The Creative Fire: 1 (Ruby's Song) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and got injured.”
    “Maybe.”
    “I gotta go.”
    The look The Jackman gave him was part compassionate, part hard. “She’s not worth so much as you think, that one. She’ll break your heart.”
    “I’ve got to warn her.”
    “Of course you do.”

 
    5: The Dangers Inside
    Ruby shivered in the cold park as she watched Fox absorb her request. The very act of asking him to take her with him had opened all the possibilities in the world. She could eat well. She could sing. She could advocate for her people.
    His jaw tightened.
    She lifted her hand, touched his cheek, and let her hand fall again, holding her breath.
    When he spoke, he didn’t look at her. “It’s dangerous where I live. You’d be eaten alive.”
    Heat flushed her cheeks. “It can’t be more dangerous than this!”
    “You don’t understand.”
    “I learn fast. I haven’t been killed here yet, or hurt. I haven’t ended up in lockup yet. I’m first in my class.” Damn it, she sounded desperate and young. She took a deep breath. “I’ll do well there, I know I will. I’ll have a better chance of singing—”
    He cut her off, laughter licking at the edges of his face in spite of the way his lips were blue with the cold. “You don’t understand.”
    “You think I’m not good enough. I am. I can do anything.”
    “Shhhhh . . . I know. You’re good, but you don’t understand. What’s dangerous here and what’s dangerous there are different. In my world, people aren’t always nice to each other.”
    “Like they are here?” she shot back. “I didn’t tell you the bad parts.”
    “Whatever they are, they’re simpler than the risks I live with.”
    “I don’t want to be a gray all my life.” She plucked at his shirt. “I want nice clothes, and to sing, and to learn more things. I don’t know who helps run the ship, but it’s not robot jockeys.” Her mind raced. “You could teach me. Help me.”
    He shook his head, still looking amused.
    Her right hand rested on his shoulder and her left wrapped around him to rest on his chest. She felt hyperaware of every place her body contacted his. She clutched him closer, desperate for a way to convince him. His heart beat under her fingers.
    The dangers and the breaking had made her stronger and faster and scared, but now all that fear had run out, leaving her too tired and cold to think as fast as usual. There had to be a way to convince him. If his ankle worked, they’d have gone a long time ago and found more people. Instead, it was just the two of them, nothing and no one else. That, and the cold, and the way the broken park looked surreal all around them made her feel like she was in a dream.
    She had to think of something.
    A low buzzing sound grew louder. She had taken it for background, but she was wrong.
    Fox took her hand and squeezed it. “Thank you.” A farewell.
    She realized the sound was related to a cargo cart so quiet she’d not known what she was hearing. The cart sped just above the paths, the driver moving neither slow nor fast, inexorably growing nearer.
    She glanced back at Fox. “You’re welcome,” she whispered, feeling him slip away already. “When will I see you again?”
    “Maybe never.”
    “Take me with you,” she repeated, hating the slightly desperate edge in her voice.
    He didn’t answer, but it felt like he wanted her to come, like something in his gaze told her yes.
    She held her breath, drinking in the curve of his cheek, his dark eyelashes resting against pale skin, the specific blue of his eyes.
    “Ruby!”
    Her head snapped around at the familiar voice. Onor. At first she thought he might be on the cart, but he was on foot, racing toward her across the broken park. She winced. Trust Onor to show up when she didn’t want him, or need him.
    Fox’s hand still rested in hers, warm in spite of the cold. He pulled it away, and she had to resist the urge to reach and take it back. He levered himself up, careful of her legs and of his