Rise An Eve Novel

have gone out. You have ten minutes, maybe fifteen, before they’re here. They’ve dispatched the Jeeps from the north end of the wall. You have to leave now.”
    I pushed against the side of the building, trying to get some respite from the rain that pelted my skin. The blood came off my fingers, the water pooling pink in my palm before it flooded over the sides of my hand and washed away. “I need you to let me inside,” I said. “Please—I’ll be quick.”
    “There’s dozens of girls on this floor—maybe more. What are you going to do?”
    “Please,” I said again. “I don’t have time.”
    She didn’t respond. Instead she opened the lock, and for the first time I noticed that her hands were shaking. “That’s all I can do,” she said. “I’m sorry, I won’t tell, but I can’t help you any more than this.” She stepped back, away from me, disappearing around the side of the building.
    I propped the door open with a rock. Inside, the long corridor was quiet. A few girls in a side room were talking about the explosions they’d heard outside, wondering what had happened and why. Two people sat under a giant calendar labeled January 2025 , their heads bowed together as they spoke. It wasn’t until Beatrice turned, hearing my footsteps, that I recognized her.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked, starting toward me. Sarah followed along behind her, her eyes swollen. “Is what they’re saying true? They’re taking the girls back to the Schools?”
    “We have to gather as many girls as possible,” I said, glancing into one of the rooms. A group of girls were sitting with their legs folded, reading some old magazines. “There’s a route we can take out of the City. Have them bring their warmest clothes and whatever supplies they have. How many are on this hall?”
    “Just nine of us,” Sarah said. “The rest are past there.” She pointed to the closed double doors behind her.
    I ducked into the second room, not waiting for Beatrice to respond. Four girls were curled up in bed, reading a tattered copy of something called Harry Potter . They looked up when I came in, scanning my drenched clothes and my hair, which clung to my face and neck in thick, black coils. Locking eyes with them, I suddenly wasn’t quite certain what to say, how to convince them to come now, with me, away from everything they’d known. “I need you to gather all your things and line up by the exit,” I said. “It’s not safe here anymore. Take whatever supplies you have and be ready to leave in two minutes, no more.”
    A girl with blond hair and freckles narrowed her eyes at me. “Who are you? Do the guards know you’re here?”
    “No—and you won’t tell them.” I grabbed one of the top drawers and emptied it onto the bed, tossing the girl a canvas bag that had fallen out. “I’m Genevieve—the King’s daughter. And we need to leave the City tonight, now, before you no longer have the chance.”
    The girl with freckles grabbed her friend’s arm, rooting her in place. “Why would we leave the City? They said they’re taking us back to the Schools soon. They said it’s safe now.”
    “Because they’ve lied to you,” I said. The girl behind her shifted on her feet. “There are no trade schools. After graduation, the girls in the Schools—girls like you, like my friends—are impregnated and spend years giving birth in that building. They’re held there against their will. The King is trying to raise the population numbers any way he can.”
    “You’re lying,” the girl with the long braid said. But the others looked less certain.
    “Have you ever seen the girls who graduated before you? Have they ever come back to say what they’re doing inside the City?” I paused. “What if I’m not lying? What will you do once you’re back at the School and you realize I was right? What will you do then?”
    A girl with tiny black braids got up and slowly started picking through a box below her cot. “Come on, Bette,” she said. “What if she is right? Why would the Princess lie to us?”
    I didn’t have time to convince them. I went into the hall as a few of the others started packing, whispering to one another. Four of the girls from the room beside us were in there, clutching the knapsacks they’d brought from School. They looked uncertain, some on the verge of tears, others laughing, as if I were accompanying them on some sort of excursion. Beatrice had locked her arm around