Forgotten

Chapter 13

        WHEN I STUMBLE SLEEPILY INTO the kitchen, I find Liana already dressed and eating breakfast by herself at the table. She hears my footsteps behind her and turns around. Smiling, she says, "Good morning. How'd you sleep?"

            I rub my eyes and plop into a chair next to her. "Okay, I guess. Where's Hayley?"

            "I sent her off to school already. It's 8:30."

        "Are you serious?" I slept for that long? Usually I'm up with the sun, around five or six in the morning.

            "Yeah. You must've been pretty tired." Liana takes a sip of coffee.

            She's right. I hadn't gotten home until 1:30 the previous night, and even though I'd crashed right away, my midnight walk seems to have taken its toll.

            As Liana bites into a boiled egg, I'm tempted to tell her about last night, which surprises me. The secret's much safer if I keep quiet—if anyone ever found out, I'd be arrested and taken away for breaking curfew. If they discovered what Rowan and I had been talking about...I shudder at the thought.

            But she's my sister. I've known Liana longer than I've known anyone else; she's the only one who shared the fear and pain of living with abusive homestead sisters. When we were little, we told each other everything because there was no one else to tell. No one could keep my secrets as well as Liana, and no one could keep Liana's secrets as well as me. And when I look at her, all I can see is the pretty, scared little girl who took my hand and said, We're sisters now.

            I can't hide this from her. It would be like treason.

            "Liana," I start, my voice a soft rasp.

            "Yeah?" She looks at me expectantly.

            "I...Last night, I...I sneaked out."

            "I know." She lifts the mug of coffee to her lips again and gazes out the window.

            I stare at her incredulously. "You know?"

            "Did you think I wouldn't know?" Liana turns back to me, a spark of anger in her eyes. "Stella, I woke up and you were gone. You broke curfew and about a dozen other rules besides—what were you thinking?"

            "I was thinking," I say slowly, "that I wanted to save Hayley."

            Her eyes narrow. "Do you want to tell me what you've been doing?"

            I sigh and brace myself for the explanation. "When I stormed out of the auditorium yesterday, this boy—I barely know him, I just met him in the marketplace a few weeks ago—ran after me. He told me to meet him at midnight, and I know it's crazy, but I went."

            Liana is still eyeing me suspiciously. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was, Stella?"

            "I know, but I had to. I had to find a way to save her, Liana! She's just a child—I can't let her go to that fate!" I can feel the tears forming in my eyes, and I rise from my chair. "Liana, he told me that there's a...a rebellion against the Federation. People that can take her away from here and keep her safe. You, me...all of us."

            I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

            Liana is gaping at me with unconcealed horror, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. She stands, her eyes searching my face, but it's as if she's looking at a stranger. "Stella," she whispers. "Do you even know what you're saying?"