Death Thieves (22 page)

“Hey, Ed.” Jay took ahold of Eddie’s arm and spun him in the other direction. “Those girls are from our history class, aren’t they?” Jay threw a wink back in my direction, and I hurried to slip behind the first set of book stacks.

I walked the perimeter of the book stacks, looking outside the windowed walls to the city surrounding the building. Nothing called attention to itself as being the barracks. I did two laps around the coliseum and had determined I needed to go outside to the sky gardens to search the surrounding buildings directly when something caught my eye, and my heart skipped a beat.
Tag!

I touched my hand to the glass window and almost made myself look stupid by calling out his name when I realized the person standing outside next to a sign with a sideways eight on it wasn’t Tag. But he had on the silvery black pants and the black jacket. Another person dressed identically joined the first, and they walked off together. Not Tag at all, but definitely Tag’s people.

I hurried outside, still with no actual plan in mind, just a deep and desperate need to see him for myself, to make sure he was fine. My head ached from trying to keep the words,
he’s dead; they killed him because you made him late
, from parading through my brain.

I circled the outside of the coliseum until I saw the sign. Being closer and paying better attention, I realized my sideways eight was really the symbol for infinity. Not many people walked this way. The two soldiers previously by the sign had wandered into the building already. I made my way to the door, trying to be stealthy but needing to get to the actual entrance to see what color it would glow with my ring. If it glowed red and I didn’t try to enter, would it record that I’d strayed near the building without permission? Would it glow green?

With a ragged pull for air, I closed the distance between me and the range of the door. It glowed red.

I cursed under my breath and ducked back to the side of the doors where several trees were clumped together as part of the sky garden aesthetics, offering a small degree of shelter since they weren’t exactly big trees. As I stepped back, the red glow vanished, but no matter how many times I blinked, I couldn’t see anything but red.

Stupid!
Now what? I took a few moments to try to control my breathing while twisting my ring around and around on my finger. I finally slipped it off and tucked it between the roots pushing out of the ground. And then I waited.

A lone soldier exited the building after I’d already counted to sixty four times and was halfway through a fifth count. I slipped behind him and slid into the building before the door closed.

If my heart had been beating fast before, it now pounded at Olympian speeds. Inside, several hallways snaked away from the spacious entryway. “Stupid!” I muttered. Which way to go and how to get there without anyone noticing a random girl in a skirt meandering through their halls? And how would I explain why I took off my ring? How would I defend myself if they decided I was a renegade crazy?

Really stupid.

With no other plan in place, I picked a hallway and started walking down it. I didn’t try to hide from the first soldier who passed me, but instead acted as though walking through the off-limit barracks was no big deal. I hurried to address him as he frowned in confusion upon seeing me, and as the hand with his ring moved up to his face, likely to call in and report me.

“Could I get you to help me?” I asked.

His hand dropped upon being directly asked for help. “Sorry?”

“Yes. I’m supposed to deliver a message from Professor Raik to Taggert.”
Did Tag have a last name?

The soldier’s eyes dropped to my hands, but I bent my head and forced him to look me in the eye.

The confusion on his face filled me with dread.
Please don’t say he’s dead. Please don’t say he’s dead.

“I’m sorry,” the soldier said with that voice of finality that made my stomach plummet into my toes.

I’m sorry could mean only one thing.

“You’re sorry?”

“I hadn’t heard Raik needed him. I sent him to off duty. Taggert’s in the game room.”

I held in the sob and blinked back the tears of relief upon hearing he really was still alive. Alive! My Tag was alive! I swallowed the information to digest later. “Would you take me there?”

The man’s brow furrowed, and he almost looked like he might question my motives, but he finally said, “K.”

Stupid skirt with no pockets. There was nowhere to hide my hands and the bare, ringless fingers. Who makes a skirt with no pockets? I missed my jeans more than ever before. Our feet clapped against the tile floor as we wound around the hall. I paid strict attention to detail, noticing every turn we made, mentally memorizing the path to Tag.

I also noted other entrances. Or I should say, I noted the
lack
of other entrances. What would they do in a fire drill? Could the only exit and entrance really be at the front of the building? And to have no way to get to ground level . . . did these people not have any fire marshal standards or safety codes?

The soldier shoved open a door and said in a gruff and suspicious voice, “Taggert, you got a guest.” He stood to the side so that everyone in the room had a full view of me. Tag, along with the eleven other soldiers in the room, looked up. They’d been hovered over a table of cards. How much I wanted to start bawling and run to him and make him hold me while I cried.
Alive! You’re alive!

His ice-blue eyes widened at seeing me. And his mouth opened as though he were going to say something before he snapped it shut with a click of teeth, the ice in those eyes melting into fear.

I’d crossed my arms over my chest, tucking my hands into my pits where they couldn’t be seen. I hoped I looked like Aunt Theresa with my arms folded like that. I hoped I looked about to deliver a king-size lecture. My mind raced with all the things Professor Raik had said. We were the elite. We were better than soldiers. Better than all the diseased people of the future. Elite and they needed to respect us. We were never to feel lesser. We were never to—“On your feet, soldier. A New Youth came into the room. Don’t they teach you respect in this place?” I was surprised that my voice didn’t crack, surprised that it sounded strong and confident when fear raced through my veins.

All of them jumped to their feet, though I’d been only addressing Tag. I heard a couple of them mutter, “Sorry.”

“Professor Raik needs you, Taggert.” I said his name with a sneer, my heart breaking for acting so stupid and superior when he really was so much better than me, this guy who’d cried when he read
A Sliver of Midnight
.

“When?” he asked, his voice sounding afraid, whether for me or for him or for us both, I didn’t know.

“Now.” I jerked my head toward the door indicating he needed to get a move on and fast. I exited the room, assuming he’d follow, hoping he’d hurry before the rest realized something wasn’t right. The questions already formed on their faces with the narrowing of eyes as skepticism dawned on them.

Tag followed me out, shutting the door behind him, the voices rising in the room we’d exited as the others left inside discussed the meaning of my presence. Tag grabbed my arm and shoved me along the hallway. “Move fast.” He swept me away from the room like a wave tugging at a sand castle.

We made it down the hall and around the corner before he said, “What do you think you’re doing? You can
not
be here!” He glanced behind us. I did, too, afraid of what I might find. The hallway remained empty.

“I had to know!” I whispered.

“Know what?”

I nearly tripped we were moving so fast, not running, not calling that much attention to ourselves, but moving fast just the same. “The general said you’d been silenced and then they questioned me about you like it was the Spanish Inquisition. I thought they’d . . .” I trailed off, trying to catch my breath and feeling rather foolish for charging into the barracks without any real reason other than my own paranoia.

“The Spanish what?” He waved away the question before I could answer. “Never mind. They
could
have ex-ed me, and might have, but I assured them you and I are not friends. By coming here, you make me look a bit like a liar.”

“Ex-ed you?” We’d come to another corner. Tag peeked around it before pulling me along again.

“Executed.”

“So by me coming here, will they execute you?”

“I doubt it, but you can’t ever come back here.” He stopped and turned me to face him. “Not ever again, Summer.” He took my hands in his. At first, the gesture seemed romantic and my stomach fluttered at his touch. But his fingers searched over my hands. “Where’s your IDR?”

“I left it outside. The door went red when I tried to come—”

“How did you get in then?” He looked up and down the hall and, seeming to realize we’d stopped, pulled me along again.

“Someone was leaving; I got in before the door closed.”

He growled low in his throat. We’d made it to the front door, it turned green as Tag approached. He opened it and shoved us both through. “Get your IDR.”

I went to the trees, he followed me, and for a moment I thought he meant to come with me. But he waited while I got my ring and glanced back. “I’ll have to report this to Professor Raik.”

“You’re turning me in?”

“You told the others I was going to Professor Raik. There will be trouble if anyone thinks you lied. We’d better get our stories straight because they’ll be questioning both of us. Why would you risk coming to see me?”

His face was close to mine; the ice in his eyes had melted into the warmth and concern I’d grown used to for those few days we were together. “I came because I care about—”

“No! Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.”

“But it’s true.” I wanted to slap him for being such a jerk.

“Think, Summer. What will happen if you tell Professor Raik that you—” He couldn’t even make himself repeat the words as if completely repulsed by the idea. “Think. What would happen if a pureblood were entangled in the emotions of a soldier? The soldier would get ex-ed, and the pureblood would be quarantined until her mind was so completely wiped of independent thinking that she may as well be a toaster.” He took a deep breath. “So tell me again, why would you risk coming to see me?”

“I . . . I wanted you to go back and get my sun quilt. I’m having trouble sleeping at night, and I knew you had the Orbital. I knew you could get it for me.”

He exhaled. “Good. That’s perfect. And what did I tell you I would do?”

“Don’t treat me like some idiot kid who needs to be taught the thinking process. Just tell me what you want me to say. We can have our stories straight that way. I won’t be patronized by you, Tag.”

His half smile made me waver between wanting to slap him and wanting to kiss him, which wasn’t good. A pureblood could never kiss a soldier. The thought made me inhale sharply.

“You really have become a bossy little pureblood,” he said.

Definitely slap. Or maybe I’d punch him and leave the little sun and moon imprint from my ring on his forehead. Had I been thinking about kissing him? Yes. And though he irritated me, I still wanted to—still felt a little piece of me die in knowing I never would be able to.

“I told you I’d ask Professor Raik for you but that the answer would be no.”

“Why is the answer no? I think wanting my sun quilt is a reasonable request.”

He stepped away from me. “Are you really going to argue a decision made on a fabricated reason for you to be here?” He took another step away and shook his head. “Don’t come back here. I mean this. Never come back.”

“But how will I know if you’re okay?”

His lip twitched up in an almost half smile. “Be more worried about you being okay. I can take care of myself. I’m a soldier.”

“Yeah, well, for a soldier, you nearly got your butt kicked by a half-starved, sleep-deprived girl. I wouldn’t go boasting about your strength if I were you.” I jammed my ring on my finger and glared at him. But I didn’t glare long, that almost-half smile grew into a full-on grin. My legs wobbled underneath me upon seeing that grin.

“You are definitely a fighter. Watching you before I brought you here taught me more about true strength than anything I could learn in the barracks. You’re something special.”

He cared about me, too. I knew it at that moment he declared me as special—not in a New Youth elitist way, but special as in important to him.

“You’d better get out of here.”

“What do I do if I miss you,” I asked, feeling pathetic and needy.

He looked torn before he said in a rush, “If you need anything, I go to the library every Wednesday at five. Leave a note in
A Sliver of Midnight
with any requests or problems.” He turned on his heel and hurried off down the path away from the barracks. I’d almost forgotten he had to really go see Professor Raik now.

What a mess I’d made. And yet, Tag was alive.
Alive!
And he could still smile at me. And I now had a way to get in touch with him. That little bit of knowledge filled me with security. Because I didn’t think getting into the barracks again was remotely possible. Not only would they likely be put on alert to watch out for some pureblood female making demands, but I didn’t think I’d ever dare to go in there again.

With a quick glance around and finding myself alone and unobserved, I made my way back to the library.

***

“I had to die and get eaten by wolves so I could travel to the future and find true love,” Jay said as soon as he saw me. His eyes had kind of a drunken look to them.

“What?” With my mind preoccupied with Tag and Professor Raik and coming down from my adrenaline high, Jay made absolutely no sense at all.

“I just met an angel named Jennifer. Oh, just wait until you meet her, Summer. She’s amazing; you’ll totally love her!” He took a deep breath and exhaled as though breathing in an exotic perfume.

Eddie looked alternately pleased with Jay and his new love-struck feelings and irritated with me for being late.

“Are you allowed to be . . . fraternizing?” I asked this carefully, knowing how Jay felt about the system.