Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

word.
    “Do you know that?”
    “No, but I wouldn’t put it past the King. He is famous for getting what he wants regardless of the method.”
    Warm tears slipped from my eyes, carving jagged trails down the planes of my skin. I wiped them away harshly. “I can’t believe it.”
    Gray pulled me to him. “It’ll be okay, Abs.”
    “What’s okay?” I pulled away from him. “This is not okay! Crew marrying someone else is not okay! I am not okay! The village is not okay! People are being dragged away at the slightest scent of what they call ‘resistance.’ How is any of this okay?”
    “It isn’t. You’re right. I was just trying to comfort you.”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go all psycho on you. I just…I don’t know what to do.”
    “Why is it up to you to do something?”
    “Because I know what’s going on.”
    He squeezed my hand and then held tight. “Don’t do anything stupid, Abigail.”
    I looked up at him, sniffed and smiled. “Define stupid.”

     
     
     
     
    I managed to work the next day in South with no further run in with Ardis. It was probably a miracle. Gray didn’t visit that night and Kyan worked into the early morning hours. I covered his breakfast with a cloth and headed back into the cold. Gray was in the group of guards hovering over our work team today. He watched me carefully, often out of his periphery.
    My fingers and toes were numb as sundown descended. My thighs were tingly as well. I finished pruning the tree I was in and then made my way down. When my feet found the earth, I almost dropped and kissed it. Ardis sauntered over. “Gray, you guarded this one didn’t you?”
    Gray cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he replied, reluctantly.
    “She’s quite spirited.”
    Gray grunted a reply.
    Ardis stepped up to me. I kept my eyes down and hugged my torso to stop my shaking. I still had the rusty pruner in my hand. Was it wrong that I wanted to stab him in the neck with it?
    “The Crown Prince was smitten with you, huh?”
    I refused to bite. He could fish all he wanted, but I wasn’t going to give in.
    “Did he tell you he loved you? Wanted to be with you forever?”
    I pressed my lips tightly together.
    Ardis chuckled. “So, why did he discard you so easily? So quickly…like a piece of garbage?” He slowly circled me. “Did you not give him what he wanted?” I could feel his eyes on me; hear his smirk in the words he pierced me with.
    Gray stepped toward me. I shook my head slightly.
    The sound of shouting from across the orchard broke the tension. Someone yelled, “Guards!” Ardis, Gray, and the other guards went running toward the voice. I returned my pruner and crept closer to the disturbance. Brock Jennings, a boy of fourteen, was screaming. He lay at the bottom of a tree, his arm bent at an odd angle. Gray typed on his comm and then shouted into the device a request for immediate help from a medic.
    While I watched the chaos unfold, someone grabbed my arm. I looked up to find Kyan. “Ky?”
    “Hey. We need to talk.”
    “Now?”
    “While they’re busy.” He ticked his head toward the guards. “They’re keeping me away from you. That’s why I’m never home.”
    “What? Why?”
    “They want to isolate you. You’re less of a threat if you’re by yourself. There is no one to talk to, or tell your secrets to.”
    He pulled me back into the orchard, away from everyone. Stopping suddenly under a tree, he pulled me to him. I hugged him back. “What’s going on?”
    “I’ve got to tell you something.”
    “Okay.” I pulled back a little, but he pressed me back toward him. His warm breath fanned over my ear.
    “There is a resistance. The woman you saw pulled away from the depot wasn’t part of it, but there is one.”
    “Where?”
    “Everywhere. I think the guards are catching on. That’s why they’re working everyone so hard—so they’ll be too tired to meet and too tired to fight.”
    “Fight?”
    “We have to do something. What