“Hey, Anker, you haven’t seen Caleb, have you? I’ve looked almost everywhere I can think of, but I can’t find him anywhere.”
Anker paled considerably, making a noncommittal grunt, and then turned as though to leave. Luca grabbed him by the shoulder.
“You know something.” Luca didn’t say this as a question, his voice not brokering any room for evasion. Anker made a noise in his throat, like a sharp squeal, and looked between Luca and Everly with strained eyes.
“Look, I’m sorry, man. I wish I could say, but they’d flay me alive if they found out I’d snitched.”
“They?” Luca’s eyes turned hard. “Runners. What did they do to him?”
Anker held up his hands, trying to back away. “Like I said, I’m sorry.” He tried to make a break for it then, but before he could get more than a few steps, Luca grabbed him by the shoulders, slammed him back into the wall, and shoved an elbow into his throat.
“Tell me what you know,” Luca said in a low voice that made Everly shiver, even though she wasn’t the one being pinned to the wall. She didn’t try to stop him, though. Instead, she watched.
“I can’t,” Anker yelled back, voice shaking, his eyes suddenly wide and frantic. “They’d kill me. You know it. They’d kill you, too, and you would just drag the rest of us down with you.”
Luca didn’t lessen his grip. If anything, he tightened his hold, and Everly observed as Anker’s face began to purple beneath Luca’s hands. Anker clasped at his throat. “Luca,” he wheezed, and finally Luca let him go. Anker collapsed to the floor, hacking, and Luca leaned against the wall, arms crossed, glaring at Anker while he recovered. His glare wavered, though, Everly thought. An uncertainty. She saw his eyes flick between Anker’s face and his throat, and she frowned.
Once he caught his breath, Anker raised his head, looking between Luca and Everly. “I swear. If I could, I would tell you. I liked Caleb, you know. He was cool. We grew up together here—we all did. I hate that this happened, and I’m sorry, but I can’t risk it. I know you two were tight, but see this from my perspective. You’ve got to be able to understand why I can’t tell you anything.”
Luca snarled down at him. “Stop,” he growled, “referring to him in the past tense.”
Anker held up his hands, tossing his head back and forth. “Sorry,” he said again.
Luca’s eye were slits as he moved toward Anker with a murderous look on his face. Everly stepped in front of Luca, between him and Anker, and shot Luca a sharp look before turning to Anker.
“Look, I get that you can’t tell us where, but can you at least tell us what they did with him, or what they’re going to do?”
Anker met her eyes, and then Luca’s, drawing out the moment. “You know,” he said in a too-quiet voice. “You know what they did.”
Stomach twisting, Everly looked back at Luca, who had tensed, with his arms still crossed over his chest. Shaking his head, he pushed off the wall and stalked away. Everly glanced once more at Anker, who she couldn’t help but think looked pathetic lying splayed across the floor. Pinching her lips together, she pivoted and ran after Luca.
She found him striding down the hall, banging on closed doors and roaring.
“Whoa whoa whoa,” she yelled. “Luca, what are you doing? Someone is going to hear you. Stop.”
He spun toward her, face white and wet from tears she hadn’t realized he’d shed. His eyes were red as they bored into hers, demanding an answer she didn’t have. “So? Who cares? I want them to hear me, then maybe they’d find me useless, too, or too much trouble for my own worth, and they’d bring me to wherever they’ve taken Caleb. In fact—” He brought his hands to his mouth and hollered in a shattering voice: “Come and get me! You hear that? You want me, well, I’m right here!” He rushed up to the closest door and threw his fists into it with enough force that Everly’s hands ached just watching him.
“Luca, stop it! Please.” Everly ran up, grabbing at one of his arms, but he pulled away from her, face cold.
“Whose side are you on, anyway?”
She gaped at him. “Whose side am I on? Luca, you know I’m on your side. We’re in this together, right? Hey, look at me.” She grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her, to meet her eyes. “We will find Caleb, and we will find a way out of this nightmare. One way or another, we’ll make it, but not if you lose your head. I need you, Luca—Caleb needs you—but not like this.”
Luca was breathing heavily, his eyes flying in every direction, but he had stopped shouting, stopped running. He took a deep breath, as though to say something, but then they heard pounding on the tile floor not far from them. Luca and Everly exchanged panicked glances. He took her hand.
“Come on,” Luca said, and they fled, racing down the hall in the opposite direction. He tried random doors, shaking the knobs, encountering only locked rooms. Eventually, they found a door that opened, and Luca ushered Everly in, closing the door behind them with a click and blanketing them both in darkness.
They were in a closet of some sort, with mostly empty shelves and the musty scent of disinfectant in the air. For a moment they stood in silence, the only sound that of them each catching their breath.
“Do you think we lost them?” Everly whispered.
“I don’t know,” Luca whispered back. “Probably. Most runners aren’t all that bright. They probably wouldn’t think to check these rooms.” He paused. “Everly, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lost it like that back there. It’s just—” He took a shuttering breath. “Caleb is all I have here.” Luca paused again, and Everly waited for him to go on, listening to the sound of his heavy breaths. “All my life, I’ve been alone. Caleb anchored me growing up, made life feel a little bit easier living here.” Everly heard him swallow thickly.
“I’ve failed him, Everly. We were supposed to look out for each other, I was supposed to protect him, and I didn’t. I let him get taken, and for all I know he could be—”
“No,” Everly cut him off. “Don’t go down that path. You can’t let yourself fall like that, Luca. Not yet.”
Luca’s breathing turned even more ragged. As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness around them, Everly saw Luca running his hands incessantly through his hair, visibly shaking.
“Everly, I can’t breathe. What am I even worth, if I can’t save—” He stopped short, panting.
“Luca, stop. Stop talking. You,” she grasped for his face in the darkness, holding it firmly between her hands. “You can’t do this to yourself. You can’t blame yourself for everything, you can’t control everything, even though I know you wish you could. So, you can’t fall apart now because I need you, and I—” Everly’s voice cut off. She took her hands from where they still rested on Luca’s face and covered her mouth, turning away. She was supposed to be better than this, stronger than this, and so she could barely stand it when she felt him come up behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” Everly whispered. “I am so sorry that this is happening.”
“No, Everly,” Luca said in a low voice that sent shivers down her spine. “You were right. You said we could do it, and I believe you. You—” He sucked in a shaky breath. “Ever since you arrived at the building, I’ve started to see things differently. You’ve made me see things differently. Made me feel like I don’t have everything here figured out, like maybe there’s still hope for us, for all of us. So, thank you,” he said in her ear. “You saved me. So, I know we can save him, too.”
Everly slowly twisted around in his arms so that she was facing him. She could feel his breath against her cheek, his face only an inch away from hers, and she could feel even that short distance between them growing taut, like a ribbon begging to be pulled closer. For a beat, she didn’t move, afraid to break the spell that had somehow descended upon the two of them, enclosing them in a world far and away from reality.
But she was curious. So curious.
Bridging the space between them before she had a chance to change her mind, Everly’s mouth pressed into Luca’s. She heard his breath hitch, and she smiled, with her mouth still against his, reveling in his reaction, in the way he reached up a hand to her face and pulled her closer, the way his mouth now sought hers farther, deeper, longer.
And then she let everything fall away—their situation, what they had both been through, what was still left before them. For the time, it was just them. Him, as he ran a hand up her back, the other tangling in her hair. Her, as she leaned into his warmth, cupping his face in her hands, pulling him toward her like it was the last chance they had, and realizing that it very well might be.
Eventually they broke apart, both breathing heavily—Everly’s hands lying on Luca’s shoulders, his encircling her waist. She heard him laugh softly beneath his breath.
“Where did you come from?” Luca whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers. Everly searched for his eyes in the dark, barely able to make out more than his silhouette.
