If Jake hadn’t been holding on to her tightly right this very minute, she would’ve let herself sink into hopelessness. But Jake never allowed her to lose herself in helplessness, anger, betrayal, or sadness. Because the two of them shared more than a common goal—they shared a life together. He knew her better than anyone, and she him.

  “Your father’s not in his right mind,” Jake said, pulling her closer. “We both know that. He wants revenge, and he’s capable of killing you, but I don’t think he will. You’re his prized possession, whether he likes it or not. You two are bound together.”

  Ari arched back, refraining from swatting Jake’s bare chest. “We’re not bound anywhere near each other. What a ridiculous thing to say. If he gets a hold of me, he will kill me…eventually.” She rested her head back on his shoulder. “He’ll do it, because he can’t break me. He’s tried over the years with no success. It maddens him more than anything else does.” Her father had done his best to groom her in his own image, even though it didn’t take. In her late teens, he’d begun to take her along on what he called his “decision-making sessions.” They’d been nothing more than opportunities to whip and hurt people who had come to ask—beg—for his help.

  After that, she’d rebelled. And paid dearly for it.

  Her father had often taken his hand to her mother, but he had been careful not to harm Ari. Until she’d blatantly disobeyed him. Following her seventeenth birthday, she’d begun sneaking extra supplies into the hulls, freeing innocent prisoners, and encouraging the people to unite to resist every mandate her father presented to them. When he’d found out what she was doing, he’d punished her brutally, leaving her in pain for days, only to seek her apology and then set her free. It’d become a reliable pattern.

  Ari had always managed to convince him that she was repentant, promising to change her ways, agreeing to fall into line. All lies. Her greatest skill, up until the last few weeks, had been her ability to manipulate him. She had known, deep within her soul, that someday she would have one final showdown with her father.

  That time was now.

  Unfortunately, along the way, she’d gravely miscalculated a few key elements. She’d assumed wrongly that the militia members, who’d been directly involved with her upbringing, and the other elite children who’d been educated and spoiled by their status right alongside Ari, would follow her. After all, she’d been next in line to lead the city, hadn’t she? But they’d deserted her, looking out for their own interests, fearful of the retribution her father would mete out.

  Everyone except for Jake. She hadn’t been wrong about him.

  “I don’t mean you’re bound together, like physically.” He chuckled. “I mean emotionally. Neither of you will rest until this ends, once and for all. Your goal is to save New Eden and everyone in it. His goal is to destroy it. You’ll go back for everyone eventually. He knows it.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head. “You know, your stubbornness is one of the things I love most about you. It makes you stronger than gale-force winds.”

  “What a load of crap.” She laughed. “My unwillingness to back down is one of the things you can’t stand about me. You’ve said it for years. Admit it.”

  “Okay, fine, so it’s a love-hate thing. I love that you’re selfless and will do whatever it takes to get the job done, but I hate that you get hurt for it. Seeing you injured”—he visibly shivered—“makes me want to retch. I can’t wait until this is over.”

  “Over is up for interpretation.” Ari turned onto her back, settling one hand behind her head and gazing out into the deep, dark unknown. There was nothing for kilometers and kilometers except empty blackness. “Over might mean we all die.”

  “So we die. It’s going to happen eventually.” He’d uttered the words confidently, but she knew how he really felt, how he worried, how he ached to have a family and a regular life. “I wouldn’t change anything we’ve done so far. Ever since I was a little kid, my father warned me how this could end. He knew it was coming. Knew your father was unstable. There was nothing my dad could do, even though he tried. He figured the sea would take us all, sooner rather than later, like it always does.” Sadness lingered. Jake’s father had been the head of the militia and Marty Bancroft’s second-in-command until two years ago. The speculation was that there’d been some kind of disagreement. Cormic Dalton had been vocal with his differing opinion, something about optimizing resources on the engineering ship, which floated next to New Eden. He’d disappeared, apparently paying the price for his disobedience.

  That had become the norm for the floating city. You disagreed with Marty Bancroft, and you disappeared. The ocean greedily took what it was given, never to return it.

  “I wish your dad was with us now,” Ari said, trying to reciprocate some of the comfort that Jake was so good at giving. “He had a good heart. Maybe if he was still around, he could’ve rallied the guards, and all this would’ve gone differently.”

  “It’s hard to know.” Jake turned on his side to face her. “He owed everything we had to your father. Our home, his status, the fact he’d even been allowed to come along in the first place. He would’ve felt the burden of loyalty. It would’ve been a hard choice for him.”

  “I agree that it would’ve been hard, but I think he would’ve supported protecting the greater good of all the people, not just the elite. There was no love lost between him and my father in the end. If your dad could see us now, I think he’d be pleased.” They’d literally gone from high above the hulls, to existing under the sea itself. “He always loved the farms.”

  “I like it here,” Jake murmured. “It feels safe in a way that our homes never did. Yeah, we had more space, more furniture, and nicer sleeping accommodations. But the wind never quit blowing, the rain never stopped pattering down, and even though the atlases rock, it’s nothing like at the top of the city. It’s more pleasant down here.”

  “I agree.” Ari smiled. “I like it better below the waves, too.” The biosphere and atlases weren’t foreign to her. Growing up, both she and Jake had visited the farms as much as they could, partaking in a day of refreshing UV, picking fruit, and enjoying themselves overall. But they’d never lived here. Or even considered it.

  Elite members of this community live close to the sky. They do not dwell at the bottom. Words her father lived by, all while swinging his tyrant fist, forcing everyone to abide by his way of thinking.

  “Get some sleep, Ari,” Jake said on a yawn. “Tomorrow’s going to be another long day. Hector said something about the winch being fully down, and we don’t have the parts to fix it.”

  Ari ran a hand over her face. “It’s always something. Do you think survival is even possible? Were we foolish to cut ourselves loose? We lost all the resources the city can offer us by blowing the connection.” The farm had been tethered to the city by a huge interlocking system made of graphene and steel. In order to free themselves, they’d blown it sky high, so even if they wanted to, there was no hooking back up.

  “It was either that, or everyone living here would’ve died.”

  “That’s true.” Ari reassured herself with that daily. “But everyone could still die tomorrow. Without a working winch, we can’t feed the other farms. Or the sea could swallow us. There are so many things that could go wrong.”

  “We did what we did,” Jake said, tugging her into his arms again. “No regrets.” He kissed the top of her head. “We always make the best decision we can at any given moment. Everyone here knows you’re trying to save them. They also know that they could be lost to the sea at any moment. When we blew up the connection, we gave everyone here another day. It matters.”

  Ari sighed. “Do you think anyone heard us when we radioed the dark city?” She and Jake had broken into the communications room on the medi-ship right before they’d freed the farm. “No one answered.”

  “It’s a tough question. My dad mentioned years ago that your dad had been in contact with people there, so there’s a chance.”

  “If they heard me, do you think they’ll help?” Her voice held hope even though her heart didn’t feel it. Her father had repeatedly told her that they were on their own. That no aid would ever come from the dark city, even though he was desperate to get back.

  “I hope so,” Jake replied, trailing the edge of sleep. “Time will tell.”

  “Our time will be up soon without them.”

  HOLLY

  CHAPTER THREE

  “We’re going,” I said, running a hand through my newly washed, not quite dry hair. “I don’t care what they say. Since when do we bow down to what the government wants anyway? The fact that we are the government is a different kind of crazy.” The entire thing was ludicrous, bordering on next-level outrageous. I tried not to pace around my small living space and instead focus on my wall screen, the scene with the building and the wispy clouds, which usually had a calming effect.

  It wasn’t working. Not even a little bit.

  “They didn’t say we couldn’t go. They just want us to wait a few more days,” Case reminded me in his irritatingly reasonable way.

  I gave him a look, pondering if he’d lost some brain cells since we’d last discussed this topic, which had been exactly twelve hours ago, before we’d gone to sleep. The night had been fitful at best. “You heard that girl as clearly as I did,” I insisted. “You were sitting right next to me. Marty Bancroft Jr. is dangerous. We know that from the history left behind. Ari said he was killing people, that there would be a mass extermination. We’ve already waited a week. Waiting another one is all kinds of wrong. Who knows what’s happened since then? Hundreds—if not thousands of people—could’ve died while we stayed here and picked protein cakes out of our teeth.” Now that we had Maisie, making a long-distance ocean flight wouldn’t be nearly as hazardous. Of course, the appropriate amount of worry about traversing a vast space where landing would be next to impossible would happen. But we had high-powered batteries that could keep us airborne for days, if not weeks. And honestly, it couldn’t possibly be that far. At least not according to the data we’d already uncovered. “What we need is to get Maisie and head to the barracks as soon as possible.” We’d been back only once since Tillman and his crew had tried to blow it up. The entrance had taken a direct hit, but other than that, everything was more or less fine. It’d taken us less than half a day to clean out the rubble. Now we just had to figure out how to resecure it. We’d get to that later. Very few people knew about its existence, so we could afford to wait. “The tech table has excellent mapping capabilities. Coupled with Maisie’s access to data, that should allow us to triangulate a location. The floating city has to be within a reasonable distance of the East Coast. It’s the only known area to survive the meteor hits.”

  “We don’t have access to Maisie. The government is utilizing her,” Case reminded me. “If we commandeer her, Claire is going to know we’re up to something.”

  I shoved off the counter, where I’d situated myself so I wouldn’t wander around aimlessly. “They told us to gather intel, so that’s what we’re doing. We just explain that we need Maisie and don’t mention we’re leaving. If they bring it up, we deny it. What are they going to do? Throw us in a cell?” The only person who would be beyond hurt if we left without telling him would be Daze. Then, if we didn’t return, he’d be devastated. “Maisie technically belongs to Daze anyway. Everybody agrees on that. So we grab the kid and then get the LiveBot, head to the barracks, and do our research. There’s nothing suspicious about acting on an order. Then we explain to the kid why we have to go and drop him off with Darby.” It was a solid plan.

  Case dragged a hand around to the back of his neck, looking doubtful. We were both freshly showered, having just emerged from the cleaning stall. We’d been bunking in my canal residence since we arrived back from the South. Seeing him standing there, relaxed and clean, made me realize how weird it was to have a life partner. If somebody had told me two months ago that this would happen, I would’ve shoved a jug of aminos down their throat to shut them up. “If we leave without telling the group,” Case said, “it’s going to create problems.”

  “I can deal with that,” I said. “Isn’t the prime objective to save lives? We can’t do that if we stay here.” I’d been hearing Ari’s voice in my dreams, calling for help. Nobody would listen. I’d awakened in a cold sweat each time.

  “Yes, it’s about saving lives,” Case agreed. “But we can’t ignore that the city’s entering a new era. We’re curing seekers, improving our food supply, inoculating people. There are other factors to consider before we leave.”

  “Bullshit,” I argued. “The hard-and-fast rule in this world is still survival. Everything you just listed increases our life-spans. What the people on the Flotilla need right now is a chance at living. Based on the projections Maisie’s already made, there could be ten thousand people out there. Ten thousand souls at the mercy of one lunatic. If we wait, the likelihood of their survival diminishes greatly.”

  “I know.” Case took a seat on the bench in front of the screen. He hunched forward, elbows braced on his knees. “But we need more information.”

  It was hard not to toss my arms up in exasperation. “How many more details do we have to compile? They took thirty ships. Two of those were cruise ships that were built for our vacationing ancestors, who apparently enjoyed life at sea, capable of housing more than five thousand people apiece. They had a plan to construct a floating city, and we know they had the means. We also know they met up with a sustainable aquatic-farming community that housed at least a thousand people, all thanks to your grandfather. The possible locations where they could be are finite—meaning we can find them. At most, it’d take us a couple of days of flying back and forth in a grid pattern.” We’d discovered recently that Case’s grandfather, the CEO of Bliss Corp, had planned the entire thing, spending upward of one hundred trillion dollars on supplies and vessels. “The records at the Bureau of Truth document what happened, even if we don’t have the actual number of people that left. But does it really matter? Even if we were saving ten people, I’d go anyway.”

  Case stood, clearly as agitated as I was, and made his way to the cooling unit. “I would, too. I don’t know why we’re arguing, because I agree with everything you’re saying. Don’t you think I feel responsible? My blood ties me to this lunatic. But if we go rogue on this mission, it’s going to place us at odds with everyone.”

  I leaned up against the wall. “Since when do you care about being at odds with anyone? When all this started between us, you had no commitment to anyone but yourself. What’s changed?”

  Case seared me with a look. “You.”

  Chills rushed up my spine. “Are you saying you have an allegiance to me?”

  He brought his head down slowly. “Yes. And you have one to your family.”

  “You’re worried I’m going to damage my relationship with them if I leave without saying anything?”

  “I am, and they’re important to you.” He set the water jug down and stalked toward me, grasping me around the waist.

  “I appreciate that,” I breathed. “But Claire and Lockland don’t get to call the shots in our group. It’s a democracy. We haven’t had a formal vote about this. They just decided. That’s unacceptable.”

  “Then maybe you should call a vote,” Case murmured into my neck, his breath warm as it abraded my skin.

  A soft moan escaped me. “And risk getting voted down? No way.”

  Heat radiated deep within as he drew me closer. This was a better distraction than the wall screen any day. “Have it your way.” His lips dragged slowly across my throat, up to the corner of my mouth. “In the end, they’ll probably forgive you.”

  His lips were soft, the kiss thorough. I luxuriated in the feel of him. These emotions were brand new to me, but I appreciated every single one. I broke the kiss, panting. “I’m not looking for forgiveness.”

  “Then we should go.” He hovered over my bottom lip.

  “Really?” My fingers dug into his shoulders, my tongue stroking his.

  “As long as you don’t regret it.”

  I enjoyed his masculinity. “I’m a woman of few regrets.”

  “That’s good to know.” His eyes were unfocused, his lips lingering over mine. “I was beginning to get worried.”

  “Yeah, you look really worried.” He looked as relaxed as I’d ever seen him.

  His eyes crinkled at the corners. “You’ve pointed out recently that I’m hogging your towels”—he leaned in—“using your battery power”—his tongue raked against mine—“causing a crick in your neck by sharing your sleeping pod.” The last kiss lasted for a good long while, both of us hungry for it. “Those all sound like tiny regrets to me.”

  “Those aren’t regrets,” I panted, taking some time to catch my breath. The man could use his mouth in remarkable ways. “Those are cold, hard facts. If we continue to share a sleeping pod, we’re going to have to salvage a double. It’s getting crowded in there.”

  His mouth came down hard, and another moan escaped me, more like a groan.

  “I disagree,” he whispered once we were both out of breath again. “I think it’s perfect.”

  Two loud shrills rent the air. We sprang apart, jolted by the noise, still panting.

  Both of our tech phones had gone off simultaneously.

  A moment later, Bender’s voice rumbled through the speaker from my vest pocket. “It’s Johnny. Where the hell are you?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “It’s Ella,” I said, the phone so close to my lips I was in danger of getting the thing wet. It’d taken me more than a few seconds to compose myself. “Where exactly am I supposed to be?” I flicked my thumb off the button, glancing at Case, who had taken a step back. “Did we miss something?”

  “Not that I know of,” he answered.

  It didn’t take Bender long to growl his response. “Meeting. Now. Mary’s house.” Also known as the Pleasure Emporium, the building we’d co-opted from Hutch and the current home to Darby, Walt, and Knox.