Ash (20 page)

He didn’t answer, and after a long pause the door slid open again. I slipped the glass shard into my pocket, waiting. Two women stood by the entrance. One was my original captor. The second one took a step forward, watching me. Like the others, she was dressed in black—black tank top, work pants tucked into tall boots. A cap was pulled down over her eyes, shadowing her face. She wore a knife strapped to her belt. Everything about her looked dangerous.

“Why are you here?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, but it carried.

“For information,” I replied, trying to sound confident. I’d made it this far. These people knew something about Aldan and I was going to find out what. “My brother, Aldan Harris, threw his destiny today. He used to practice above ground on the loop track. I noticed your—” I paused, unsure what to call them. “Your friends while I was there tonight. I thought they might know something.”

She walked closer, and I realized she wasn’t that much older than me. We were about the same height. Dark curls jutted out from under her hat and, as she stopped beside me, our eyes met. Hers were swollen and red. It seemed impossible that someone who carried a knife on her belt would cry, and yet the evidence was right there. In that instance I recognized her. She’d worn green last I’d seen her. It was the girl from the race. The girl from Aldan’s photo cube.

“We don’t have the answers you’re looking for,” she said. There was a kind of exhausted finality to her pronouncement. “You’re lucky Thom was the one who found you. Others would have shot first, asked questions later if they saw you with that cuff.” She turned back to the man. “Take her back to the surface, please. I’m not in the mood to rescue lost children right now.” With that, she turned and walked away.

I glared at her retreating back. “Wait,” I called. “I’m not some child.”

She kept walking.

“I saw you,” I continued. “At the race. You were there, with Theron. You knew my brother.”

She stopped.

“He has a picture of you,” I said.

She turned, staring back at me.

“You were the one he was always talking to, weren’t you?” I asked. “The mystery girl.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Oena said.

But there was something. A catch in her voice that told me I was right. It made sense. Aldan hadn’t kept her identity a secret because he’d wanted to. He’d done it because he had to.

Oena shook her head. “Whatever you think you know is wrong,” she said. “You need to go home.” She marched back up to me, her eyes flashing. “Curfew is coming. ”

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what happened,” I pressed. “Why didn’t Aldan complete his destiny? Does it have something to do with all of this?” I waved my hand, gesturing around the gloom.

“We would never have asked Aldan to risk his life,” she snapped back at me. “It was his decision. His destiny.”

I sucked in my breath. She did know what had happened. “You mean he threw his destiny on purpose?”

Oena rocked back on her boots, her eyes closed for a moment and she winced as if my words had physically hurt her. “Of course not,” she finally said. “It was an accident. He was going to wait at the finish line until some of the other athletes caught up. He knew they’d never pass him. He planned to stand there and wait, show how ridiculous predetermining the race was. He kept saying the system was a joke. That it was time to make people laugh so they’d see it too. He’d expected a huge fine. Maybe some time in the holding cells. Not… what happened. Aldan didn’t have a death wish.”

It took me a minute to process what she was saying. Aldan and I had always been close, but we’d rarely talked about the system. He’d openly disagreed with some of it. I’d listened to him debate the rings with my mom. I’d even joined in. But that was in the privacy of our home. When had that changed? Had it been this girl? I sank down into a nearby subway bench. Had it been because of me?

Oena sat down on the bench across from me. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, gazing off into space. “I’ve gone over it a thousand times in my mind. It was just an accident. A stupid, horrible accident. From what I could see, his board somehow froze. Then that girl came flying down the incline.” She stopped, her voice going hoarse. “I still can’t believe it.”

So that was it. An accident. One mystery solved. Another sat in front of me.

“But how did you even know him?” I said. “Who are you? All of you. Thom said you’re not PAE. But if not that, then what?”

“We’re just people living as best we can outside the system.”

“Revenants?” The word was out of my mouth before I realized it.

“Some call us that,” she said.

The stories were actually true. My head was swimming with the revelation and what it meant. “And my brother? How did he fit in?”

“He didn’t,” Oena said. “He was my friend outside of this world. End of story.”

From far above the distant sound of bells began to toll from New City Center’s clock tower. It was ten o’clock. Curfew.

Oena’s tone changed abruptly. “It’s time for you to go.”

“But I have more questions.”

“I’ve told you everything I know,” she replied. She turned to Thom. “Drop her in the Yellow zone, as close as you can get to her home.”

She knew where I lived. Aldan was more wrapped up in this than she was letting on. I opened my mouth to protest, but she interrupted me.

“Dax,” she warned.

“What?”

“You can’t come back here—it will put us all in danger. You’ll be watched after this. Your entire family, but especially you. Your status makes you a bigger target.”

“You know about me—what I am?” I asked.

“Aldan mentioned it,” she said.

“Yeah, well, Blanks are scary,” I muttered sarcastically.

“Blanks create their own path,” she replied. “I should know. My brother’s one.”

I looked at her, shocked. “Seriously?” I asked. I’d always been curious to meet another Blank—to see what they were like.

“Seriously,” she said. “Now I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more I can do for you. Go home. Forget you met any of us. It’s the best thing for everyone.” She turned to the man once again. “Thom?”

“On it,” he replied and nodded at me. “Let’s go.”

So that was it. I knew more than I had. Not as much as I wanted to. But they were right, curfew had come. I had to get home. I followed Thom out of the train car onto the tracks.

He stood in front of me shining a pinprick of light. “Watch your footing. There’s a lot of debris around.”

“Thom,” I asked, once we were alone. “What are the Revenants really trying to do?”

“Survive,” he answered.

He knew that wasn’t what I meant. “Beyond that,” I pressed.

“Give people a choice about the life they lead, not just accept what’s dictated to them.” He paused and put a hand on my shoulder. “None of us wanted your brother involved, but you should know his death wasn’t for nothing. Someday he’ll be looked at as a hero. Things are changing, and Aldan reminded millions of people that the system isn’t absolute. That you can alter what you’re fated for. If a Purple like your brother was willing to take a stand, imagine what else could happen.”

“Yeah, and look where it got him,” I said.

“Not everyone sees it like that. Come on,” he said ushering me ahead. “We need to be quiet as we make our way through. There’s others down here who I’d rather avoid tonight, alright?”

I nodded but there was so much I wanted to talk about.

We wound through the tunnels for what had to have been an hour. Even watching where I was going, it was hard to see anything, and I stumbled over broken track in places. In others it was just large rocks and metal scrap. I tried to memorize all of the turns we were taking, but my sense of direction became muddled within minutes. As we made our way, I kept playing my conversations with Oena and Thom over and over. More and more questions bubbled up in my mind.

“This is it,” Thom said, stopping below a rusted ladder leading up a dark hole. “You climb that and you’ll be a few blocks from your house. The PAE doesn’t usually do residential sweeps, but keep out of the lights all the same.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“It’s Oena you should thank, not me,” he replied.

“Is she the leader of your group?” I asked, unsure.

“Oena’s not the boss. Her brother is.”

“Oh,” I said. “Where is he?”

“Captured by the PAE today.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

Thom shrugged. “Too soon to be sorry,” he said. “It was a public arrest—means he wasn’t shot on sight.” I remembered the man who’d been caught at Spectrum. It seemed a lifetime ago. Had that man been Oena’s brother? The one with a Blank destiny? “Zane’s slippery as they come,” Thom continued. “I reckon he’ll make it home eventually. Which is where you should be heading too.” He gave me a pointed look. “We’re on the eastern Yellow/Brown border so be careful on your way. Don’t want you to wind up in the cells too.”

He crossed his arms, and I wondered if his muscles ever ripped his shirts. Suitably impressed, I began to climb. When I looked down to say goodbye, he was already gone.

I
caught the last train leaving the Ash zone for the night. With the exception of the conductor and me, it was vacant. No one from the outer rings traveled that close to curfew—the fine was too expensive. It was a relief to not have to deal with the public. But the silence didn’t stop the clamoring of thoughts in my head. Aldan, Link, the Ash ring, hiring Sol—it was all overwhelming. Although none of it was going to be worse than dealing with my father when I got home.

I opened the front door to my house at ten minutes past curfew, expecting my father to be waiting with that look on his face. No doubt, PAE officers would be out searching and I’d get another lecture on responsibility.

As it turned out, it wasn’t my dad waiting, but Nora, looking sick with worry.

“Madden, you scared me half to death. I was getting ready to call your father.”

Of course my dad was still at work. After a public destiny breaking, the Chief of Security would be working around the clock. I looked at the lines on Nora’s face and immediately felt terrible. “I’m so sorry, I just lost track of time. Today was so horrible, and I, well…”

She shook her head in disbelief, but then I saw her face soften. I think she knew there was something I wasn’t telling her, but she didn’t push it. Instead, she put her arm around me and gave me a hug.

“I know this must have been a hard day for you,” she said. “Go get some sleep. We’ll keep this between us.” I thanked her and tried to take her advice, but I only managed to get a couple of hours in before it was time for school.

The next day at Spectrum was pandemonium. Everyone was talking about Aldan. The teachers tried to quell it. I guess they figured that if we didn’t talk about it, we could all pretend it didn’t happen. Only it was the craziest thing to happen in New City in years. There was no way people were going to keep quiet. I looked around for Dax; I didn’t see her. She must have decided to stay home. Not that I blamed her. I didn’t see Theron either. I reminded myself to check in on him. Aldan was his best friend, he had to be taking this hard.

I spent most of the day in my own sleep-deprived daze, ignoring the gossip, and trying not to think about the previous day. That was until Sol passed me in the hallway. The Ash actually winked at me.
Winked
. In public! Portia and Lavendar witnessed the whole thing. I thought I was going to die.

“You aren’t having him change one of your grades for you, are you?” Lavendar asked, her dark eyes widening.

My cheeks burned as I tried to decide how to answer.

“Don’t get all preachy,” Portia chided her. “There’s nothing wrong with buying a little help if you can afford it.” She turned to me and whispered. “Although I swear if I didn’t need him, I’d have him reported. He totally thinks he’s above his standing. That alias he uses for his business—the tech king? Who does he think he is?”

He was the guy who was going to help me figure out my family history, I thought. But I knew better than to say it. “I’m not changing a grade,” I assured them. I couldn’t have people—even my friends—think their future minister was a cheat. “He took a virus off a computer I was using at the UV, that’s all.”