The Girl Who Dared to Think (The Girl Who Dared #1)

“Expect, no. Hope?”

My heart continued to palpitate as he seemed to sway closer, his eyes dropping to my lips. Nervous, I licked them, and his gaze grew even heavier, causing my skin to tingle and my face to blaze with heat.

“I…” I faltered, unable to find any words. I wasn’t sure what to do or say... I could barely remember what we had been talking about before, and it had just occurred five seconds ago.

“Screw it,” Grey said, and his arm shot out, his hand settling on the small of my back and drawing me in. I let him pull me tightly to his chest, his gaze never leaving my face, and felt my heart start skipping beats, the rhythm erratic and frantic.

He lowered his head, and I felt my chin tip up, eager for the feel of his mouth on mine. Our lips pressed together, and mine parted slightly, unwittingly giving him access to my mouth, which he immediately took advantage of. His other hand cupped the back of my head, holding it in place while he kissed me with a sizzling intensity that made my toes curl, made me want to melt into him.

I was lost in the kiss, drowning in it, until I heard a rustle of something coming from the stalks of wheat, and jerked away. From the corner of my eye, I saw something dark move, and I turned toward it, the paranoia from earlier flooding back in.

“Who was that?” I asked, my hand automatically going for my baton.

Grey, looking a bit alarmed himself, shook his head. “Who was what?” he asked, confused.

I looked over at him to see that he was genuinely baffled as to why I had broken the kiss, and frowned. I could’ve sworn I’d seen something, but... just like the market earlier, there was nothing there. The wheat swayed in the wind, but there were no sounds of anyone running away. There was nothing.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a second, removing my hand from my baton. “I thought I...” I trailed off and met his gaze, suddenly nervous.

“It’s okay,” he said after a moment, his disappointment deteriorating. “This isn’t the best place to be caught making out.”

I chuckled, and then slipped my hand into his when he offered it, unable to keep a goofy smile from splitting my face wide open. I’d have to hide it later, but for now... for now I wanted to be Liana and not a nine. I wanted to be a girl, walking with a boy who had just kissed her.

And that’s what I allowed myself to be.





22





Once Grey and I parted ways, I didn’t expect to hear from him until the rest of the month we had originally agreed upon had passed, but to my surprise, he netted me only a few days later. My head buzzed as the neural net activated to notify me of the communication attempt, and when a quick check of my wrist showed me Grey’s name, I immediately accepted it.

“Hey,” I said, stepping off to the side to let the busier traffic on the platform running around the inside of the shell move past me unimpeded. “What’s up?”

I was worried; his contacting me this way could mean a myriad of things, and my imagination was already starting to spin out of control, the foremost theme being Devon Alexander kicking down the door to Roark’s little home, and Grey trying to warn me.

Hey. You got some free time?

Some of the alarm faded, because his voice came out calm and self-assured. “Yeah, why?”

I found another potential new friend. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.

I smiled, instantly pleased. “You want me to come with you?”

Yeah. You were really good before. I figured I could use some of your finesse.

My smile grew even wider as my heart skipped a beat. Finesse. I liked that.

I considered his question, and found that I did want to join him. I’d enjoyed helping Sarah. It had filled me with a sense of happiness that had stuck with me the last few days. “I’d love to come with you. Where do you want me to meet you?”



An hour later, I found Grey waiting outside of one of the Water Treatment closets buried deep on Level 17. It was several floors away from Zoe’s house, but I kept a careful eye out for her, not wanting to make contact unless I absolutely had to. Grey smiled when he spotted me and moved to meet me halfway.

“Hey,” I said, stopping just short of him.

“Hey.” He ran a hand through his hair and rocked back on his heels. “You ready?”

I grinned. “Obviously. Who’s the target?”

“Silvan Wash,” Grey replied. “Our friend in the Eyes notified us that he hit a three.”

“Did he tell you why?”

Grey shook his head. “No, the process isn’t very detailed, actually. With Sarah and Silvan both, we just got their names, housing designations, and ranks before they fell. Roark says that’s all the Eye will give.”

“How does he pick them? I mean... you are recruiting people who can help the cause, so to speak.”

It was a question I had meant to ask a few days ago, but after that sizzling kiss, and the subsequent awkwardness afterward... well, it slipped my mind, to say the least.

“I asked Roark the same thing after Sarah. He’s looking for those who have achieved high enough rankings in their fields to be useful to us, but then dropped rapidly. It usually indicates emotional distress, apparently, which is a window of opportunity in which we can offer them another way.”

“Won’t they climb back up once whatever it is has passed?”

He chuckled and glanced over at me, meeting my gaze almost immediately, because I was staring. Like an idiot. I looked away.

“Roark says his IT friend told him that once you drop to a four, it’s almost impossible to get back up again without receiving Medica services.”

Somehow, the news did not surprise me at all. If anything, it made me feel sad. It was just another layer to a system I had already known was rigged.

We made our way to the house of the man in question. Like with every home in Water Treatment, the doorway was flush with the wall, with a white call button in the middle of it.

As soon as Grey pressed it to alert Silvan that he had guests, a slat on the upper side of the door peeled aside to reveal two large blue eyes, topped by thinning eyebrows and covered with wire-framed glasses. He peered at us for a second, and then shut the slat.

Grey and I exchanged looks, before the door slid open with a hiss and Silvan stepped out. He was older than I’d expected, fine wrinkles lining his mouth and forehead. His eyes were wary, the dark circles underneath giving him a vaguely rodent-like look. He grew rigid when he took in my uniform.

“Knight,” he said, offering a polite bow, shaved scalp gleaming in the bright light of the hall. He looked over, spotted Grey, and made a similar gesture. “Honored nine,” he said reverently.