Page 54 (1/2)

Ky didn’t answer right away He looked out at the water "I had to put a body in a river once," he said finally, "before all of this An Aberration died in camp, earlier than the Society planned, and the Officers et rid of the evidence That’s when I met my friend Vick"

I nodded I’d heard them talk about Vick

"Vick had fallen in love with so for it" Then Ky looked at me "I wanted to stay alive afteragain until I met Cassia"

"But you didn’t feel like she really knew you, did you?" I asked again

"No," Ky said, "but I felt like she could"

I start down the wide steps to the water Ky’s not there this ti black hair

It’s been days since I’ve seen her, even in passing After she recovered, she went back to work, and our paths have rarely crossed since When they have, we’ve both nodded and s on the cure but I haven’t had a chance to talk with her

I hesitate, but she looks up atfor me to come closer I sit down next to her and I feel like a fool I don’t knohere to begin

But she does "Where did you go?" she asks me

"To the mountains," I say "The Pilot took some of us there That’s where we found the cure"

"And you were the one to do it," she says

"No," I say "Cassia figured it out"

"Your Match," she says

"Yes," I say "She’s alive, and she’s fine She’s here"

"I think I’ve seen her," Lei says, "talking with you" Her eyes searchto learn what I haven’t said

"She’s in love with someone else," I say

Lei puts her hand on ently for a moment "I’m sorry," she says

"What about your Match?" I ask "Have you been able to find him?"

She turns her face away then, and as her hair swishes across her back and neck, I re those days in the ue came"

"I’m sorry," I say

"I think I knew before they told one" I aain by the sound of her voice It’s very beautiful I would like to hear her sing "That must sound ridiculous to you," she says

"No," I say, "it doesn’t"

So jumps in the river and I start a little

"A fish," Lei says, looking back at me

"One of the ones you told me about?" I ask

"No," she says "That one was silver, not red"

"Where did you go?" I ask Lei

She knohat I o when you were still?

"I i most of the time," she says "Like those fish, one of the ones I told you about, and I had a different body I kneasn’t really a fish, but it was easier than thinking about as happening"

"I wonder why everyone thinks about the water," I say Ky did the sairl who died Indie

"I think," Lei says, "because the sky seems too far It doesn’t feel like it will hold you the way the water can"

Or because your lungs are filling with fluid that you can’t always clear But neither of us gives the h we both know it

I don’t knohat to say When I look at Lei I think she ht be the kind of person who could do what she said the water could: hold so her and I can picture letting go, going under, with her

Her face changes She

I stand up, disgusted with myself I’m not in any condition to love someone, and she’s just lost her Match and come back froo," I say

CHAPTER 59

CASSIA

I hesitate for a moment at the top of the steps, hidden behind one of the trees along the e for Xander to pass by He doesn’t notice o down, toward the water and the girl I sit down next to her and she turns to look at me "I’m Cassia," I say "I think we both know Xander"

"Yes," she says "I’ not to see it She’s notabout her seems wise She speaks very clearly; but her words are clean, not clipped She is lovely, in a way that is all her own; very dark hair, very deep eyes