Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tayler Read Free Book Online

can I still be crying? “When he got out?”
    “You knew him?”
    I back up another step. He is nothing but an outline, a shadow without features, yet I know his eyes are on me, just as I knew they were when we were above, when Alex died.
    “He was my friend.” My voice rattles. I choke on my tears and the agony of what I saw.
    “If he was your friend, then you should have told him to stay inside. It isn’t safe out there. Everyone knows it, yet you continually try to break out, only to die a horrible death.”
    “Were you there?” I ask again. “Did you see it?”
    “No,” he admits. “I didn’t see it. Not until after.”
    “After he was burned?”
    I hear shouts and the sound of footsteps. He is trying to delay me but I know it will take time for the bluecoats to get inside the building. The doors are barred and chained. Still, I take another step back, closer to the tunnel entrance. The bluecoats will not follow me down—to do so is certain death. Mysterious and unexplainable things happen to those who venture into the tunnels without an invitation.
    Another question pops into my mind. One that needs more thought and explanation—both of which I know I will not receive from this boy. I don’t know why it bothers me so much that he was not there for Alex’s capture, except that I need some sort of validation for Alex’s last words.
    “He said the sky was blue.” My foot touches the crate that hides the tunnel entrance. “How can it be, if the world out there is full of fire?”
    I feel his pause as I dart behind the crate. I know this access will be shut off from below once I am through. I should go now before another bluecoat comes with tools to open the bars, but I don’t. I hide in the darkness and wait for his response.
    “Things are not always what they seem.” His answer is slow to come and hard for me to understand.
    I do not answer him. I stare into the shadow of his face in an attempt to find the meaning of his words. His hand moves between the bars and stretches out toward me, as if he wants to touch me. A shiver runs down my spine and for some strange reason I take a step forward.
    Things are not always what they seem … I turn away. I push the lever that moves the crate aside and without a backward glance I descend into the darkness. The crate moves back into place with a solid thunk and my eyes adjust to the darkness.
    I am home.

 
    4
    “Wren!” My grandfather hurries to me with his eyes shining in the darkness. “I should have known you’d be in the thick of it.” He grabs my arm and holds me against the tunnel wall. Three shiners pass us with their arms full of tools and odds and ends of wood on their way to seal up the hatch I just came through in the hope that it will discourage the bluecoats from following. Other shiners will guard the place for several days in case anyone is foolish enough to try.
    “When are you going to learn, Wren? There’s no place for you up there.” My grandfather lectures me as we walk through the tunnel, his words a steady mantra I’ve heard a thousand times before. My grandfather’s words are like smoke. They surround me and then drift away. They are the same words that he regrets not sharing with my mother when she went above. He hopes that by keeping me below he might save me in a way that he could not save her. It is a never-ending battle between us. Like my mother, I cannot stay constant in the world beneath the streets. I am forever reaching for the sky beyond the dome.
    “The sky is blue.” I blurt it out without thought to the consequences. They were Alex’s last words. I have to share them. They are too important and his death would be for naught without them.
    My grandfather stops. He takes my upper arms into his hands and turns me to face him. His skin is pale as chalk and the lines of his face are full of dirt and coal dust. “What did you say?”
    “The sky is blue.”
    His eyes widen with shock. His grip on my arms tightens