Into the Abyss (34 page)

Three times now I've watched my sister die.

It hasn't gotten any easier each time.

There's a soft knocking at my door, and I turn to see Jaxon standing with my coat draped over his arm. “Ready to go?” he asks.

I nod. Because this house has captured ghosts of my sister in everything I see, from the sandals I borrowed from her and never gave back to the red streak of marker she scribbled on the wall and then blamed me for. Ghosts I'm finally ready to leave behind.

I only wish we'd left sooner. Years and years ago, before anything that's happened could have touched us, back
when we were still a whole family with all its pieces.

But that's a selfish thought, I guess.

Violet's sacrifice silenced some of the uprising—funny how quickly some of them changed their views on clones once one saved their life. Not all of them, of course; though even the ones she didn't completely silence have, in a lot of cases, still quieted down enough now to listen. And while they had their attention, President Cross, alongside Angie and Leah, shared the plan that Violet first told us in the park that night, what feels long ago and forever away now. I wasn't sure, back then, if the president was actually taking that plan seriously. But now she talks about it with a passion that makes me believe she's committed to seeing it through. All the way through. Which is good, because the virus is the easy part—but after that's done, there will still be a long way to go toward repairing this city and the ones in it.

I'm not as naïve as I used to be. There's no telling how Huxley will retaliate, once we deal this blow to them. And even if we do manage to unravel them completely, I know that the city will likely always remain unsettled, unsure in places, full of still-smoldering hot spots that could erupt at any point. Full of a fear of clones that runs too deep for it to simply be erased, even once Huxley's control over those clones is erased.

But at least now my sister will be remembered as someone who tried to fix it, at least in some ways.

“We'll be waiting in the car,” Jaxon says. “Anything else you need me to carry?” I shake my head. There's only
one other thing I have left to carry, and I'm the only one who can do it. Jaxon leaves, and I walk over and carefully pluck a few of the more vibrant petals left on the flowers. I open the tin and drop them in with her ashes.

The three of us decided a quick road trip was in order, while the dust of everything that's happened takes its time to settle here, and Angie and President Cross work out the plans for moving forward. So it'll just be me, Jaxon, Seth, and a couple of cars full of our closest bodyguard friends. We're going to the beach, to find the highest waves and roughest waters we can. It seems like a fitting place to scatter these few last pieces of Violet Benson that I hold in my hand. Because every version of her has been a little too wild for this life.

A little too wild to hang on to.

And because she'd be glad for the freedom of the open ocean, I think.

ALSO BY STEFANIE GAITHER

Falls the Shadow

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2016 by Stefanie Gaither

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Jacket design by Laurent Linn

Interior design by Laurent Linn and Hilary Zarycky

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gaither, Stefanie, author.

Title: Into the abyss / Stefanie Gaither.

Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2016] |

Summary: Her memory and personality erased, and accused of betraying the CCA, Violet Benson runs away with her foster brother Seth and discovers new information about her city's history—and the truth about cloning.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015037167| ISBN 9781481449953 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781481449977 (ebook)

Subjects: | CYAC: Identity—Fiction. | Cloning—Fiction. | Brothers and sisters—Fiction. | Science fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.G1293 Int 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2015037167