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He kissed me, and I let him, because I kneas the last ti in my chest tear wide open as the cold air filled the space between us Lia to catch his breath I fought the stupidest urge to sit down on the stairs and cry

He took a shaking breath "Anna saidshe said that Nico’s been working secretly on some kind of virus She thinks it’s for the Thuro in and install before any kind of attack can happen" His voice sounded hollow "Would you happen to know anything about that?"

I looked away

"Jesus, Ruby," he said quietly

He was giving me the chance to co, least of all hi this I didn’t need his approval

"They will kill you," he said, anger seeping into the words "You know this They knohat you are and what you can do Are you going to sway the whole camp? Get them under your control the way Clancy did at East River? They aren’t going to let you leave that camp alive, and you don’t even care, do you?"

He scrubbed at his face, letting out a sound of pure aggravation "Do I even have to ask who put this idea in your head? He’s not one of us, Ruby! He’s not, and you still side with his you used to tell ht between us again I don’t understand hoe broke down I don’t understand why he has this hold on you!"

"I don’t have to explain myself to you" I felt a cold drop of ice spread down my spine at my oords, no matter how true they were

"You used to want to," he said "Do you want to knohy I didn’t tell you about Alice and Amplify? I caht ere in the garage, but I stopped myself because latelylately it doesn’t , stupid, or naïve Dammit, I am sick to death of that word I’m not stupid, and I’m not blind either I can keep us fed, I can fix every da off, I can make sure all of the cars run, I can find us the one real shot we have doing soood in a world that’s already too violent, but it’s not enough I don’t even register, do I? Not to hi Was nothing

"I’ to think of what comes after--hoe’ll move on with our lives when this is all over It’s e talked about before I don’t want any of these kids to live their lives stained with pain and regret and blood I don’t want that for you, either We can do good work--we can ood kids in a shitty situation Please--Ruby, please Cole is going to walk you right over a cliff, and he’s going to be holding your hand the entire ti the words expand, filling the parts of ht, Cabin 27 Sam All of those thousands of kids who’d been left behind as I got out Ashley’s face, the dead eyes staring up at me, the accusation I’d read in them Where were you? Why didn’t you co ed, "then, God, just kill !"

I could sacrifice this, the thing I wanted most, for them, and the trade would never balance out, not fully I owed theirls my life They needed to knohat I’d felt today as we pulled out of Oasis We would find the cure, if it was the last thing I did on this earth, and it would be waiting for theot out They would know true freedom--not because they’d be able to shed their terrible abilities, the thing that marked them as freak Because they’d be able to make every choice that had been denied to theo anywhere Be with the people they loved