“I’m fine,” Gregory said before returning to the window. I watched him walk away. He was older than everyone else in the room, yet he stood on the outskirts, removed. I only heard his name as a summoning or a curse. Gregory stared at the blue dress Collin handed to Nora, his face unreadable.
Nora hissed. “Why is it this color?” It looked black in the photo.
“I don’t know, but I want to find out why and who is responsible.”
“You didn’t make me wear it?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
Collin turned his head toward me, his face tense. “You thought I did this?”
“Of course I did. It came in a black box like my lens.” I glanced toward my lap. “I was told the lens was from the Illum. That they sometimes send their—” The wordplaythingcaught in my throat. “They send stuff to people like me. You said we should get the dinner with my birth family out of the way.” I didn’t look up to see how my birth brothers took that. “Then you didn’t show. You left me alone with them. I thought it was a particularly cruel trial.”
Collin leaned forward. “I intended to be there. My duties as an Illum have to come first. I have only sent you things I thought you might want and enjoy. I did not send you this.”
“What else was I supposed to think?” All the hateful things Vincent had said my entire life twirled with the Academy’s rules, spinning me lower and lower. “I am a Defect, a visual Defect. My own Elite birth family wants to eliminate me.”
Collin moved closer, his long legs bracketing mine. I froze, heart thumping hard.
“Leave us.”
A flurry of movement erupted around us as the others made to leave.
Collin didn’t glance their way. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear in the Garden, so let me tell you again. I quit caring about the Elite’s opinions long ago.” Collin reached for me, then let his hand fall between his legs. “Emeline, you are an extension of me now.” Slippers scuffed against the floor, lithe steps faltering. Collin held my gaze. “If someone hurts you, I take it personally.”
Power churned in Collin’s eyes as his jaw bulged. My pulse fluttered helplessly as all of him remained focused on me. Defect and all. Maybe I should fear the power I saw—the viciousness he directed at my birth family in the Sphere. How he could damn me to elimination with a breath. Instead, I leaned forward. The corner of Collin’s lips tugged up, the power shifting into something else entirely, something I couldn’t quite place as his gaze found my lips.
“You may speak plainly,” he told me.
I knew that wasn’t true. I had spoken too plainly and others paid the price. I didn’t know who Collin was in the clouds when I wasn’t around. Gregory had called him the Enforcer. I leaned back, away from his all-encompassing orbit I seemed afflicted by. Rose and Violet had been hurt. Hal had miraculously managed to remain invisible to the Illum. I swallowed my questions for their sake—Violet, Rose, and Hal. The cost of my curiosity was too much.
I looked to find the others congregating just outside the room. Nora leaned toward us, not at all inconspicuously, the blue gown still in her hands.
“Busybodies,” Collin grumbled, disgruntled fondness in his voice, and surprise flashed through me. “Nora, do you recognize the gown?”
“Not off the top of my mind, but it fits her well in the photo,” Nora called over, and they reentered the room. “Whoever made it had a good idea of her measurements.” I swore Collin hid a smirk at her quick response. He hadn’t even raised his voice to ask her, but when I looked again, his smile was gone.
“Have your seamstress look at it. See what she can tell us. Gregory, take the dress,” Collin ordered. “Nora, are you and William free in three days?”
“I believe so,” she said, gripping the dress tightly as Gregory approached her.
“Phillip, update their MINDs,” Collin said. “Emeline and I will dine with them. At the Pond—is it still your favorite place, Nora?”
Gregory snatched the dress from Nora’s grip, turning without a word as he walked out onto the balcony, undeterred by the frigid wind.
“Always,” Nora said quietly. I didn’t miss how her eyes had followed Gregory to where he stood at the balcony edge, the blue dress whipping wildly in the wind.
“Good. Summon a Pod for Gregory, Phillip,” Collin instructed. “Add Nora’s seamstress to his MIND. Begin running interference—last night stays close. Document Gregory’s breach of curfew and be certain nothing befalls Emeline. Make it a trial or something.” None of it made sense to me but it did to Phillip. He pulled out his Comm Device and began typing away.
“I—” I began but bit my tongue.
“You what?” Collin asked, turning toward me fully.
“What do you mean running interference?”
“And Vincent?” Phillip interrupted, his eyes on his device.
“You can leave that to me,” Collin told him, his sapphire eyes cold. A shiver ran up my spine.
“Pardon, your morning meals are ready,” an attendant stated before disappearing.
