Page 147 of Conform
“We are closer to war than ever before.”
I nodded, tired.
“I have already been gone for too long,” he said. “Your friend Lo made it back to her living quarters. I saw her when I left the area. That part of the city is still dark. You won’t hear from her or be able to reach her.”
Sapphires locked with my defective gaze in the glass. “Thank you.”
“I know you will demand to return to your living quarters, but I would like for you stay here tonight.” Collin stepped away from the window, as if he could leave quickly enough for me not to push back. To fight.
“All right.”
His brows raised. “There’s food and a scanner on the table. Everyone left. It is just you and Nora. Help yourself to anything that you need or want. What’s mine is yours. I will check in sometime tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay,” Collin repeated, assessing me, his puzzlement obvious. I could tell he had expected a fight. “Also, going forward, the ball, the running, the rule-breaking”—he tilted his head—“that ends now. Things will be very different.”
“Fine.”
“Well, good.” Collin walked toward the balcony, but he paused. “Are you okay? Did something happen?” he asked quietly. Concern thrummed in his usually powerful voice, and it threatened to break me. I couldn’t take his kindness. Not tonight.
“I am tired,” I told him. My soul felt too heavy. I was tired. Tired of everyone’s secrets. Tired of roles. Tired of pretending.
“I will be back tomorrow. You have my information on your Comm Device if you need anything . . .” He trailed off like he knew that even if I did, I wouldn’t reach out. “Right. Good night.”
“Do you ever just want a way out?” I stared at the outskirts of our city, beyond the fires, to the world the ancient humans had destroyed. I could barely make out the overgrowth beyond the smoke. In all my time in the clouds, I had never really looked.
“All the time,” Collin murmured. “Maybe then my mind would go quiet.”
I turned toward him fully. Collin held my broken gaze for a single breath before he turned to the balcony for a Pod.
I watched him leave until the thick smoke swallowed him and he disappeared into the night. I didn’t go looking for food. I crawled into the bed that was as soft as a cloud.
The sound of a door opening and shutting echoed through the empty quarters.
I closed my eyes against the stinging, refusing to let any tears fall.
When I went to sleep, I didn’t dream.
I AWOKE TO SUNLIGHT AND QUIET. MY COMM DEVICE DINGEDas Nora walked in, wearing a simple cream dress and holding a cup of tea.
“I was coming to wake you. How are you?”
“Fine. You?”
“Horrible,” Nora told me, even her sad smile absent. “More so now that we’ve been summoned.”
“What do you mean, summoned?”
“All of the Elite have been. There’s a ball tonight. It’s mandatory for Elite to attend. The Illum will be there.”
“Is that normal for them to do something like this?” I asked.
“No,” she said, her expression grim. “It most certainly is not.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
WITHIN AN HOUR, I FOUND MYSELF IN THE GLOSSY BLACKcage waiting for the Starlings. Two Pods had pulled up to take Nora and me away.
