“Help me find something. Please. You know I have no fashion sense.”
He put a hand to my back, just a gentle touch, and then he was in the closet too. After a few minutes we’d found me a pair of yoga pants, a long-sleeved shirt and hoodie, and a pair of runners that fit me reasonably well.
Dressed in my new clothes, I felt more like myself than I had since waking up with this new body.
We headed out of the house and crossed the street. “How far are we from the Wall?” I asked. I’d seen it only once and from a good distance when Roger and I had gone on a lazy Sunday drive. We lived in the Queen Anne area, near Kerry Park, where we’d met; the drive to the border, and the Wall, was easily two hours, so it wasn’t something I’d done often. Or ever, to be fair.
“About fifteen minutes to walk.” Tad dropped an arm over my shoulder, and I wrapped one around his waist. “You remember stealing cookies from Yaya and getting caught? How she chased us with the wooden spoon screaming like a banshee?”
“And how she used to make us believe she was a consort of Zeus? That she could handle a lightning bolt if she caught one.” We laughed, and that was how we walked to the Wall.
“Did you ever wonder how she got mixed up into the Firsts? I mean, I understood Mom doing it, because she was always so afraid, but with Yaya . . .” I glanced over at Tad.
He was thoughtful. “I overheard Dad and Yaya talking once. I thought it was nothing, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t think Yaya or Dad really believe what the Firsts do. They said they only went to keep Mom happy.”
I frowned. “Yaya has always done her own thing.”
Tad nodded. “Since Uncle Owen died, though, Mom is all she’s got left. Maybe that’s why.”
He had a point. Losing Uncle Owen when he was so young had sent Yaya into a downward spiral. It had been only in the last few years that her spunkiness had shown back up, and by then she was firmly ensconced in the religion her daughter had chosen.
As we walked, we told stories about our parents and grandmother, reminiscing about the past and pushing away the fact that we walked toward a Wall that cut us off from those we loved.
Who hopefully still loved us.
CHAPTER 7
“This is a big dang wall,” I whispered. The monument—and that was what it really was—stood over forty feet tall. Made of concrete blocks, it had natural handholds and breaks you could clearly see through. It made sense now why the Super Dupers were able to climb over so easily. But then why even make the farce of a Wall?
I frowned and put a hand to the pale-gray concrete. “Now?”
Tad hooked a hand through one of the openings and glanced back at me. “I’m going to climb first and see if there is anyone on the watch. To be safe.”
I grimaced at him but let him go without me.
He pulled himself up, hands and feet working in concert easily as he scaled the concrete blocks. I rubbed my arms and looked down the line of the Wall. A hundred feet away, several other people crept out of the bush and moved to their section of the Wall. I lifted a hand to them, and they turned away from me.
“Snobs,” I muttered.
“Let’s go!” Tad hissed down at me. Startled, I jumped and stumbled forward.
I took his lead and started up the Wall. The rough concrete scraped at my skin, tearing off tiny bits and pieces; nothing serious, but enough to bleed. Halfway up the Wall I stopped and stared at where I’d nicked myself.
“Alena, hurry up!”
I couldn’t move, though. My hand, where the skin had been torn away, held my gaze as if I were hypnotized. Scales glittered up at me, shifting with every pulse of my blood flowing under them. Jeweled scales of purple, green, and blue flickered in the early-morning light.
“Alena, move your ass!”
Swallowing the roll of nausea rising in my throat, I forced myself to move again. Hand over hand, the glittering scales caught my eyes every time I reached over my head. I just couldn’t look away from them.
Tad grabbed me as I drew close to the top and hauled me up the last foot or so. The Wall was ten feet across, and we were climbing down the other side before I had time to register anything around us except for the fact that Tad was not happy.
We climbed side by side, and I tipped my hand so he could see the scales. “Is this like you?”
“Shit. No. I’m going to kick Merlin’s ass for this,” he snapped. But really, what could he do? Could he make Merlin change me into something else? Call it a hunch, but I had a feeling that wasn’t possible.
We hustled down the Wall and dropped to the ground. Tad grabbed my hand, and we bolted across an open section as shouts erupted behind us. I sucked wind hard and put everything I had into getting away.
Until the screams started: the high-pitched cry of terror of someone who was about to die. I understood that feeling all too well. I slid to a stop and spun around. The three people who’d been waiting down the Wall were on the top, with three Supe Squad members coming in from either side.
“Tad, we have to help them.”
“They wouldn’t help us. That’s not how this works.” He reached for my hand, and I knew he would pull me away. Just like Roger had done when I’d told him about the old man who was hungry.
“Let him starve. He put himself in the situation, he can get himself out.”
If I’d listened to Roger, things would have been different. But I couldn’t regret my choice then, and I wouldn’t pander to Tad now.