Once An Eve Novel

wide cars. The wind was relentless, the sun hidden behind a flat gray blanket of cloud. As we crept along the old Flamingo hotel the intersection opened up before us to reveal a small patch of the main road. One more block , I thought, watching Caleb edge toward the corner, where the narrow street emptied out beside the Palace’s front fountain. He would turn right and I would take the overpass to the other side of the road, blending in with the workers in the Palace mall.
    When he was steps from the corner he kneeled down, pretending to tie his shoe. He looked at me, his mouth turned up in a half smile, his green eyes bright. We had made it. I didn’t know when I would see him again, or how, but we would find a way. I touched the rim of my cap, a barely perceptible salute.
    Then he stood. He took his last few steps, turning right on the main road to loop back toward the Outlands. I climbed up the overpass stairs, keeping my head down to avoid being seen. It took me a second to hear the soldiers’ loud voices, to see the crowd that had assembled by the Palace’s front entrance, workers and patrons alike, all trying to get inside. The troops had closed the building, blocking off the street just north and just south of it. We were trapped.
    I froze on the overpass, watching Caleb’s panicked face as he approached the Palace. He darted behind some workers, then turned, trying to go back the way we came, down the narrow street. It was too late. A soldier at the end of the checkpoint was already stepping out of line, his eyes fixed on the stranger in the wrinkled pants and partially untucked shirt—the only one who had come toward the Palace, then turned away.
    I didn’t think. I just ran. I pushed through the crowded overpass and down the stairs, darting across the street. Caleb was walking quickly in the opposite direction, his head down, trying to disappear into the crowd. The soldier was nearly on him. Then he reached out and grabbed Caleb’s collar, yanking him back.
    “It’s him!” he called out to the others.
    I pumped my arms as fast as I could, not stopping until I was right behind him. I jumped on the soldier’s back, trying to pull him down, to give Caleb just a few seconds—a chance—but my body was too light to do damage.
    Another soldier grabbed me from behind. “I’ve got the Princess,” he called, and then we were in the center of all of them, soldiers swarming around us, one taking hold of my hands, another my legs.
    “Caleb!” I yelled, straining to see through the men moving frantically around me. “Where are you?”
    I twisted my wrists, trying to free myself, but the restraints were too tight. They dragged me back toward the Palace entrance, through the low row of shrubs, past the fountains and winged, marble statues. The last thing I saw was a soldier’s baton, the black rod rising above the feverish crowd, then landing, with a terrible thud, on Caleb’s back.

twenty-eight
     
    “SO. CLARA WAS RIGHT THEN. SHE DID SEE YOU LEAVING THE Palace that night,” the King began. I didn’t respond. He paced the length of his office, his hands behind his back. “How long have you been sneaking around like this, lying to me, to all of us?”
    As I was dragged into the Palace mall, he had been right there waiting for me. He ordered the men to let me go so they didn’t scare the employees stuck inside the stores. A woman in the restored jewelry shop peeked out from behind a glass case of necklaces, watching them untie my hands, my father keeping a firm grip on my arm. “Genevieve,” he said, his voice flat. “I asked you a question.”
    “I don’t know,” I managed. I rubbed at my wrists, the skin still red from where they had tightened the restraints. I kept seeing Caleb’s body on the ground. The troops surrounding him. One soldier had turned away from the pack and spat on the side of the road. Wish I could shoot him myself .
    The King snorted. “You don’t know. Well, you’re going to have to figure it out. You could’ve been kidnapped, held for ransom—do you have any idea how dangerous that was? There are people in this City who want me dead, who believe I’m ruining this country. You’re lucky you weren’t killed.”
    I stared out the window. I couldn’t see the City. Beyond the glass the world was all sky, a gray expanse that stretched on forever. “Where is he?” I asked. “Where are they taking him?”
    “That’s not your business anymore,” the King said.