Dualed Read Online Free PDF

boy. No more than five or six. Clad in pajamas, his hair wild from sleep, something in his face pulls at the strings of familiarity. Then I realize what it is. He reminds me of Taje, Chord’s little brother. In fact, he resembles both Taje and Chord—which in a weird way makes perfect sense.
    The next few seconds are chaos.
    The boy takes a tentative step into the room.
    Instinctively, I reach out to stop him. “No, don’t!” I shout. My voice is too thin, too high. The hysteria in it makes all of them turn to stare at me. The expressions on Luc’s and Chord’s faces are of stunned confusion.
    “West?” Luc’s eyes widen, shining in the moonlight. His arms drop an inch, his gun now off its aim by a mere fraction. “What are you—
Get out of—
”
    He’s not able to finish, the warning falling from his lips. Because that’s when Chord’s Alt squeezes the trigger.
    The bullet lodges with dull finality inside Luc’s chest.
    “Luc!” I hear myself scream. His name is the only thing in my head.
“Luc!”
    In the half light, Chord’s face convulses. His eyes go hotwith a pain so great that they’re nearly crazed. He doesn’t even seem to be breathing as he pulls his Alt’s head up by the hair and, before his Alt can begin to bring his gun around, draws the blade across his neck.
    A whistle of a scream followed by the sound of blood pouring down on the carpet like rain.
    Chord drops his Alt’s body to the floor. And then together we’re at Luc’s side.
    Luc’s gasps seem to be coming from the depths of him. Blood blooms on his chest, spreading wildly across the floor beneath him. His face is bleached to the color of bone.
    “Luc,” I sob. This isn’t happening. It can’t be. We did everything right. It’s not supposed to end this way. I crush my palm on top of the wound, only knowing that I’m supposed to put pressure on it. But one look at Chord tells me it’s hopeless. The shot was too accurate, its path too destructive.
    Luc pushes my hand from his chest. Presses his gun into my palm. Holds it there until I have no choice but to accept it.
    “Be careful with it … West,” he gasps. A ghost of a grin. “You always did … move too fast.”
    It feels too heavy to lift, the fit more cumbersome than I remember. When the time comes, will I be able to use it on my Alt? To not hesitate, even for a second?
    “I was too late.” Chord’s eyes are hollow and dazed. No longer marked by his assignment number. They’re his own again. “Luc, I was too late.”
    “No, man, you did good,” Luc whispers. “And you’re … safe now.” Red foam lines his mouth, and he coughs weakly.
    The bullet must have hit his lung, too, I think. But thethought is faint and unimportant and passes like it never was. It won’t help.
    “Be there for her, okay?” Luc says to Chord. “When she needs you.” A hitch of breath.
    Chord nods. “I won’t forget.”
    “Love you, Luc,” I say. It’s all I can do to keep my voice steady. I swipe at the tears that make it hard to see, angry at their existence, their uselessness. “You hear me?”
    He coughs again. More red froth. “Got it, West.” A huge gasp for air. “Love you, too.”
    Then he dies.
    Chord grabs me as I’m keeling over, wanting to absorb whatever pain of mine that he can take on top of his own. Whatever I’m willing to give up.
    Time passes in meaningless chunks, blurs of nothing that makes sense. It might be seconds or minutes or hours. In a different city, a different world, it might not have happened at all.
    Numb. A dim awareness that the little boy is still sitting over Chord’s Alt, his small hand covered in blood as he tries to wipe his brother’s neck clean.
    I help Chord with Luc’s body. Drape him over Chord’s shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Except Luc can’t be saved now.
    And then we’re leaving. Stumbling out from the shadow of the house and onto the street and into the car. Trying to leave behind everything that just