Page 19 of Wings of Ebony
Patrol meets us at the building entrance. Stone pillars tower on either side of the guards, making them somehow seem taller.
“Ruler Aasim, you’ve found her. I can take her from here, sir.”
“I’m handling it,” Aasim says, pushing past him and gesturing for me to follow.
“But sir, I have strict orders to—”
“And I’ve changed them.” Aasim’s nostrils flare, the same way I imagine mine do. “Dismissed.”
The Patrolman walks off muttering something under his breath. Inside the lobby, guards line the corridor. Ten? Twelve? I can’t keep count.
“I’ll get her booked.” Aasim waves off the two uniforms at my back. Booked? Like a criminal? It was just one “offense.”
He swirls one hand around the other and a frosted cup appears. “Drink more water. It’ll help.” He walks off and I follow. Annoyed, I take a sip and the dregs of my wooziness abate. Glass elevators float at the end of the hall, bobbing up and down.
“After you.” He steps aside and I roll my eyes. The moment the doors shut us inside, he turns to me. “Tell me who you touched.”
What about my face saystalk to me? “I did what I had to do. Your peoplehave tobe able to understand that. They have loved ones too.”
“I couldn’t risk anyone overhearing me on the way here. But in here it’s just us. Listen to me, Rue.” He rests a palm on my shoulder. “Ghizon is not like your world. They don’t value human life the same.”
And you’re one of them. That why Moms died back home and you ain’t do shit?I pull away and put my earbuds in. I’m not trusting him to help me. I’ll figure this out myself. My flattened cheeks are heavy as the glass box whisks upward through the levels. He pulls my music out of my ear. He’s lost his mind, clearly.
“Don’t touch my—”
“Rue, please, there isn’t much time. If you tell me I can try to figure out a way to help them.”
No matter how high I roll the volume, his tenor voice breaks through the melody flowing into my ears. This istheslowest elevator I’ve ever been in, I swear.
“Rue, you can’t just come here and disregard the way things are done. That has consequences.”
Disregard?! “I didn’taskto come here, remember? And since I’ve been here I haven’t done anything but play by these people’sdumb-ass rules.” Moms would be on my ass if she heard me talking to an adult like this.
“But you’re here now,” he says. “Look at your wrists. Rue, you’re Bound. That means you have to play by the rules or…” He sighs. “Just please let me help you.” His words are like tiny needles pricking every part of my body. “This pains me too, very deeply.”
This pains him? Really? I pull the lone earbud out of my ear. “You? You’re hurt? I don’t see you in cuffs. I don’t see you forced to live away from everything and everyone you’ve ever known. I don’t see your little sister crying herself to sleep at night because the only person in the world that understands her pain after Moms died disappeared with no explanation. No. That’s me and Tasha.”
Shit, I just told him her name.
A chime says we’ve reached floor 429. I step toward the elevator doors.Come the hell on. Open.
He sighs. “So that’s who it is, your half sister?”
“Mysister.”
“I—I should’ve… too late for that. Theywillfind out, Rue. They won’t stop until they hunt her down and—” He chews his lip deep in thought. The doors slide open and I can’t get out of the glass box fast enough. Hunt her down? I—they can’t touch her. It’s not right. They wouldn’t. She’s no harm to anyone.
Overhead, the ceiling towers with a glittery night sky. I don’t know how they do it, but the effect soothes. Across the fake starlit room is a single glass door. I start toward it, Aasim on my heels.
The handle chills my palm as I pull open the door.
“Wait.” Aasim’s eyes soften, but even deeper lines course his face. “I can try to explain to the Chancellor that you don’t have a singleblemish on your record and that you’ll take ownership for what you’ve done and apologize for breaking the rules. But…”
The sound of “but” makes me queasy. I try to speak, but the only words that come to mind sound desperate, weak. I won’t be weak in front of him.
“I-I promise I’ll doanythingin my power to help, Rue.”
“I don’t need your help. And I never will.”
