I’m drowning in his eyes and I don’t know what to say.
He peels off his shirt and I don’t know where to look.
I catch myself on the glass panel and press my eyes shut and blink when something flutters too close. His fingers are a moment from my face and I’m dripping burning melting in anticipation.
“You don’t have to look away,” he says. He says it with a small smile the size of Jupiter.
I peek up at his features, at the crooked grin I want to savor, at the color in his eyes I’d use to paint a million pictures. I follow the line of his jaw down his neck to the peak of his collarbone; I memorize the sculpted hills and valleys of his arms, the perfection of his torso. The bird on his chest.
The bird on his chest.
A tattoo.
A white bird with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head. It’s flying.
“Adam,” I try to tell him. “Adam,” I try to choke out. “Adam,” I try to say so many times and fail.
I try to find his eyes only to realize he’s been watching me study him. The pieces of his face are pressed into lines of emotion so deep I wonder what I must look like to him. He touches 2 fingers to my chin, tilts my face up just enough and I’m a live wire in water. “I’ll find a way to talk to you,” he says, and his hands are reeling me in and my face is pressed against his chest and the world is suddenly brighter, bigger, beautiful. The world suddenly means something to me, the possibility of humanity means something to me, the entire universe stops in place and spins in the other direction and I’m the bird.
I’m the bird and I’m flying away.
Chapter Twenty
It’s 8:00 in the morning and I’m wearing a dress the color of dead forests and old tin cans.
The fit is tighter than anything I’ve worn in my life, the cut modern and angular, almost haphazard; the material is stiff and thick but somehow breathable. I stare at my legs and wonder that I own a pair.
I feel more exposed than I ever have in my life.
For 17 years I’ve trained myself to cover every inch of exposed skin and Warner is forcing me to peel the layers away. I can only assume he’s doing it on purpose. My body is a carnivorous flower, a poisonous houseplant, a loaded gun with a million triggers and he’s more than ready to fire.
Touch me and suffer the consequences. There have never been exceptions to this rule.
Never but Adam.
He left me standing sopping wet in the shower, soaking up a torrential downpour of hot tears. I watched through the blurred glass as he dried himself off and slipped into his standard uniform.
I watched as he slipped away, wondering every moment why why why
Why can he touch me?
Why would he help me?
Does he remember me?
My skin is still steaming.
My bones are bandaged in the tight folds of this strange dress, the zipper the only thing holding me together. That, and the prospect of something I’ve always never dared to dream of.
My lips will stay stitched shut with the secrets of this morning forever but my heart is so full of confidence and wonder and peace and possibility that it’s about to burst and I wonder if it will rip the dress.
Hope is hugging me, holding me in its arms, wiping away my tears and telling me that today and tomorrow and two days from now I will be just fine and I’m so delirious I actually dare to believe it.
I am sitting in a blue room.
The walls are wallpapered in cloth the color of a perfect summer sky, the floor tucked into a carpet 2 inches thick, the entire room empty but for 2 velvet chairs punched out of a constellation. Every varying hue is like a bruise, like a beautiful mistake, like a reminder of what they did to Adam because of me.
I am sitting all alone in a velvet chair in a blue room wearing a dress made of olives. The weight of the notebook in my pocket feels like I’m balancing a bowling ball on my knee.
“You look lovely.”
Warner whisks into the room like he treads air for a living. He’s accompanied by no one.
My eyes involuntarily peek down at my tennis shoes and I wonder if I’ve broken any rules by avoiding the stilts in my closet I’m sure are not for feet. I look up and he’s standing right in front of me.
“Green is a great color on you,” he says with a stupid smile. “It really brings out the color of your eyes.”
“What color are my eyes?” I ask the wall.
He laughs. “You’re not serious.”
“How old are you?”
He stops laughing. “You care to know?”
“I’m curious.”
He takes the seat beside me. “I won’t answer your questions if you won’t look at me when I speak to you.”
“You want me to torture people against my will. You want me to be a weapon in your war. You want me to become a monster for you.” I pause. “Looking at you makes me sick.”
“You’re far more stubborn than I thought you’d be.”
“I’m wearing your dress. I ate your food. I’m here.” I lift my eyes to look at him and he’s already staring straight at me. I’m momentarily caught off guard by the power in his gaze.
“You did none of that for me,” he says quietly.
I nearly laugh out loud. “Why would I?”
His eyes are fighting his lips for the right to speak. I look away.
“What are we doing in this room?”
“Ah.” He takes a deep breath. “Breakfast. Then I give you your schedule.”
He presses a button on the arm of his chair and almost instantly, carts and trays are wheeled into the room by men and women who are clearly not soldiers. Their faces are hard and cracked and too thin to be healthy.
It breaks my heart right in half.
“I usually eat alone,” Warner continues, his voice like an icicle piercing the flesh of my memories. “But I figured you and I should be more thoroughly acquainted. Especially since we’ll be spending so much time together.”
The servants maids people-who-are-not-soldiers leave and Warner offers me something on a dish.
“I’m not hungry.”
“This is not an option.”
I look up and realize he’s very, very serious.
“You are not allowed to starve yourself to death. You don’t eat enough and I need you to be healthy. You are not allowed to commit suicide. You are not allowed to harm yourself. You are too valuable to me.”