Soulprint Read Online Free PDF Page A

it’s that we want to be away from the house. They smile widely, holding microphones out to me.
    I see a few guards look at each other—questioning glances that I haven’t seen since they found that guard Ellis in my room.This is not part of Casey’s instructions, I am sure. And I’m supposed to be slow and malleable and content. I am not. I can see it in their eyes—they can see
I am not
.
    They start to move closer. “One,” Casey whispers.
    They won’t get here in time.
    â€œAlina,” someone shouts again. “What did you get for your birthday?”
    â€œTwo.” I see her hand reach into her pocket.
    I glance at Casey. Her face is bare. The cameras see her as much as they see me. This is the last moment I will be complicit in my own imprisonment. This is the last moment she will be anonymous.
    What I’m about to gain, she is about to lose. “You’re about to see,” I say.
    â€œThree.”
    The explosion is more than just noise—it’s a rush of air and a flash of light and, yes, noise. Everyone drops to the ground instinctively.
    Except Casey, who has a grip on my arm, pulling me against instinct, dragging me away.
    ESCAPE.
    I leave my shoes behind, my feet calloused from months of training, and I run. I can’t breathe. The air is full of dust and dirt, and then suddenly it’s worse—smoke. I glance behind me quickly, but the house is fine. Still standing. The window from my room is missing and there’s a gaping hole in the bricks surrounding it.
    People are moving toward us.
    And then I can’t see anymore because smoke settles down from above. From the trees. I can’t see at all, but that must be the point. I wonder if Cameron is up in the trees somewhere. Or if he’s running with us right now.
    I hear shouting, hear footsteps, feel the ground vibrating beneath my feet.
    â€œClose your eyes,” she says, her hand still on my arm. I don’t know how she can tell where she’s going with her eyes closed, but she does. She counts as she runs. Stopping. Turning. Counting again.
    I run with my eyes closed. I didn’t train for this. If they had told me to memorize this island blind, I would have. I would’ve been ready, and not just someone who had to be dragged. I know this island. I know it better than anyone.
    Casey slows, and I open my eyes. We’ve broken through the smoke and are deep in the trees—almost to the cliffs. She stops abruptly and rips her shirt over her head. “Switch!” she yells at me. “Hurry!” A wig comes off with her shirt, and a long dark braid weaves down her back. Her body is lean and muscular under her clothes as she tosses them my way. If I catch a glimpse of her from just the corner of my eye, she looks like me.
    â€œNow!”
    I tear off my dress, and the picture of my mother drifts away, and with a single gust, it flips over the edge of the cliffs and it’s gone. I pull on her pants. Her shirt. She tugs at my hair, yanking the elastic out, and I understand, shaking out the braid.
    She looks out over the edge. “This is where you jump,” shesays. I look down, but I shouldn’t have. The waves crash against the rock, and the sea swirls and foams.
    This is the edge of my world, and it looks exactly like an edge of the world should look.
    I imagine my eyes are huge when I look back at her. “No. Over here.” She points behind her, and I lean over the edge. There’s a small cove. It looks still, as far as oceans go. “Swim to the entrance.” She must be talking about the mouth between the rocks.
    I thought I could do it, but there’s no way. It’s suicide. If I jump I’ll be too deep, and how do you swim for the surface? Is it instinct? People drown every day, even people who know how to swim. I can’t do it.
    â€œThere’s netting, and—” And I can’t swim. But they have made a mistake