UNBREATHABLE Read Online Free PDF Page B

tendrils of warning fear.
    “What’s it like?”
    For a moment, I think he's asking about trust. But when I meet his eyes, I know. Only one thing in our dwindling world can lighten and brighten a person's eyes to full awe.
    “Earth?” I ask anyway. He nods and excitement builds in my chest. I've never spoken to anyone about Earth. It’s a secret that could take me straight to the gallows. But right now, I don’t care. “It really is green and blue and white, but different. Alive, almost.”
    His eyes light up and I want to grab his hand and push away the sun, entice the moon into the sky so I can show him Earth. But I don’t have a scope. I don't have the courage to reach for his hand.
    “It’s a perfect round thing floating in a universe of darkness. When you've heard all your life that it doesn't exist, that it isn't real, seeing it for the first time shatters everything else. Everything you thought you knew is a lie.”
    “Seeing it in the sky for barely a heartbeat is all you need. Nothing else matters, you know?”
    My question echoes in awkward silence. I finger the hem of my shirt and when I meet his eyes, he's staring at me with an expression I can't place. His eyes are a mixture of dark and light and I can't bring myself to look away.
    Heat creeps up my cheeks. With a jolt, I realize I'm sitting alone in a room, too close to a boy.
    “What?” My voice is barely a whisper.
    “Nothing.” He shakes his head. His voice is even softer, close to my whisper. Despite his answer, I can see the words waiting to be said.
    “It’s so many millions of miles away”—he pauses and searches my face—“and look what it’s done to you.”
    He's right. I can feel it, like a beacon of light inside me, spreading all the way to the tips of my fingers. Even before I saw the Earth, I felt it.
    Only Earth could do that to me. At least, that’s what I thought when I saw it that night. But when he looks at me, I think… I think I feel it too. When he speaks, he seems to understand. I’ve been isolated for seventeen years, knowing no one but Father, who knew me all my life, who never truly understood me. Julian has known me for less than a day and he knows. I'm a person in his eyes. Not a shadow who became a criminal’s daughter.
    “Do you remember me?” He asks suddenly. “From the market?”
    My breath catches when I meet his eyes.
    So he does remember me from that bustling day in the market. It was months ago, when the wind was at its wildest, covering the market in gritty red sand and layering everything in dust.
    Father always went to the market, not me. But that day, he needed a piece of pure Louen for an experiment. I ducked under the hooded tents and passed vendors and mothers and fathers and screaming children. Annoyance crept through my veins at the clutter and churning voices.
    Behind the market stalls were the wide crophouses, their walls made entirely of Louen, clear and strong. From outside, it looked dark and dangerous. I slipped inside, where it was different. The smell hit me first - fresh and free, with recycled dirt from Earth.
    The snickering hit me next.
    “Did you find the Earth?” A voice asked. I peered through the foliage as another voice laughed.
    I crept deeper into the crophouse, towards the emptiness in the center. I heard a pair of shears being dragged across the ground and the exaggerated sounds of the blades screeching against one another.
    Three boys stepped from the taller plants. One of them bore a scar across his cheek.
    “That stupid father of yours figure anything out?” He asked me.
    “Or is he too busy babysitting you?” The other asked.
    The one in the center cut them both off, shaking a mop of light curls away from his eyes. “Tell Galileo to hurry up. My dad's going crazy. Any day now he'll be hanging from that noose and it’ll be all your fault.”
    “Let’s pass him a message.” The scarred one sneered. He clipped the shears again and my heart seized.
    The