Page 49 of Uprooted
“Full transparency? What happened last night is between me and the lumen'entem. But just to be clear, we didn’t have sex last night?” I ask and look back down to the blossom rolling over my palm and fingers. Holding my breath for his answer.
“We slept fully clothed. You drooled a little on me. That’s it,” he says and puts his hand next to mine, the flower moving over to his palm. “Look—this little guy’s confused. Doesn’t know if it’s day or night,” Aro says sweetly, watching the flower continue to roll around.
“What did you say?” I ask. Suddenly every synapse in my brain starts firing off.
“I said this little guy doesn’t know if it’s day or night,” he repeats.
34
Elowen
I’ve been staring at the ceiling over my bunk for who knows how long. What Aro said struck me. It took me right back to the vision I had last night of the red flower. The answer is just out of reach. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out anything that could take away from following this train of thought.
A light tap on my door jerks me out of my head.
I open the door as Aro raises his hand to knock again. He’s dressed in all black, a pack slung over his shoulders. He closes the door behind him and looks me up and down.
“Put your boots on. We need to hurry.” He frantically looks around the room for my shoes.
“Where are we going?” His rushing around my room is making me nervous.
“We are going outside,” he says quietly.
“Woah, wait. Do I have time to think about it?” Panic shoots through me.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“The next twenty seconds,” he says and hands me my boots.
“Aro, no. This is a bad idea. I can’t leave the dome. I’d love to, but I can’t.” Aro reaches out, buttons the closures on my coveralls and pulls me along gently down the empty hallway.
“Yes, you can, I’ll get you in and out. No one will ever know, and you’ll get to see j'Tilak for yourself.” His tone is all confidence.
I plant my feet on the ground. He makes it halfway down the hall before he realizes I’m not right behind him. He comes back for me, carefully, like he’s approaching a spooked animal. I stand my ground. I’ve wanted to see more of this world, but not at the expense of my presence here. All of that, in addition to the killing machines lurking around! It’s not a good idea.
“Elowen, you've dreamed of being here your whole life. This is your chance.” I look up into his pleading eyes trying to decide what to do.
“It’s not safe out there,” I say.
“We’ll be fine. I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
With a deep breath I nod. “Good girl. Now I’m going to need you to wait here for a minute,” Aro says and softly pushes me into a cleaning bot closet I didn’t realize was right behind me. He closes me in before I have a chance to protest.
The small dark closet is just big enough for me to squeeze into. My body pushes against all four walls. The cleaning bot rests in its charging dock between my feet. My nose twitches from the floating particles of dust. It’s such a tight fit I can’t even reach up to rub my nose, so I twitch my face to fight the sneeze that’s building.
I can barely hear anything outside of my little spot, but I pick up on a muffled conversation between Aro and another Tilak. I have more time to think of all the reasons I shouldn’t do this. It’s too big of a risk. This is breaking the number one rule, the thing that could get me deported immediately. It would also get Aro into a shitload of trouble. I resolve to talk some sense into him as the door slides open. I squint from being in the dark closet to now the brightly lit hall.
Aro puts a finger to my lips before I can say anything. He knows right away I’m still trying to talk my way out of this.
“Too late to back out now.”
* * *
I find myself in the big empty warehouse where we first arrived at the dome, staring at the open cargo bay door. The closer we get to the outside the faster my mind spins, all the reasons why I do want to sneak out compile in my head. The cargo bay is lined with porterscharging in their concave platform ports along the edge. Aro drags me behind him and we skirt the edge of the room, weaving in and out of the silver spheres charging for the night. I drag my feet as we get closer to the massive door. Aro continues pulling me forward, single-mindedly focused on getting outside.
At the end of the row, he crouches down and points straight above his head. A security bot hovers a few feet above him. I barely shift forward and the noise from my pants rubbing together sounds deafening. Aro glares at me and silently mouths the word “quiet.”
