UNBREATHABLE by Hafsah Laziaf Read Free Book Online Page A

anymore. Why was he in the Chamber last night?
    I run my hand along the weapons lining the walls. There are daggers in various sizes. Some with the most intricately carved handles. Staves tipped with blades and jet-black bows with metal arrows. I’ve never seen so many weapons. Weapons are for killing. For protecting.
    What do they need protection from?
    “Why did you want to show me this?” I ask slowly.
    He stills and turns back to me, a knife in either hand. “This room. It's where you'll spend the majority of the next month or so. In training.” He sounds confused.
    I stare at him. “Training? I don't need to train for anything. And I’m not staying here.” I’m going home, I don’t say.
    He sets the knives down and steps closer, eyes narrowed. “But—how about Slate? I thought, now that you know he's your father—”
    “Being my father has nothing to do with training. Or living here. Biological or not, he will never be Galileo.”
    Julian's eyes flash. “No, he won't. Because he isn't.” There’s a dangerous edge to his voice that makes me ignore the logic of his words.
    “I've gone seventeen years without him. I have no need, no reason-” I can’t say the words I want to say. I don’t know what to say.
    Because really, I'm afraid. Afraid to trust another person the way I trusted… Gage. And I’m afraid—what if he isn’t my father?
    We hear it at the same time. The shift. The sharp inhale. I jerk my head to the door as Slate takes a step back, face contorted in a sorrow and pain.
    And worse, understanding.
    “Wait!” I rush after him. “That isn't what I meant.”
    “No, you're right.” Slate turns and smiles sadly at me. His lips tremble, a testament to how much I mean to him, the daughter he didn’t know he had for seventeen years. He reaches for me, but his hand freezes midair. “I will never be Gage.”
    His body shudders when turns and sulks slowly down the hall. When the pain edging into my chest becomes too much to bear, I turn too. Guilt and regret heat my face.
    And I run.
    I ignore Julian's frantic calls as my feet echo down the hall. I shove past a surprised soldier and throw open the door before hurrying down the steps.
    I have no reason to train. I never had to worry about being safe. But I never should have said what I said.
    “Don't you want to know who's after you?”
    I jump. Julian stands right behind me, eyes ablaze. My heart races. It relishes every moment when I am alone with him. My heart feels too many things at the wrong times.
    “No.” I surprise myself with the force of my voice.
    He stares at me before clenching his jaw. And finally, finally, he turns away without a word.
    Rejection. That’s what I feel like a heavy weight in my chest. And guilt.
    I walk, weariness underscoring my every step. Despite the pang I feel when I realize I probably won’t see Julian or Slate again, I have no intention of returning again. Ever.
    Far to my right, somewhere unseen, is Jute territory. Was my mother as cruel as the Jute are supposed to be? Or was that another lie Father—Gage—told me?
    Maybe the Jute are like us. Maybe my mother cried for my blue corpse, as Slate did.
    He cares for me – I can see it in his eyes, in his tears, in the pain burning on his face. Somehow, I know he isn’t bluffing, just as I know he lied about my mother being gone. I never saw so much emotion in Father. Slate is what Father was not. I stop walking.
    Slate is my father.
    And isn't that what he told me, on the threshold of death?  You are not my daughter.
    Like a shock blast, it hits me. My father is alive. Slate, a gray-eyed, chestnut-haired soldier barely over thirty, is my father.
    I try to make sense of it all. Half-Jute, half-human. Father—no, Gage —keeping me away from my own father, his own brother. Julian insisting I should train.
    A soft, animal sound shatters my thoughts.
    I stop walking when I hear it again. Something breathing .
    Shadows fall over me. I look up slowly,