Then, abruptly, the elevator stops ten floors shy of mine—and a man and a woman in suits step inside.
I stiffen immediately. Both of them are looking at me.
“Do you need something?” I ask.
The woman gives me a terse smile. “You’re Eden Bataar Wing, yes?” she asks.
I realize I don’t have my name displayed over my head right now. “How do you know?” I reply.
The man gives me a nod so courteous that it seems mocking. “A pleasure,” he says. “My employer, Mr. Hann, would very much like to extend a cordial invitation to you for a meeting with him tonight.”
Mr. Hann. Dominic.
The name hits me like a hammer, and the wind is knocked out of me so hard that for a moment I can’t respond to him. The knot pulls tighter.Something is wrong something is wrong something is wrong.
“I—” I start, then stutter to a halt from the dryness in my throat. “I can’t make it tonight,” I try again.
The woman smiles at me and puts a hand on my shoulder. It feels ice-cold. “Mr. Hann would very much like to make it worth your while,” she replies.
I’m trembling now. Through the elevator’s glass windows, the walkway to my university disappears far below me. I shake my head, wishing I could come up with a clever reply. “I’m sorry,” I say instead. “I have some homework to finish up, and I need to work on an engine—”
The man doesn’t wait for me to finish repeating my pitiful lie. He waves a hand subtly in the air, and suddenly a video screen appears between us.
It’s a feed of someone following Daniel as he leaves a hotel room. June’s, most likely. The video trails him down through the Sky Floors as he takes the elevators, his hands casually in his pockets, his silhouette familiar. There’s a small, lingering smile on his face. He has no idea someone is watching him.
Every hair rises on my neck at the sight.
Daniel steps inside our apartment. The alarm system doesn’t greet him in its usual way. The door starts to slide shut behind him, but the video feed follows him in. Whoever it was that was trailing him got into our apartment.
The feed cuts off.
As if on cue, I get an incoming call from June that appears in my view. When I don’t answer, her voice starts playing automatically. “Eden,” she says. “This is June Iparis. I just received a blank transmission from Daniel, and I can’t seem to call him back. Is he with you? Where are you? Eden?”
The knot in my stomach turns to stone. The world around me hazes at the edges. The echo ofSomething is wrongfills my mind until I can hear nothing but its shrieks. All this time, my brother had been the one worrying aboutme, and I’d been stupid enough to believe that that meant he was invincible. All this time, I’d never thought about what might happen if things were the other way around.
“Mr. Hann would like to insist on seeing you tonight,” the man says to me now. “You’ll be very pleased to know that your brother will also be in attendance.”
DANIEL
I’m back on the streets of Lake. I don’t know how the hell I got here.
My boots splash in dirty puddles as I hurry down the familiar roads near my old home. The metal of my artificial leg feels so cold that I think it’s encased in ice. All the homes on this path are boarded up, their doors sprayed with redXs, and the silence roars in my ears. My lips part and I try to call out for someone, anyone—but when I try to utter a sound, nothing comes out. It’s as if the world had been muted.
Daniel!
Except there’s a familiar voice. I whirl instinctively in its direction to see a line of Republic soldiers standing along the end of the street, barricading it. Behind them, struggling to get to me, is my older brother, John.
Overhead, along the horizon, the ominous black silhouette of a Colonies airship approaches, and with it comes a field of distant screams, like a swarm of locusts rushing in my direction. The ground in the distance is obscured with dust. John is trying in vain to breakthrough to me, and I am pushing through thick air as I struggle to run toward him.
He reaches his hand out; I do the same. Just a little farther…
And then the distant screams draw close, and suddenly we are engulfed in a dust storm, shrieks whistling all around us. A bright light overhead grows steadily brighter until it makes me squint. I call out John’s name over and over, but he doesn’t answer. It’s too late to save him—but where’s Eden? I have to—
I jerk awake, trembling, sweat trickling down my forehead.
The light overhead turns into a blinding lamp. I blink away tears in my eyes as the world gradually sharpens, my dream turning blurry around the edges. Already I’m having trouble remembering what I saw, but John’s outstretched hand, his blue eyes mirroring mine, remains clear.
It’s been a long time since I’ve dreamed about the Republic like this.
