Read Page 43

“I could use some fresh air,” Natalie says.Advertisement

I help her to her feet and shrug off the blanket around my shoulders, placing it around Natalie’s, exposing the scar that zigzags down my chest.

“Is it terrible?” she whispers, and I know she isn’t referring to my scar, but the emptiness that lies beneath.

“No.” I place my hand over her chest, feeling the thrum of my heart beating inside her. “I will always be a part of you. That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.”

She beams up at me, and I quickly kiss her.

“I don’t know what to get you for our anniversary now,” I say. “How do I top giving you my heart?”

She giggles. “I like candy.”

I grin. “Candy it is.”

We head outside. The air is cool and crisp, giving me goose bumps, but I like it. It reminds me of being in my bedroom in the Ivy Church. Grief grips me and I suck in a ragged breath, thinking about my dad. Natalie takes my hand and gazes up at me. I smile softly.

A gust of wind stirs the ash clouds overhead, and for a brief moment I catch a glimpse of cornflower-blue skies peeping between the gray. I hold Natalie closer to me as Mittens leaps about the balcony, chasing the flakes of ash as they dance and twirl on the breeze.

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The street below us is buzzing with activity. Trucks roll down the roads, and coalition workers dressed in cerulean-blue jumpsuits mill about the sidewalks, cleaning up the debris. They’ve already started to rebuild the city. Instinctively I look toward the Boundary Wall.

Natalie follows my gaze. “The government wanted to bring it down, but I asked them to wait until you’d woken up. I thought you’d want to be there when it happened.”

“Thanks,” I say.

Bringing down the ghetto wall in Black City is vitally important to me. This is the city that first stood up to Purian Rose; this is where the rebellion began; so this is where the first wall has to be torn down, and I want to be there to see it. It’s what I’ve been fighting for. And when the Boundary Wall is demolished, I’m going to make sure they tear down each and every other ghetto wall in the country. Natalie leans her head against my shoulder.

“There’s been some resistance from some of the states,” she says quietly. “It’s going to take a long time before this country is united.”

“I know,” I say, staring across the smoldering city. “But I’m ready for it.”

It’s not going to be easy. There may be more blood spilled, perhaps even another war, but there will never be a return to the old ways. Our enemies know what they’re up against now. Something that cannot die. Something more dangerous than any weapon. Something like me. I stand up and reach out my hand to Natalie.

“Let’s go bring down that wall,” I say. pqdm.com