Falls the Shadow (36 page)

“Makes it easier to think, at least.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“You really want to know?”

“Desperately.”

So I tell him. Everything that my parents told me. Everything his mother said. All the parts that hurt, and all the parts that confuse, and even all the parts that I want to bury out of existence. He listens patiently, silently, and when I finish he stays quiet for a long time, a thoughtful look on his face.

“I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to feel about everything,” I admit.

He's silent for another minute and then asks, “What are you going to do when Violet wakes up?”

“I don't know.” I meet his gaze again. “Start over, I guess.”

It wouldn't be so bad, maybe, to have a second chance. Especially knowing what I know now. If Violet wakes up again and she's not the same, it's not like I wouldn't have seen it coming. I've been there before. She was never the
same. But maybe just because people don't turn out to be what you expect them to be, or follow the path you want them to . . . I don't know. Maybe that doesn't mean they've gotten lost. And maybe just because they don't love you the way you want them to, it doesn't mean they aren't doing the best they can. So it could still be okay in the end.

Jaxon doesn't say anything else for a long time. I lean against his shoulder and close my eyes. He wraps his arm around my waist, and I let my mind drift to safer places, back to the first day we met, back to the first time I got in his car. Before everything got so complicated.

“Speaking of starting over,” he eventually says, “that whole date we went on the other day? In retrospect, it turned out to be pretty terrible, especially for our first one. We should probably start over too.”

I laugh, then take his hand and give it a squeeze. “Okay. But we're getting my family's driver to chauffeur us this time.”

His gaze meets mine, and that smile I've been in love with from the first time I saw him is suddenly there, brighter than I've seen it in a really long time.

“Deal,” he agrees.

And then he laces his fingers through mine and leans in close again, and together we watch the shadow of night fall over the city.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2014 by Stefanie Gaither

Jacket illustration copyright © 2014 by Luke Lucas

Jacket design by Laurent Linn

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Interior design by Laurent Linn and Hilary Zarycky

The text for this book is set in Arrus.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gaither, Stefanie.

Falls the shadow / Stefanie Gaither.—First edition.

pages cm

Summary: When her sister Violet dies, Cate's wealthy family brings home Violet's clone who fits in perfectly until Cate uncovers something sinister about the cloning movement.

ISBN 978-1-4424-9753-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4424-9755-9 (eBook)

[1. Cloning—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Science fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.G1293Fal 2014

[Fic]—dc23

2013035560