Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance)
Page 25
Amber pulled her head back, and Aaron had to catch his jaw. Her green eyes sparkled as if illuminated from behind. Aaron’s body felt weak and jittery, his lungs like they were filled with helium. Relief.
“Did I answer your question?” she said.
“No, I think you need to kiss me again,” he said.
“In your dreams.” Amber glanced up at the four other people crammed into her room watching them, and she blushed furiously.
Almost as if she couldn’t feel the hole. Aaron caught Buff’s eye, and his friend understood.
“Well, I better get off to the fields,” Buff said loudly. “Cal trains year-round.”
“Go back to Junior League Rugby,” said Dominic, following Tina and the nurse into the hall.
Once they were alone, Amber locked eyes with Aaron. “So . . . neither one of us has a half,” she said. “Does that mean . . . ”
“No idea,” he said, his heart still in free-fall at the mere sight her—right now, a mess of tousled hair and big bright eyes.
She bit her lip, clearly deep in thought. “Hang on,” she said. “Kiss me again.”
Aaron kissed her, and he realized she no longer felt forbidden. Her skin felt divine, charged. Just touching her stole his breath, scalded his nerves, almost like—
Of course! He pulled back, just as Amber’s eyes brightened with the same realization.
“How?” was all she said, her jaw suspended.
“Casler unblocked my channel!” he said. “It was supposed to kill me, but the machine severed your channel too. We were two loose ends; we must have snapped together.”
Amber stared at him. “So we’re—”
“Yes,” he said. “We are.”
“You mean, you and I, we’re actually . . . ” she trailed off, unable to form the words. “I want you to say it.”
“Amber, we’re halves . . . just like we’re supposed to be.”
It was obvious now. He could feel her weighing down his heart, how close she was. He wanted to leap into her body, memorize her. He saw it in her eyes too—her desperation to close the gap between them. To make up for eighteen years apart.
They were two halves of the same soul.
EPILOGUE
Plus 3 Months
“Buddy, just lift it from the back,” said Buff.
“No way—” Aaron’s golden arms flexed against the solid brass. “You got to pull from the front.”
Aaron collapsed, pulled off his goggles, and wiped his forehead. He gasped for breath. The sun kissed the tops of their heads.
He grinned and high fived his best friend.
Behind them, the Bermuda surf was already washing away the deep gouge they had left in the sand.
Buff peered at him over the top of the corroded brass eyepiece. “Let’s go down and get the rest of the treasure.”
“Give me a minute,” said Aaron.
Aaron gazed at a cluster of palm trees. They had grown right up to the water’s edge. Some fallen coconuts floated in the shady shallows beneath them. Beyond the palms, the white shoreline curved out of sight on its way around the tiny island.
Their 28-foot sailboat, Endless Honeymoon, was just visible around the bend—a wedding gift meant for Amber and Clive that she had managed to hold on to.
Buff’s half, Daisy, scampered out of the jungle. The little redhead hardly made it up to Buff’s biceps.
“That is so cool! What’d you guys find?” she said.
Buff picked her up with one arm. She giggled and tried to escape.
“Buddy, care to explain our find?” said Buff
“It’s an aitherscope, probably eighty years old,” said Aaron, beaming at them. “We found it in the wreck.”
“Aitherscopes didn’t exist eighty years ago,” she said.
“Yeah, Buddy, don’t you remember that lecture?” Buff dropped her in the sand, flicked some sludge off the eyepiece and pressed his eye to the lens. “I wonder . . . ”
“Buff, there’s no way—”
“Yep. Still works,” said Buff.
Daisy looked through next, and her eyes widened. “Buffy, it’s your eye!”
Buff turned the color of a ripe plum and tackled her onto the beach.
Buffy.
Aaron had to hold his nose to stop from cracking up. He tried the aitherscope after Daisy, while the two of them rolled around on the sand. It didn’t hurt anymore, not like it used to.
Static.
“Still nothing,” he muttered.
Then somebody jumped at him from behind. He spun and caught her, and she tossed wet blonde hair out of her eyes and kissed him with salty lips.
“Want to see what I got you?” Amber whispered in his ear, still panting from her dive. She leaned over, exposing her glistening back, and half of a faint white spiral caught the sunlight under her bikini top.
Even though Clive was dead, the scar hadn’t fully healed. It was now a permanent reminder to both of them of how close she had come—and how they weren’t like other halves. They had earned the right to love each other, and for that, every second they spent together was precious.
Amber held out a starfish for him. “Isn’t she cute?”
Aaron glanced between Amber and the starfish. “I do see the resemblance.”
“Oh, do you?” She brought out a sea cucumber next. “Well this one looks like you.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes at the slimy, spotted slug. “Good to know you’re not just with me for my looks,” he said.
“Actually, it’s mostly just your looks,” she said with a sly smile. She peered sideways at the aitherscope. “You know, I haven’t looked through one of these since my birthday.”
She leaned toward the eyepiece.
And Aaron’s heart clawed itself into his throat. He grabbed her arm. “Amber, forget it—”
But it was too late.
“Wow,” she said, blinking into the eyepiece. “Aaron, that isn’t your eye.”
“Whose is it?” he croaked.
“It’s just static.”
Aaron exhaled his relief. “Come on,” he said, grinning. “I saw an underwater cave we can explore.”
Amber wrapped her arms around him again. “Is it private,” she asked.
“It’s an underwater cave.”
She bit her lip. “So really private?”
“That’s why we’re exploring.”
The ocean glittered in her eyes. “Is that all we’re going to do?”
***
The first sign that something was off came late July, when they were back in Tularosa. Aaron sensed it first. They were walking out of the Arlington Theater, oblivious of the crowd—when he felt a gentle tugging at the back of his skull.
Then he saw him.
For an instant in a shop window’s reflection. Across the street, standing in the shadows. A gray hoodie, pale blue eyes.
Aaron spun, but there was no one.
Just shadows.
Aaron took a deep breath and squeezed Amber closer to him. It was only his imagination.
People didn’t live on after half death.
Only Aaron did that.
THE END
A Message from Dan Rix
It’s my turn to thank you. Whatever it is that brought you to Entanglement, I am honored to have you as a reader. In asking you to come on this journey, I’ve taken some of your time, and that’s a debt I won’t forget. My sincere hope is that I’ve given you something in return. Something to remember and think about. Maybe a little truth.
If I have, then you and I have something in common—and I want to offer you this challenge: Let’s not part ways.
Because the truth is, you and I co-authored Entanglement. My part was minor; it was you who brought the world to life, you who made the characters speak, you who stood by them to the end.
I’m asking you to take pride in that. So before anything else, I need you to do something. Hop on your laptop and give Entanglement a review on Amazon. You will make the di
fference. Do it now, while the story’s fresh. After you leave a review, come join me at danrixauthor.blogspot.com. And let me be a part of your life.
I can’t wait to hear from you.
Dan Rix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Following the advice of other writers, I kept this book a secret for four years. At least I thought I did. Right now as I write this Acknowledgement page and think back on all the names, I am humbled by the many people who gave me their unquestioning support and encouragement, and in so doing, gave me my strength.
Below is a list of people who had no cause to believe in me, yet did.
I owe my success and happiness to my beautiful girlfriend, Laura Carlson. She is my constant inspiration, and this book is a product of her unconditional faith in me. I also have the good fortune of being in love with the best damn independent editor in the world. Almost every big breakthrough I had in creating Entanglement is a result of her (if you’re a writer, she’s at www.americaneditingservices.com).
I am indebted to my parents, Ann and Paul, for never teaching me the word “impossible.” Because of them, going after my dreams is a given, not a wish. They were also my two most loyal readers throughout.
I need to thank my brother, Steve, for coining my pen name and for encouraging me to ditch the nine to five and go after this thing with everything I had. It paid off like he said it would.
I must thank my friends Sukhee Basetti and Noah Lehman for reading the book and giving invaluable feedback. They went above and beyond the call of duty. I have to thank my friend and roommate of many years, Keith Salvado, for his infectious excitement for the book. He made me feel like I had an accomplice.
I want to thank Tamra Carlson, for knowing I would succeed and supporting Laura and me with Costco runs when money was short. I want to thank Brian and Teresa Carlson (who also supported us during hard times) for their generosity, and for being proud of me before I had anything to show.
I want to thank my former agent, Kim Perel, for her valuable world-building edits that gave the book the final edge it needed.
I also want to thank everyone who approached me at the 2012 San Francisco Writers Conference. Your words of encouragement and excitement for Entanglement (then titled In Half) fuel me to this day. I wish I could thank each of you personally. I also need to thank everyone on Agent Query who edited my query letter and told me they couldn’t wait to read the book. I printed out those comments and taped them up on my wall.
And I want to thank you. For taking a chance on me, for investing a few days in this book. For making this all worth it. I hope you enjoyed the story.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS