Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance) - By Dan Rix Page 0,80
tell her she can’t.”
“She’s not listening to anybody, fuckface.”
Aaron squeezed his eyelids shut. “She never does.”
“Dr. Selavio’s warming up the machine right now. They’re doing the operation at eleven.”
Aaron held the phone away from him, stared at it. It was a nightmare, surreal. His heart sounded far away, buried, and the whole world rippled when it beat. He pulled the phone back to his mouth.
“I’m coming right now,” he said. “Why the hell didn’t Dr. Selavio wait for me? We had a deal.”
“Amber made him swear not to contact you,” said Dominic, “and he decided she would be better anyway. She’ll let him take more out.”
“Jesus. Just tell him I’m coming,” said Aaron. “And tell him we had a deal.” He flung his phone onto the passenger seat and reached for the ignition.
What the hell was Amber thinking?
The operation would drain her body of something she could never replace. She would be docile afterwards, helpless, pathetic. She would follow Clive around like a pet, taking orders and feeling sad when she was reprimanded, happy when she was rewarded. Never defiant. On the outside, she would still be the same girl—Clive’s trophy—with only a tiny scar at the back of her head to remind her that she was hollow.
They would do this to her, and in fourteen minutes, she was going to let them, all just to protect Aaron, a boy who wasn’t even her half.
He had to stop her.
Aaron ignored the burn of the ignition wires, and his Mazda fired to life. Fourteen minutes. On a bad day, the drive to Dominic’s house could take twenty. He wasn’t going to make it in time—
Aaron hadn’t even found first gear when a figure loomed to his left. He glanced up as two large hands closed on his collar and dragged him out of the car.
***
“Amber, turn around,” said Dominic. He stood in front of the cellar door, swirling a glass of whisky—blocking her.
Amber stopped just short of him. “What are you doing here?”
“Trust me, you don’t want this,” said Dominic.
“You mean you don’t want this?” she said.
“No one does.”
“It’s my choice,” she said.
Dominic scanned the entrance hall behind her and raised his eyebrows. “No Selavio?”
“I’m all alone,” she said. “Does that excite you?”
“Nah.” He tilted his glass, and the ice crinkled. “My birthday’s in five weeks.”
“Am I invited?” she said.
“Depends on how much of you is left.”
She sighed. “Can you please move?”
“Seriously though,” he said. “He’s going to stop you.”
“Clive?”
“Number eleven.” Dominic wrinkled his nose and sipped his whisky.
Amber felt a twinge in her heart. “He won’t. Not anymore.”
“Let him volunteer instead of you. He’s already halfless; no one’s going to miss him.”
Amber glared at him. Then her eyes flicked to his glass. She snatched it from his hand and poured the rest on his head.
He flinched, then shook the liquid off his letterman jacket, kind of like a wet cat. “If that leaves a stain,” he said, “you’re paying for it, Amber.”
She smiled sweetly. “Can I go now?”
He stepped to the side. “Don’t let me stop you.”
Before he changed his mind—or she changed hers—Amber pushed through the door. In the cellar, the silver haze of the aitherscope made her feel see-through. She held her breath until she was safely past it.
Her stomach still hadn’t unknotted from her final, heartbreaking conversation with Aaron. On the phone, it had taken all her strength not to burst into tears, not to cave and confess she loved him. But somehow, she had to push him away. It was the only way to protect him. Whether or not they were supposed to be halves hardly mattered. Even if Casler agreed to reconnect them, the operation would be her second switch, and she wouldn’t survive it—at least not all of her.
And she never wanted Aaron to see her like that. As long as Casler left him out of it and promised never to touch him, he could do whatever he wanted to her. In fact, the more he took out the better. When it was done, she wanted to feel nothing.
She couldn’t stand another excruciating minute as Clive’s half. Up until now, he had kept silent about his father draining her clairvoyance, though she knew it terrified him. In his own way, he did love her; he wanted to own her just the way she was, not hollowed out like other juvengamy girls. He wanted her to love him in return, to really love him, and he knew that would only come from the feeling, thinking,