Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Jasina notices too, pointing at the ceiling above us. “Look. The canal is leaking pretty bad.”
“They must not take very good care of their city,” I say, feeling judge-y.
We turn a corner, knowing that the staircase that leads up to the dome of the Extraction Tower is not far now, but then have to stop in our tracks as we’re confronted with actual flooding.
Jasina jumps back, letting go of my hand. “Holy crap! What the hell?” We both look up, but wherever this water is coming from, it’s not from the pipes above our heads. “How do we get through?”
I turn and bend down. “Hop on. I’ll carry you.”
She shoots me a look that I am becoming very familiar with. This look says, ‘I can do it myself’. She’s very big on self-sufficiency. Which is a good thing in a partnership like this. She pulls her weight and I like it. It’s good.
But I’m not letting her trudge through knee high water. “Come on, Jasina. Just get on. Why should both of us get wet? And anyway, it’s my job.”
She cocks a hip at me. But it’s more out of amusement than exasperation. “Since when?”
“Well… since you became mine.”
“Is that what I am?”
I nod. Slowly. “Yeah. You are. I have a dream and… well, it’s dumb. But it’s a good life. And you’re in it. It’s me and you and we’ve got a little family, and a little place of our own.”
“Oh, my god.” She places a hand over her heart like I just shocked her.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
She tilts her chin up, squares her shoulders, and grins at me with her eyes. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”
I laugh. Then point. “No. Trust me, Jasina Bell, when I propose, you will not have to ask for clarification.”
“Then what was that? You’re mine?”
I grab her around the waist, pulling her towards me. Which activates her escape instincts, but she doesn’t try hard. “It was… a prelude,” I say, trying not to smile too big. “It was… a promise.”
“We hardly know each other. We’re like a month into this relationship.”
“One big, monumental month.” I shrug. “I know what I want. You.”
This declaration makes Jasina Bell’s eyes narrow. “It’s too soon to know that. I mean, you just lost…”
She doesn’t finish.
And I’m not about to hide from this. I’m done being old Finn Scott.
So I finish for her. “Clara? I just lost Clara? It hasn’t even been a month. But the time I’ve spent with you, Jasina, is more than equal to the decade I spent without her, pretending to be in love. We never even dated, you know that right? We were kids, kissing and holding hands. And then she was Chosen and her life was all about the men she entertained for her Maiden duties. I was just a… an afternoon tryst. An afterthought. And I know what you’re thinking—that I’m jealous. That maybe you’re a substitute. I know you think this because you told me that day we escaped. But I said it then, and I’m gonna say it now too. She was my greatest failure. Choosing you was the only thing I ever did right.”
I bring her hand to my lips, kissing it softly as I look right into those royal blue eyes of hers. “It’s you, Jasina. You and me. Forever, if you’ll have me. So—” I point to my back. “Hop on. I’m gonna carry you.”
She tries to hide her smile, but she’s failing so spectacularly, she just shakes her head and walks around to my back, hopping on to be carried.
I grab her under the knees, stand up, hiking her up onto my hips a little, and then I walk through the water, my own shit-eating grin on my face as well. In fact, I’m overwhelmed with thoughts of Jasina, and my dream of a little family, and how maybe all this is gonna turn into some kind of grand adventure. And after we’re done blowing up Extraction Towers, we’ll go home.
To what’s left of it.
We’ll go home to Tau City. A different Tau City. And I’ll find those scholars who study the ruins below the city and I’ll tell them all about our time on the train line, and those people will become our people. People with questions looking for answers. And Jasina and I will settle in with them, and the world will calm down, and that family will emerge, and grow, one baby at a time.
Jasina points. “There they are. The stairs.”
I’m up to my knees in mucky, murky water when she says this. I wade over to the steps and turn, letting her hop off without getting her feet wet. Then we start climbing.
We’re about halfway up when Jasina stops.
“What?” I ask. We’re on a landing maybe six floors up. Jasina walks over to the edge, peering out at the inside of the tower. All the way up to the top, then down where the water is still sloshing from the disturbance I made. Lights flicker erratically, casting eerie shadows over the walls.