“Hold still,” I say, tilting her chin up as she wriggles.
“I am!” Sora protests before she moves again.
I sigh. “You’re impossible.”
Finally done, I step back and grin. I skipped dinner to help Sora get dressed for this party. Her eyelids are thickly lined and dusted with a metallic shimmer. She’s wearing the standard sleepwear: cotton gray shorts and a matching t-shirt. As am I.
“The boys will lose their minds,” Sora says, eyeing me. “Might regret all their foolish taunts.”
I tied my shirt just below my breasts, revealing my midriff, and put on some makeup. My eyes appear sultry, and my lips look pouty.
“I hope they do,” I say. “You look stunning.”
Sora hides behind her hair, shyly.
“None of that,” I tease. “Humility is overrated.”
Sora giggles and follows me outside. We attempt to evade the enforcers as we walk to the meet-up point.
Ender has eyes everywhere. Ever since that failed settlement attack, we’ve been on lockdown. I notice them trailing us around the grounds like a mass of drones. There are whispers of a traitor, and the rumors make me nervous.
Once we reach behind the building, I look around for Rei.
A resounding sound echoes as someone hits my ass. I spin around to find Rei smirking at me.
“Sorry,” she says unrepentantly. “I couldn’t help myself.”
I smirk. “You’re a dog.”
Rei barks like one, making me laugh.
Flint isn’t with her; he’s recovering from a broken ankle and a few cracked ribs, which is far better than Tyson, who lost his left arm in the blast. Spider sustained a head wound. Even Ender, someone who has always felt immortal and untouchable, got injured. I felt sick when I saw him on that bed with his pale skin and rageful eyes. Blood trickling down his face like a morbid poem.
My stomach churns as guilt floods through me like a broken dam.
War does nothing but spread violence and pain. It eats away at both parties until nothing remains but ashes. We were meant to learn from our mistakes. After the nukes decimated our neighbors and the last president died, things were supposed tochange. The regime claimed that it would be a new chapter, one focused on peace and rebuilding everything we lost. It was the reason why they chose the sun to symbolize the dawn of a new era.
But everything they promised was a lie. It was a rotten apple filled with worms, crawling between the pale flesh and devouring everything in sight.
“Rei, you remember Sora?”
A pink tint crawls up Rei’s cheeks. Moonlight bathes her shaved head; she looks ethereal in the dark.
“I’m sorry about the whole thing with Aric,” Rei says, under her breath.
I elbow Rei. That was pretty bad.
“I was unkind and treated you both abominably,” she adds. “Being Gifted doesn’t make me better than you.”
“I accept your apology,” Sora says.
Rei’s shoulders loosen, and she tilts her chin in the direction of the forest.
“Come on,” she says. “I know a shortcut.”
Rei leads us through the trees toward the Gifted dorms.
Right when we reach the pavement, a man blocks our path.
