The early morning glow sparkled on the glass in a way I’d never seen at night, bathing Bloom Dome in a warm golden gleam that made it look more like a fairytale forest than ever. I cut away from the path to the stairs, stepping over flowerbeds and weaving between trees to reach the glass.
Far below the domes, mist covered the forest and crept up the mountainsides. The sun had risen over the peaks to the east, but the angle of the light left shadows on the faraway slopes that made them look sharp and daring, like they were sentinels guarding the Arcadia Domes instead of massive mounds of rock locking me away from the world.
There was no hint that anyone outside the glass existed. For a moment, I didn’t mind the isolation.
The early morning offered peace and solitude.
No wonder Strand loved it.
I searched myself for some regret that he’d died. That I’d been a part of his murder, even if my role hadn’t begun until after the fact.
I couldn’t find any sorrow, shock, or shame. Just a bit of pride I wasn’t sure a sane person should feel.
Cold trickled into my gut.
“He was a monster.” I pressed my palms to the glass, trying not to slip into self-loathing for still having a tiny hint of doubt I couldn’t get to go away. “He was a murderer. He helped the kep slaughter innocent people. Anyone with a conscience would be glad he’s gone. You’re not broken.”
I crept back to the path and headed down the stairs. The corridors were almost empty as I made my way through the tunnels toward the guards’ barracks.
I passed a few workers from the cleaning crews and could hear soft chatter from people walking just far enough ahead of me I couldn’t see them in the curved tunnels.
Without the normal bustle of kep, it was almost possible to forget I lived surrounded by demons. Not for long, just a second. Just long enough for me to take a full breath without guilt pressing against my lungs.
For that one second, the walls of the corridor were clean and perfect, a promise for a bright and plentiful future. Then reality came crashing back down, and horror dripped from the lights and slicked the floors.
Calm down, Lanni.
The chatter ahead of me got louder as I neared the barracks, and by the time I could finally see the people who were talking, fifteen students had gathered at the meeting point.
I recognized a few of them from class. Gideon, Walsh, Elliot, and a girl I was pretty sure was named Tricia. There were a few other faces I recognized from around the domes, too. Kids from other classes who I’d only ever passed in the halls.
Only one person wore a black guard’s uniform, and it wasn’t Captain Pace. This guard was younger, probably only in his twenties, but he stared at the teens in front of him like he was the king of the kep and we were all lowly factory filth.
I tucked my hands into my pockets to keep from curling them into fists. Punching one guard in the face had gotten me into the training program. I couldn’t imagine I’d get off as easily if I punched a second guard.
Walsh gave me a nod as I joined the group. I’d been aiming to stand near him, but he glanced toward Gideon, so I weaved farther into the pack to stand there instead.
“Lanni.” Gideon gave me a sleepy smile. “Are you ready for this?”
“I have no idea.” I shrugged. “But I have to be here, so yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Elliot looked back toward me. “You didn’t apply for the program?”
“Her acceptance came straight from my dad,” Gideon said. “She’s going to be great.”
Elliot looked forward again.
“Thanks.” I mouthed to Gideon.
“Eyes front,” the guard said.
The group went silent as we all faced him.
“We’re taking the long route to the vehicle bay. Keep up.” The guard turned and started running up the corridor the way I’d come.
“Fun,” I whispered to myself before joining the pack chasing the guard.
It wasn’t a sprint, by any means. It was the sort of steady pace I’d kept to when I’d needed to run from the trade hall all the way to our apartment―fast enough to get where I was going without trouble catching up, slow enough to be able to make it the whole way.
When the kep stormed the hall to crack down on water trades or whatever other thing they’d decided we weren’t allowed to do, I’d sprint away, tearing through the night and not stopping until I was so out of breath I couldn’t move anymore. Then I’d hide in the shadows and catch my breath so I could sprint another stretch. Hiding and bolting, hiding and bolting, until I could make it all the way home.
I’d been so caught up in thinking about home, I hadn’t noticed I was right on the guard’s heels.
Too fast, Lanni. Be good enough to stay, not good enough to be recruited as a guard, a voice that sounded like Alec’s spoke in my head.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t want his voice in my thoughts. Alec didn’t belong there.
It didn’t make his advice any less reasonable.
I took a few gasping breaths and dropped farther back in the pack, like I hadn’t known how to pace myself and had pushed too hard.
Walsh ran just ahead of the middle of the group. I wanted to know how fast a werewolf could run with no one holding him back. But if he could pretend to be near the middle, I could fake being at the end.
I fell farther back, running at the end of the cluster of people but ahead of the two boys that had fallen behind and puffed along in our wake.
We did a full round of the lower corridors, cutting through maintenance halls to complete the circle, before going to the stairs. The guard ran us up and down the steps twice before continuing into the corridors on the next level. We didn’t do a full round on that level. The guard cut a strange path, keeping us away from the damaged medical corridor.
I stared at the back of the guard’s head, wishing I could reach in and pluck out whatever information he knew about the investigation into the bomber.
I’d seen kep tear city scum’s homes apart, searching for whatever stupid thing they’d decided outsiders shouldn’t have. I couldn’t picture the guards being so forgiving about losing supplies, not even if the damage had been done by one of their own.
But, as far as I could see, the guards were content to let their investigation creep quietly along. Someone had planted a bomb, and the Incorporation cared more about maintaining the placid perfection of the domes than finding the damn traitor.
Harper had said they were searching for the bomber. I didn’t have enough faith in the guards or the Incorporation to let the vague concept of their investigation comfort me when the person responsible was still wandering around the Arc Domes. I’d have happily torn through kep homes looking for evidence if it wouldn’t have gotten me tossed out of the domes. How were the Dome Guard not breaking down doors to find the bomber who’d endangered us all?
I’d finally started to get truly out of breath when the guard ran us through the thick metal doors that led into the bay. I’d never been allowed in there before, and even though I’d known it was where they stored all of the Arc Domes’ land vehicles, I hadn’t expected the space to be so massive.
The ceiling was thirty feet high. The concrete room was long enough to fit the twenty-five trucks parked along either side and the vans and construction equipment farther back. I couldn’t see any hint of the Arc Domes’ helicopters.
The center of the room had been left as an open space, though it seemed strange for any place inside the glass to have extra room that hadn’t been taken over by plants. The sound of our panting as we all tried to catch our breath seemed unwelcome, like the concrete didn’t want any living things around.
“You okay?” Walsh whispered to me.
“Who doesn’t love running through halls?” I said.
“I meant in here.” Walsh glanced toward the trucks. “It’s a lot like the depot.”
I hadn’t realized it until he said it. Or maybe some part of me had started to feel the combination of fear and dread, and I just had too many chemicals from the run pumping through my brain to notice.
My pulse started racing in a different way. My hands shook as I pushed back the stray hairs that had fallen loose around my face.
“I’m fine.” I fought the urge to run home and make sure Mari was still safely in bed. “Ceiling is solid here, so you don’t even have to worry about it shattering and slicing me. I’d hate to have to ask you to dig glass out of my arm again.”
Walsh squeezed my hand. “You ever get sliced up, you come straight to me. I’ll patch you up anytime.”
All I could do was nod. If I tried to say how much it helped to have someone who had my back that understood the world I’d come from, I’d start crying in the middle of the bay.
“We’re going to do a full circuit of physical training before moving on to hand-to-hand combat,” the guard said. “And if you think today is hard, you’re going to break when Captain Pace takes over your training next month. This is kid stuff. Basics. My job is to get you ready for Pace. He’ll be the one to turn you into Outer Guard material, am I understood?”
“Yes, sir,” some of the group shouted.
“I said, am I understood?”
“Yes, sir.” I joined in with the rest.
“Then form a line.”
By the time we’d finished with the physical training, my muscles had started to shake. Before we’d gotten through the basic fighting stances and worked on the proper technique for punching the air, I knew I’d be limping on the way home.
One of the boys from the back of the running pack started crying when the guard finally told us to go home and shower. One of the others had gone so pale, I didn’t think he’d be able to walk home on his own.
I rested my hands on top of my head, trying to get the blood to drain back out of my throbbing fingers, and headed for the bay doors that led back into the corridors of the domes.
“So, what did you think?” Gideon still had a bounce in his step even though he was covered in sweat.
“That getting put on a maintenance detail as guard-punching punishment would have been easier,” I said. “And honestly, why does your dad want to teach me to punch with greater accuracy and force? Doesn’t that seem like an awful idea?”
Gideon laughed, like he genuinely thought I was being funny. “Dad likes meaningful consequences. He comes up with the weirdest stuff. Made me go without socks for a week once because I’d left a pair on the floor of my room.”
“How’d that work out?”
“I gained a greater appreciation for socks and never left any of my clothes out again.” Gideon bowed me through the bay doors.
“Don’t want to risk having to walk around the domes pantsless?”
“I don’t know if Dad would go quite that far.” Red crept up Gideon’s cheeks.
“I suppose pantsless would be disruptive to the order of the domes.” I sighed as we reached the bottom of the stairs I had to climb to get home. Gritting my teeth against the ache in my legs, I started up the steps.
“So, the announcement is going to go out later.” Gideon matched my slow pace as some of the others cut around us. “The dance is going to be tomorrow night.”
“Dancing.” I winced as my legs screamed at me. “If I’m not so sore I can’t walk, that could be fun.”
“I was thinking I could maybe come by an hour early,” Gideon said. “I could show you some of the Arc Domes’ hidden gems.”
Keep them happy. Be a normal girl.
“Let me make sure Mari can go to our guardian’s,” I said. “I don’t like leaving her alone.”
“How old is she?” Gideon asked.
“Seven.” We reached the top of the stairs, but he kept walking with me. I didn’t know if he lived in the same direction or was just walking me home. “She wouldn’t mind being on her own. She’s old for her age.”
“I guess she’s had to be.” Gideon furrowed his brow. “You both have.”
“Yeah. We have.” It came out harsher than I’d meant it to.
Gideon winced. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s fine.” I gave him the best smile I could manage. “We just try not to talk about before. Our life started when we got on the caravan to come here. Everything before that doesn’t matter anymore.”
We walked in silence for a minute.
“For whatever it’s worth,” Gideon said as we reached the stairs to Bloom Dome, “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Thanks. I’m glad you were waiting for me.” I gave Gideon a nod before limping up the steps.
He had a look on his face like I’d just handed him the most precious gift he’d ever been offered.
Too far. Too far.
The guilt in my stomach was swallowed by something darker.
He’ll never be Jaime.