City of Cruelty and Copper (Temperance Era) Read Online Free PDF

the theme was fire. They tied Fable to a stake and attempted to burn her alive. She told us a story about witch burnings in a place called Salem. It sounded like a fairytale to me. When they were done, her skin was as milky white as it had been before the fire. Her fiery red hair had grown back almost instantly. The crowd whooped with envy. My eyes burned with sympathy.
    Most of the people in Temperance wanted to live forever. They had labs in the lower levels, exploring ways to cure the gene pool, to fix the radiation poisoning, turn us all into Fable.
    I didn’t want to be like her.
    Rab was one of the few people that supported the Nuclear Expeditions and spoke out against the Immortality Research. He believed we had far too much of one and not enough of the other. It was one of the only things we agreed on.
    A fist punched the canvas and I flinched, startled out of my daydream.
    “Milo,” a familiar voice said.
    I sat up. “Isaac.”
    I frowned as he moved the canvas aside and stepped into the room. Isaac wasn’t the sort of boy that people swooned over, but there was a definite swoon factor for me. I think it was his unassuming nature, the way he hunched his shoulders and tried to seem shorter than he was. And it was his smile. It was a cross between goofy and lazy. It drew me in more than any of the usual boyish features did. He hooked his thumbs into his belt and I felt envious of the way he could make the one piece look fashionable. He had a piece of fabric tied around his upper arm, and one of his pant legs was rolled up to his knee. He did it to show off the tattoo on his leg, a serpent wrapping from his ankle and seeming to take a bite out of his knee.
    Something the people on the East side were known for was their artwork. It made Isaac an individual whereas I was just another face in the crowd. I liked it that way, because the moment I introduced myself, people knew exactly who I was.
    “You’re going to say no again aren’t you?” He leaned against the wall beside the door and eyed the screen beside him. He went to tap it when I held up a hand.
    “I have to go to the festival.”
    Isaac continued looking at the screen instead of at me. “But?” he goaded.
    He always did this, trying to make me see that even though my father made the rules there were exceptions, technicalities. He wanted me to use the loopholes at my disposal to weasel out of any and all responsibilities tying me to Central. I couldn’t say his intentions weren’t honorable, but I wasn’t a damsel in distress.
    I sighed. “I don’t need to report to the black box until ten hundred hours.”
    He frowned. “That’s not enough time to get to where I want to take you.”
    Something stirred in my stomach, a mixture of pangs and nerves and warmth. I shook my head. I had only kissed one boy, Isaac had kissed tons. The East side was so open about people being gay. Temperance had no laws against it, but the heirs to the Senate? The founding families had to live on, especially the Ketterlings. One of the reasons Rab and I didn’t see eye to eye was because I wouldn’t try dating a girl. I squashed the feelings and stood, my hand moving to my flashlight. Even in the daytime there were some places in Temperance that were underground. Everyone had to carry one.
    “Let me check in,” I said, an idea forming in my mind. I never sat in the stands with the commoners. Isaac and his family, the Blackwells sat up there along with all the other common families. I stood in the black box and had perfect view of the Arena. Isaac pushed off the wall and stood a few feet away from me, he wasn’t really smiling but he looked hopeful. “I’ll ask to sit with you in the stands. We can probably slip away from there.”
    He gave me one of his famous cheeky smiles and clapped me on the shoulder, heat spreading into me where his hand touched. “I knew you had it in you!”
    “What?” I asked, a laugh tickling my lips.