The Sky is Everywhere

Chapter Fifty

The CC is mostly empty now.

Anyone injured in the Trials is either in hospital, or in the infirmary, including the Predators. If they had been firstborn they would have been arrested, but apparently no one quite knows what to do with them in this situation.

The other Seconds who weren't in the Trials, and the babies in the nursery have all been taken into temporary housing somewhere in the city.

Most of the people marked as Prey this year died in the Trials, and even though my failure to save them tastes sour on my tongue, I have to remember that I have helped to save many hundreds more lives. No one will ever go through the Trials again.

I need a shower. My skin is crusted with dried blood, flaking off in rusty spots, and my hair is matted into stiff chunks. I can smell it everywhere, rank and metallic. The closest showers are in the Handlers' quarters, but I can't bring myself to go in there. Instead, Roan helps me up the stairs to the showers on the first floor.

It seems likely that the lifts do actually work between floors, and aren't just for the Trial Grid, but I can't bring myself to go in those either.

I haven't set foot in the first floor for a long time – Seconds aren't allowed to visit any floor but their own – but the showers are the same throughout the building.

Roan waits outside while I peel off my clothes and step under the hot spray.

This is probably the last time I will ever be in these showers, and much as I can't wait to leave it behind, it feels very strange too. The CC is all I have ever known, regardless of how I feel about it.

I wash my hair three times, until the water runs clear, and I'm sure there's no blood left. Then I do the same to my body.

When I'm clean, I find that Roan has left me a towel and a pile of clean clothing. My hands tremble a little as I touch them. I'd expected my usual grey uniform, the only clothes that Seconds are ever allowed to wear, but instead I find a pair of loose black trousers, with a drawstring at the waist, and a soft blue t-shirt.

Blue.

I lift the t-shirt to my face and hold it to my cheek like it really is a piece of the sky.

Of course Roan remembered.

I slip the clothes on and dry my hair with the towel until it's just damp, and then I go out to where Roan is still waiting, sitting on the floor.

A smile breaks over his face. "Blue suits you. I thought it would," he says.

I smooth down the t-shirt, feeling a little flush of pleasure. I can choose colours now and I want to wear them all. I want to be a rainbow.

Roan climbs to his feet and pulls me in for a hug.

"Roan?" I whisper, resting my head on his chest.

"Yeah?"

"Where am I going to live?"

He's quiet for a moment, and I look up at him.

"Well," he says. "I was hoping you would live with me."

My jaw drops.

"If you want to," he hurries on. "But I'll understand if it's soon, or you're not comfortable doing that yet –"

"Of course I want to," I say, kissing his chin.

His whole face lights up, and he captures my mouth with his, kissing the breath right out of my lungs.

I'm so lost in the soft, warm taste of him that I almost don't notice that faint music is coming from somewhere.

"Sorry," Roan says. "It's my phone."