Rise An Eve Novel

admit he’s your father,” he said.
    The woman shook her head. Her hair was rolled into thin dreadlocks, the ends of them caked with dirt.
    “I was part of the Trail,” I added. “Ask the women in Califia—contact Maeve. She knows.”
    We just kept moving, their faces unfeeling as we walked past rows of citizens. Some were huddled outside apartment complexes, being questioned by the rebels. A whole line of New American soldiers stood in the parking lot of an abandoned supermarket, their hands roped behind their backs, their weapons in a pile. I tried to push away the quiet, persistent fear that had taken hold of me. How could it end here, like this?
    “I killed him. It wasn’t an attempt. You’ll know soon enough. He’s dead.”
    They didn’t respond. We were coming up to the main road. A pack of rebels stood by the Mirage apartments, its glass front dark. They listened to a woman shouting orders. She pointed them in different directions, gesturing with her hands.
    “We need more in the south end of the City,” she said. Her back was to me, her short black hair tangled at the nape of her neck.
    I knew her before she turned, revealing the same profile I’d seen a hundred times before. I smiled, despite the rope binding my hands, despite the sound of gunfire off in the north, near the wall.
    “You’re alive,” I called out. “You’re the rebel leader?”
    Arden turned. Her black hair had grown out, framing her face in a short bob. In her mud-caked clothes, the red band tied tightly around her bicep, she looked like every other soldier. A rifle was slung across her back. She held up one hand, and the soldiers around her fell into a slow silence, pausing, waiting for her to address them again. Then she came to me, enveloping me in a hug.
    The weight of it all lifted, my body giving in to hers. I buried my face in her neck, letting myself cry for the first time in days, the swell of it so intense I felt like someone was choking me. We stayed like that, locked in a tight embrace, as if we were the last two people on Earth.

thirty-two
    “THEY SAW THE FIRST SIGNS OF THE TRUCKS,” ARDEN SAID. “IT won’t be more than an hour until the girls from the Schools reach the City.” She stepped out of her shoes, curling her feet underneath her at she sat on the edge of my bed. She wore a black knit sweater and burgundy skirt—her hair brushed away from her face. After so many months together in the wild, of seeing her in stiff, dirt-caked clothes, she seemed foreign to me. She looked so at ease inside the City, confident even in the way she sat—legs folded to one side, her fingers kneading a muscle in her neck.
    “I’ll go with you to greet them,” I said. “The workers in the adoption centers have been put on call to help. They’ve brought the supplies to the lower floors of the Mandalay apartments. Hopefully in a few weeks, when things stabilize, the girls can begin venturing into the City.”
    “Hopefully,” Arden repeated. She met my gaze for a moment before looking away. She didn’t need to explain what she meant. It had been three weeks since the colonies took over, and the City was still in transition. I wondered how long it would last, the sudden swells that rose up on the main strip. A faction of New American soldiers resented the rebels for taking control of the army and loosening security at the wall. The Lieutenant had fled in the hours following the invasion, abandoning the men. When I imagined life in the City without my father, with the rebels securing the Palace, I hadn’t realized I’d still be in danger. Even now, though Arden and I had been hidden in the Cosmopolitan tower several blocks away, soldiers escorted me wherever I went. They were stationed outside our doors at night, in anticipation of an assassination attempt.
    “The elections can’t come soon enough,” I said. “Once the government formally transitions, once there’s one leader—”
    “President,” Arden specified, nearly smiling as she said it. “The first president in nearly seventeen years.”
    “Maybe you,” I said. Arden stood, barely acknowledging the comment. Several leaders from the east had decided it was best to combine the resources of the cities now, establishing them as three separate settlements under unified rule. A couple who’d led the northernmost colony were said to be up for election, but there were murmurs that Arden would be considered as well. She was one of three rebels from the