The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

new civilization—a conversation with them was a fantastical offer. If it went well, we could come back and maybe start a trade, share histories, learn and grow from each other’s inventions… My mind was whirling so fast with the thousands of exciting possibilities about a potential sister city that Violet’s reply completely took me off guard.

“No, I’m sorry, we must decline.” I cast a look at her, and her gray eyes flicked up to mine, meeting them for half a second. I kept my face blank, concealing the stab of disappointment that went through me, surprisingly strong, at the news. Still, if Violet was saying no, there was a reason. “We need to get back to our ship. Your council can meet us up there, but I said I had an hour, and I meant an hour.”

Raevyn frowned. “Very well. Why don’t you take a moment to collect yourselves, and we will wait outside to take you back to the ship?”

“Thank you,” Violet said, inclining her head. “Or… Tahatlana? May your waters run clear?”

Raevyn blinked, and then her face twisted up into a surprised smile. “Something like that,” she chuckled. “You have a good ear.”

Violet shrugged, and Raevyn and Devon slipped out the door.

When the door swung closed, I was already moving forward. Violet and I rushed toward each other, and I threw my arms around her, crushing her to my chest and holding her there. She sniffed, nuzzling her cheek against my chest.

“You smell awful,” she commented, and I laughed.

“Hey, I had a really busy morning,” I replied in self-defense. I knew she didn’t care—there had been more than a few times when both of us were less than fragrant, especially after life or death situations. And Violet herself wasn’t in much of a position to critique my cleanliness.

She laughed a little and then stopped abruptly, looking up at me with huge gray eyes. “Oh my God, Viggo, how are you here?”

I took a step back. “It’s kind of a long story, but to sum up, we used the last of our heloship fuel to take several pilots and pilots-in-training to the Matrian airfield, and we took everything we could, including several of their ships, and then blew up the others.”

Her eyes widened, and then a smile crossed her lips. “Seriously?”

I shrugged. “It was Henrik’s idea, and it was the best shot at getting to you quickly. Elena was thorough. She disabled the entire Patrian fleet and took their fuel before we got to them. There’s a chance she stored it somewhere else within Patrus, but we just didn’t have time to look.”

She nodded, and then pulled me close again. “I was so scared that I’d never get to see you again,” she breathed into my chest.

“I know,” I soothed her as she trembled slightly. I understood completely—I felt exactly the same way. That fear had been tearing me apart for the last few hours… even now, it scared me more than anything how much sheer luck had led us to find her so quickly. I mean, we’d used what information we’d had, and made some very educated guesses, but luck was definitely a factor. “So, what is the deal with this place?”

Violet exhaled as she gently extracted herself from my arms. “Viggo, there are people here. I’m not entirely sure what to make of them, but they’re people just like us. Those black stick things the knights are carrying give off an electrical charge, so watch out for that. CS Sage is ninety-two years old. And oh my God, look!”

She held up her arm, and I suddenly realized I had completely missed the fact that her cast was gone. I had been so glad to see her alive, I had only given her a cursory glance, making sure she was relatively unharmed, before trying to appraise the situation with the others in the room. I gently took her arm, giving her a questioning look, and she beamed, nodding.

“This can apparently repair broken bones in twenty-four hours.”

I softly prodded the plastic encasing her arm, realizing there was some sort of gelatinous fluid inside. “Fascinating. Do you think they will be willing to meet with us again, at a later date?”

Violet hesitated, and then gave a shrug. “I have no idea. They are very suspicious, and I get the feeling they really don’t want us to be here. But honestly… maybe? Devon—the Knight Commander—wants to keep us here so he can take apart the, uh, gyroship,” she gave me a pointed look, and I caught on quickly, “and reverse engineer it.”

“I see. But that means we might have something they would be willing to establish a trade for.”

“Weirdly, they also don’t know what guns are. They didn’t even react to mine until I had to fire it.” She quickly explained the circumstances, and I nodded, listening intently, trying to absorb all the new information. After she finished, I frowned.

“That is weird. Our history books said that guns were everywhere before the Fall. It seems odd that these people wouldn’t even have a record of it.”

“I agree, but they clearly don’t.” She paused, and then looked up at me, the color leaving her face so quickly I almost thought she was injured again. “Oh, Viggo. Jay! I can’t believe I didn’t ask earlier. Is he—”

“I don’t know,” I told her honestly, my own heart sinking at the thought of how we’d left the young man. “April was working on stabilizing him when I left. Tim stayed behind to be with him. Morgan also got Cody out of the water. He’s alive, but he was shaken up pretty badly. I don’t know how things will go with him if… when… we get back.” Now wasn’t the time to speculate about the young man, and after hearing the new horrors Desmond had put him through, I had no idea what to expect.

Violet exhaled, relief flickering over her face, and then tilted her head up at me. “What about the plant? I know you