Someone took hold of our shoulder. Jackson.
Something wrong? he asked the officer. His voice was light. He took a few steps toward the man, pushing us along though everything in me screamed that we should be going in the opposite direction.
The officer lowered the flashlight beam so it wasnt blinding us. The stars in our vision didnt fade.
He frowned at Addie and me. Bit late for you to be running around, isnt it?
Our lips couldnt form a reply. Jacksons hand tightened on our shoulder, but he laughed. Shes fine; shes with us.
You know about the curfew?
That doesnt start until Monday, Cordelia said. Without my noticing, she and Sabine had joined us. She grinned. Were running wild while we still can.
The officer ran his eyes over her short, platinum hair, her red lips. Well, dont run too wild. Its two in the morning. Be careful.
We were headed back anyway. Sabine tilted her head at the milkshake in our hands. Just came out for some food.
<Smile> I hissed, and Addie obeyed.
We snuck a look at Devon, who wore a look of magnificent boredom. Our smile softened into something a bit more natural.
Its my birthday, Addie said. Our voice came out quiet, almost shy. We sounded more like Kitty than ourself, which only made us more flustered. Heat crept up our neck, bloomed on our cheeks.
To their credit, no one looked surprised.
All right, the officer said finally. Have a good night, then.
We all stood quietly until the man was out of sight. Then Cordelia broke down into giggles. Jackson tried to shush her, but her laughter was making him laugh, too. Only Christoph looked as serious as Devon did. Sabine hustled everyone forward.
EIGHT
That was a brilliant play by all involved, Cordelia said as we hurried through the streets.
That was a close call, Jackson corrected, but there wasnt any real warning in his tone, only an amused sort of exhilaration.
Not really. Cordelia skipped ahead of us, then turned to face Addie and me, walking backward. She grinned. He was just worried we were corrupting your sweet fifteen-year-old mind. Gang initiation, maybe.
Its not really your birthday, is it? Sabine asked. Addie shook our head. Good going, then. Nearly fooled me.
Its my birthday, Cordelia said in a surprisingly good imitation of our voiceonly higher and breathier. Addie blushed, and Cordelia laughed. You sounded like an angel, my darling. Nobody in a thousand years would ever suspect you of anything.
The photography shop was marked by nothing more than a plain door and a wooden sign declaring Still Life in elegant, black script. A long display window stretched along the wall, but I only got a glimpse of picture frames and black-and-white photos before Cordelia moved to unlock the door.
A bell jingled as we entered. Photographs crowded the small shops limited wall space. Inside one silver frame, a little boy pressed his face against a set of slender, white stair railings. An enormous, broad-shouldered man with an equally enormous pumpkin-colored cat sat within the frame beside it.
Cordelia led us to a storage room at the back of the store, everyone crowding inside among the array of empty frames and dusty cardboard boxes. The ceiling here was surprisingly high. Even Jackson, tall as he was, needed a stool to get a good grip on the string hanging from a hatch door.
The string used to be longer, he explained. It snapped about half a year back, so we have to use the stool.
Tie another string, Devon said.
Jackson smiled as he pulled the trapdoor creakily open. But the stool is more interesting. A longer string would also make the door more noticeable. He stepped off the stool, still pulling on the door. A series of steps unfolded, groaning and creaking. And this, he said, yanking the steps so they clicked into place, is a secret.
Automatically, Addie took a step backward.
Once, when Addie and I were little and still lived in the city, our family was invited to a party thrown by one of Moms old friends. Theyd moved to the suburbs, had a big house and a pool and a barbecue. It had been summer. Hot. The adults milled about outside, our parents busy as they mingled and looked after Lyle and Nathaniel, whod been only two.
I dont remember how many people were present. To seven-year-old me, it had seemed like a hundred or more. There were at least ten kids. That much I remember. We played hide-and-seek. A girl in a yellow dress was It.
Id told Addie to follow the others into the house. Two boys had headed for the attic, one pausing halfway up the stairs to beckon us up with them. Addie had hesitated, but Id said Go.
Because hed beckoned. Because hed picked us to go with him, and Id been hopeful.
It had been sweltering inside the attic. A dead sort of heat, the kind that sucks all the air from a room. There had been an ornate, old-fashioned trunk. There had been more than one, probably. And I vaguely remembered boxes, too. But more than anything, I remembered the biggest trunk, because that boy, hed said, No one will look in there.
So Addie and I crawled inside, curled up to fit in the darkness.
Hed lowered the heavy lid, his friend watching behind him.
He locked it so quietly we didnt hear.
Go on, Jackson said, gesturing up the stairs. You guys first. Guest courtesies and all.
Having a panic attack here, in front of everyone, would be devastating.
<Itll be fine.> Id said as much back at Nornand, when wed been forced to climb into a torturously small machine for testing. Id been lying then. But an attic we could handle, especially if it had windows and wasnt too cramped. We just had to relax.
Addie pressed our lips together and moved forward. The stairsmore ladder than stairs, reallyshuddered and creaked with each step.
We emerged in that familiar attic warmth. The ceiling here was a dark, bare wood, sloped until it almost touched the equally bare wooden floors. Someone had pounded a series of heavy-duty nails all around the room, then tangled a string of fairy lights around them. The end of their cord lay near the top of the stairs, and Addie bent to plug it in.
The entire attic lit up with a soft glow. Two lumpy, faded couches slumped at angles to each other. The dark green one leaked yellow stuffing. At first I wondered how on earth anyone had managed to get them up here. Then I noticed the screws where the couch frames could be taken apart. A tall lamp stood in the corner, opposite a small window that looked out onto the street. We couldnt see clearly through the curtain.
One by one, everyone climbed up to join us. Cordelia turned on the lamp, which brightened the attic further. It wasnt as bad as Id feared. There was only one room, but it was large enough to fit many more than our six bodies. The heat-heavy air was cloying, but bearable.
So, Sabine said once wed all settled down. She sat cross-legged on the green couch, looking more dancerlike than ever in a pair of dark gray leggings and a faded T-shirt. Her gaze fell on Devon, then Addie and me. One of you, go first. Tell us about yourself.
Of course, Devon said nothing. Addie cradled our milkshake in our hands. Were both from Lupside. I
Lupside? Cordelia was half sitting, half curled against Sabine, her smile lazy but her eyes sharp. Didnt you live there for a while, Christoph?
Christoph nodded. For two years, back in elementary school.
Before Addie and I moved there, then. Wed have still been living in our old apartment, just starting to realize how utterly strange it washow truly awfulthat we hadnt settled.
Did you ever go to the history museum? Addie asked.
Christoph had a sweet face when he wasnt scowling. He looked younger, with his slight frame and pale freckles. He had stopped twitching around so much, like a bomb that might go off any minute.
Every year. Do they still have that god-awful poster? That supposedly authentic one from nineteen-whatever with the twisted-looking hybrids on them? He screwed up his face and raised his hands like claws, making Cordelia laugh.
I remembered that poster. Christophs impression of it wasnt terribly exaggerated. The entire museum was dedicated to the struggle between the hybrids and the non-hybrids. It covered everything from the servitude forced upon the single-souled when they were first shipped to the Americas, to the great Revolution that had followed, and the years of fighting on American soil at the start of the Great Wars.
Addie told the others about the flood and fire damage that had ruined portions of the museum during our last visit. She hesitated, then explained how everything had been blamed on a hybrid man. Described the mob that had gathered around his arrest, crushing and trampling and screaming like spectators at a blood fight.
Ive always wanted to visit the East Coast, Cordelia said. See the water there, you know?
Sabine rolled her eyes, but indulgently. Im sure the ocean looks the same.
No, I dont think so, Cordelia said. Does it, Addie?
I dont know, Addie admitted. Lupside isnt on the coast, and I never went.
Someday, Ill go. Once Ive got enough money to fly. She looked to Jackson. Maybe Ill get Peter to send me. He flew you over to Nornand, after all.
He flew me to Nornand to work, Jackson said.
Cordelia shrugged languorously. Yes, well, Im sure there are institutions on the East Coast. One day, however I get there, Ill go.
Dont you want to see the . . . I dont know, the Indian Ocean instead? Jackson asked. Or the Adriatic? He smiled at Cordelias raised eyebrow. Adriatic Sea. I saw it on one of Henris maps. Its in Europe. I liked the name.
Cordelia shrugged. As if Ill ever get to leave the country.
There was a storm cloud over Devons face that he didnt bother to hide. I could guess what was running through his mind.
<Theyre being awfully flippant about the whole thing> Addie said.
I remembered Jackson pulling us into the janitors closet at Nornand, babbling about Peter and secret plans. Telling us to keep hope. Wed been shocked and irritated by his smiles then, his almost lackadaisical air. But he hadnt been flippant. Not truly.
I thought about the meeting wed attended last night. The room silent with grief after Peter explained what had happened at Hahns. Christophs barely contained anger, and how Jackson had tried to keep him in check.