Page 3 of Kingdom of Tomorrow (Book of Arden #1)
I tell you now: consider your ways.
I burst outside, entering the bustling cityscape.
People from every spectrum of society rushed about.
Across the street, a man invited pedestrians to try his “asylum experience.” Near an enormous sculpture of a winged woman with crab claws, three knights and two lords in full protective gear arrested a group of people who were shouting, “Soal is life, Cured is death! The Kingdom of Yesterday comes!”
Soalians. Those on the cusp of infection. I shuddered. They believed a god named Soal lived in a magical library and he instructed them to destroy Cured , the only entity capable of protecting the rest of us. Anyone sane recognized how ridiculous it all sounded ... but Soalians weren’t sane.
Citizens for Unified Reform, Education, and Defense made mistakes, but who didn’t? Cured ensured we survived in a world gone mad.
Tomorrow, I would join its ranks.
Say your goodbyes tonight.
My next breath emerged as a short, rasping pant. No matter how fast I traveled along the sidewalk, maneuvering through the crowd, I couldn’t escape a growing sense of doom. I’d only ever fought one maddened, and only to defend myself after she broke. I’d never come closer to dying.
Sizzling sunlight failed to warm my chilled skin.
I tried to focus on my surroundings. Buildings of varying sizes and shapes lined the busy streets.
A blend of sleek new constructions, old barns, and lavish crystal palaces that bisected different apartments, shops, and offices.
Oddly shaped structures made from a shiny golden alloy fused with those made from ordinary brick.
As I turned a corner, an intoxicating floral fragrance hit my nose. Familiar. Despised. Icy fingers of dread crept down my spine, and my racing thoughts fragmented until a lone mantra remained. Ignore the Rock, ignore the Rock, ignore the Rock.
But I couldn’t. A section of it stretched along my right, and as always, I felt as if a thousand eyes were upon me, observing me with x-ray vision.
Maybe they were. Small metal dogs patrolled the top of the stone, their eyes recording everything that happened, allowing operators to monitor the feed twenty-four seven.
Slinging my arms around my middle, I attempted to make myself smaller.
Pieces of the Rock occupied every province in every nation.
Truly, there was nowhere you could go without bumping into a seven-foot-long, seven-foot-high section.
They were impossible to miss, move, or destroy.
Not even explosives affected them. And yet, with their translucent, mirror-esque stone and intricate web of internal veins filled with a bloodlike liquid, every inch appeared fragile.
On the outside, strange round symbols contained disjointed lines.
No matter the weather or season, the most exquisite foliage bloomed along the upper edges.
A cruel development, considering the Rock was also the source of the Madness.
Ahead of me, a woman knelt before the structure, reverently tracing her fingertips around a circle. Another Soalian. I huffed with disgust. She wasn’t the least bit worried about infection or her coming arrest. And she would be arrested, then placed in a treatment facility with the others.
When I passed her and cleared the last of the stone, I expelled a sigh of relief. I would go home and—
“Arden Roosa!”
The unfamiliar voice halted me in my tracks.
Hoping against hope someone from the Department of Edification and Labor had come to tell me there’d been a mistake, my mother owed nothing, and I should report to the Center ASAP, I pivoted.
Surprise jolted me when I spotted the speaker.
Mr. Smiles, the guy from the waiting room.
“Yes?” I said when he stopped in front of me.
Oh, wow. Sunlight adored the symmetrical perfection of his features, turning him into a work of art come to life.
He was far more handsome than I’d realized.
And tall. Around six two, with broad shoulders and lean strength packed inside a blue shirt and a pair of dark slacks.
“Hi.” He peered down at me with sparkling eyes. A grin teased the corners of his mouth. “I’m Shiloh Cruz. I thought you should know my name since I learned yours. Gotta keep the scale between us balanced.”
As people passed by, I remained rooted in place, my brain train veering onto a fresh track. He’d chased me down to ... flirt?
I responded with blunt honesty. “You shouldn’t miss an appointment with your life adviser to speak with me.” I wasn’t worth it. No one was.
“I met with him earlier. I was—okay, please don’t be creeped out, but I was leaving when I spotted you. I decided to hang around.” His grin developed a bashful tinge. “I seized my chance to introduce myself.”
Heat seared my cheeks. “Let’s back up a minute. There’s a scale between us?”
“I really hope so.” He punctuated the words with an earnest nod.
A big, toothy smile threatened to bud. “You’re the first person I’ve ever met who considers a scale a good thing.”
“Because it is. I’ll reveal a fact about myself to you, then you’ll reveal a fact of equal value about yourself to me.”
Ah. “A tit-for-tat situation.”
“Exactly.” He winked, and it was the cutest thing. “Walk with me?”
Tomorrow, my life would slip off its axis; I should enjoy my freedom while I could. Also, he smelled like sandalwood, a man musk that should be classified as a mind-altering drug. “Yes. I’d like that.”
We moved along the sidewalk at a leisurely pace.
“I’ll start,” he said. “I have an older half sister and brother. They’re twins.
As children, we were as obnoxious as you might imagine.
Not that I’ll ever complain. They taught me physical combat, psychological warfare, and how to sense suspicious activity. ”
I snorted. “They sound fun.”
“They are. Mostly.” He nudged me with his shoulder. “Now it’s your turn. Enlighten me, please. Tell me all about Arden Roosa.”
“It’s just my mom and me.” Once, though, there’d been four of us. My chest squeezed. Soon after the death of my sister, Amelia, my dad took off. “Mom is my best friend.”
“I love that.” Shiloh beamed, as if I’d given him a long-awaited gift. “I’m twenty-three years old, and I’m working as a medic.”
Oh, how interesting. “What field?”
“Nope.” He shook his head, a lock of hair falling over his brow. “Give me my tat. Age and vocation or subject of study.”
Silly, charming man. “I’m twenty. I’ve worked a ton of odd jobs the past two years.
” Everything from calling citizens to inform them of delinquent tax payments to manning an assembly line of meal bars.
The world’s most tasteless but affordable staple.
I’d even monitored the robot-dog camera feed for a time.
“My passion is agriculture.” I offered no more, merely arched a brow, demanding a response to my previous query.
He braced, as if expecting a blow. “I specialize in ... the Madness.”
Clearly, he expected me to freak out. Maybe run from him. Many medical professionals avoided anything related to the Rock, too afraid of becoming infected themselves. “That’s an interesting choice.”
At my lack of dismay, he sighed with relief. “My grandparents were killed during the Great Regret. I’ve made it my mission to find out why and how to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again.”
“That’s awful. Not your mission,” I clarified, “but your loss.” The Great Regret was a terrible stain in our history. A time when a myriad of infected broke at once, murdering thousands of innocents in a very short period.
“It really is. I have so many questions. Why does the infection incubate faster in certain hosts? What causes people to ultimately break? Is there a way to make treatment more humane?”
His enthusiasm warmed my heart. And, since he’d clarified for me, I did the same for him.
Leaning closer as we walked, I said, “I’m determined to solve the Soil and Seed Anomaly.
For me, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching tiny seeds mature into a big crop.
When my hands are in the dirt, I’m single minded.
” Unwavering. “There’s no world outside of what I’m doing.
” Little frightened me. I tasted a measure of genuine peace, and oh, it was divine.
“I know I only just met you,” he said, his words heartfelt, “but I have a feeling you’ll succeed.”
Pleasure gave my steps a little extra pep.
“Agriculture fascinates me. Have you ever seen an apple? A tiny seed contains everything needed to produce an entire orchard. And nature isn’t the only one to experience such a miracle.
Honestly, I see seedtime and harvest in everything now.
A thought ripens into words, then actions, then character.
Even human beings start with—” Oh, no, no, no.
I did not just go there. “I’ll stop babbling now. ”
“Please don’t.” He looked at me as if I’d threatened to trash his new favorite toy. “Have a food with me and tell me more. Tell me everything.”
“ A food?” I laughed outright.
“Any food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert. Or a drink. Coffee. Water. All of it at the same time.”
I snuck a glance at him through my lashes, a wee bit befuddled by his enthusiasm but also soaring. The few guys I’d dated had played it cool from start to finish or propositioned me outright. There’d been nothing in between. “Like, an official date with you? Today?”
“Very much an official date,” he confirmed with an emphatic nod. “Now. Please.”
I mean, I’d probably never see him again. But it wouldn’t hurt to—
A guttural scream pierced the air. Everyone paused, including us. I didn’t dare to breathe as my insides twisted into sickening knots and the scope of my world constricted.
Someone had just broken with Madness.