At first I don’t see him. There are too many nurses wandering through the halls. Then I notice the small figure swinging his legs on one of the hall’s benches, his skin healthy and his head full of wayward, white-blond curls, dressed in an overly large school uniform and kid-size boots. He seems taller, but maybe that’s because he’s able to sit up straighter now. When he turns toward me, I realize that he’s wearing a thick pair of black-rimmed glasses. His eyes are a light, milky purple, reminiscent of the young boy I’d seen in the railcar on that cold, sleet-filled night.
“Eden,” I call out hoarsely.
His eyes stay unfocused, but an amazing smile blooms on his face. He gets up and tries to walk toward me, but he stops when he can’t seem to tell where exactly I am. “Is that you, Daniel?” he says with shaky hesitation.
I run to him, scoop him up in my arms, and hold him tight. “Yeah,” I whisper. “It’s Daniel.”
Eden just cries. Sobs wrack his body. He tightens his arms around my neck so fiercely that I don’t think he’ll ever let go. I take a deep breath to contain my own tears. The plague has taken most of his vision, but he’s here, alive and well, strong enough to walk and talk. That’s enough for me. “Good to see you again, kid,” I choke out, ruffling his hair with one hand. “Missed you.”
I don’t know how long we stay there. Minutes? Hours? But it doesn’t matter. Time ticks by one long second after another, and I make the moment stretch out as much as I can. It’s as if I’m standing here and hugging my entire family. He is everything that means anything. At least I have this.
I hear a cough behind me.
“Day,” the doctor says. He’s leaning against the open door of my cell, his face grave and shadowy under the fluorescent light. I gently put Eden down, keeping one hand on his shoulder. “Come with me. This will be quick, I promise. I, ah . . .” He pauses at the sight of Eden. “I recommend you keep your brother out here. Just for now. I assure you that you’ll be back in a few minutes, and then you’ll both be driven to your new apartment.”
I stay where I am, unwilling to trust him.
“I promise,” he says again. “If I’m lying, well, you have enough power to ask the Elector to arrest me for it.”
Well, that’s basically true. I wait a while longer, chewing on the inside of my cheek, and then I pat Eden’s head. “I’ll be right back, okay? Stay on the bench. Don’t go anywhere. If someone tries to make you move, you scream. Got it?”
Eden wipes a hand across his nose and nods.
I guide him back to the bench, then follow the doctor into my cell. He shuts the door with a soft click.
“What is it?” I say impatiently. My eyes can’t stop turning toward the door, like it’ll vanish into the wall if I don’t stay vigilant. Against the corner wall, June’s monitor shows her waiting alone in her room.
But the doctor doesn’t seem annoyed with me this time. He clicks a button on the wall and mutters something about turning the sound off on the cameras. “Like I was saying before you left . . . As part of your tests, we scanned your brain to see if it had been altered by the Colonies. We didn’t find anything to worry about . . . but we ran across something else.” He turns around, clicks a small device, and points to an illuminated screen on the wall. It’s displaying an image of my brain. I frown at it, unable to make sense of what I’m seeing. The doctor points to a dark splotch near the bottom of the image. “We saw this near your left hippocampus. We think it’s old, probably years old, and has been slowly worsening over time.”
I puzzle over it for a while, then turn back to the doctor. It still seems trivial to me, especially when Eden is waiting out in the hall. Especially when I’ll be able to see June again. “And? What else?”
“Have you had any severe headaches? Lately, or within the last few years?”
Yes. Of course I have. I’ve had headaches ever since the night that the Los Angeles Central Hospital ran tests on me, the night I was supposed to die, when I ran away. I nod.
He folds his arms. “Our records show that you had been . . . experimented on after you failed your Trial. There were some tests conducted on your brain. You . . . ah”—he coughs, struggling for the right words—“were meant to succumb rather quickly, but you survived. Well, it seems that the effects have finally started catching up to you.” He switches to a low whisper. “Nobody knows about this—not even the Elector. We don’t want the country to be thrown back into a revolutionary state. Initially we thought that we could cure it with a combination of surgery and medication, but when we studied the problem areas closer, we realized that everything is so entwined with healthy matter in your hippocampus that it would be impossible to stabilize the situation without severely impairing your cognitive capacity.”
I swallow hard. “So? What does that mean?”
The doctor removes his glasses with a sigh. “It means, Day, that you’re dying.”
2007 HOURS.
TWO DAYS SINCE MY RELEASE.
OXFORD HIGH-RISE, LODO SECTOR, DENVER.
72°F INSIDE.
DAY WAS RELEASED YESTERDAY AT SEVEN A.M. I’D CALLED him three times since then, each time with no answer. It wasn’t until a couple of hours ago that I finally heard his voice over my earpiece. “Are you free today, June?” I’d shivered at the softness of his voice. “Mind if I stop by? I want to talk to you.”
“Come on over,” I’d replied. And that was pretty much all we said to each other.
He’ll be here soon. I’m embarrassed to admit that even though I tried busying myself for the last hour by tidying the apartment and brushing Ollie’s coat, all I can really think about is what Day wants to discuss.
It’s strange to have a living space that’s my own again, furnished with myriad new and unfamiliar things. Sleek couches, elaborate chandeliers, glass tables, hardwood floors. Luxurious items that I no longer feel entirely comfortable owning. Outside my window, a light spring snow falls. Ollie sleeps beside me on one of the two sofas. After my release from the hospital, soldiers escorted me by jeep here to the Oxford High-Rise—and the first thing I saw when I stepped inside was Ollie, his tail wagging like crazy, his nose pushing eagerly into my hand. They told me the Elector had long ago requested that my dog be sent to Denver and taken care of. Right after Thomas had arrested me. Now they’ve returned him, this small piece of Metias, to me. I wonder what Thomas thinks of all this. Will he just follow protocol as always and bow the next time he sees me, pledging his undying loyalty? Maybe Anden has ordered his arrest alongside those of Commander Jameson and Razor. I can’t decide how that would make me feel.
Yesterday they buried Kaede. They would have given her a cremation and a tiny plain marking on the wall of a funeral tower, but I insisted on something nicer. A real plot. A square foot of her own space. Anden, of course, obliged. If Kaede were still alive, where would she be? Would the Republic have eventually inducted her into their air force? Has Day visited her gravesite yet? Does he blame himself for her death, as I blame myself? Is this perhaps why he’s waited so long after his hospital release to contact me?
What happens now? Where do we go from here?
2012 hours. Day’s late. I keep my eyes glued to the door, unable to do anything else, afraid I’ll miss him if I blink.
2015 hours. A soft bell echoes through the apartment. Ollie stirs, perks up his ears, and whines. He’s here. I practically leap off the couch. Day is so light on his feet that even my dog can’t hear him walking down the hall outside.
I open the door—then freeze. The hello I’d prepared halts in my throat. Day is standing before me, hands in his pockets, breathtaking in a brand-new Republic uniform (black, with dark gray stripes running down the sides of his trousers and around the bottoms of his sleeves, a thick diagonal collar on his military coat that’s cut in the style of Denver’s capital troops, and elegant white neoprene gloves that I can see peeking out from his trouser pockets, each decorated with a thin gold chain). His hair spills past his shoulders in a shining sheet and is sprinkled with the delicate spring snow falling outside. His eyes are bright, startlingly blue, and lovely; a few snowflakes glimmer on the long lashes that fringe them. I can hardly bear the sight. Only now do I realize that I’ve never actually seen him dressed up in any kind of formal attire, let alone formal soldier attire. I hadn’t thought to prepare myself for a vision like this, for what his beauty might look like under circumstances that would actually show it off.
Day notices my expression and offers me a wry grin. “It was for a quick photo,” he says, pointing at his outfit, “of me shaking hands with the Elector. Not my choice. Obviously. I better not regret throwing my support behind this guy.”
“Evaded the crowds gathered outside your place?” I finally say. I compose myself long enough to quirk my lips into a return smile. “Rumor has it that people are calling for you to be the new Elector.”
He scowls in exasperation and makes a grumpy sound. “Day for Elector? Right. I don’t even like the Republic yet. That’ll take some getting used to. Now, the evading I can do. I’d rather not face people right now.” I hear a hint of sadness there, something that tells me he did indeed visit Kaede’s grave. He clears his throat when he notices me studying him, then hands me a small velvet box. There’s a polite distance in his gesture that puzzles me. “Picked it up on my way here. For you, sweetheart.”
A small murmur of surprise escapes me. “Thanks.” I take the box gingerly, admiring it for a moment, and then tilt my head at him. “What’s the occasion?”
Day tucks his hair behind one ear and tries to appear uncaring. “Just thought it looked pretty.”
I open the box carefully, then take a sharp breath when I see what’s inside—a silver chain with a small teardrop-shaped ruby pendant bordered with tiny diamonds. Three slender silver wires are wrapped around the ruby itself. “It’s . . . gorgeous,” I say. My cheeks burn. “This must have been so expensive.” Since when did I start using cordial social niceties when talking to Day?
He shakes his head. “Apparently the Republic is throwing money at me to keep me happy. Ruby’s your birthstone, yeah? Well, I just figured you should have a nicer keepsake from me than a ring made out of goddy paper clips.” He pats Ollie on the head, then makes a show of admiring my apartment. “Nice place. A lot like mine.” Day’s been given a similar, heavily guarded apartment a couple of blocks down the same street.
“Thank you,” I say again, gingerly setting the box on my kitchen counter for the time being. Then I wink at him. “I still liked my paper clip ring best, though.”
For a split second, happiness crosses his face. I want to throw my arms around him and pull his lips to my own, but—there’s a weight to his posture that makes me feel like I should keep my distance.
I venture a hesitant guess at what’s bothering him. “How’s Eden?”