“. . . only two rings,” one of the runners from Grande was saying. “But if we start now, we can have your people out in a couple of hours. Then we need to get to Baybridge, which Van also knows has been sending false feeds.”
“Is Director Hightower en route to Baybridge?” I asked. Trek hadn’t said anything about the Director leaving Freedom.
“We don’t think so,” a runner said. “Jag doesn’t think he’ll leave his city unprotected. We believe he sent someone else.”
“Who?” Brynn asked.
The runners shrugged. “Don’t know. Our job is to evacuate Castledale and Baybridge by morning. We need to get started.”
Brynn looked at me. “I’m going to send you the list of Insiders here in Castledale. Can you message them the coordinates? I’ll start at the top, you start at the bottom.”
“Sure thing.” A moment later, a list appeared in my cache. I started sending message after message. Ten minutes later, people started appearing in the field.
Wearing one ring, a runner could take two Insiders to the safe house by linking arms and holding on tight. I watched the evacuation, a sense of rightness settling in my system.
By three a.m., only Brynn, Fret, and I remained in the field with the two runners from Grande.
“That’s everyone,” Fret said. “Director Pederson will have the city and the general population in full compliance for General Darke.”
“All right,” Brynn said. “Let’s get out of here. Thanks, guys. Good luck in Baybridge.” She linked arms with one runner, and Fret did the same with the other.
They disappeared, leaving me alone. Thirty seconds later, Vi appeared.
I cried out in surprise. I glanced over my shoulder as if Director Hightower or General Darke would descend and snatch her away from me. “What are you doing here?”
“Bringing you in,” she said. “I wanted a minute to talk to you. Alone.”
It still amazed me how easily she could break down my barriers. How quickly I turned from someone who knew what he was doing into someone who didn’t.
“Okay, talk.”
But she didn’t. She watched me for a moment, and I got the distinct impression she was rooting around inside my head. “What do you see in there?”
“I’m sorry, Zenn,” she said. “For—”
“We’ve been through all this,” I said. “You don’t need to apologize. It actually makes this whole situation with us worse.” I held out my hand.
“What?”
“The ring. I just want to sleep.”
Hurt passed through her eyes, but I didn’t care. She’d chosen. During the summer she’d chosen Jag. All throughout the fall and winter she’d chosen not to remember—until Raine had started talking about Jag. When the transport picked us up three weeks ago, she’d chosen again.
Always Jag.
I knew now that she’d always choose him over me. Over her parents. Over Ty. Over everyone.
“I didn’t pick him over Ty.” Barely contained fury accompanied her words.
“You did,” I said, still holding out my hand for the teleporter ring. “She died, and he didn’t.”
“You’d be happy then, wouldn’t you, Zenn? If Jag died.”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “What do you want me to say? That I wish he were dead? Of course I don’t. Do I wish that I meant more to you than him? Damn right I do. But I’m sick of wishing for something that won’t come true.”
“My mother is at the safe house,” Vi said, her voice strained and filled with pain. I knew what it cost her to talk to me about her mom. She’s the reason Vi left her house in the middle of the night and came to my bedroom. But I wouldn’t be the one to help her—not this time.
“Another reason for you to run to Jag for comfort.” Bitterness permeated my words.
“You’re a jerk.”
“Me?” I asked. “Who did you come to when your mother treated you badly? Who made you birthday cakes when she wouldn’t? Fixed your broken heart when Ty left? Dried your tears and told you he loved you? Took you to the Abandoned Area just so you wouldn’t have to sleep in that house alone with your memories and your mother? Was it Jag? No. Does he even know about all that stuff?”
She opened her mouth, then shut it again.
“Does he?” I challenged.
She shook her head, her jaw clenched tight tight tight.
It hurt me to open her wounds, but it seemed like she’d forgotten everything between us as soon as she’d met Jag. And she hadn’t even tried to remember in the months since. I’d thought she’d seen me—really seen me —down that dark alley in Freedom. Why couldn’t she see everything I’d done for her? Couldn’t she feel the love I reserved only for her?
“I remember,” she said, shifting her feet back and forth. “I remember everything about us.”
“Yet you still choose him.”
“Zenn—” She shook her head, as if saying my name said it all.
I stepped closer. “I want you to choose me.” I released everything I’d boxed up so she could see. Every emotion. Every dream. My frustration with Vi faded, replaced with only the love I felt.
She refused to look at me. I put my arms around her and she melted into my embrace. I breathed in the scent of her hair. My brain felt fuzzy, and my legs ached. I hadn’t slept in forever.
But with Violet, none of that mattered.
“I will always choose you,” I whispered. “And I want you to choose me.” When she looked up at me, I seized my opportunity.
I kissed her.
My desperation transformed into euphoria—at least until my head snapped back. Blood spurted from my nose.
Vi rubbed her knuckles. “Don’t ever do that again,” she growled. She tossed the teleporter ring at me and blinked into oblivion.
Jag
31.
Something shifted in the bed where I slept. Darkness blanketed everything, but I knew a warm body had joined me. A body that vibrated with life, with energy, with anger.
I started to ask Vi what was wrong.
“Go back to sleep,” she whispered. So I slid my arms around Vi, and slept.
I woke when Zenn snapped, “Get up, Jag. We need you out here.” He didn’t linger to see if I got up.
The space next to me was empty and cold. I stumbled out of bed and into the hallway. Emergency lights set into the floor illuminated the path toward the conference room. I entered, still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Only one chair at the head of the table remained vacant.
“Report, Laurel.” I sat down and leafed through the stack of papers in front of me. Saffediene’s writing adorned the top sheet. Zenn’s decorated the second.
Laurel recapped the night’s events, beginning with the evacuations in Castledale and Baybridge. “The Goodgrounds, the Badlands, Cedar Hills, Arrow Falls, White Cliffs, and Oceania have also been completely emptied of Insiders. Those Directors have their cities and remaining Citizens in full compliance.”
“On today’s docket for evac are Harvest, Lakehead, Northepointe, and Fort Houston. Our small contingencies
