The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (e reader for manga TXT) 📕

lower, and I’m definitely not the biggest fan of the Tower right now.”

“Yes, but why?” Eric’s voice was awash with frustration—the most negative I’d ever heard him in my life—and another pang of guilt shot through me. He was an eight because he was so upbeat, but if he was feeling the way he sounded—harsh and tense—then his rank was in jeopardy, and it was my fault.

Zoe sighed overhead, and I clenched my hands together, trying not to say anything. Going out there would only make things worse, because they’d demand to know where I’d been and what I’d been doing. And I couldn’t tell them the truth, which meant I would have to lie. I might even have to be cruel.

Zoe sighed, and I heard footsteps. I closed my eyes as they thundered loudly overhead, and then opened them when they stopped halfway across. “Don’t worry about me,” Zoe said. “I’m sure I’ll get over it. I just...”

She trailed off, and I wrapped my arms around my knees, trying to compress myself into an even tighter ball.

“Hey,” Eric said. “You know you can tell me anything. I’m not like the others... I can take it.”

“Oh, Eric,” Zoe breathed, her voice so soft that I had to strain to hear it over the wind and the water. “I really want to, but Liana said...”

“She’s not here! She’s not even talking to us. Please, just tell me. Maybe I can help.”

Alarm began to course through me as Eric tried to worm his way toward the truth, and I realized that I’d done Zoe a great disservice—I’d had someone to talk to about what I’d seen, but I’d denied her anyone to talk to about what I told her.

I heard her sigh, and in that sigh, I imagined her crumbling. Breaking down and telling Eric everything about what we had done. Putting him at risk. Panic gave speed to my limbs, and I tore out from under the bridge like a woman possessed, scrambling on my hands and knees.

I climbed to my feet immediately, taking a moment to find my footing on the steep embankment, and looked to where Zoe was now staring down at me, her mouth opened in a wide “O” of surprise, her eyes bulging. Beside her, Erik looked just as dumbfounded by my abrupt appearance, and I suddenly recalled that I had been eavesdropping on a very personal conversation. And now they knew that, too.

Well. Best way out was always forward. I hoped.

“Hey?” I asked, raising one dirt-stained arm and forcing a bright smile on my lips. Inside, my heart was quivering in terror, and I had to fight to keep it from punching out of my back and making a run for it. “How’s it going?”

Zoe was not amused, and as her eyes narrowed to slits, I realized that, at the very least, I had prevented her from spilling her guts to Eric. For now.

“Where the hell have you been?” Zoe began, her voice snapping. Before I even had a chance to draw breath, she held up her finger, silencing me. “Oh no, scratch that. What the hell were you doing down there?”

I blinked several times, trying to think of an excuse. “I... was... inspecting the underside of the bridge.”

Zoe’s eyes narrowed even more, until they were just slits ablaze with fire, raging in fury. I wondered if she thought that squinting her eyes together tight enough would enable her to channel that anger into a laser beam.

“You were inspecting the underside of the bridge.” Her voice was flat and emotionless, but those eyes told me to think carefully.

“Yes?”

“Just... the underside of the bridge?”

“Yes?”

“Really.”

“Yes.”

Her face scrunched into a tight knot, and then she tried to lunge for me, over the railing, her arms outstretched. I took a step back in alarm, and almost fell as my foot slipped on the steep slope. Luckily, Eric caught my best friend around the waist with his large arms, and held her pinned against his side. She kicked and screamed as she continued to try to get to me, but Eric didn’t let go.

I used the time to climb out of the ditch and start to dust myself off. Zoe’s yells and hollers were dying down some, enough for Eric to look over at me and say, “She thinks that lie is insulting our intelligence. And I happen to agree.”

My lips curled up in a smile, and I offered him a mock salute as I beat the mud off my boots. After a moment, Zoe went completely quiet, and I looked up to see Eric setting her gently on the ground. Her eyes met mine, and I saw a hardening in them before she whipped around and began marching away. My eyes caught her wrist, and I felt my heart stop short as I took in the four, winking mockingly and reminding me that that was my fault. I thought of what Grey had said—that after four it was almost impossible to get up without Medica assistance—and cringed.

Eric watched her go, turned back to me, shrugged, and then moved to follow her. I watched them both go, torn between following and running away.

Then I thought of the anger in Zoe’s eyes, and how it was unable to mask the pain there.

I turned away from her, intent on telling Roark why he was going to recruit Zoe. Then, I was coming back up here and leveling with my friend.

24

I buzzed the door and waited, teetering on the precipice of banging on the door or really getting mad, when it slid open to reveal Grey, his eyes sluggish, as if I had woken him up. He stared dumbly at me, and I seized the advantage and pushed by him, heading deeper into Roark’s home.

“Liana?” he said from behind me, but I ignored him and moved into the common space. Roark was sitting behind his workbench and looked up in surprise from his work screen, his fingers still on the controls.

“What are you