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Page 5

  At first I couldn’t see because of the brightness. I thought about calling out for Jack, but there was so much blurry activity going on in front of me, I was scared to draw attention to myself before I knew what I was in the middle of. Before my eyes had a chance to adjust, a loud noise thundered in my ears. Like hundreds of people screaming. My heart jumped to my throat, and I instinctively backed away from the noise until I hit a solid object.

  I blinked my eyes. And as the image in front of me came into focus, I panicked.

  I was on the outskirts of what looked like a city square filled with so many people I couldn’t even begin to guess at how many there were. Hundreds? At least. They stood shoulder to shoulder, jostling for position. But I couldn’t get a good look since I was on the very edge, at what I presumed was the back because every person was faced away from me and toward the other end.

  The object I’d backed into was a short, wide wall that ran along the perimeter of the plaza, separating it from the tall, ancient-looking buildings that surrounded it. Several people were standing on top of the wall, taking advantage of the extra three feet of height it gave them, so they could see better.

  But what were they looking at?

  I saw a space on the wall and scrambled up. The man next to me gave me a quick glance, then turned back toward whatever everyone was looking at. Another swell of cheers sounded just as I regained my balance and straightened up and got a better look.

  The scene took my breath away. My initial estimate had been way off. There had to be thousands of people, at least.

  But no, not people. Everlivings. Both men and women. I realized I’d never seen a female Everliving, but about half of the audience was made up of them. Dark shadows bobbed and wove through the crowd, and it took me a moment to realize they weren’t normal shadows, because I couldn’t see a source of light. There was no sun to make shadows.

  The shadows were Shades.

  My initial instinct was to dive behind the wall and hide. The first time I’d ever seen the Shades was in the Feed, when they’d wrapped around Cole and me, cocooning us for a hundred years. The last time I’d seen a Shade, it was inside my arm, acting as a homing device for the Tunnels to find me.

  But I came here to find the Tunnels and rescue Jack. I couldn’t waste my time hiding. I just had to figure out where to start, and right now nobody looked as if they were about to tear their attention away from whatever they were doing to give me the time of day. Staying put, I squinted toward the opposite side of the square, following the gazes of everyone else, and that’s when I saw the platform.

  More like a stage, at the far end of the plaza.

  People stood on their tiptoes, shifted their lines of sight, climbed whatever they could to get a better view of it. Twenty or thirty of them had perched on a large fountain in the middle of the square. A few were in the direct line of spray from the fountain, but they stayed where they were.

  I couldn’t figure out where the entertainment was, but the spectators were as captivated as if it were the Super Bowl.

  Then I saw a woman at the center of the stage, and instantly I knew why nobody had noticed me. She drew the attention of every being in attendance, the men and the women, and even though I was far away, her beauty captivated me. I couldn’t look away.

  Her white dress glowed as if it were made of beams of sunlight. Red hair fell in waves down her back. I couldn’t see how long it was. She didn’t seem human.

  On either side of her were several Shades. I couldn’t count how many because they resembled swirls of oil from the way they were moving. Off to the side of the stage was a line of people. Maybe ten of them. Men and women. The whole thing seemed ominous, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why.

  They were waiting their turn for … something. She raised a hand, and an instant hush fell over the crowd. The first person in line climbed the steps. Slowly. As if he’d rather be anywhere than where he was.

  He hesitantly crossed the stage to the center, and once he reached the exact middle, the Shades on the stage began to swirl. His visible fear had me worried for him, but when I looked at a woman who was standing a few feet away from me, she was watching the whole thing with a slight smile on her lips, as if it were totally normal.

  The Shades joined together and spun in a circle. It reminded me of the funnel cloud of the Tunnels that came for me. Only this funnel fashioned a sharp point at the end, and before I could guess at what was happening, they rose up into the sky, lengthening as a single unit until they were one long, straight rod of black.

  The sight was overwhelming. I watched it with the same astonishment I would feel at being dropped into the middle of the ocean.

  The mass lingered there for a hushed moment and then shot downward in one collective spear toward the man. The Shades impaled him through the chest, pinning him for an instant to the ground.

  I gasped.

  Then the Shades disappeared inside the man’s body. And for a split second there was silence.

  Then an explosion. From inside the man. He was blown apart. Into millions of pieces. Maybe billions. There weren’t any visible pieces of him that I could see. There was only a fine red mist hanging in the air, hovering above the crowd.

  The mist spread in a delicate layer over the entire square. I stumbled off the wall, afraid of what the mist would do if it touched me.

  A great gong sounded from somewhere near the stage. It was a signal of some sort. There was a collective intake of breath—the sound of a thousand people gasping—and as the chests of the crowd inflated, the mist disappeared. The Everlivings literally inhaled what was left of the man.

  He was gone.

  I sank to the ground just as I heard the crowd let out their breath and cheer.

  Pressing my back against the rock wall, I clutched my stomach. Bile rose to my mouth. The man had to have been human. They’d never do that to one of their kind. If the Shades found me now, would they do the same thing to me?

  Even worse, if they were eviscerating humans, would they take them from the Tunnels? Would they come for Jack?

  My heart split. I could feel it, a literal ripping at my chest. I clutched at it, trying to hold it together, but I couldn’t. My broken heart seeped through my fingers. I watched it happen, and yet I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. White mist escaped from me, and in the mist I could see pictures of Jack as if some unseen hand were flipping through photo prints, and the resulting movie played out in the cloud in front of me.

  I tried to reach for the images, but it was like trying to grab air. The mist carried Jack’s face, floating it up and away from me. Over the top of the wall I was hiding behind.

  And that’s when I noticed that the cheers of the crowd had died down to almost a whisper. Why the sudden silence?

  I raised my head and peeked over the top of the wall to see what was happening. And nearly screamed.

  Every face there, every Shade even, turned toward me at once.

  I froze.

  Their eyes dropped from the mist above me to my face.

  And then the woman’s voice, calm and clear, pierced the air. It traveled to me without any need for amplification. She said, “Who are you?”

  Was she talking to me? I looked from side to side to see if I could find any face that showed an ounce of sympathy, but there was only one emotion that played on the faces here.

  Hunger.

  The Shades, who had been gathered at the platform, started toward me. Their movements became synchronized, and soon they were swirling up into the sky as they had just done before; only this time they were pointed right at me.

  I backed away as fast as I could, but I’d only made it a few yards when I collided with the front of a building.

  I closed my eyes.

  “It will be quick,” I whispered. “It will be over. ”

  I kept my eyes closed and felt the rush of cold air coming toward me. Alarmed shouts reached my ears. At the mo
ment I anticipated that the Shades would stab me in the gut, I said my final word, one that I hadn’t spoken in days and days. “Jack. ”

  FIVE

  NOW

  The Everneath.

  A single voice rang out from somewhere above me. “Nikki! Your hand!”

  I didn’t have time to think. I reached up my hand toward the voice and felt warm fingers wrap around it, and my feet left the ground. Darkness surrounded me.

  In the next moment, my back hit something hard and flat, and the impact crushed my ribs. Coughing, I rolled over and felt rocks against my cheek. I was lying on an asphalt road. I couldn’t see very well. It looked like the sun had just set.

  “Dammit, Nikki!” Cole’s voice from somewhere above me. “How many times do I have to explain? Do you know what you’ve done?! If you want to kill yourself, do it in a way that I won’t be getting a phone call from Ezra about!”

  It took me a few long minutes to figure out what he was talking about. I was back on the Surface, but not at the Shop-n-Go. I was on a road. No Shades on me. No Jack.

  No Jack.

  I turned onto my back and closed my eyes. Cole had come for me. Did Ezra really call him? He must have. Or Cole had already figured out where I was going. In between shallow gasps, I said, “Sorry about the phone call. If there was another entrance besides the Shop-n-Go, I would’ve used it. ”

  Cole’s shoes crunched on the loose asphalt as he came over to me. He crouched down, and I saw his face. His lips pressed together so hard they had turned white. He shook his head.

  “There are other ways to kill yourself. Next time, try a gun. Or a knife. ” Maybe it was because of the pitiful state I was in, but as he looked at me, the hard edges of his face softened. “Or a length of rope. Or starvation. Or even old age. ” He sank fully to the ground and brought his knees up to his chest; his nostrils flared.

  “I wasn’t trying to kill myself. ” I pushed against the asphalt road and sat up, and immediately wished I hadn’t. My head felt as if it were full of clouds. I closed my eyes. “Whoa. ”

  Cole put an arm around me to steady me. “Yeah, that’s what happens when you face down an army of Shades. ” As soon as I was balanced, he released me. Quickly. He breathed out of his nose, his jaw set. “What were you thinking? If you weren’t trying to kill yourself, what the hell were you doing?”

  “I was trying to get to Jack. ”

  Cole grunted. Loudly. He straightened up and ran his hands roughly through his hair. His lips pulled back from his teeth, and his eyes closed. When he opened them, they looked wild. I’d never seen him so frustrated. “That’s what this is about? Some suicide quest borne out of your own guilt? You have no idea what you’ve done!”

  “What have I done?”

  “You’re different, Nik!” He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “You survived the Feed. You’re a threat to the queen. And here you are, parading yourself in front of her like the prized calf at the slaughterhouse. If anyone from today’s fiasco realized what you are …”

  “Then what?”

  Cole leaned his head back and stared at the darkening sky.

  “What, Cole?”

  He looked at me. “Then you’re dead. Or worse. ”

  I didn’t need to ask if he was serious. His eyes were blazing. “Well, I was only there for a few seconds. ”

  “I was twenty minutes behind you. You were probably there for hours. ”

  I’d forgotten about the time discrepancy between the Everneath and the Surface. A hundred years in the Feed had only equaled six months on the Surface. “So next time I go I’ll be more careful. I’ll avoid the …”—I searched for the word—“… city square. ”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You can’t avoid it. ” He chuckled. “The Shop-n-Go entrance will dump you in the same place every time. And why are we even talking about you going back? Have you already forgotten about the exploding man?”

  I could feel the blood drain from my face as I remembered. “What was that whole thing?”

  He sighed. “It was the weekly slaughter, where people who find themselves on the wrong side of the queen get skewered and fed to the masses. The queen oversees it herself. ” I tensed, remembering the beautiful woman in white, and Cole noticed. “Yes. That was the queen. Lovely, isn’t she?”

  My stomach turned at the explanation. “Were they humans? The people being killed?”

  Cole shrugged. “Some, maybe. Some were probably Wanderers too. ” At my confused expression, he continued. “Wanderers. They’re like skeletal forms of Everlivings, sentenced to live a life without nourishment. They’re the law-breakers. The queen doesn’t mind ripping a few apart to keep her subjects happy. And nothing makes us happier than feeding. ”

  I leaned toward him. “Then I have to go back. ”

  He furrowed his brow. “What part of what I just said makes you think that?”

  “If she’s taking humans from the Tunnels, I have to go now before Jack gets chosen for a slaughter. ”

  He put his head in his hands, exasperated. “The Shades were seconds away from tearing you apart like a turkey wishbone. ”