Page 142 of The Art of Exiley

It’s too late at night to have any chance of reaching Mom, but I assure myself that I have no reason to think that Hilde is in any immediate danger. I’d met some of the other Sires when I was home, and Kor had been truthful when he said they were well treated. The ones I spoke with—including the renowned scientist who had been a missing person in the news for months—were cooperating voluntarily, excited to be a part of ground-breaking experimentation. Plus, with Kor here, Hilde’s blood is safe for now.

When I get to my apartment, Georgie shrieks and jumps up, overturning a pile of spidersilk masks she’s been sewing with the help of Mbali and Hypatia.

The next few seconds involve a lot of hugging.

Mbali asks, “If you’re back, does that mean the air contamination was prevented?” Her being here and knowing what’s going on means she knows what I’ve done. Yet she seems just as happy to see me as Georgie and Hypatia.

“Yes,” I say, my throat tight with emotion. “It’s over.”

There’s more hugging.

“How dare you not tell me that dragons exist!” I say into Georgie’s neck as she squeezes me tight.

“Wait. Dragons exist?” she asks, pulling away, her brows cocked skeptically.

“You didn’t know? But I saw dragons on the television in New York,” Hypatia says.

“Those are pretend ones!”

“How did you think they know how the pretend ones should look if there were no real ones to base them on?” Hypatia asks, as if this logic should be completely obvious.

This leads into a discussion of how I learned about dragons, and I tell them a very protracted version of what took place at the cove.

“Simon flew all the way up the cliff?” Hypatia asks incredulously.

“He sure did.” I don’t mention it was because her cousin had been shot in the chest.

That feeling of déjà vu returns. The imagery of Simon flying up the cliff as Rafe bled below jostles something in my memory.

A long hoverboard ride. A crack of thunder. Simon flying over Rafe, who is lying in a field of red flowers…

That incessant dream I’d been having.

An unknown beautiful girl pouring wine for Kor.

Oh.Ohhh.

That was why Hilde looked so familiar when we met. I haddreamedabout her.

I don’t understand how or why, but I dreamed about everything that happened tonight.

And now I understand how Kor went from weak and exhausted to reinvigorated after he went back into that submarine.

I don’t need to call Mom. I know exactly where Hilde is.

42

I wait to act until it’s late enough that I know most of the institute will be asleep and the village empty. As I make my way down the reenabled elevator, the view through the glass is dark with only an eerie glow from the bioluminescent lichen clinging to the cave formations.

I don’t know why I’m so sure of my dream, but I am. I’m sure of something else as well: My goalsaredifferent from the Families’.

Kor may have helped heal Rafe, but he was willing to shoot him and take Hilde captive. The Grand Master has backed all his decisions.

It’s time for me to admit that I belong at Genesis. With the person who does share my goals. We may have had different paths to the same conclusion, but we both want Maker society and provincial society safely learning from each other. After I take care of this Hilde situation, I’m going to tell him everything.

And then I’m going to kiss him again.

Together Michael and I will come up with a plan to make both the Makers and the Families start doing things differently. But I’m done being a pawn for the Families. I’ll let them think I still am, but it’s time I trust myself to do things my way.

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