Page 10 of The Order

My hand flies to my torso, a dull heat filling my lower stomach. I feel a sharp pain in the same spot I had this morning. My neck tingles with anticipation, the hair on my arms rising like the coldest chill has entered my bones. My heart races in ways you only get if you survive on nothing but coffee for days. I grab my chest, pausing to force out a full breath. The smell of cedarwood and soap wafts past my nose

Aggressively, a body collides with my own, sending my shoulder flying back, narrowly avoiding a collision with the side of the tram. I force my body around, ready to scream at the Untouchable willing to be so careless with me. A tall figure, taller than Kai, crouches down to the older woman. His back is to me. His raven-colored, curly, black hair is nothing but a wild mess atop his head. I watch his shoulders move as he coaxes the woman up. My stomach drops as I see his willingness to be near her.

"Your legs still work, don't they, Dove? Get out of my sight," his deep voice snaps. I look him over repeatedly, trying to process what the hell he’s doing. His voice is unfamiliar.

Quickly, I pull myself up into the tram, letting my eyes pass over the bus driver as he gives me a nod. Per usual, I ignore the gesture, feeling shaken by the man's blatant rudeness. Maybe Josh will have another person to drag around to torment people with.

Max is taking a seat right as I get on. His hand waves me over next to him. Rae is already talking Kai's ear off, nearly leaning into him. Kai's brows raise the closer I get. Max's hand drags me down, almost sitting me in his lap. His hand stays placed on my lower back.

Max's touches have grown bolder and more frequent over the past few months. I sometimes wonder if feeding into them would be all that bad. Max sits with a certain confidence that I know Kai wishes he had when it comes to wooing Raegan. Max knows how to address everyone in the room while making your conversation with him feel entirely intimate.

There's a reason my father thinks he’s perfect for me.

"Did that Unfortunate touch you?" Kai questions with a disgusted expression. I pause, pulling my mind away from Max's looks.

"What Unfortunate?"

All I can think of is the woman's worn and battered figure. My mind draws blanks at my brother's question.

His boots hit the tram floor with loud thuds. The goosebumps on my arms return. Sweat collects on my back, my shoulder still throbbing from his collision with me against the bus. I now see the patches working up and down the man's worn uniform. His deep blue eyes scan his surroundings with a hike of his old backpack up his shoulder. His hands are calloused from manual labor. A deep scar is set on his cheek, his curls falling forward to frame his face. His body is larger than any Unfortunate man I have seen at our age. His mouth is downturned, his face painted with a stoic expression. He clasps the bus driver on the back with familiarity, ignoring Josh's scoff once he pulls away from the man—my heart races once he moves past me. There are no words to describe the pit in my stomach that forms once he moves past the Untouchable section of the bus and seats himself beyond the red tape into the Unfortunate area of the tram.

An Unfortunate told me what to do.

An Unfortunate touched me.

His legs are spread where he sits. He slings his arms over his neighboring chairs, letting them drape.

He cranes his neck back, his head still held high. He’s utterly indifferent to being stared down by this many Untouchables.

Not once have I seen an Unfortunate hold themselves like this.

Not once has anyone made me this nervous.

My birthmark continues to run hot with each passing moment. The tram doors close, only making my legs shake, knowing there is no quick way to escape. I lean into Max, letting his steady heartbeat soothe my anxieties.

"Did he, Forest?" Max questions.

My friends wait for an answer, impatiently. I swallow the lump in my throat, readying myself to answer. With one glance, I see he’s watching me, and my rational thinking stops His blue eyes pierce through my soul with a look of pure hatred. His brows furrow, his arms crossed. I can see the veins work through his arms, a scowl nearly consuming his face. Even this far away, it feels as if he could take me and drag me across the space. Even worse, it feels like he wants to. There is no fear in his expression, no cowardice.

All there is, is hate.

And he’s looking at me like prey, wanting to rip me apart. My lip quivers in my attempt to force out the truth. My brother's eye contact is still not enough to shake his watchful eyes.

"No," I say without thinking. "He didn't. He just moved past me," I finish.

It's a lie that left me like it was second nature. In every scenario, the Unfortunate’s behavior would lead to him receiving a high-level violation. But I can’t bring myself to tell them the truth.

"See? Everything is fine!" Raegan chirps. I give her a half-assed smile, leaning into her twin with a grunt. My hand reaches into my bag, finding an empty space where my mother's Cure-All once resided. My hand frantically searches other parts of my bag, feeling around for any sign of the small vial. I only find dead ends with each touch.

"You okay?" Max asks.

All I can do is nod before looking at the Unfortunate once more.

He looks out the window, not once pulling his gaze to me like he had before. My eyes strain to look for a small vial shoved deep within one of his pockets. The thick, black material of his pants shields anything from showing through. I narrow my eyes at him with a great deal of frustration.

Never in my life have I hated a pair of blue eyes like I do the ones on the Unfortunate seated at the back of the tram right now.

The question is, who is he?

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