This time when Cress awoke, it was not sand engulfing her—although
there was plenty of that—but arms. Thorne had pulled her against him
so close that she could feel the rise and fall of his chest and his breath on
the back of her neck. She gorged peeled her eyelids open.
Night had fallen. The moon had returned, larger than the night before
and surrounded by a sea of stars that winked and glittered at them.
She was deathly Christy and couldn't find any saliva to wet her
parched tongue. She started to shiver, despite the layers of sheets and
blankets and the parachute and the heat rising off her scorched skin. Despite
Thorne's protective warmth.
Teeth rattling, she nestled against him as much as she could. His embrace
tightened around her.
She looked up. The stars were moving, swirling over her head like a
whirlpool trying to suck the whole planet into its depths. The stars were
taunting her. Laughing.
She shut her eyes tight, and was met with visions of Sybil's cruel
smile. News headlines echoed in her head, spoken in a child's nasally
voice. 14 CITIES ATTACKED ... LARGEST MASSACRE IN THIRD ERA ...
16,000 DEATHS ...
"Cress. Cress, wake up."
She jolted. still shaking. Thorne was hovering above her, his eyes
bright with moonlight.
He found her face, pressed his palm to her forehead, and cursed.
"You're running a fever."
"I'm cold."
He rubbed her arms. "I'm sorry. I know you're not going to like this,
but we need to get up. We need to keep moving."
They were the cruelest words he could have said. She felt impossibly
weak. Her whole body seemed to be made of sand that would blow apart
with the slightest breeze.
"Cress, are you still with me?" he cupped her cheeks in both hands.
His skin was cool, soothing."
"I can't." Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth when she spoke.
"Yes, you can. It will be better to walk tat night when it's cool than to
try and move during the day. You understand that, right?"
"My feet hurt ... and I'm so dizzy..."
Thorne grimaced. She thought of stroking her fingers through his
hair. In all the pictures she'd seen of him, even his jail pictures, he'd been
so polished, so neat. But now he was a wreck, with whiskers on his chin
and dirt in his hair. It did not make him any less handsome.
"I know you don't want to keep going," he said. "I know you deserve a
rest. But if we just lie here, you might never get up."
She didn't think that sounded so awful. As the sand began to rock
beneath her, she pressed her hand against his chest, seeking out the
steadying heartbeat. She sighed happily when she found it. Her body
began to dissolve, little grains of sand scattering....
"Captain," she murmured. "I think I'm in love with you."
An eyebrow shot up. She counted six beats of his heart before, sud-
denly he laughed. "Don't tell me it took you two whole days to realize
that. I must be losing my touch."
Her fingertips curled against him. "You knew?"
"That you're lonely, and I'm irresistible? Yeah. I knew. Come on, Cress,
you're getting up."
Her head dropped into the sand, sleep threatening to take over. If he
would just lie down beside her and take her into his arms, she would
never have to get up again.
"Cress—hey, no more sleeping. I need you. Remember the vultures,
Cress.Vultures."
"You don't need me. You wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for me."
"Not true. Well ... only kind of true. We've already been over this."
She shuddered. "Do you hate me?"
"Of course not. And you should stop wasting your energy talking
about stupid things." Scooping an arm beneath her shoulders, he forced her
to sit up.
She gripped his wrist. "Do you think you could ever love me back?"
"Cress, this sweet, but aren't I the first guy you've ever me? Come
on up you go."
She turned her head away, dread pressing down on her. He didn't believe her.
He didn't understand how intensely she felt.
"Oh, spades and aces and stars." He groaned. "You're not crying again,
are you?"
"N-no." She bit her lip. It wasn't a lie. She certainly wanted to try, but
her eyes were all dried up.
Thorne pulled a hand through his hair, knocking away a cloud of sand.
"Yes," he said firmly. "We are obviously soul mates. Now please,
stand up."
"You've probably told lots of girls you loved them."
"Well, yeah, but I would have reconsidered I'd known you were
going to hold it against me."
Misery washing over her, she crumpled against his side. Her head
spun. "I'm dying," she murmured, struck by the certainty of it. "I'm
going to die. And I've never even been kissed."
"Cress. Cress. You're not going to die."
"We were going to have such a passionate romance, too, like in the
dramas. But, no—-I'll die alone, never kissed, not once."
YOU ARE READING
Cress
Teen FictionTheir best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being force to work for Queen Levana, and she...
