Girl of Glass, #1

by Megan O'Russell

  No leaves clung to the branches. There would be no reason to look at the tree twice. Kieran climbed out of the vertical slash in the trunk. It looked like the tree had been split by lightning or time. The gap in the bark didn’t seem large enough for a person to fit through until Julian emerged from the opening.

  “Onwards?” Julian asked.

  Nola‘s gaze followed him as he started up the hill toward the glittering domes, rising just above them.

  “What?” Nola said, her feet not moving as she glanced from the tree to her home.

  “I know, I know,” Julian said, shaking his head, laughter bouncing his voice. “It is a bit passé to have a secret entrance hidden in a tree. However, I find when one becomes the stuff of legend, one might as well embrace the whole fantastical existence. I prefer to write myself into an unlikely fairytale rather than accept my fate is a horror story.”

  “But it’s right here. There’s an entrance right here!” Nola shouted before clapping a hand over her mouth.

  They stood silent for a moment.

  Nola listened for the sounds of guards coming to search the night but couldn’t hear anything beyond the pounding of her own heart.

  “I was almost killed getting to Nightland tonight,” Nola finally whispered. “And you mean to tell me I could have just climbed into a tree and found out Kieran wasn’t dead in twenty minutes? Skipping entirely over nearly being killed three times?”

  “We couldn’t allow that.” Raina grabbed Nola’s arm, dragging her up the hill toward the domes.

  “Why not?” Nola yanked her arm from Raina. “You want me to sneak around and steal things for you, but you couldn’t let me use a short cut?”

  “It may be hard for you to understand”—Raina tossed her hair, her fingers twitching as though aching to reach for her knife—“but it’s just as hard for a vampire to trust a Domer as it is for a Domer to trust a vampire. We couldn’t just let Kieran tell his little girlfriend all our secrets, even if he did think you had an actual soul.”

  Julian hissed, silencing Raina.

  “Fine,” Nola said. “But if I had died, how long would it have taken you to find someone else who could get you the medicine?”

  “If we’d known you would be more useful than the I-Vent, perhaps we could have arranged a parade to escort you to Nightland.” Raina took a step toward Nola, her hand draping over the hilt of her knife. “Then again, showing someone who is going to betray you the second they get inside their cozy little domes an easy way into the only safe place you have is a sure way to get all of Nightland slaughtered.”

  “Enough,” Kieran said, stepping between Raina and Nola. “I’ll take her the rest of the way.”

  Raina opened her mouth to argue, but Julian spoke first. “We’ll wait for you here, Kieran. Shout if you need us.”

  Kieran put a hand on the back of Nola's waist, guiding her up the hill.

  “This is crazy,” Nola said.

  “You can do it,” Kieran said. “I know you, Nola. You’ll be all right.”

  “No, not just the medicine.” Nola ran her hands through her hair, her tangled curls snagged on her fingers. “Vampires, and werewolves, and zombies. This isn’t how the world is supposed to be.”

  “The world is broken,” Kieran said. “We broke the planet. Is it so hard to believe the planet broke us right back?”

  “But it’s all legends, story stuff.” Nola tripped over a root.

  Kieran wrapped his arm tightly around her waist, steadying her.

  Nola looked away from the worry creased on his forehead, blinking in the darkness, trying to focus her tired eyes on the uneven ground. “All I wanted to know was if you were alive. And now…”

  “I’m fine,” Kieran said. “And now you have the chance to do some real good. Don’t forget, Nola, people living in domes was once story stuff, too. We can’t choose which stories come true and which stay stories. None of us are that strong.”

  They were almost to the domes now. The sun had barely begun to paint the night sky gray. Soon the workers would be up, and then the new shift of guards would take up their posts.

  Kieran stopped at the last of the trees in the forest. “I don’t think I should go any farther.”

  “They might catch you.”

  “I might not be strong enough to leave.” He touched the ends of Nola’s hair and then her cheek. “Be careful.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Nola nodded. She walked out into the field, forcing herself not to look back, knowing Kieran would be watching her.

  She half-expected guards to be waiting by the loose pane of glass. Or an alarm to sound as she crawled inside. She crept through the trees and back out onto the stone path as the gray light from the sky turned orange.

  She peered through the glass, down over the forest and thought she saw a flicker of movement, but there was no way to know. Back into the empty house and up to her bed. She pulled the I-Vent from her pocket and took a deep breath, letting the metallic taste fill her mouth as her eyes drifted shut and she tumbled into sleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  The faint ringing of PAM’s bells dragged Nola from sleep. Her head pounded as she tried to sort through everything that had happened the night before. The scent of the damp tunnels clung to her tangled hair. Her shoes were still on, and she clasped her I-Vent in her hand.

  It wasn’t a dream. There is a tunnel in the woods that leads to a den of vampires living under the city. Kieran is with them.

  I’ve agreed to help them.

  “Good Morning,” PAM’s voice said as soon as Nola climbed out of bed. “Reminder: Today, Dr. Kent will be returning home. Morning lessons will be in the Aquaponics Dome. This evening—”

  “Thank you, PAM,” Nola said, cutting the computer off. She didn’t care what was happening in the domes that evening. Her mind couldn’t move past the medical storage unit three stories underground.

  Nola went to the shower, turned the water on as hot as she could stand and scrubbed the filth and stench of the city off her skin.

  Does Kieran have hot water or soap?

  Nola shut off the water, pressing her face to the cool ceramic wall. The shower, the warm fluffy towel. It all suddenly felt too extravagant to be allowed.

  “You can’t save everyone. Just get the medicine.”

  She turned the water back on and rinsed her hair. Normal. She had to look normal. Like this was any other day.

  Mr. Pillion droned on, his voice dulled by the moss and heavy tank glass in the Aquaponics Dome. He spoke in a soothing, calm tone about the effects of algae blooms on fish populations.

  Nola hated the Aquaponics Dome. The class was seated in the dug-down section of the dome, eye-level with the tanks of fish.

  Mr. Pillion coughed loudly.

  Nola sat up straighter, aware of his eyes on her.

  “As the fish waste feeds the plants, the plant waste feeds the fish,” Mr. Pillion continued. “What we really need to think about is what plants and fish mesh best together in this type of symbiosis, and which plants and fish can best contribute to the dietary, medicinal, and preservation goals of the domes.”

  The fish smelled terrible, but it was dark and warm by the tanks—a nice place to sleep. The fish swam in slow circles under the roots of the plants.

  Nola didn’t feel herself slipping into sleep, but her eyes flew open at a sharp kick in the shins from Jeremy.

  “Magnolia,” Mr. Pillion said, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, “are you feeling quite well?”

  Nola sat up straight and smiled. “I’m fine. Just tired. Sorry, Mr. Pillion, it won’t happen again.”

  “Perhaps we should send you to the clinic.” Mr. Pillion frowned. “Just in case.”

  Nola chewed the inside of her lips. Being sent to the clinic would take hours. And if they thought she was sick, they would place her in isolation. She would never be allowed to visit her mother in her lab if the doctors thought there was any chance of her being contagious.


  “Really,” Nola said. “I just couldn’t sleep last night.” Her mind raced for an answer. “I don’t like being by myself in the house.”

  Mr. Pillion gave her a sympathetic look. “Of course.” He nodded and turned back to the screen where he was working through a list of extinct ocean species.

  Some of the students still stared at Nola. She kept her eyes on the board. She never would have been left alone before her father was killed. Before Kieran and Dr. Wynne were banished. She could feel their sympathy radiating toward her. Nola bit the inside of her lip hard, blinking back the tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

  “Unfortunately, some species such as Blue Whales were too large for an attempt at their preservation even to be made,” Mr. Pillion said.

  The whales had been left out in the ocean to fend for themselves. The tiniest algae killed the largest mammal. The injustice of it burned hot in Nola’s chest.

  But where could we have put a whale?

  The end of lesson chimes sounded in the hall. Nola threw her things into her bag and was first to the door. Her mother should be here by now. If her mother behaved as she always had, she would already be in her lab, carefully checking each specimen and experiment to be sure everything was perfect.

  “Nola.” Jeremy caught up to her and took her hand, easily matching her quick pace. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Jeremy twined his fingers through hers. Nola’s heart caught in her throat. Last night she had been walking with Kieran through the dark in a place she should never have been. And now she was going to steal from the domes. She looked up into Jeremy’s eyes. Brown eyes as dark as Eden’s.

  “I’m fine.” Nola pulled her hand away, pretending she didn’t see the hurt in Jeremy’s eyes as she stepped back. “I’m going to go say hi to my mom. Will you let Mrs. Pearson know where I am if I’m late?”

  “Sure.”

  Nola turned and walked down the hall before Jeremy could say anything else.

  Her mother’s lab was located three floors below the normal tunnels. The research labs were some of the most important parts of the domes, so they were buried deep underground, far out of reach of storms or riots.

  Nola went down the first flight of stairs. Offices branched off in either direction, all lit by sun-mimicking bulbs to make sure no one suffered from lack of light while they worked through the day.

  There were no lights like this in the vampire tunnels.

  Are sun-lights enough like the real sun to make Raina suffer?

  Nola shook her head, banishing thoughts of places she should never have seen. But the clearer her thoughts became, the more the pressure of the earth weighed down upon her.

  She descended another flight of stairs to where the food and supplies were stored and where those deemed fit for only menial tasks labored.

  Then down the final flight of stairs. Nola’s chest tightened, even worse than it had breathing the outside air the night before. Guards stood at either end of the hall, protecting the researchers behind their shiny white doors.

  One of the guards nodded at her, not bothering to ask the reason for Nola’s visit. She came down to the labs often. If she was going into botany, she needed to know as much as possible, even if the depth of the labs made her ill. She had almost begged to go into transportation just so she would never need to descend the steps to the laboratory. But choosing a path outside botany would have killed her mother. Nola would study plants and how to save the world. It was the only path her mother could accept.

  Her mother’s figure moved on the other side of the frosted glass of the laboratory door. Nola knocked lightly.

  “Yes.” Her mother’s brusque voice cut through the glass.

  Nola peeked her head into the lab. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Magnolia,” her mother said after pausing for a moment, as though trying to figure out who would be calling her Mom. “What do you need?”

  “I just wanted to say hi, see how the conference was.” Nola stepped into the room as her mother began typing away on the computer.

  “The conference was fine.” Her mother moved toward a tray of cooled samples on the table. “We agreed to institute a new policy that will double food production.”

  “That’s amazing,” Nola said. “With that much food, we could actually bring produce to the Charity Center.”

  “Don’t be foolish,” her mother said. “The excess space in the greenhouses will be used for further plant species preservation. Just because you can’t eat a plant doesn’t mean we should allow it to be wiped off the face of the earth.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nola murmured.

  “No.” Her mother sighed, running her hands through her short hair. “I didn’t mean to snap. The conference was good.” She sank down into her office chair, massaging her temples. “We’re going to be converting one of the domes for tropical preservation this year. We’re bringing in a new batch of rain forest species, which is truly exciting. Something I’ve been fighting for since I got this job.”

  “Then, what’s the matter?” Nola perched on her mother’s desk.

  “Something went wrong with the seed samples while I was gone.” Her mother waved a hand at the tray.

  Nola leaned over, examining the dishes of seeds. The outsides had cracked where tiny stems had tried to break through, but the green had faded, replaced by withered brown.

  “I was trying to see how short the cold simulation could be,” her mother said. “The heat at the end of the cycle was too high and fried the seedlings. And I have no idea what went wrong with the program.”

  “I’m sorry.” Nola pulled her mother into a hug.

  “It’s fine, I just need to—”

  “Get back to work,” Nola finished for her mother. “I’ll see you at home.”

  Nola walked back out the door and into the hallway. The guards didn’t even look to see who had come out of the lab.

  Sweat slicked Nola’s palms, her heart pounded in her chest.

  I won’t even make it to the door before they know something is wrong.

  Two doors down. All she had to do was enter two doors down. She exhaled and willed her shoulders to relax.

  She wiped her palms on her pants and pushed the seed storage door open.

  She glanced at the guards, but their backs were still toward her. She slipped inside, shutting the door silently behind her.

  Nola’s breath rose in a cloud in front of her. Even with the adrenalin pumping through her veins, she began to shiver. The room had been built to keep the rows upon rows of seeds hibernating. Saving thousands of species from extinction.

  It had always seemed strange to Nola that the Dome Council didn’t place more guards on seed storage. To the Kents, this was the greatest wealth of the domes.

  Someday, years from now, when the water had begun to clear and the air was pure again, people would leave the domes. They would spread out around the world to begin again. And these were the seeds they would take with them.

  Nola wanted to stay, read every name on every tray and picture what the plants would look like when they had grown. But this room was not where the answers for Eden lay. Blowing heat onto her hands, Nola walked to the end of the room before turning and heading to the back corner.

  There it was, just where Julian had said it would be; a grate at the base of the wall, as high as Nola’s waist and just as wide. It was bigger than she had thought it would be, and the faint light of the medical storage room filtered through from the other side. It was only three feet. Less than that really.

  Nola knelt and pulled out a thin strip of metal, sliding it into the crack at the edge of the grate, gently prying it away from the wall. She stopped every few seconds, listening for footsteps or the whoosh of the door swinging open. But as the grate slid into her hands, no sound of panic came—no running feet, no alarm. Taking a deep breath, Nola crawled into the wall. Her hands trembled. She could leave the other side of the grate off. Leave an exit from the cramped darkness. But if someone
came in, they would spot the hole in the wall.

  Nola grasped the slats of the grate, feeling them cut into her skin as she pulled the metal into place. Her breath came in shallow gasps. The airshaft opened above her, leading to the next floor. Cold air blew on her, coming from stories above, going through filter after filter to get down to her. Nola turned to the other grate, her whole body shaking from cold and panic. She pushed against the metal, but it didn’t budge. She leaned her body into the grate, but it refused to move.

  “Please, please just open,” Nola whispered, twisting to push on the grate with her feet. A whine of metal on metal echoed around the vent as the grate moved a fraction of an inch. Nola froze, waiting for one of the guards to come running into the room, searching for what had made the noise. But the hum of the air system was the only sound.

  “Open dammit.” She gave the grate two kicks, and it popped out, hitting the floor of the medical storage room with a clatter.

  Nola dragged herself into the room and lay on the ground, gasping at the dim ceiling lights overhead. Again, she waited for the pounding of guards’ boots as they ran to arrest her. To throw her out into the world. But there was nothing.

  She pushed herself to her knees, searching the room. Where there were rows of shelves in seed storage, here there were glass-fronted cabinets, each labeled with its contents. Nola pictured where Julian had pointed on the map. She pushed herself up onto her shaking legs and walked along the back wall. The vials were classified by type. Names Nola didn’t understand.

  It should be Kieran down here, climbing through airshafts and stealing medicine.

  He would know what all the names meant and be brave enough not to fear the guards.

  She reached the cabinet in the far corner. Nola didn’t hesitate as she opened the glass door. Fog blossomed on the glass at the heat of her hand.

  Pataeris. Sitting right on the shelf. Nola picked up the vial. She expected an alarm to sound. Or for PAM to reprimand her loudly. But there was no noise. No hint of danger.

  Nola slipped the vial into her pocket and sprinted back to the grate. Back through the darkness and into seed storage. She could be aboveground in ten minutes. She would see the sun. Nola crawled into the shaft and jammed the grate shut behind her, ignoring the sting as the metal dug into her fingers. With a grind and a tiny thunk, the grate was back in place. Nola twisted to the other grate as a familiar voice said, “What the hell was that?”