34 - JASINA

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

I blink at Finn, surprised . "What? Why? Why would you do that?"

"I thought that's what you wanted? For the Rebellion to succeed?"

"Well, in the beginning, I did."

"The beginning of what? We've known each other three days. This is the beginning."

"The beginning of three days ago, then. I'm mad at my auntie. She's not the person I thought she was. In fact, I'm not sure this whole Rebellion is what I thought it was." My shoulders drop and I sigh, feeling a bit defeated. "I left one part out."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Of your bad day?"

"Yeah. My friends turned against me too. For as long as I can remember it's been me, Ceela, Harlow, Britley, and Lucindy. We've been a team in the Rebellion. But now, all of a sudden, they're… jealous, or something. I don't know. They're suspicious."

"Of what?"

"Of me. They think I'm keeping secrets. And you should've seen the looks I got from them when I left for my spa day this morning. I think my auntie turned them against me."

He sighs a little, then shrugs up one shoulder. "OK. Fine. We don't tell them shit. But you want to know what that room is , right?"

"Why do you even care what I want?"

"Because… well… you're like this teeny, tiny ray of red-haired hope leaking into a pitch-black room from underneath a door, Jasina. I've lost the only three people I ever considered family. First, my father died, then I found out my mother's part of the Matron cult, and then I sent the woman I love through the tower doors. The only people I have left are Jeyk and Mitch."

I make a face at the mention of Mitchell Davies, which Finn does not miss.

"What? What's that look for?"

"Nothing. It's none of my business."

"No, tell me."

"I just don't understand why you're friends with that guy."

"Which one?"

"Mitchell Davies."

"Mitch is my number one. He's been my best friend since we were like six."

I scoff. "Have you ever been down-city with him?"

"Couple times. For drinking." But Finn holds up a hand. "But not for the whores. I never cheated on Clara. Until you, she was the only woman I was ever with."

"Well, if you left before the whores then you missed the big show. Because Mitchell Davies has a reputation down-city as a man who likes to hurt people."

"What are you talking about?"

"Specifically, young girls. He pays them. To be quiet. But if you agree to spend a night with Mitchell, then you ask for the coin to make up for not being able to work for a week because he's gonna blacken your eyes and split your lip."

"That's bullshit, Jasina."

"Sometimes he breaks their ribs."

"Stop it. He does not. I'd have heard about it."

"But you just said you never stay."

"Someone would've told me."

"Why the hell would someone tell you that? For what reason? You were the Extraction Master's son. As up-city and privileged as they come. For all they knew, you're just like Mitch. You just do it in private."

There's a silence here. A silence filled with Finn's deep thoughts about himself and how he actually might be more like his friend than he realized. Because he was rough with me. He didn't hurt me, but it's not a stretch of the imagination to believe that he could .

He shoves his hands in his pockets and lets out a sigh. It takes him a moment to look me in the eyes, but when he does, I find sincerity. "I want to know things, Jasina. I want to understand what's happening to us. I'm tired of the lies and I want the truth. I think it's up there in that room. And if you want the truth as well, then I would like you to join me so we can find it together."

I smile. And it's a big smile. Maybe the biggest smile I've ever smiled in my life.

"Is that a yes?" He's not sure what my smile means.

But I am. "It's a yes."

We leave the food for later and climb the stairs to the fourth floor. The door to the Looking Glass room is closed, but not all the way, so Finn just pushes on it and it swings open to reveal the domed room covered in weird white triangles, that are so shiny, they look to be made of glass.

The triangles are positioned in an interlocking, top-to-bottom way so as to allow them to curve with the ceiling. This is not the first time I've seen them, of course, but it's the first time I have my wits about me and really take a good look.

"What?" Finn asks. "What's so interesting about the ceiling?"

"They cover the dome."

"So?"

"So there has to be a purpose for that."

"Maybe they're just ceiling tiles?"

"Maybe they can do two things at once?"

He smiles. "But what is their other job?"

"Well." I blow out a breath and look around the room again. "There is a control room in the Matron Tower like this, but it doesn't look like this at all. It had glass plates or something that can show images. It also had a desk with a bunch of switches. So I'm thinking that these triangles are a different kind of glass plate and this thing"—I point to the circular desk in the center of the room—"this is where the switches live. My Auntie said that room was outdated but the one in the Extraction Tower wasn't. This is just a newer version of that old room."

He looks around, up and down the walls, reflecting on my statement.

I look around too, and this is when I notice that the open door makes a break in the seamless triangle tiles. So I walk over there and push it closed. But it pops back open.

I lean in, trying to see what the problem is. "What's wrong with the door?"

Finn walks up behind me. "What?"

"It won't close. Look."

"Oh. Yeah. We broke it trying to get in. I didn't have a key."

I look up at him. "Can you fix it? I think it needs to be closed. Look. There's a little smooth thing here on the side of the door and it matches this smooth thing here on the doorjamb."

"Huh. Like they have to match up or something."

"Yeah. It's some way to signal that the door is closed and… I'm not sure. Like maybe a connection is made."

Finn studies the door for a moment, then points. "This plate is bent on the lock. Let me go find a tool and see if I can get it to lie flat."

He leaves and I go over to the circular desk in the center of the room, then step into the ring and stare down at the black top. Which I now realize, once I take a closer look, is not completely black. There are faint outlines. Circles, and squares, and rectangles.

"Found something." Finn is back and he starts working on the bent plate on the side of the door.

But my focus is on this desk. Because I can actually see a hint of letters under the black glass. Suddenly it hits me that it needs a light behind it. That's how we see the words and shapes. It needs a light.

The moment I come to this realization, Finn stands up. "Got it." Then he pushes the door until it closes with a click.

The lights go out. And in next moment, the entire room comes to life.

I gasp as the desk around me lights up, just like I guessed it should.

"Holy shit. Is that the night sky?" Finn is looking up at the ceiling, his face glowing a faint gray-blue color.

I look up too and sure enough, it's like we're standing outside on the top of the Extraction Tower dome, looking up at the stars.

"We did it!" Finn walks over to the desk and enters the ring, slipping his stomach right up to my back because this desk was really only meant to hold one person at a time. But I don't tell him to back off. I like it when he's close. "It's beautiful, but…" Finn hesitates. I can almost feel him frowning behind me. "But what's it mean?"

I look up, tipping my head back, trying to get a look at his face. "I don't know."

"The night sky is cool, right? But who cares? This can't be all it does."

"No. The desk is how you control it. Look. There's all these… switches." They don't look anything like the switches I saw in the Matron control room, but it's the only word I have to describe them. "I think you tap them or something."

"Oh, fuck. I think you're right. Because when Mitch was in here with me, he was tapping on the glass like crazy, but nothing happened."

I turn—which isn't an easy thing to do since we're so pressed together and my gown is quite voluminous—and look up at Finn. "Mitchell Davies was tapping on it? Like he was pressing buttons, or something?"

"Yeah."

"He knows . He knows how to use it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, was your first instinct to start tapping on the glass?"

"No."

"No. Because you had never seen this before. But he had. He knew how it worked. He just didn't know how to make it work."

The light in here is dim and I've got a weird view of his face, but I'm pretty sure Finn Scott is rethinking everything he ever thought he knew about Mitchell Davies right about now.

"It's a terrible thing to be betrayed. Trust me, I know. But he's not what you think, Finn."

"Yeah." Finn sighs and rakes his fingers through his thick, blond hair. Then he looks down at me. "Yeah, you might be right." He leans both hands onto the glass, like he needs a moment. And I'm just about to exit the ring desk and give him this moment when suddenly the night sky above us disappears and the room blinks a bright white.

He and I both gasp, but then the white is gone and the night sky is back.

"Oh, my god. What did you do?"

Finn shrugs. "I didn't do anything. What did you do?"

"I didn't move at all. But you…" I look down at the desk and see two rectangles on either side of me. They're just plain black inside, but there's a glowing blue outline around them. "You put your hands on the desk," I say, pointing at the rectangles. "You put your hands there. Do it again."

It takes Finn another moment to catch on to what I'm telling him, but then he leans over, just like he did, and presses his palms into the black spaces outlined in blue glow.

Once again, the night sky disappears and the white light is back.

Finn gasps, and when I turn to see what he's looking at, I gasp as well.

Because it's his father.

Aldo Scott's face is big, and bright, and smiling as he looks down at us from the curvature of the interior dome.