Rival

by Cindy R. Wilson

  He nodded and left the room. More than once, he glanced behind him to see if Theo or James was following him. He doubted Theo believed his story, but what reason did he have to lie? Besides, Theo was so focused on defending their community from the other side, he had no time to follow Maddox.

  He still hated it, but there wasn’t much he could do at this point. His mom would worry whether there were people at the border or not because it was in her nature. Because she was the leader, and she felt responsible for everyone.

  He headed in the direction of the bridge. He just needed to make sure Juno was okay, and since she liked being away from her settlement, by the bridge was probably the best place to find her.

  He’d check on her, see what happened. Make sure she was okay and find out what had happened on her side of the road. And then he’d apologize.

  When he was far enough away from his community, he stepped onto the paved road so he could walk faster. He silently cursed himself for not being smarter and bringing water. But he worried that the longer he stayed back home, the more suspicious people would get.

  Whether that was rational or not, the weight of lying was starting to hit him.

  He’d only gone another twenty steps when he spotted a small figure on the other side of the road. It got closer and closer until he could see her hair, her short but purposeful stride. Something inside of him came alive at the sight of her, and the guilt kicked in ten-fold.

  Juno looked up and then froze when she saw him. She glanced around as if searching for someone else, or maybe to make sure they weren’t seen.

  He gestured to the nearest building and then ducked around the corner to wait for her.

  After a moment, she appeared, lips pressed together tightly. Her hand snuck toward her belt where she kept her knife.

  Damn. She wasn’t happy.

  He gave a small smile and tucked his hands in his pockets. “Hey.”

  She stalked straight toward him, her boots crunching on the gravel.

  “You’re about three inches from getting stabbed,” she said, voice hard.

  “Excuse me?” He watched her fingers twitch at her belt, and then his gaze traveled to her eyes again. By the fire he saw there, he almost believed she really would stab him.

  “How dare you come out here acting like everything is just fine after what happened last night.”

  “What happened?” Oh. That. He felt his cheeks burn in shame. “I know I said I’d be there but—”

  “Not that. The nets.”

  He blinked and wiped his forehead as a drop of sweat started to slide down. “Your nets? What do you mean?”

  “Come on—”

  “No, Juno.” Maddox took a step toward her, forgetting about her threat. “Tell me. What happened?”

  “You really don’t know?” The way she looked up at him, a flicker of hope in her eyes, made him want to reach out, to touch her cheek and assure her he had no clue what was wrong.

  “Tell me.”

  “Someone from your side of the road came across last night,” she said quietly. She bit her lip before meeting his gaze again. “They destroyed all our fishing nets.”

  He cursed silently under his breath. “Juno.” He reached out and touched her arm softly. “I’m so sorry. I—I…” He lowered his hand. “I thought I saw someone walking around on the beach last night.”

  “You did?”

  He nodded and swallowed hard. “But I had no idea who it was or what they were doing. All of your nets?”

  “All of them,” she whispered.

  Damn it. No wonder so many of her people were stationed at the border.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said again, mind whirling with frustration and helplessness. He wished he could fix this for her. For everyone. But he had no idea what to do. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night.”

  “You probably would have gotten caught. They would have thought it was you destroying the nets,” she said, voice bitter.

  “Do you think it was me?”

  She blinked against the sun in her eyes, looking completely vulnerable. Her eyes were the color of sea glass, a green deep enough that he felt like her gaze was drawing him in. Then she shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

  Relief washed over him. He didn’t want Juno thinking the worst of him no matter what the rest of his community did.

  “I’m tired of my people making this worse,” he said, almost to himself. “If I—we—can figure this out, who stole the fish and who’s been going over the border, maybe it will help. Maybe…”

  Maybe things could be different between their communities. Between him and Juno.

  “Maybe,” she echoed, but there wasn’t much hope in her voice.

  “We’ll keep looking,” he assured her. He suddenly had more of a purpose to find the thief. To find a solution. But mostly, to help Juno in any way he could. “In the meantime—rat traps. I can show you how to make rat traps until we figure out the rest.”

  “You still want to do that?” she asked, dropping her chin.

  He reached out again and brushed his fingers on her jaw to get her to look up. Her breath caught when their gazes met. His eyes dropped to her lips for a moment before he nodded.

  “Yes,” he said. “I do. Do you have some time tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know that last lamppost by the water?” he said, pointing back to the beach and the border of their communities.

  “Yes,” she said again.

  “If either of us can’t make it, leave a note there on the wooden post. Then we’ll know not to wait.”

  Or to worry.

  She smiled at him, the first real and sincere smile he’d seen from her, and it was aimed right at him.

  “Good thinking.”

  He smiled back. “Good. I’ll meet you at the bridge tomorrow morning. If either of us can’t make it, we’ll leave a note and try again the next day.”

  “Okay, then.” She stepped back and nodded. “Tomorrow morning.”

  “See you then.”

  He watched her walk away, steps light and quick. He brushed his hair off his forehead and felt another smile taking over.

  There was too much crap going on back at his community. He needed this. Yes, it was to help the communities unite. Yes, it was to figure out who was causing trouble between them. But it was also for himself.

  Because Maddox was starting to think Juno could be the best thing that had happened to him in a long time.

  Chapter Nine

  Juno

  If Maddox hadn’t been from across enemy lines, Rand and Stef probably would have loved him.

  As they weaved their way down the border, Juno studied him from the corner of her eye.

  His eyes were an expressive shade of brown, squinted against the brightness of the sun. He wore a plain gray shirt with the sleeves ripped off at the shoulders, exposing lean muscles all the way down to his forearms. She was willing to bet he didn’t get muscles like that from emptying rat traps all over the city.

  Maddox was a doer. That was exactly why Rand and Stef would love him. He took matters into his own hands. He wanted to know more about fishing and her nets, so he’d gone to find answers.

  He wanted to figure out who the thief was, so he made a plan. She just wished he was more consistent. At least now they had a way to communicate if they couldn’t meet—notes carved on the side of a wooden light post.

  She liked it. She bet the people in the Light District still had ways to communicate with each other, leaving fun notes in some form or another. They might as well have the same luxuries here while they could.

  “Are they worried about you going out to the bridge like this?” Maddox glanced over, and she jerked her gaze to his. “Your family?”

  “I…” Juno gathered her thoughts and looked forward instead of looking at him again. The simple answer would have been “no,” but did she really want Maddox to know she had no one? That her “family” would probably be happier w
ith her out of their lives?

  “I’m careful,” she finally said.

  She paused when he crouched to pick up a metal bar under a pile of wood. He spun it in his hands while she waited to see if he would ask her more.

  Maddox looked up at her from his crouch, his eyes narrowed in scrutiny. His stare was so intense, so full of purpose, she shifted on her feet and looked away.

  “What?” she mumbled.

  “You’re not what I expected.”

  She swallowed, moistening her throat. “Neither are you.”

  He stood abruptly and held up the metal bar. “This should work.”

  “For a rat trap?”

  He nodded.

  “You’re building a new one?”

  “We’re building you one.”

  She just stared at him for a long moment, hit by realization. She’d said he wasn’t what she expected, but it was completely true. He wasn’t anything like what she’d heard about the other community. He was nice. And smart.

  And God, when he looked at her with those curious eyes, she wanted to spill everything to him. Maybe even step closer and see if there was another kind of connection.

  “That is the plan, right?” Maddox asked.

  “Right.”

  He opened his satchel and shoved the metal bar inside. She watched him rearrange his load with deft fingers and resisted the urge to peer inside to see what else he had in there.

  When he looked up and caught her staring, he smiled. “Curious?”

  She took a hasty step back. “About what?”

  “What’s in here.” He opened the satchel further. “Take a look.”

  “No, that’s not—” She lowered her voice as blood rushed to her cheeks. “It’s none of my business.”

  He chuckled and pulled an apple out of his bag. “Here. For the hunt.”

  “Hunt?” She couldn’t keep her eyes off the apple or keep her mouth from watering.

  “Rat trap materials.”

  “It’s…how do you have apples?” she asked, locking her fingers in a tight grip so she wouldn’t reach out and snatch the fruit from his hand.

  “The same way you have fish. Or other vegetables we don’t have. Somebody was smart and figured it’d be a good idea.” He grinned at her, making her stomach flutter, and pushed the apple into her hand. “It is a good idea, isn’t it?”

  “I’m—it’s not… This is yours.” She pushed the apple back at him, ignoring the warmth of his fingers at the same time she longed for more. “I can’t take your food.”

  “You took my rats yesterday.”

  “That was a trade.”

  He sighed. “Let’s share it, then.”

  “It’s not mine.”

  Maddox nudged the toe of his boot against a pile of wood, frustration etched at the corners of his mouth. What didn’t he understand? People didn’t just give their food away. Sure, she and Pillar gave each other things all the time. But they’d been friends since they were little kids. They shared everything.

  Except Maddox. She hadn’t shared anything about Maddox with Pillar. In fact, Pillar was probably wondering where she was right now. But she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and head back to her community.

  Maddox was right. She was curious. And not just about what was in his bag.

  “I’ll share,” she said finally. “If you let me share something with you. I mean, just to be fair because—”

  “Good.”

  Before she could move, he tugged her pack off her shoulder and opened it up. The only thing she had inside was a canteen of water.

  “This will do.” He pulled it out. “I forgot mine.”

  While she watched with her mouth open, he took a long swig of the water. A drop trailed down his chin, and he wiped it with his forearm. He held it out to her. “You should stay hydrated.”

  She accepted the canteen, staring at the spot he’d just drunk from. A moment later, she heard the crisp crunch of him biting into the apple. She watched with the same fascination as he cleared juice from his chin before passing the fruit to her.

  Her fingertips brushed his as she took it, and at that moment, something shifted between them. A pause. A breath. Something brief. But it was understanding. They weren’t members of different communities or enemies on separate sides of a line she didn’t understand. They were simply a young girl and boy with the same purpose in life.

  To survive.

  Juno felt her lips twist into a grin. She lifted the apple, took a big bite, and let the juice fill her mouth. She hadn’t had an apple in years. It was sweeter than anything she’d ever tasted and refreshing like the spring storms that seemed to revive everyone.

  “What about you? Is your family worried about you being out here?” Juno asked as she passed the apple back.

  His eyes connected with hers, curious but guarded. She wanted those answers. She wanted to know all about him—and not just how or why he fit into the war between their sides. She wanted the personal things, too. The things that made him who he was.

  He ate another bite of apple, eyes still locked on hers in that way that made her feel like he saw all the way to her soul.

  “We should keep looking,” Maddox said abruptly. He handed her the canteen, then the apple, and gestured. “We need more pieces for your trap.”

  “What about the thief?”

  “Not much we can do about that right now, is there?”

  She stuffed the canteen into her bag and caught up to him. “But how are we supposed to figure out who it is?”

  He kept walking, and she lengthened her strides to keep up. He took them in the direction of Victor Bridge. She could tell the moment they passed the community borders and walked into free space. People wandered around—families, couples, children—all taking their time or chatting with each other. A few cast them smiles or waves, but there were hardly any suspicious looks.

  “They don’t care,” she murmured, hustling again to catch up to Maddox.

  He glanced over. “What?”

  “They don’t care that we’re here. They don’t think we’re going to steal their supplies. They don’t even have people at the border.”

  “Things are different over here.” The corner of Maddox’s lip curled. “You don’t get out much, do you?”

  Defensiveness flared inside. “I do get out. Probably not as much as you, but—”

  Her words cut off when she tripped on a rock that had strayed from a pile of rubble on the side of the road. She stumbled, arms shooting out automatically to break her fall, when she felt fingers strong around her waist.

  Maddox hauled her upright, gripping her other arm with his hand. “You all right?”

  Her cheeks flushed as she realized his mouth was only inches from her own. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin, and her heart raced in her chest. She tried to straighten her shoulders as adrenaline and some other undefined emotion circuited through her body. His eyes searched hers, still waiting for an answer she was too breathless to give.

  Finally, she managed to blurt it out. “I—I’m good.”

  He released her with a grin. She couldn’t decide whether to grin back or be frustrated that nothing seemed to faze him.

  Before she could blink, he gestured to the rubble underneath the bridge. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait. Maddox—”

  “Since you don’t get out much, I’ll show you one of my favorite places.”

  “I don’t—”

  He didn’t listen, only dashed under the bridge—the same area where they’d emptied the rat traps. With a huff, she followed after him, her footsteps echoing on the metal skeleton of the structure.

  “Maddox,” she called.

  “This way.”

  She ducked under a beam and came out on the other side, almost stepping straight into seawater. She’d forgotten how close the ocean came to the bridge. It weaved in and out under it for as far as she could see in the direction of the Light District.

 
; “Maddox?”

  She spotted his satchel on the ground near a beam, just inches from the water.

  “Up here,” he said.

  Juno looked up to find Maddox climbing one of the beams, his feet settled precariously on enormous bolts that held the structure together.

  He reached out a hand to encourage her to come up. “Come on.”

  “Uh…” She glanced around. He was already pretty high, and it looked like he planned on climbing higher. All the way to the surface, to the road that would take them across. “That’s okay. I don’t really—I mean, we should probably make the traps or something. Or we could—could—”

  He chuckled. “You don’t want to see my favorite spot?”

  She shifted from one foot to the other. Not if it meant climbing that high. What if someone saw them? Everyone knew that travel on Victor Bridge was against the law, even her people, way over by the ocean.

  But right now, with Maddox here and a whole new world open to her, she almost didn’t care about consequences. This…this was what it felt like to be an equal. To be accepted. And she didn’t want to give that up for anything.

  “You only live once,” Maddox said, flashing that grin she was starting to like. Maybe he wasn’t quite as irritating as she thought. “Let me show you.”

  Juno dropped her pack on the ground and started up the metal beam. She kept her grip tight on the edges, afraid she’d slip.

  Maddox’s voice sounded just above her. “You’re doing good. Keep going.”

  She glanced up, breath catching. He continued to reassure her.

  “You’re almost halfway there. Good job, Juno.”

  Before, she might have found it condescending. But right now, it felt like Maddox knew her better than anyone, that he could see how much she wanted to break out of her shell.

  She continued to climb, keeping her gaze focused on where Maddox was putting his hands and feet and mimicking his movements. After another moment, he pulled himself over the top, vanishing briefly.

  Before she could say his name, his head appeared along with his hand. “You’re almost up.”

  She reached out, fingers closing around his. They tightened, and then he was pulling her up the last few feet and onto the surface of the bridge.