Chapter 2

That night, lying in bed, I kept thinking about what had happened outside the residential district.

It had been Viola’s birthday.

Kieran’s was two days later.

It wasn’t just the matching scent on their clothes. Even their birthdays were close.

The next day, I went to his house.

Carol opened the door.

“Ivy, come in.”

She’d known my mother for more than twenty years and had never let me call her anything as formal as “Mrs.”

Kieran called out from upstairs but didn’t come down.

“I don’t understand that academy,” Carol said, taking fruit out of the refrigerator. “The Alliance academy entrance exams are only a few weeks away, and they’re giving you all this time off.”

She tipped her chin toward the stairs.

“He’s had that headset on since he got out of bed.”

Before she left to buy groceries, she looked back.

“Stay for dinner. Text me if there’s anything you want.”

I knocked on Kieran’s bedroom door.

He was gaming. When he saw me, he gestured toward the chair beside him.

I sat behind him and watched the screen change faster than I could follow.

It was a team game. Even with headsets on, they sometimes slipped into the pack link without thinking.

I couldn’t hear those exchanges.

When we were little, Kieran had made a point of repeating everything aloud. As we got older, he’d gradually stopped wanting me to play.

At the end of the round, he lifted one side of his headset.

“What brings you over?”

I held out the box I’d brought.

“Happy early birthday.”

“Thanks.”

He took it without opening it and set it on the corner of his desk.

His phone rang right then.

The voice on the other end was loud.

“Kieran, get back in. Viola says she’ll carry us. We got crushed all morning. This is our comeback.”

“Coming.”

He put his headset back on. Then, as if he’d just remembered I was there, he glanced over his shoulder.

“New books are on the shelf. Help yourself.”

He didn’t look at me again.

I sat there, listening to him laugh with the others.

For the first time, I understood just how far apart our worlds had become.

“I’m heading home.”

I thought he hadn’t heard me.

Then, as I reached the door, he asked, “You’re still going to Westbridge?”

Westbridge trained patrol commanders for the Alliance. It also offered programs in history, medical care, and territory administration.

Years ago, he’d told me he wanted to go there.

I’d said I would too.

“Yeah.” I turned around. “What about you?”

“Okay. Got it.”

He was already looking at the screen.

I wanted to ask what that meant.

But my gaze caught on the corner of the bookshelf.

He’d moved my present there because it had been in the way of his mouse cord.

It was an out-of-print record.

He’d been talking about it for months. I’d searched more than a dozen secondhand stores across the east side and spent two weeks finding it. The owner hadn’t wanted to sell. I’d gone back three more times.

Now it leaned against the wall, squeezed in beside a pile of empty packaging.

Suddenly, I felt as though he’d put me in that corner too.

On my way downstairs, I heard his voice from the bedroom.

“Westbridge? Don’t want to. That place is dry as hell.”

Someone asked something else.

He laughed.

“I’ll decide when the acceptance letters come.”

My hand stiffened around the doorknob.

If he didn’t want to go, why ask me?

So he’d know where not to go?

The door opened from the other side.

Carol came in with grocery bags. She paused when she saw me in my coat.

“Leaving already? I thought you were staying for dinner.”

“No, thanks. I should get some studying done.”

I tried to make my smile look natural.

She didn’t push. She just looked upstairs and called, “Kieran! You could at least walk Ivy out!”

I stepped into the sunshine.

The air was warm. My chest felt hollow.

Maybe he’d forgotten our promise to go to Westbridge together a long time ago.

Maybe I didn’t have to keep it either.

The night before the entrance exams, he sent me a message.

“I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

I stared at it for a long time before replying.

“No need. My family’s taking me.”

The next morning, my father drove me to the testing center and helped me confirm the registration documents required for half-blood candidates. Then he stayed in the waiting area.

I walked through the gates alone.

For the first time, at something that truly mattered, Kieran wasn’t beside me.

I found my room on the list and started to turn.

Someone slammed into me from behind.