Perfected (Entangled Teen) (23 page)

We threw open our doors and ran. Behind us the sound of sirens pierced through the rumble of the falls. My dress billowed out behind me as my feet smacked the pavement.

“Stop!” a voice bellowed behind me. “Stop or we’ll fire.”

“Keep running!” Penn shouted.

Light glinted off of the cars, so close to me on either side that I could reach out my hands and touch them. Inside the people looked up at me, startled. Their mouths moved in noiseless cadence before they turned around to stare at the police that trailed behind me.

In front of me a group of men in uniforms emerged from out of the shadows, running toward me with their weapons raised. I didn’t know if they were the people I was supposed to be running from, or running toward. I turned back to Penn for help, my hair fanning out behind me like the manes of those horses I’d seen with Ruby.

“Penn!” I yelled, frantically searching the sea of cars.

Why don’t I see him?

I slammed to a halt. Off to the side of the bridge an officer held Penn’s arms behind his back. Penn’s face was contorted in pain. He caught my eye for just a moment before the policeman elbowed him in the back, making him crumple forward onto his knees.

“Run, Ella!” he choked out.

The world spun back into focus. A policeman sprinted toward me. His face was red, his mouth opened as he yelled at the other officers running at me with their guns drawn.

I plowed into their arms. “Help me,” I gasped, hoping desperately that these were the people I could trust. “I need asylum. Help.”

“Stop her!” the policeman yelled. He skidded to a stop in front of me as I grabbed onto the officer’s shirts. “She’s crossing illegally. That girl is the property of John Kimball.”

I held tight to the tall man with reddish hair. “Don’t let him take me,” I begged. “I’m a pet. I was bred in Greenwich Kennels. I need asylum. Please.”

The man stared down at me, confused.

“Did you hear me?” the policeman yelled. “She’s owned by Congressman John Kimball. She was stolen late last night.”

“I wasn’t stolen,” I cried. “Please. Don’t let them take us.”

The red-haired man looked from me to Penn as if he was trying to deduce if what I said was true. His eyes narrowed. Finally he turned back to the policeman.

“I can’t let you take her,” he said, and in one quick movement he stepped in front of me as if to shield me with his body. “She’s on Canadian soil.”

The policeman’s face was a florid shade of red. On his forehead, a vein stretched taught underneath his skin. “It’s my job to return her.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” the officer said. He placed a hand protectively against my arm, pushing me even farther behind him. “This girl isn’t property.”

“Please,” I said. My voice was so small it was almost carried away into the great roar of the falls.

“You need to leave her alone,” the officer said. “And let the boy go. Unless those rich people own you, too?”

The policeman drew the back of his hand along his mouth, wiping away the spit that had formed at the corner of his lips. “Nobody owns me.”

“No?” the officer said. “First they buy the laws, and pretty soon they’ve bought your soul.”

The policeman’s eyes narrowed. “It’s my job to uphold the law, not to judge it.” He turned to the policeman holding Penn’s arms behind his back. “Put him in the car!”

“Penn!” I screamed.

I raced forward, but the red-haired man held me back.

“You can’t go,” he said softly, squeezing my arm. “I can’t protect you if you go back there.”

“But I can’t go without him!”

My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. The soft fabric of my gown ripped against the blacktop and the pavement bit into my knees, but I didn’t care.

Through the line of cars I could see Penn. A dark red gash above his eyebrow dripped blood down the side of his face, but his eyes were bright and fierce as he strained toward me. If I’d ever doubted that he loved me, it was clear now. I wasn’t just a pet to him. When he looked at me, he saw his future, too.

Our eyes locked and time slowed. Around us there was only light and the fine mist of water that sprayed off the falls. It seemed as if the sky had shattered, raining down tiny pieces of blue on top of our heads.

“I love you, Penn.” My mouth moved, but the words stayed trapped somewhere deep inside me.

And then time rushed forward. The policemen pulled him away from me. Down the bridge, the patrol car stood ready, its door swung wide open. With each step they took, Penn moved farther from the border, farther from the future we were supposed to have together.

I waited for them to take him away from me. Penn, my Penn, the boy I’d tried so hard not to fall in love with. What was freedom without him?

I thought that freedom and happiness would be indistinguishable, but now I didn’t know. Maybe freedom wasn’t a state of being. Maybe it was an act of courage. Maybe freedom was defiance and sacrifice and pain, something that couldn’t be won without giving up something else in return.

I don’t know how long I stood on the bridge. Next to me the officer with the red hair waited patiently with his hand resting lightly on my shoulder as the cars behind us began moving again.

I leaned against the metal railing and stared out over the rushing water that was almost the same color as the white puffs of the clouds overhead. They were all the same—a ceaseless flow of water to mist to clouds, which finally fell to the earth as water once again.

I clenched my fists, suddenly remembering the paper Penn had given to me. My hand shook as I opened my palm and unfolded the crumpled sheet, damp with sweat.

The paper was covered in letters and numbers, some I recognized, but some looked foreign in the elegant, loopy scrawl. But I didn’t need to know how to read to know what they meant. It was the paper that Penn’s mom had given him before we left, the one with the name and address of the people waiting here to help me.

I turned toward Canada. I didn’t know who I was now. Without Penn, without the congressman, without Ruby, without Miss Gellner…who was I?

Deep in my belly something stirred. I didn’t know what it was, maybe hope or courage—maybe just the knowledge that I’d be able to find the answer on my own.

I licked the moisture from my lips, testing the first bittersweet taste of freedom.

Acknowledgments

T
hank you to my awesome group of writing cheerleaders—ever ready with pompoms, words of encouragement, and smart criticism: Tyler and Tanya Jarvik, Cathy Birch, Emily Scalley, Ellen Fagg Weist, Elaine Vickers, and Dan Beecher.

Thank you to my agent, Kerry Sparks, for your honesty, hard work and support.

To all the people at Entangled: Sue Winegardner, Stacy Abrams, Liz Pelletier, Kelley York, and Heather Riccio, thank you for helping to make this book a reality.

To Heather Howland, the most amazing editor a girl could dream of having, thank you for sharing your brilliant mind with me. Your knack for finding the true shape of a story is inspiring. Thank you for patiently coaxing this one out of me. But most of all, thank you for being the number one fan of this book from day one.

Thank you to my mom, Elaine Jarvik, for humoring the pet lover in me since age two when I spotted my first pony at the carnival. Thank you for your enthusiasm for my never-ending projects, for letting me learn to create and imagine without fearing failure.

Most of all, thank you to my family. Thank you to Morgan, Noah, and Rebecca for laughing at me, for loving me, for supporting me, and for inspiring my crazy dreams. And thank you to my Bry Guy for lifting me up, for encouraging me, and—even though it’s not the most fun job—for being the practical one who knows that you can’t keep a mini horse in our backyard. Thank you for allowing me to be the one who keeps dreaming that everything is possible.

Join the Daemon Invasion with collector’s edition copies of the Lux series!

Lux: Beginnings

by
Jennifer L. Armentrout

Now available together for the first time, don’t miss
Obsidian
and
Onyx
, the first two books in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s bestselling Lux series. Also includes bonus content exclusive to the print edition! “A thrilling ride from start to finish,” says RT Book Reviews.

When seventeen-year-old Katy Swartz moved to West Virginia right before her senior year, she’d pretty much resigned herself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring, but then she spotted her hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up…until he opened his mouth.

Opposition

by
Jennifer L. Armentrout

Daemon and Katy must team with an unlikely enemy if there is any chance of surviving the Luxen invasion. But when it quickly becomes impossible to tell friend from foe, and the world is crumbling around them, they may lose everything—even what they cherish most—to ensure the survival of their friends…and mankind. War has come to Earth. And no matter the outcome, the future will never be the same for those left standing.

For more edge-of-your-seat romance, try these
Entangled Teen
titles…

Fragile Line

by
Brooklyn Skye

Sixteen-year-old Ellie Cox is losing time. It started out small…forgetting a drive home or a conversation with a friend. But her blackouts are getting worse, more difficult to disguise as forgetfulness. When Ellie goes missing for three days, waking up in the apartment of a mysterious guy—a guy who is definitely not her boyfriend—her life starts to spiral out of control. Now, perched on the edge of insanity, with horrific memories of her childhood leaking in, Ellie struggles to put together the pieces of what she’s lost.

Searching for Beautiful

by
Nyrae Dawn

Brynn believes her future is as empty as her body until Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets new friends at the local community center. Gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of. But letting someone in isn’t as easy as it seems. Can she open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?

In the Blood

by
Sara Hantz

For seventeen years, Jed Franklin’s life was normal. Then his father was charged with the abuse and murder of four young boys, and normal became a nightmare. The only things that keep him sane are his little sis, his best friend/dream girl Summer, and the alcohol he stashes in his room. But after Jed wakes up from a total blackout to discover a local kid has gone missing—a kid he was last seen talking to—he’s forced to face his greatest fear: that he could somehow be responsible.

All the Broken Pieces

by
Cindi Madsen

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, but when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember. Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but the deeper she and Spencer dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

Flawed

by
Kate Avelynn

Sarah O’Brien is only alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago—James will protect her from their violent father if she promises never to leave him. Until, with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give. Sam Donavon has been James’s best friend—and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on—for as long as she can remember. But as their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah realizes her brother is far more unstable than she thought, and he’s not about to let her forget about her half of the pact.

Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up?

by
Sara Hantz

When kickboxing champion Abi Saunders lands a job as a stunt double for hot teen starlet Tilly Watson, she’s a little freaked out. But once the wig and makeup are on, Abi feels like a different person. When Tilly’s gorgeous boyfriend, Jon, mistakes Abi for the real star, Abi’s completely smitten. In fact, she’s so in love with her new life, it isn’t long before she doesn’t have time for her old one. But when the cameras are turned off, will she discover running with the Hollywood A-list isn’t quite the glamorous existence she thought it was?

Where You’ll Find Me

by
Erin Fletcher

When Hanley Helton discovers a boy living in her garage, she knows she should kick him out. But Nate is too charming to be dangerous. He just needs a place to get away, which Hanley understands. Her own escape methods—vodka, black hair dye, and pretending the past didn’t happen—are more traditional, but who is she to judge?

Soon, Hanley’s trading her late-night escapades for all-night conversations and stolen kisses. But when Nate’s recognized as the missing teen from the news, Hanley isn’t sure which is worse: that she’s harboring a fugitive, or that she’s in love with one.

Cinderella’s Dress

by
Shonna Slayton

Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she’s working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds
the
Cinderella’s dress, life gets complicated. Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart shipped off to boot camp, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late. After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.