I was rewarded with the flash of a smile and a moment of my friend returning, like the sun through a break in the clouds on a rainy day. The moment of warmth passed, and she settled into marching alongside the three of us as we went in search of Alexander’s car.
It was a sports car, a cute one with a top that could come off. We left it on for this trip, but I could imagine the four of us heading to the beach for the day or off to a concert in the city in it with the wind blowing through our hair and all our cares fluttering away on the breeze. The freedom of a vehicle was not lost on me, and I took the chance to relax in the passenger seat while Alexander drove. Rome and Harlow took the back seat, as squished as it was, and I briefly wondered how Luke would fit back there with them. I supposed I’d have to drape myself across Luke and Rome’s knees if it came down to it, something I wouldn’t mind much at all.
“Where are we going?” I asked, noting the road was different than the one I remembered coming into the school. It was getting darker as we drove, but I was certain we took a left when we should have taken a right.
“Into town,” Alexander replied without looking at me. “We’re going the back way. It’s faster, but I’ll be careful, so don’t worry about that.”
“Why would I worry?” I asked.
The three of them were silent, and I could hear the roar of the engine in front of us and the sound of tires on the pavement.
“Tell me. Why would I be worried?” I insisted.
“This is the way you were going when you crashed,” Harlow answered at last. “In fact, I think we’re coming up to the curve pretty soon.”
“Yes, we are,” Alexander said, and I noticed his fingers clutching the wheel as if he could will the car to stay on the road. “I’m sorry, Willow, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“This is the way we always take into town,” Rome reassured me. It didn’t help. My stomach was still flip-flopping as we sped along the winding road through the trees. The sun was disappearing fast, and the car seemed to devour the road with each passing second.
Alexander slowed the car down, and we leaned into a particularly tight curve. Tall, black outlined trees loomed on one side, and on the other was a steep cliff dropping off into nothing but inky obscurity. I wondered how long it went down and how far I’d tumbled before I’d landed after I went off the road.
I had no memory of anything. None of it registered. Nothing felt familiar except the flutter of panic that was growing inside the depths of my stomach. But was that because of my body memories, or was it because I was told this was the spot where I’d crashed?
I couldn’t tell anymore. Peeling back the layers of reality and fiction had become so complicated I didn’t know what I was exposing with each revelation.
“Are you okay?” Rome asked, and he reached around to put his hand on my shoulder. I put my hand on top of his and let it sit there for comfort. As long as I was touching one of them, I felt like I was present and mentally prepared for anything.
“I don’t remember,” I said. “None of this is familiar to me.”
“The doctors said that’s normal,” Harlow said. “You won’t remember much other than the basics. And we’re almost through the worst part of the road, so you made it.”
And just like that, the trees opened up and revealed wide, flat fields on either side.
I didn’t recognize it either, but I recognized that I was no longer in danger.
And we were that much closer to Luke and saving him from the entire world.
CHAPTER8
“Is this where they took him?”I asked as we pulled up in front of a very militaristic-looking building. It was done in grey brick and had emblems painted in red and orange along the front facade. I didn’t recognize them, but one was a roaring lion and had the words “for country” in Latin at the bottom, while the other was two crossed swords with the words “for service” in Latin below them. It was three stories tall, half a city block long, and was squat and ugly in the midst of the pretty houses and elegant towers of the city. “It looks like a fortress.”
“It is a fortress,” Harlow replied, leaning forward. “This is central.”
“Central what?” I asked.
“Central everything,” she said. “Central re-education, holding, prison, you name it, you’ve got it. This is like the one-stop spot for all things related to the crime of being born a Lower.”
“What would an Upper prison look like?” I asked, pulling my lips into a grimace at the ugliness of the entire place. It had a vaguely threatening aura and smelled acrid, like smoke, when I opened my door.
I looked back and noticed Rome and Alexander exchanging a knowing glance over the roof of the car right after they got out.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“There are no Upper prisons,” Harlow replied, pulling herself out of the back seat. She wobbled slightly as she gained her legs and brushed herself off as if to drive away the weakness from her limbs. “They don’t put Uppers away, they offer them reform, and they can pay penance through their work.”
“What about women?” I asked. “They don’t really work, do they?”
“They’re sent to their husbands for punishment,” Alexander admitted with a far-off look in his eyes like he wasn’t ready to admit how messed up that really sounded. “The husband decides what to do. Most often, she has her allowance reduced and loses some of her house staff, so she’s forced to pick up a few of the chores herself.”