The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,69

streets yesterday. Does that count?”

He took my hand to help me over a piece of burnt wooden something, probably left over from yesterday’s battle. Even through the scarf, I could smell the smoke. That was how they cleaned up after attacks. They burned away the memory and moved on into the next day, the next fight. The people here fully expected every day to be a struggle.

“Well then, you saw the meeting square where my brother—and our father before him—gave speeches and instructions, and where we divide and distribute the food we cultivate. That’s an important place to know.”

“And Mattis’ bar,” I added. “I know how to get there.”

“Also good.” We navigated past someone reinforcing a wall that had been repaired several times before from the look of it. The man was shoving a thick piece of metal at an angle, to keep the wall standing. So much of the architecture here was slapped together from no design or even consistent materials. Like a shanty town, only it looked old rather than temporary.

“How long have your people lived here?” I asked. Still couldn’t remember when the Longergan ships had gone missing, but it was at least a hundred standard years ago. Longer, maybe.

“Don’t tell me you failed to count the skulls on Torrin’s throne.”

I…hadn’t. Didn’t particularly want to, either. “Ah, no.”

“That would give you one number,” he said, sort of enigmatically. “And there are other numbers. Taken together, they complete a record of our past. I will teach you how to read them if you want.”

He put out a hand again to help me over something, but I grabbed it instead and didn’t let loose. He turned. Our eyes met. “I think there are quite a few things you could teach me, and I want to learn every single one.”

“Likewise,” he said. Again, those eyes smiled, and the warmth from them encased me, even in this chilly, swirling dust storm of a world. “I’m guessing in the chaos of the fight, you didn’t notice our one tall building. Our skyscraper.” He said the word ironically, as if he was completely aware that nothing here approached a real skyscraper.

I instinctively looked around, blinking through dust. Nope, no sleek glass buildings, no hover cars or towers. Except…no, there was a shape marginally taller than the rest of the shanty-like buildings. It cast part of the town in shadow, so it must be pretty tall, though it, like everything else, seemed made of cast-off building material just shoved up into a pile and nailed together. Only this shanty was at least four stories of such slap-dash construction. Care had been taken to make it fit with the other buildings—to disguise it?—but it was different. It felt different.

There must have been intense fighting here yesterday, because three separate piles of detritus burned. One smelled like it might contain Reamer remains.

There weren’t any doors to this building, but as I watched, Astor went along one wall, the one in shadow, sliding a metal panel here, moving a piece of wood there, undoing a latch. Finally—and I wasn’t even sure what happened or how he did it—an opening appeared, as if by magic.

“It’s a…giant puzzle box?” I asked, preceding Astor through the portal.

He moved in behind me and slid one long hand down a metal strip. The opening hissed closed, and we were alone in a place with zero light.

“I mean, pitch black is beautiful, but… This is where you were taking me?” I said after a minute. He was close beside me, warm and solid, and I wasn’t in the least bit afraid.

He unwound the scarf from my head, and I drew in a deep, clean breath.

“How is your heart?” he asked. I jumped a little. He was much closer than I’d guessed. I could feel his words against my temple. Without even thinking, I tipped my head back and rose on my tiptoes, meeting his mouth with mine.

I must have surprised him, because he didn’t kiss me back right away. He did put his hands on my shoulders, but to steady me or to steady himself, I had no idea.

I drew back and told him the most truthful thing I could. “My heart is full.”

Chapter Eighteen

The hands on my shoulders squeezed. I expected a witty comeback, some sly insinuation, but to my surprise, Astor said nothing. Instead, taking both my hands, he led me toward what might have been…stairs?

The dark building smelled unlike anything on this world. No dust, no underground damp, no wood