Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi Read Free Book Online Page B

yeah.”
    I nod a few times. “Okay. All right.” I swallow hard. “I’ll wait here until you get
     back.”
    “Sounds good.” Kenji grins, and then he’s gone. Disappeared. The front door is yanked
     open and yanked closed, and I’m staring at the wall and trying not to freak out too
     much about what’s going to happen next.
    Another mission. Which means another chance to screw everything up and get ourselves
     killed. And then, if we’re successful, we’re rewarded with more running, more instability,
     more chaos.
    I close my eyes.
    I love Juliette. I really do. I want to help her and support her and be there for
     her. I want us to have a future together. But sometimes I wonder if it’s ever going
     to happen.
    This isn’t easy to admit, but part of me doesn’t want to put James at risk again—on
     the run again—for a girl who broke up with me. A girl who walked away from us.
    I don’t know what the right thing is anymore.
    I don’t know if my allegiance is to James or Juliette.

SIXTEEN
    Kenji is back after only a couple of hours. His face ashen, his hands trembling. He’s
     breathing hard and his eyes are unfocused and he sits down on the couch without a
     word and I’m already panicking.
    “What happened?” I ask.
    “What’s going on?” Lily says.
    “You okay, bro?” This from Ian.
    We pepper him with questions and he doesn’t answer. He stares, unblinking, a replica
     of Castle, who’s sitting in a chair across from him.
    Finally, after a long moment of silence, he speaks.
    Three words.
    “Juliette is dead.”
    Chaos.
    Questions are flying and screams are muffled and everyone is shocked, horrified, freaking
     out.
    I’m stunned.
    My brain feels paralyzed, unwilling to process or digest this information. Why? I want to ask. How? How? How is it possible?
    But I can’t speak. I’m frozen in horror. Grief.
    “It wasn’t Warner who came after her,” Kenji is saying, tears falling fast down his
     face. “It was Anderson. Those were Anderson’s men. They made the announcement just
     a couple hours ago,” he says, choking on the words. “They said they bombed Omega Point,
     captured Juliette, and killed her just this morning. The supreme has already headed
     back to the capital.”
    “No,” I gasp.
    “We should’ve gone after her,” Kenji is saying. “I should’ve stayed behind—I should’ve
     tried to find her—it’s my fault,” he says, hands in his hair, fighting back tears.
     “It’s my fault she’s dead. I should’ve gone after her—”
    “It’s not your fault,” Ian says to him, rushing over and grabbing his arms. “Don’t
     you dare put that on yourself.”
    “We lost a lot of people,” Lily says. “People dear to us that we couldn’t save. This
     is not your fault. I promise. We did our best.”
    Everyone is consoling Kenji now, trying to reassure him that there’s no guilt necessary.
     No person to blame for all this.
    But I can’t agree.
    I trip backward until I hit the wall, leaning against it for support. I know who to
     blame. I know where the fault lies.
    Juliette is dead because of me.

ONE
    I am an hourglass.
    My seventeen years have collapsed and buried me from the inside out. My legs feel
     full of sand and stapled together, my mind overflowing with grains of indecision,
     choices unmade and impatient as time runs out of my body. The small hand of a clock
     taps me at one and two, three and four, whispering hello, get up, stand up, it’s time
     to
    wake up
    wake up
    “Wake up,” he whispers.
    A sharp intake of breath and I’m awake but not up, surprised but not scared, somehow
     staring into the very desperately green eyes that seem to know too much, too well.
     Aaron Warner Anderson is bent over me, his worried eyes inspecting me, his hand caught
     in the air like he might’ve been about to touch me.
    He jerks back.
    He stares, unblinking, chest rising and falling.
    “Good morning,” I assume. I’m unsure of my voice, of the hour