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For a moment, she just stood there, hugging the pole, her leaking eyes fixed on the pavement that was covered with garbage and shattered glass.

And then her face transformed with rage, and she reached over her shoulder and started ripping feathers out of her wings.

Max took a step forward. “Dallas?—”

She screamed, the sound ragged and barbaric. “Stupid,stupid, STUPID!I hate these stupid things,I hate them, I hate them!I need to get them removed!”

“You mean fixed?”

“No—removed!I don’t want them anymore! I thought I wanted to be a soldier for the Fleet, but that was just my stupid parents talking! My whole life has consisted of nothing but decisionstheywanted me to make. Roark this, and Taega that! Well, what aboutDallas?What aboutme?”She poked herself in the chest, her eyes wide with rage.

Max stayed where he was, not daring to get any closer.

Space. She needed space.

Panting, she slumped against the telephone pole and slid to the pavement, kicking her legs out before her. “After everything we’ve lived through,” she continued, her voice a quiet rasp that was nearly drowned out by sirens and distant blasts. “The battles, the explosions, the injuries, thestress…”She swallowed, chest heaving. She slid her silver-ringed eyes to his. “I don’t want anything to do with it anymore,” she confessed.

Max’s throat bobbed. “Then what do you want, Dal?” he asked gently. “Tell me whatDallaswants.”

“I want…” She hesitated. Max would bet she had never been asked that—whatshewanted. “I want…,” she began again, sniffling, “to live a quieter life.”

“A quieter life,” he repeated, nodding. “Okay, quiet sounds good. It sounds great, actually,” he added with a small chuckle as more noise jarred the street.

Dallas wiped her face with both hands, then stared down at the dirt on her palms. “I don’t know what that would involve yet, but…” She nibbled on her bruised lip. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll start taking classes for something different. SomethingIwant. But— If you were to remove my parents from the equation…whoam I, really? They’ve turned their careers into their personalities—soldiers are all they are. And…and I don’t want that. I don’t want to be like them.” As soon as the words were out, she looked as surprised that she’d said them as Max was to hear them. “I want…something else. Something different.”

I want that with you,Max thought. Whatever it was that Dallas wanted, he’d be there to support her. That would be his promise.

“Max!” called a male voice.

Max turned as Dallas got to her feet.

Travis was bolting this way. His face was red, his eyes watering.

“Travis,” Max exclaimed, a cough ripping out of him. “What’s going on? Where are the others?—”

“It’s Jewels!” he rasped as he thumped to a stop. “It’s Jewels, she’s having trouble breathing.”

“Is it the gas?”

“No, man—it’s the Tricking! She needs her meds. We need to get to the hospital!” He spun the other way?—

“Wait—hold up!” He lunged forward and grabbed Travis by the sleeve, whipping him back around. “Thehospital?Do you have any idea how far that is? How thehellare we supposed to get there?”

Travis paused, gazing out at the black cloud ballooning above Yveswich.

The hospital was in there.

Travis’s face smoothed with an epiphany. “The water,” he murmured.

“What?”

Travis wiped the tears off his face. “The water,” he said again. “The canals—we can get there if we take the canals.”

72

Torrance Drugstore

TORRANCE, STATE OF KER