The tall woman and one of the twins followed me up to my bedroom carrying an armful of garment bags. They unzipped them and laid them out on my bed. Five dresses in total, each one silver.
The woman whose name was Aramis, held up a short silver dress. The dress was fitted and sequined at the top. The bottom part was covered with gray feathers. "This dress will really show off your great legs."
I wondered how she knew what my legs looked like , since I was wearing jeans. I took the dress into my bathroom to try it on. It looked sort of cute on the hanger, but it made me look like a cupcake.
"This isn't going to work," I said as I exited the bathroom.
Blaine and Aramis gasped.
"Oh, but you look delectable." Yeah, like a cupcake. "Why don't you like it? It's young and fresh," Aramis said.
"It's really cute, but it's just not my style." I picked up a long silver dress that was simple, yet elegant. No matter what this looked like, I was wearing it. I didn't plan on trying on another dress.
I tried the dress on. It was much better than the cupcake dress. As I stepped out of the bathroom, I got a stronger reaction than before. Blaine and Aramis clapped. I didn't know if they were being honest or not. They seemed like a bunch of yes-people.
"You look drop-dead gorgeous," Blaine gushed.
"Yes, she does," agreed Aramis.
"This is the dress," I said quickly. Mostly because I wanted them to leave.
Aramis walked around the dress, pinching and pulling. "It barely needs alterations. Your figure is perfect. Let me take your measurements so it can be taken in a little."
I held my arms up while she wrapped the tape around me and Blaine typed the results onto his electronic notepad. At long last, they gathered their things and left.
My parents and I walked them to the door as they chattered excitedly amongst themselves. Dunningham was the last to leave. He lingered in the doorway.
"As I said before, I am very pleased that you've accepted my proposal. That also means that you must govern yourself accordingly, meaning no more night visits with that boy. I'm sure you understand that it's just not proper."
"Yes, Mr. Dunningham."
His eyes held an anger that frightened me. He left and Dad closed the door behind him. "What was that about?" Dad asked. I guessed Reynold hadn't gotten around to telling Dad how he had found Bram and me I outside the night before.
My parents glared at me as if I had just committed some unforgivable sin.
"Nothing. Bram and I were just talking outside last night."
Mom closed her eyes. "Keira," she said disappointedly.
"It's not a big deal. You guys just dropped this huge bombshell on me , and I needed someone to talk to. Naomi's not around, so I talked to Bram. That's all."
Dad shook his head. "You heard what Mr. Dunningham said—"
"Yeah, I get it. I'm his property now and I can never speak to Bram again!" I stormed up to my room, ignoring their requests for me to come back.
I begged Mom to let me take a study break after that eventful morning. She reminded me that I had been off my studies this week, but I promised her that I would only be gone for a little while. Because she was still in a good mood about my engagement, she let me go.
I jogged to Chase's house. His mother answered the door. "Hi, Keira. Congratulations!"
"Thank you. May I speak to Chase, please?"
"Chase is studying."
"I know. I just need to speak to him for a minute."
She opened the door for me. "Okay. He's in his room."
I bounded the steps and entered Chase's room without even knocking. He sat at his desk with his back turned to me, bobbing his head to whatever music was in his earphones. I pulled them from his head.
"Hey!" Chase cried, turning around. "Oh, Keira. What's up? Congratulations, I guess."
I wished everyone would stop congratulating me. Right then, all the tears I'd been holding inside broke free like water from a dam.
Chase stood and wrapped his arms around me , and I nuzzled my face into the shoulder of his hoodie.
"Chase, what am I going to do?" I moaned.
He patted my back. "I don't know, Keira. I really don't."
I pulled away from him and sat on his bed, folding my legs beneath me. "My life is ruined."
Chase sat back in his chair. "I still can't believe it. Why you? I mean, I don't mean it like that—"
"It's okay. I asked myself that same question."
"You must be the reason he spared Naomi and let us visit her. He wanted to get close to you. Maybe win you over. I told you he had an ulterior motive."
"Well, he didn't win me over. He creeped me out, actually." I fiddled with the zipper of my hoodie. "They just left my house with all this stuff for our engagement party."
"Yeah, I heard about that. I suppose it's an Upper Estates-only event and we're not invited."
I hadn't thought much about that. I should be allowed to have some of my own friends at my engagement party. "I could ask them to invite you."
Chase put his hands up. "Please don't." Then his expression got serious. "Really though. I'm so sorry about this. At least it's a year away. A lot can happen in a year. Maybe he'll change his mind and choose someone else."
"That would be wonderful."
Something made a sound against Chase's window. "What the—" He leaned over his desk to look out of the window. "It's Bram. He's waving me down."
Chase shot from his seat. He had always idolized Bram, like most of the boys in Farrington. Doyle had been right about that. I followed Chase down the stairs because I was nos e y , and I wanted to know what Bram wanted.
Chase's mother yelled something from the living room, but we ignored her. We found Bram standing outside of the kitchen door.
"Oh, good," he said, looking at me. "You're here, too. I need to talk to you both."
"About what?" Chase asked.
"I want you guys to go with me to the Outskirts tonight."
"Bram, you're really going to do that?" I asked.
Chase frowned. "Do what?"
Bram shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around impatiently. "Doyle came to my house. He didn’t give me a lot of details, but he said something about an experiment and freedom. He said I shouldn't say anything to anyone, so don't say anything."
"Why would Doyle tell you something like that?" Chase asked.
Bram shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't think it will kill us to hear him out. Dunstan wants to meet with me tonight. Of course we can't stay too long."
The Outskirts were too hot for a full-blooded Grim to survive in. Because we weren't on assignment there, our scythes wouldn't regulate our body temperatures.
"I'm in," Chase said, not surprisingly.
Bram looked at me.
"I'll go." I had a bad feeling about it, but I would love to see Naomi and I also wanted to hear what Doyle had to say.
"Good," Bram said. "Meet me at the stream at midnight."
Getting to the Outskirts was going to be a bit of a journey. We would have to cross the stream and go through the city of Litropolis, where the poorer Grims lived, and then climb a wall—all without being seen by the Watchers.
Chase was already waiting on the edge of the stream when Bram and I arrived.
"What took you guys so long?" he complained.
"We're two minutes late," Bram replied. "Chill."
Bram walked ahead while Chase and I followed behind, trying to keep up with his long strides. We trudged through the murky waters of the shallow stream then pushed our way through the dense shrubs that towered over us. With a little help from the light post above us, the wall that separated our city from Litropolis came into view.
The purpose of the wall was to confine the Litropolites to their area, so there was no real opening. However, we had gotten into the city a few times by removing loose stones in the wall and crawling through. During the riot, a gaping hole had been punched into the wall. Since then, it
had been repaired, but now two Watchers were standing on guard in front of the wall, Blair and Seymour. They were the latest and youngest Watchers to join the squad.
Usually, the wall was unguarded, but obviously that had changed in light of recent events. Blair leaned against the wall , tossing something into the air and catching it while Seymour played with a lighter. Blair said something that I couldn't hear, causing Seymour to erupt in laughter.
Chase looked at Bram. "What do we do now?"
Bram's eyes narrowed as he thought. "Come on," he said, walking toward the wall.
"What? Bram, what are you doing?" I called after him.
He sauntered ahead confidently. "Just follow my lead."
Chase shook his head. "Why didn't I just stay home?" But the two of us followed Bram.
Blair caught the small stone he had been tossing. He and Seymour both froze once they saw us approaching. Seymour pulled a flashlight from somewhere and shone it on us. "What are you guys doing out?"
Bram squared his shoulders and jutted his chin. "You know, I'm going to be in the next session of academy training."
Blair smirked. "I heard. You know what I did when I heard that? I laughed and laughed and laughed. You'll probably last a day before they kick you out. Now answer the question. What are you guys doing out this time of night and why are you here?"
"We're going to Litropolis," Bram replied.
Seymour stared into the flame of the lighter and appeared to have no interest in us.
"Why do you need to go to Litropolis?" Blair asked. "No one wants to go to Litropolis, not even the people who live there."
I took a deep breath, wondering what Bram's plan was. So far I couldn't tell.
Bram looked down at the ground. "I need to buy some herbs for my neighbor. He was hurt during the riot and I heard that there was a woman in Litropolis who sells herbs that kill pain."
Blair seemed unmoved. "Really?"
"Yeah," Bram answered. "He's in a lot of pain."
"Just let them go already," Seymour said, sounding annoyed.
Blair shot him a questioning glance. "What? No one's supposed to cross the wall. And what about her?" he asked, pointing to me. "Dunningham's not going to like that. He told us to keep an especially close eye on you."
A slight panic came over me at the thought of being watched, but then I figured that maybe if I pissed Dunningham off enough, he would choose someone else to marry.
Seymour shrugged. "Our instructions are to keep Litropolites and Foragers out. If they want to go to that rat hole, let them. What do we care?"
Blair stared at the three of us for a moment and then rolled his eyes. "Whatever. But we're not responsible for what happens to you over there."
"Understood," Bram replied.
A smile spread across Blair's face. "How you gonna get over the wall? You gonna fly?"
Bram pivoted on his heel to leave. "Don't worry about it."
As we walked away Seymour muttered the words "screw up before training even starts " . ”
The three of us had been to the city of Litropolis at one time or another. We knew the exact spot to go to. We removed the loose stones, replacing them after we'd crawled through.
The city was asleep; only the wind made an occasional sound. Litropolis had no real houses, only tents and shacks made out of wood and pieces of scrap metal. There was no electricity or running water either. A few tin cans filled with burning garbage stood in the alleyways, providing light and a tiny bit of warmth. The place had an indescribable stench that I couldn't stand.
I placed my forearm underneath my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth. "Do they know we're coming?"
"Yeah," Bram answered. "I told Doyle to relay the message. I don't know whether or not he'll be there, but he said he'd get the message to Dunstan."
We'd been taught for years that Dunstan was an evil traitor and a threat to our society. I hoped for our sakes that wasn't entirely true. I'd met him before, yet I wasn't sure what to make of him. The fact that he'd shared a womb with a creep like Dunningham made me feel uneasy.
5
Another wall separated Litropolis from the Outskirts. Using the ropes that always hung there, we scaled the wall and climbed to the other side. We were only a few feet from the wall when we were stopped.
"Where do you think you're going?" a deep voice demanded. I remembered the boy. Colden, the boy who had escorted Naomi back to Farrington. He had the look of a Forager. They didn't have dark hair and eyes like us. He had light-brown hair with blond highlights.
Bram pushed past him. He wouldn't answer the questions of someone he felt was beneath him.
Colden grabbed Bram's arm. "I asked where you were going."
Bram snatched his arm away and shoved Colden. "Touch me again and I'll kill you."
Chase stood between them. "Calm down." The two boys still glared at each other.
"Hey. We don't want any trouble. We're here to see Dunstan. He knows we're coming," Chase explained.
"You don't have to explain anything to him," Bram said. "I could snap his neck and be done with it."
Colden glowered. "Yeah? That's something I'd like to see."
"You better remember which one of us can die and which one can't," Bram shot back.
Grims with more than one hundred years couldn't be killed. Foragers could. None of them had close to a hundred years.
We walked toward Dunstan's cottage with Colden following behind , shouting insults that we ignored. I wished he would go away. I didn't know what might happen if he got Bram angry enough, and neither of them were the type to back down.
"Hey, where's Naomi?" Bram asked behind him.
"I don't know," Colden answered. "I haven't seen her in a few days."
I looked behind me. "This place isn't that big. Where is she?"
Colden shrugged. "I'm sure Dunstan can tell you."
Colden knocked on the door of Dunstan's house a few times before the door swung open. A young boy with blond hair let us in. Dunstan, the spitting image of his identical twin , sat at his kitchen table with books spread in front of him. A lump formed in my throat and I had to remind myself that this was Dunstan, not Dunningham.
"Don't you ever sleep?" Colden asked as we gathered around the table.
"Ha! I'll sleep when I'm dead," Dunstan replied. Then he laughed at his own bad joke, because he and his brother would never expire. "Please, have a seat."
Chase, Bram, and I took the three remaining chairs from the kitchen table while Colden leaned against the counter with his arms folded across his chest. There was something about this kid I didn’t like. I could almost smell his hatred of us.
"What took you so long?" Dunstan asked.
Bram leaned forward. "Excuse me?"
"If someone came to me offering me a chance at freedom and a better life I'd be on that post-haste."
Bram sighed. He had grown impatient already. "Listen, you know we can't stay here long. Just say what you have to say."
Dunstan looked at each of us. "Well, this was a conversation I was planning on having with just you alone," he told Bram, "but okay. How would you like to live outside of Nowhere? Be free from my brother's heavy fist and the rules of the Covenant?"
Dunstan paused, but none of us reacted.
"Keep going," I said, not that I'd be interested in what he had to offer.
"I'm running an experiment. It's simple. We'll transfuse you with human blood, making it possible for you to survive here and in the real world. You will have to run a few errands for me, but other than that your life will be your own. I don't care what you do. Who you marry. There'll be no more hours and hours of studying each day. No more putting your life on hold every time you get called out on an assignment. You will be free."
Bram and I made eye contact. He shook his head and I agreed. Dunstan's offer sounded like nonsense. Grims didn't have blood , and we didn't need it. I wasn't about to inject human blood into my body for any reason.
"That'
s very interesting," Chase said, "but we really need to be getting back. First we want to know how Naomi is. If she's okay."
Colden shifted uncomfortably. His gaze met mine and he looked down at the ground. An uneasiness crept into my chest.
"Yes, we need to see her," I insisted.
Dunstan took a deep breath, folding his hands in front of him. "I'm afraid that's impossible."
Bram leaned in even further. "What do you mean? Where's my sister?"
Dunstan eyed him for a moment. "Well, she's part of the experiment. She has the perfect blood—half Grim and half human. She can survive in both worlds, so we needed her blood. I gave some to Doyle and he's been in the human world without his scythe, without being on assignment, for twenty - four hours before coming back."
Bram stood abruptly, causing his chair to fall back and clatter to the floor. "You're using my sister as a pin cushion? You'll kill her."
"Not if you do what we're asking you to do," Dunstan said. "Sit down, son."
"I'm not your son. Tell me where my sister is."
Bram didn't get that Dunstan was running the show. His demands weren't going to work.
Chase stood the chair upright. "Sit down, Bram. We need to hear him out. We'll have to leave soon." Chase coughed , and my own throat began to feel scratchy. We weren't made to survive in the atmosphere of the Outskirts.
"Talk fast," Bram said.
"Like me and your sister, Naomi, you can have the best of both worlds. The only thing we need is more human blood. The more humans we have to harvest blood from, the more Grims we can inject. Bring me humans and I can let your sister go. Until then, she's our only source of blood, and yes, she'll die eventually if we keep taking it from her."
Bram lunged across the table at Dunstan. "I'm gonna kill you!" Dunstan leaned back, wide-eyed.
Colden pulled Bram back into his seat. "Don't do that again."
Neither Chase nor I had the capacity to exert ourselves physically. I needed Bram to calm down.
I swallowed hard, trying to get some sort of moisture in my throat. "How are we supposed to get humans?" I asked. "There's no way for us to get them back here. We only transport lifestones."
Keira Grim: The Final Breath Chronicles Book Two Page 4