needed him, I’d always wanted him, but I couldn’t admit that out loud. Because to do that would mean I wasn’t strong. And if I wasn’t strong, I couldn’t protect Vic.

  I hadn’t realized by not telling him the truth, by not being honest with myself, I had let him believe I didn’t care. I was so focused on getting Vic safely out of the DEZ I’d forgotten in every one of my dreams he’d been there, too. Every time I thought about the future, he was with us.

  All Vic had to say was “I can be your family” and that was enough. That was the confirmation I had needed. Those five words saved my life. And my three words had given him hope. Yet, from the look in his eyes, I knew he believed I hadn’t meant it.

  I stepped in front of Theo and tilted his chin up to meet my gaze. I leaned up on the tips of my toes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He stilled, his entire body tense and waiting. The warmth of him soothed me, and the smell of citrus and lemon sprang from him and woke up every inch of me. The little hairs on my arms rose.

  It was soft, and it was quick, but it was perfect.

  I pulled away, slowly. My hand trailed from his chin and brushed against his arm. Before it fell to my side, Theo gripped my hand and pressed it against his chest. His heart was beating fast, and I knew mine was, too. He took my hand and placed a gentle kiss against the palm.

  “I need you,” I whispered firmly. “And I should have said that a long time ago.” Something in him broke. Something chained and holding him down released, and a soft smile spread across his face.

  “I need you, too,” he said. And he kissed my hand one more time before we turned and walked back towards the DEZ.

  We were silent the rest of the way, walking hand in hand, but it wasn’t an uneasy silence. It was comfortable. It was safe.

  Chapter 16

  Jayla

  With Emery gone and Logan taken care of, I headed back to the bar to wait for Caspian. He might have seen Em leave the room with Logan, but we’d decided to have a backup plan in case someone was too preoccupied to see them go.

  I headed to the bar and asked the Bot to pour two drinks and I waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  On my fourth pass of the ballroom I finally found Caspian and Leanna tucked in the back corner, hidden in the shadows of a large pillar. Leanna might as well have been sitting in Caspian’s lap. Her hand rested on his leg, and he was idly tracing circles on the back of her hand while they whispered so close their lips nearly touched.

  I rolled my eyes before I trounced over to them. “There you are.” I smiled sweetly at Cas, who leaned back only a little as his eyes slowly moved up to mine. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  I passed him a glass of wine, my eyes screaming at him, “Time to go.”

  Cas glanced at the glass in my hand before taking it. Then he looked to Leanna, who was levelling me a heavy glare for interrupting them. I kept my gaze fixed on Cas. “Leanna, this is my… friend. Daisy. Daisy this is Leanna, Governor Wallace’s daughter.”

  The bite in his voice took me by surprise, and I couldn’t help note the way he called me his friend and how much it stung.

  “Yeah, I know who she is.” I didn’t keep the bite from my tone, either. “Let’s go.”

  Cas finally tore his gaze away from Leanna and back up to mine. No warmth there. “I think I’ll stay. You go.”

  I stepped back, surprised, and wondered how many drinks he’d had to cause this side of him to shine through. “I’m not leaving without you.”

  “He’s a big boy,” Leanna said, as she rolled her eyes up at me, her hand drifting a little higher on his thigh. “I think he can choose when he wants to leave. And who with.”

  Caspian smirked. Smirked. I nearly threw my glass of wine in her face.

  I looked to Cas, waiting for him to say something, waiting for him to take off this mask. He shrugged and didn’t move an inch.

  “Fine,” I said.

  “Fine,” Cas repeated.

  And I stormed away.

  I wasn’t foolish enough to leave Cas alone, even if I was pissed at him. I returned to my spot at the bar and waited.

  Governor Wallace did his speech, and everyone cheered as if this new building would be the best thing to come to Cytos since the Peace-Making. I nearly vomited in my mouth.

  The night was nowhere near slowing down. The real party was just getting started. I had to turn down more than a few invitations to dance, and I kept a scowl on my face for those who sought their chance with me.

  “Geez, they’ll let in just about any riffraff these days,” the voice beside me drawled, and I glanced up with a frown.

  My blood pressure spiked at the face beside me. “You’re one to talk.” I sneered at Simon, the leader of the Carbon Resistance I’d been trying to take down.

  He leaned in a bit closer to me. “At least my invitation wasn’t forged.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you here, Simon? Another building to blow up? More innocent lives to take?”

  He flinched at that remark before he composed his face again. “Same reason you’re here.”

  “I doubt that.”

  Simon shrugged as he spun his chair around so his back was leaned against the bar and he had a better view of the dance floor. His long, dusty blond hair was tied neatly away from his face, and his black tie was undone around his neck. He was quiet for a moment before he said in a hushed tone, “No one was supposed to be there that night.”

  It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. “Someone didn’t do their research on the night staff’s hours?”

  He turned his gaze on me. Cold, steel blue eyes settled on mine. “I didn’t do my research.”

  I waited for some sign he was lying, but it never came.

  “So, what, you’re here to say sorry? Keep the peace and all?”

  He smirked. “Hell, no. Peace isn’t something I know much about.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure of that.” I rolled my eyes. “So, what then? Because I’m pretty damn sure you didn’t come here to flirt with the Governor.”

  Simon chuckled. “Not him. The pretty offspring your boyfriend already has his claws dug deep into.” He nodded his head to where Cas and Leanna were wrapped around each other, grinding on the dance floor, not caring who stared.

  I rolled my eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend.” I immediately realized that wasn’t the part of what he said I should have been listening to. “Wait, what would you want with Leanna?”

  He scoffed. “See, that’s the problem with you humans—emotions always come first. You only use your brain later, if ever.” He tapped a smooth finger to his temple with a mocking grin.

  I turned my head to him, my eyes narrowed in warning. I knew not to make a scene in front of this many people, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t take things outside.

  Simon sighed. “While you guys are busy stealing information from that idiot son of his, I planned to go to the real source. Leanna may not be in a place of power like her brother is, but did you know she has breakfast with her father every morning? Like clockwork, they chat about the day, the weather…the news.”

  My gaze flashed to Leanna, who had her tongue down Caspian’s throat. I swallowed back some distant pain wrenching my stomach. “Doesn’t look like you’ll be getting any time with her tonight.”