Read A Vault of Sins Online

Authors: Sarah Harian

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #New Adult & College, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Dystopian

A Vault of Sins (24 page)

BOOK: A Vault of Sins
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“Of course you did,” says Valerie.

“Filthy.”

I imagine myself in third person. “Evalyn Ibarra is attracted to brave warriors with battle scars.”

Valerie snorts before snapping into seriousness, a seriousness I was hoping she’s avoid for the sake of my sanity. “Let’s talk about the real warrior, here. Evalyn, what was the Vault like?”

I already have the lie formulated in my head, and it escapes me naturally. “All I can remember is code.”

“Code?” she asks.

“Numbers, letters, symbols. It must mean something, obviously. Wes will go over what I remember and see if he can make sense of anything.”

Casey’s hazel eyes find mine as Valerie asks, “So nothing substantial, then? Nothing solid? Shit, girl. You almost died for code.”

“I almost died for code,” I say, never leaving Casey’s eyes.

He knows I’m lying. But he doesn’t say anything. He may know I’m not telling the truth, but he doesn’t know the reason behind the lie. Something tells me he trusts that it’s a good secret to keep.

His eyes break from mine to stare across the valley as the sky darkens, transforming everything to a dull, dismal gray. “How long can we stand to hide here?” he asks.

“As long as we need to?” says Valerie. “As long as it takes for us to find another path.”

“Evalyn?” Casey squeezes my hand.

How long can we stand to hide here? The world has spun off its axis. Gravity has dissipated and we should be dead and ice cold and floating off into space four times over. How do we re-enter our lives again? How can we attempt normality after the epic tumbles that should have destroyed us?

We can’t. We are society’s sickness. We are a cancer.

“It doesn’t matter.” A wind picks up, chilling my skin beneath the jacket and supple blankets surrounding me. It is the perfect night to lose myself in a boy, a friend, and a quiet place in the middle of a familiar forest. A forest with a face that continues to return to me.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m home.”

Both of them seem to be okay with this answer. Valerie hums in approval, and Casey squeezes my hand.

We’ve left our families. Mom thinks I’m dead. Valerie’s dad and sister think she’s dead. Something tells me we won’t be saying good-bye forever.

There’s a way to fix this, and it begins with all of those criminals hidden deep within the ground.

Sarah Harian
received her M.F.A. from Fresno State University. She currently lives in the Sierra Nevadas with her husband and their dog and swears she’ll never live anywhere other than the forested mountains—they’re too inspiring. This is the second in the Chaos Theory series, following
The Wicked We Have Done
.

BOOK: A Vault of Sins
8.39Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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