Inside the house, everything was quiet. Dark. After checking the main rooms, Jeremiah sighed. Everyone was already in their rooms. No doubt they’d decided to go to bed early to get a good night’s sleep.
No more running, he promised himself. He would find a way to talk to Evie alone as soon as possible. It was a long flight; one way or another, he would make time. In fact, starting tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to run, even if he wanted to. They would be together every single day until they either found her mother or returned home empty-handed. He swallowed hard. Instead of calming him down, this made him more apprehensive. So many unknowns. He found himself praying for the right words, lying awake rehearsing what he might say, still at a loss as he drifted off to sleep hours later.
8
Evalene
EVALENE STEPPED INSIDE THE plane, which was barely larger than a few cars put together. It did not feel safe.
There was no way this hunk of metal could stay up in the sky. Could it? Had anyone confirmed that the Number One’s Grid was truly turned off? Her entire life she’d been taught that anything flying above a hundred meters would be shot down. A safety measure to protect their country from enemy aircraft—in addition to preventing people from escaping. But what if their plane was blasted out of the sky when they took off because someone accidentally flipped a switch and turned the Grid back on?
The irrational fears walked down the narrow aisle with her, as Evalene dragged herself into the death trap behind the others. She glanced back at Eden’s blue skies and the friendly distance between the plane and the ground before someone closed the door and blocked her view.
Olive traipsed down the aisle ahead of everyone, completely at ease, having flown before in Hofyn. She picked a window seat for the view. Sol, on the other hand, chose a seat as dead center in the belly of the beast as he possibly could, far away from windows, strapped in tight. Years of Regulator training kept Sol looking as stoic and brave as ever, but his olive skin had grown pale.
There were a few other passengers spread throughout the compartment, strangers to their little group, traveling to the Divided States as well. Everyone kept to themselves. Were they nervous too? Was this their first flight as well, or had they all flown before? One thing Evalene knew for sure: many of the cabin seats were still empty. Travel outside of the country might be legal now, but that didn’t make flying any less terrifying.
Jeremiah was up in the cockpit talking to the pilot. If Evalene wasn’t so shy around him, she might have asked him to sit with her. They’d woken before dawn to find him home and packing their bags in the trunk. After Olive asked him about his trip, everyone stayed quiet the rest of the drive to the small airport, still half asleep, only breaking the silence with the occasional yawn. Evalene caught his gaze in the rearview mirror more than once, but when they arrived at the airport, the flurry of boarding distracted them both.
She wished they’d had more time to talk; his presence would be comforting as they hurtled across the vast ocean risking their lives. But it looked like he intended to stay up front and co-pilot.
Evalene forced herself down the aisle. She chose a seat at the very back, five or six rows past Sol and Olive. She couldn’t handle Sol’s anxiety on top of her own, and Olive’s chatter would be equally stressful. Better to just endure this experience on her own.
She pulled off her backpack filled with clothes, supplies, and money. Stuffing it under her seat, she sat and fiddled with the strange buckle on the seatbelt. She finally managed to strap herself in and closed her eyes. Deep breaths.
Minutes passed. She kept her eyes closed. Pain started to radiate out from her neck and shoulder from clenching her jaw. Evalene tried to relax her muscles, but they weren’t cooperating.
“Hey Hiccups,” a familiar voice murmured. She blinked to find Jeremiah lowering himself into the seat next to her. He picked up his seatbelt and clicked it in place with comfortable ease.
Evalene smiled at the nickname, then frowned. He’d called her Hiccups on the island because of her fears. She’d wanted to be past that when she next ran into him.
Awkward silence settled over them, almost as audible as the humming of the airplane’s engines. She said the first thing that came to mind. “Are you planning to fly the plane?” Dumb question. She wanted to smack herself. He was sitting in the back with her—now he would think she wanted him to leave.
But he just smiled and shook his head, “Not this time. I might not pursue that.”
He didn’t want to be a pilot after all? But his skills would be invaluable now. Especially considering Eden’s complete lack of good pilots and the way aviation was suddenly a growing industry, now that the Grid was dismantled. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that… flying is an adventure,” he told her, settling deeper into his seat and propping his elbows on the armrests. He was so close; they were almost touching. Evalene’s chest was tight and she realized she was holding her breath. “But I want to help Eden recover from the Number System,” Jeremiah was saying, “Maybe flying will do that, or maybe I’ll find something better.”
“Like politics?” Evalene suggested. She was hinting around the subject, when what she desperately wanted to do was to ask why he’d disappeared, right after leading the revolution into victory. Rumors had spread like wildfire when the rebels found out he was gone. Many felt he’d abandoned them. But Evalene felt certain there had to be another explanation—he wouldn’t leave without a reason. Others thought he’d died and his death had been covered up. She’d worried it was true, but now here he was sitting next to her, very much alive.
“Possibly politics,” he answered thoughtfully. “I think enough time has passed that I could get involved again without making things worse.”
Enough time? Evalene gathered her courage. She had to ask. “Is that why you left? Because you worried you would make something worse?”
Jeremiah glanced ahead where Olive and Sol sat, before meeting her gaze. He lowered his voice, “Luc didn’t tell you?”
Evalene shook her head, frowning. “Tell me what? That you were in hiding? I know that much. I just don’t know why.”
“I had to,” Jeremiah said, still speaking softly so the others wouldn’t hear as he stared out at the aisle. “Luc was talking about making me the next Number One.” He shifted in his seat to face her, his gaze intense. “I just—if I’d stayed and accepted the position, even temporarily, we never would have made the progress that you and the rest of the Council made.” He stumbled through his words in a way Evalene had never heard him do before. “I had to leave.”
She blinked and spoke without thinking, “But you could’ve said no.”
Jeremiah sighed and leaned back into his seat again, muttering more to himself than to her, “That’s what he said. I just don’t know anymore…” He turned his head to look at her, still struggling to explain himself. “Maybe part of me would’ve wanted to say yes... I couldn’t risk it. I was trying to do the right thing.”
Nodding slowly, Evalene leaned back as well. “I definitely understand trying to do the right thing.” Even if she wished he wouldn’t have left, she could say that. He smiled in relief.
Slouching into the chair, he tilted his head back, relaxing while they waited. She tried to imitate his calm posture, but the whine of the plane’s engine made her shoulders creep back up in anxiety. The tension building up in her muscles threatened to turn into a massive migraine. “Didn’t we pack pills for motion sickness?” Evalene brought up the flight medication they’d bought in a light tone of voice. But her death grip on the armrests gave her away.
“Yes, sorry. I’ll grab them.” Jeremiah unbuckled long enough to stand and open a storage bin above them. He pulled out a small container that rattled as he sat back down and unscrewed the lid, dropping out two small purple pills. “Remember these will make you sleepy.” He read the label closer. “And possibly a little tipsy.”
Accepting them, Evalene pulled out her water bott
le to take the pills and gulped them down.
Only a few minutes later, her head began to feel fuzzy. Were the pills kicking in already? Clearing her throat, Evalene cinched the seatbelt tighter, until it dug into her hips. It still didn’t feel like enough. What was this thin fabric going to do if the plane fell out of the sky? All her life that’s what planes did. They were shot down by the Number One’s Grid. And now, suddenly she was supposed to just trust this one?
Just as she felt herself starting to hyperventilate, an odd feeling of calm slowly settled over her like a warm blanket. A few more minutes passed and out of nowhere, she giggled. Flying was the best joke. All those little people up in the sky, hurtling through the air at top speed, constantly moments away from crashing to their deaths, popping back down to earth like it was nothing. Her grip on the armrests loosened and she giggled again, loud enough that everyone nearby heard her, including Jeremiah. Sol turned around to see what the fuss was about. Even from ten feet away, he was visibly shaken. The delay in takeoff only prolonging his agony.
When Jeremiah saw Sol’s face, he immediately unbuckled and strode down the aisle with the flight medication to offer some to Sol. Evalene watched Sol shake his head no at first, then pause. He ended up taking the pills from Jeremiah, dropping them into his mouth, and swallowing hard.
Evalene was still chuckling over their situation when Jeremiah made his way back down the aisle to her. He smiled as he buckled back in. “I think I’m going to enjoy seeing this lighter side to you.” He winked at her, and Evalene blushed.
“I can be fun!” His teasing made her forget to filter her words. “You’re the one who’s always serious. ‘I’m the captain,’” she mimicked him in a deep voice. “‘I’m going to disappear for everyone’s good. And I won’t even come back to say goodbye or see how things are going or even—’” Olive glanced back over her shoulder at Evalene’s raised voice, and Evalene cut off the next words. She’d been about to say ‘tell a girl you changed your mind.’ It would have been the perfect opportunity to ask him about his feelings. His letter still rested in her pocket, like always. Waiting to be taken out and shown to him. She touched it, but couldn’t quite bring herself to pull it out. If he had changed his mind, she wasn’t sure she was ready to know.
The plane’s steady hum grew louder as the machine shuddered and finally began to move toward the runway. Jeremiah didn’t seem to notice as he shook his head. “You’re right,” he said slowly. “I could have come back…” Evalene was so distracted by the way the plane shook that she barely heard him when he said, “I did come to Delmare once.”
Staring out the tiny window a few feet away, Evalene saw the ground beginning to move underneath them. Though it didn’t feel like they’d picked up much speed yet, she knew takeoff was any minute now. Wait. He’d come to Delmare? Her head swiveled away from the windows to face him sharply. “You did? When?”
“About four months ago,” he said. “It took me a while to recover from my injuries. Beryl says I was unconscious almost the entire first two weeks. After that I stayed away because I knew if I came back too soon, being pulled into the Number One role was still a possibility…” He trailed off. Evalene stared at his dark skin, tanned even darker from the summer months, and those long lashes, which hid his eyes as he glanced down.
“But… you were in Delmare?” she repeated. His injuries made sense. His recovery made sense. But how could he have come all the way to the city, knowing she was there, and yet not even try to see her? The unspoken question hung in the air.
“It was late when I arrived,” he answered slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. He cleared his throat and crossed his arms, gazing ahead as he told the story. “I didn’t know where anyone lived. But I knew from watching the announcements, that the Number One’s home now belonged to the Council. So, I started there.”
The plane was picking up speed. All at once the nose lifted into the air and with a barely perceptible shift in her seat, Evalene felt it take off. Through the window the ground dropped away from them at an alarming rate. A tiny hint of panic managed to creep up despite the magic of the pills that left her feeling bubbly and calm. It was a strange sensation to be both afraid and entertained by the feeling. Her ears ached and the pressure made it hard to hear Jeremiah’s next words.
“There was a gala or some kind of formal event at the mansion,” Jeremiah was saying, completely unaffected by the speed with which they were shooting up into the clouds. Evalene pulled her gaze away from the window, struggling to focus on his words. “I didn’t have an invitation, but that didn’t stop me from finding my way in.”
She pictured him slipping past the mansion’s security and was impressed. The pressure in her ears made her eyes water and blurred his face in her vision. She swallowed and the pain eased a little.
“You were in the ballroom,” he continued, and instantly he had her full attention. “You were wearing this long purple dress, making sure everyone knew you were the girl in purple.” Actually, that had been Luc’s strategy. Back then, still new to her different lifestyle and position, Evalene had just gone along with it. So, Jeremiah had been close enough to see her, yet never said a word? She tried to remember which event she’d worn the purple dress. There had been a few. But four months ago? She could only think of one…
“When I saw you dancing with him, I didn’t want to intrude.” Jeremiah was still explaining. Her mind raced. Dancing? With him? “I could tell he made you happy.”
Her head spun. It was hard to find the words to answer him. The mixture of the pill and her fear had made her tongue dry and words evaded her. She couldn’t even picture which man Jeremiah meant. That night, both Dewar and Bevel had shadowed her everywhere. Former high Numbers had pursued her constantly. They thought a few compliments and gifts would sway her decisions in their favor. But if she’d appeared happy that night, it had nothing to do with those men and everything to do with her newfound freedom.
To her frustration, none of these words were forming correctly on her tongue. Instead all she managed to get out was, “You were at the Eden Council Ball?”
He nodded. The pressure building in Evalene’s ears grew excruciating, until finally they popped. The fuzzy feeling from the pills made her sleepy, but she needed to tell Jeremiah that those men didn’t mean anything to her. She turned to face him, opening her mouth to speak.
The plane bounced in mid-air and Evalene squealed. Her hands returned to their death grip on the armrests. “It’s okay,” Jeremiah told her. “It’s just a little turbulence.” A little? It felt more like something was hitting the plane. Something like gunshots. From the Grid. Even the pills couldn’t stop her panic attack now.
The turbulence continued, each bump making Evalene cringe. Jeremiah quickly reached down to his bag and pulled out the pills again as he urged her, “Take deep breaths.”
She did, closing her eyes. When Jeremiah pressed two more of the purple pills into her palm, Evalene took them gratefully. She kept her eyes shut, jerking automatically every time the plane lurched. As her terror eased, her eyelids grew heavier. She told them to open. She still needed to tell Jeremiah the truth. But they weren’t responding. Keeping them closed felt so good...
9
Evalene
THE SPEAKERS BLARED TO life and a voice spoke to the half-empty cabin telling them to fasten their seatbelts because they were landing shortly. Evalene turned to find Olive obediently clicking into the seat next to her instead of Jeremiah, who was nowhere to be seen. They were landing? Had she slept through the whole flight?
“How’re you feeling?” Olive asked, when she saw Evalene sit up and look around.
“Jeremiah was at the Council Ball,” Evalene blurted out in response. Her mind was still foggy. “I have to tell him the men he saw me with don’t matter. I haven’t even spoken to them in months!” Something tilted in the plane and she flinched. Were they descending? She wanted to sit near a window, to see the Divided States as they flew over it, but
she was afraid to unbuckle for even a second.
Olive lit up with excitement, “I knew it! I knew he still has feelings for you.” Ears popping, shoulders tensed, Evalene squeezed the armrests and kept her eyes shut tight. The plane gave one final lurch before hitting the runway with a solid thud. The touchdown knocked the air out of Evalene’s lungs as she felt the plane slam into the ground, bounce, and then hit again, before settling fully onto the runway. Evalene drew in deep gulps of air, and said a prayer of thanks for being back on the ground. Olive didn’t appear affected by the wild landing at all.
“Had feelings.” Evalene corrected, once she could breathe again. “He came to Delmare four months ago.” As the motion-sickness medication wore off, it took her courage with her. “I think he’s moved on. Maybe I should just let it go.”
“No!” Olive nearly yelled, making nearby passengers turn around, startled. “Sorry, sorry,” she waved at them, before whipping back to face Evalene, speaking in a harsh whisper. “You can’t do that. You just can’t. What if you two idiots never say anything because you just assume the other doesn’t feel the same? Honestly, Evie. I’m about to go tell him for you.”
“Okay, okay!” Evalene made Olive promise not to say anything. “I’ll tell him. At least the part that whoever he saw me with was no one special.”
“And…” Olive prompted.
“And nothing,” Evalene wouldn’t budge. “We’ll see how it goes from there.”
“You have to at least mention the note,” Olive said, crossing her arms. “Even if just to say thank you.”
“Fine. I’ll mention it.” Evalene agreed.
“Good.” Olive grinned. “What’s the worst that could happen?” They sat in silence as the plane drove up to its gate. Evalene wished Olive hadn’t asked that last question. Now she couldn’t get it out of her head.
As Olive shifted in her seat, waiting with everyone else for the seatbelt light to turn off, Evalene grabbed her friend’s arm. “Olive, what is the worst that could happen?”
Pearl's Number: The Number Series Page 6