Page 136 of The Art of Exiley

I am a girl riding many miles an hour on a pumpkin.

A girl approaching an air lock.

I shriek with relief as I recognize the platform. By the time I slow and pass through the air lock, I’m crying. I’ve made it to Arcadia. To Genesis.

Home.

The station is empty and dark. No sign of anyone. No sign of Kor.

I should have intercepted them in the tunnel. There’s a large hourglass on the station wall, and the accumulation of sand indicates it’s around early evening. I’ve made good time. I can’t imagine they got here before me.

Unless they traveled some other way…

Automatic lights blink on as someone moves in the shadows.

“Hello?” I call out.

“Ada?” a boy’s voice asks.

“Simon? Is that you?”

It is. The young Valkyrie hops down onto the track. He’s wearing his Guard uniform, and I’m suddenly dizzy with a strong sense of déjà vu.

“Are you okay?” he asks me.

“Oh. Yes.” I’d momentarily forgotten how I must look, a sweaty crying mess sitting on a pumpkin bound to a hoverboard in the middle of a train track. “But could you help me cut these vines?”

He’s quickly at my side with his spoon out, cutting me free. “Did you by any chance come through the Atlas tunnel just now?”

“I did.”

“That’s odd.”

I don’t really know how to respond. But Simon seems to be taking the whole thing in stride.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I was sent down to check that the emergency exit out to the cove is secure and to disable the elevator. But once it’s disabled, it can’t be reenabled without a council member’s key, so I have to wait down here. You’ll have to wait now too; there’s no way to get up.”

“You were sent alone?” Why would Rafe have risked that? What if Kor had made it here before me?

“I think Rafe was hoping I would…” He shrugs his wings so they ruffle out slightly.

Of course, technically Simon could have flown back up, but he’s scared of flying and not very good at it.

A loud grinding sound shakes the station. Simon scrambles up from the track to the platform and runs over to the emergency door, which leads to the cove outside. I stumble after him on shaky legs.

“Hide,” he says to me. “I’ll guard the door.”

“No. I need to go out there. Once I do, you secure the exit behind me and stay out of sight.”

“I am a soldier of the Avant Guard,” Simon says with shaky resolve. “And if there is danger outside that door, I will protect you, Journey Castle!”

“Listen to me, Simon. I’m going out there, and you’re staying in here. No matter what happens, you stay hidden. Do you understand?” My urgency must convince him because he doesn’t prevent me from unlocking the door and pushing it open.

The sea wind slaps my face, salt and sand and hair blowing into my eyes. But nothing can stop me from seeing the sleek black submarine rising from the cove, Kor emerging from a hatch on top as it docks among the rocks.

40

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