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

I sucked in a breath, suddenly desperately missing my brother, on top of Zoe and Eric. They were my family, and if I was going to protect them and keep us all together, I was going to have to get them out of Scipio’s control.

Tian turned, her smile glistening, and waved a long arm at me, as if she were trying to pull me forward by magic. I realized I had stopped for longer than I’d intended to, and Roark had pushed by. Grey had come to a stop next to me, though, and as I looked at him, I saw his eyes fixed to the same place mine had been.

He looked up at me, his eyes brimming with pain that echoed my own, and I impulsively reached out to take his hand in mine, squeezing it gently. His dark eyes dropped down to my hand, and I felt him squeeze my fingers in return.

We didn’t say anything, but we didn’t have to; we were two people sharing a moment of pain and taking comfort in the fact that we weren’t alone. We stood there for a moment, and then I began to follow Tian again, and was glad when Grey retained his grip on my hand, unwilling to let me go.

The first opening we passed was a workroom, filled with tools and objects that took up almost every square inch of the place. In spite of the clutter, it was well organized: the tools were grouped together and arranged by size on the wall, and the long tables that lined the wall held objects in various stages of deconstruction. I recognized an elevator security box, a lash harness, several stun batons, a hydroponic UV light pod—random odds and ends that were small enough to be carried.

“This is Quess’s room,” Tian chirped, leaning in and looking around. “He sleeps there.” Her hand stretched out to point at the hammock tucked away in a corner.

“No doors?” Grey asked.

“No need,” she replied, craning her neck back so she could look up at him. “We’re all family. Come along.”

She moved down the hall to where Roark was waiting, his face impassive, and breezed by him, her small feet running in short steps. “This is Doxy’s room,” she announced with a flourish as she leapt up in the air and spun. Her hands made a fluttery movement as she landed, legs spread, and she pointed to the opening on the right.

I moved up to it, curious to see how the stoic woman decorated, and I couldn’t have been more unsurprised. Her room was set up as a personal training room, complete with a matted area for sparring. She slept on a cot, which was in the corner across from the opening. The blankets on it were drawn tight in militant fashion. A crimson uniform with the Squire ranking on the collar hung just next to it, the folds crisp, as if she ironed it every day. Next to that sat a rack that clearly held her knives when she wasn’t wearing them.

Tian turned and skipped down the hall a few seconds later, showing us her room, which was awash with paint on the wall and a simple mattress on the floor, a paint-stained blanket on top of it. Tiny crystals that I recognized as broken bits of the convex lenses used for relaying and distributing energy dangled from string and thin lengths of wire. Like the hall, this room was filled with string lights, running ragged around the walls and on the ceiling. She took a minute to introduce us to her homemade stuffed bear, Commander Cuddles.

Grey and I both indulged the odd girl, greeting the bear in turn, but Roark wouldn’t participate, and I could tell that Tian’s behavior bothered him. I sensed in him the need to fix her, help her to be more normal.

Yet as odd as she was, she was charming. Her crooked smile and single dimple seemed to light up the room. She moved as if she were dancing half the time, skipping from spot to spot, with an occasional lavish twirl thrown in here and there. There was no keeping her still, either; I didn’t think she could stop, like one of those old-world hummingbirds that Zoe had told me about.

“And this is Cali’s room,” she chirped as she led us to the doorway just past hers. Cali’s room was not what I had expected at all. I had assumed her room would be like her daughter’s, packed with weapons and training equipment. Instead, it was filled with books. I recognized most of them, the familiar uniform covers that were color-coded for each department: orange for Cogs, green for Hands, crimson for Shields, and so on. Shelf after shelf lined the walls of the small room, all packed with books. The collection alone made me whistle; these books were prized by their departments, coveted by others. And Cali was sitting on a treasure trove of them.

But there were more—maps of beige shapes contrasting against the dark blue behind them, with names written on them like “Germany” and “The United States of America.” Books that had more than one color or picture on the cover, some depicting people, others landscapes, others objects. My gaze fell on one with a bright cover and a crude drawing on the front, my eyes going over the title: Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl.

I’d never seen so many books in one place, even when I’d been to Zoe’s father’s shop before he died. I looked over at Grey and saw him staring at the books too, a hungry gleam in his eyes.

“Tian, does Cali ever let anyone borrow her books?” he asked, looking down at the slender waif standing between us. Her white-blonde bob dipped up and down.

“Yes, but she has very strict rules about it. I’m on a three-week suspension because I committed a hot cocoa infraction.” She leaned close to Grey, her hand going up to block one side of her mouth. “It is a level nine offense, punishable by losing dinner and coloring time.”

Grey smiled, his eyes softening. “That’s a pretty severe punishment. Do you think you learned your lesson?”

The blonde bob started whipping back and forth before he had even finished the question. “This is my third offense.” Her hands fluttered to her sides and she smoothed her clothes down primly. “Cali says I’m doomed if it happens again, but I just can’t help it! Hot cocoa and stories by the window is the best! C’mon, I will show you where you three will be staying.”

She led us the rest of the way down the hall, until the low ceiling lifted up and away and we stepped into a wide-open space. The floor dropped down into a pit, where several large pieces of equipment sat. On the left and the right were the same glass panes as I’d seen in the dining area, set up in a wide circle, making it look like a fish eye against the metal and concrete walls.

Tian skipped down the semi-steep staircase that ran into the trench. I watched her for a second and then whipped out my lash, swung it around once, and hit the side of the incline. I quickly lashed down to the bottom—it was only a twenty-foot drop, really—and took a quick glance around as the others made their way down.