Page 85 of Ember Rising
“What if there’s no one at our next destination?” I ask.
The ILF hub should have medical professionals, medical supplies, and a sterile operating room if needed. Evander’s been telling me since we left the tire shop that he just has to get to the hub and they’ll make sure he’s healing okay and operate if necessary.
Every ILF safe house on his map has been abandoned or destroyed, though. I’m worried that after all the trouble it took us to get here, the hub will be gone, too.
“We’ll reevaluate,” he says. “We’d probably have to go back to San Antonio.”
That would mean we wasted a lot of time, but it would also mean I could find out if Briar and Marcus are okay.
Pax and Olin were leaving San Antonio right after we did. I hope they’re safe.
Misty rain starts to fall, dampening our clothes and the ground. The hub should have real showers, and I started fantasizing about taking one several days ago. I hope to spend some time with Evander when we’re both clean and wearing dry clothes, not worrying about getting ambushed. Even if it’s just a few hours.
I want to hold on to him and let myself feel my full worry and sadness over Briar. Out here, feelings can get you killed. You have to bottle them up and wait until it’s okay to let your guard down.
“You okay?” I ask.
He doesn’t respond, seeming lost in his own world, so I say, “Evander.”
He glances over at me. “You should call me Van. All my friends and family do.”
I grin at him. “I’m your friend?”
“Yep. Sexiest one I’ve ever had.”
My stomach flips with excitement. I’ve known men like Pax, who flirt with and compliment nearly every woman they encounter. Evander’s not like that. I think what I assumed to be standoffishness was actually shyness.
“Are you shy around women?”
He shrugs, his gaze focused on the horizon. “I don’t know, maybe. It’s not like I’ve known all kinds of women I wanted to put the moves on and not been able to do it. More like I don’t have any moves and planned to keep it that way.”
“I think you have moves.”
He grins at me, warmth shining in his eyes. “Do you?”
“Yeah. You just don’t know it yet.”
His smile falls away, his expression turning serious. “I’ll always remember this time with you. I want you to know that.”
“Me too. I just wish I’d known sooner that all it took for you to say I’m beautiful and have sunflower eyes was getting an infected gunshot wound. I would have shot you my—”
The ground beneath my left foot drops away and I gasp, falling. I wasn’t paying enough attention while walking alongside a ravine. The waterlogged ground must have given way on the edge.
Air whooshes past me as I flail my limbs and cry out, my hair blowing across my face. My heart races with fear, because I’m falling too far. I’ll land too hard.
There’s a light brush over my forearm, like the legs of a skittering spider. Then I feel it on my legs. Something wraps around the bare skin of my waist, my shirt billowing with air.
Am I dead? Kudzu is spreading around my limbs and torso, rapidly enveloping me. This can’t be real.
My head hits something hard, pain searing through it. A sense of being wrapped up by Briar washes through me, warm and soft, and then everything cuts off at once.
28
“Plans are underway for the most lavish ball New America has ever seen. We must celebrate our many victories. Our work is not yet done, but we won’t stop until peace, order, and prosperity have reached everyone on the continent.” Electronic message from New America President Soren Whitman to his commanding officers
Briar
Carson City looks like something out of a horror movie. The streets that used to be bustling with people are nearly empty. Military vehicles on patrol creep by at slow speed, visibility obscured by the ash that has blotted out the sun.
