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

rattling by outside, the whistling growing and distorting until it became a violent roar.

I shut my eyes and tried to keep my breathing under control, but I was panting. We were going to hit—any minute—and that would be that. I remembered the sensation of falling in The Green, the way I had tumbled through the air with no control, unable to stop myself. My breathing hitched until I was hyperventilating, and every rattle of metal made me cringe, certain this was the last sound I would hear before we died.

“Thomas?” I heard Amber ask, her voice barely discernable over the screeching noise.

“Not yet,” he bellowed.

The roaring grew louder, and tears began to leak out from under my eyelids onto my cheeks.

Then Thomas roared, “THREE, TWO, NOW!”

I grunted as gravity returned with a roar, my body still trying to go down while the heloship rocked us up. My breathing was heavy and loud in my ears, and I couldn’t open my eyes. My complete belief that we had hit the earth was conflicting with the sudden hum of engines filling the room. I had never noticed before how comforting that sound could be.

There was silence, and then a voice, softly whispering in my ear. “We’re fine, Violet. We’re okay.”

I cracked open my eyes, my heart still pounding in my ribcage, and confirmed Viggo’s assertion. We were alive. Although, given that even Ms. Dale looked a little rattled around the edges, I wasn’t certain everyone was confident about that.

“I’m setting her down,” Amber announced, clicking some buttons. “Seems a shame to leave her abandoned out here, but—”

There was a rattle of the doorknob in the cargo bay, and alarm coursed through me, although Viggo was the first to react by standing up, his gun coming out of the holster on his belt. The door pushed open, and I gaped as Logan strode in, bleeding from a cut over his eyebrow, his hair mussed. “I wish I had known what your plan was coming down,” he said, looking around. “Then I could’ve made a better entrance. Seriously, did we just fall all the way down to Matrus?”

“Logan?” Amber said, whipping around in her seat. “What the hell are you doing here? You were supposed to stay behind to help Henrik.”

“I know. I left my orders with my second in command. I didn’t want you coming here without me.”

“So you snuck onboard?” Ms. Dale asked dryly.

“How’d we miss you?” Owen added. “We were back there securing the cargo bay for at least twenty minutes.”

Logan looked over at us, and then down at his suit, and I realized he was wearing one of the Liberator uniforms. We all were, but we didn’t have that many, which meant he must have had to sneak into the inventory room to steal one. And he’d had to keep the suit on for at least twenty minutes—a feat that was impressive, even for somebody like Owen who’d had much more experience. I was impressed, at least; Amber didn’t look so thrilled.

“I can’t believe this,” she muttered, clearly embarrassed, turning back to the controls and flipping a few switches, then beginning to lower us down. I took a cautious peek out the window, and it looked like we were already on the ground—but we descended another ten or fifteen feet before the thump that announced we’d touched down.

“Amber, I’m sorry. I just… After we talked last night… How we finished things… And then you were leaving… And it’s not that I don’t think you can handle it! I do! I just wanted to be here with…” Logan trailed off as she quickly began shutting down the engine, her fingers flying, pointedly ignoring him. As soon as she was done, she stood up and turned to face him.

She was nervous; I could see it in the way she held herself. “Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now. Ms. Dale? What should we do with him?”

Ms. Dale looked at both of them, and then over to Viggo, who was finally putting away his gun. He met her gaze, and then shrugged indifferently. “You’re correct, he is here now.” She paused, contemplating him.

“I go where Amber goes,” he announced, raking a hand through his thick crop of black hair.

“Clearly.” Ms. Dale’s voice held the quality of brittle paper. “I don’t think we could stop him if we tried.”

“Could always tie him up,” Morgan said softly, and I looked over to see her standing up. If she was shaken, she didn’t show it. “But I think that would get him killed.”

“You have enough room in the vehicles,” he insisted. “And I’m good in a fight. Amber can attest to that.”

“I can attest to that,” Ms. Dale replied dryly. “Or did you forget you and I were fighting side by side at the water plant? I’ll make this short. You can come with us—but you follow every order, every command, like it’s life or death. And since I know better than to try to separate you from Amber, I will put you with her.”

Amber’s eyebrows drew together, as though she were on the verge of protest, but she held it back, giving him another long, hard look. “Am I his superior?” she asked.

Ms. Dale gave the young woman a feline smile. “Of course you are. And if he acts out, I give you permission to shoot him.”

Amber continued to stare at the man, her uncertain look quickly turning into an extremely satisfied grin. Logan didn’t seem particularly intimidated—he was smiling as well. Then again, I guessed he had just gotten what he wanted: more time with Amber.

That was actually pretty sweet, and I could tell he still affected Amber in some way. Otherwise she wouldn’t be acting like this. I just hoped he was patient enough to let her sort through whatever she was feeling and work out what she actually wanted. I of all people knew that forcing a confrontation with Amber would just make her more stubborn.

Ms. Dale seemed to