Page 33 (1/2)

"Tel reen dress"

"Green," he says, glancing back at reen"

"You’ve never seenbut brown or black," I tel him "Brown plainclothes Black sear" I flush

"I take back what I said," he says later, as the whistle blows "I have seen you in green I see you in green everyday, here in the trees" The next day, I ask hi that day?"

"You saw me?"

I nod

"I couldn’t help it" His gaze is distant, hard now "I didn’t know they had footage like that It could have been e It was definitely one of the Outer Provinces"

"Wait" I think of the people, dark shadows running "You’re saying this was--"

"Real," he finished "Yes Those aren’t actors It’s not a stage It happens in al the Outer Provinces, Cassia When I left, it was happening more and more"

Oh no

The whistle wil blow soon, I can telHe knows, too But I reach for him and hold on here in the forest where the trees screen us and the birdcal s cover our voices The entire Hil is complicit in our e to write before our ti in air, but I want to carve in earth

"Close your eyes," I say to Ky, and I bend down, his breathing above me while he waits "There," I say, and he looks at what I’ve written

I love you

I feel eh I am a child who has tapped out these words on her scribe and held the is aard and straggly and not ss easier to write than say?

Stil , I feel undeniably brave and vulnerable as I stand there in the forest ords that I cannot take back My first written words, other than our names It’s not much of a poem, but I think Grandfather would understand

Ky looks at , I see tears in his eyes

"You don’t have to write it back," I say, feeling self-conscious "I just wanted you to know"

"I don’t want to write it back," he tel s ht out there on the Hil , and of al the words I have hidden and saved and treasured, these are the ones I wil never forget, the most important ones of al

"I love you"

Lightning Once it has forked, hot-white, fro back

It’s time I feel it, I know it My eyes on hi, tired of waiting Ky closes his eyes, but mine are stil open What wil it feel like, his lips on mine? Like a secret told, a promise kept? Like that line in the poe al aroundmeets the earth?

The whistle blows below us and the moment breaks We are safe

For now

CHAPTER 26

We hurry back down froh the trees, and I know they are not the birdsearlier These white figures aren’t ht "Officials," I say to Ky, and he nods