Green Jack by Alyxandra Harvey

wished she
could tell Kiri almost as desperately as she wanted to avoid her.
She wasn’t used to having a secret that had the power to kill. She
rubbed the back of her neck, the ache the only warning before her
head filled with images: the same pink moon, the field of
crocuses, blue eyes and green leaves. She gripped the edge of
the parapet to stop her knees from buckling. She wiped blood from
her nose, hoping none of the security cameras had caught her.
    Beneath her,
the streets were clean, the horses were fat, and solar lanterns
were strung through trees that were old enough to have seen the
times before the Cataclysms. To stand guard on the parapet was a
small price to pay, even when the rain turned to sleet or the sun
turned the lawns crispy. Jane had her sleek crossbow and enough
training to shoot someone in the eye, if she had to. The alarms
hadn’t rung in the Enclave since before she was born. A shift on
the parapet was mostly boredom and bad food. She pushed back at the
omens simmering in her head.
    Hours later,
Kiri waited for her outside the guard towers. She was dressed for
the next shift. She handed Jane a mug. “I hate the Rains.”
    “How’d you get
more hot chocolate rations?” Jane asked. “You drank all of yours in
one sitting last week. I was there. It was impressive. And kind of
gross.”
    Kiri shrugged.
“I got more.”
    “Uh huh.”
    She grinned. “I
stole them from Asher so it doesn’t count. It’s okay to steal from
jackasses, everyone knows that.” She stiffened. “Damn it.” Jane
followed her gaze to Asher, coming around the corner. “I hate it
when we’re on the same shift.”
    Asher sneered
at Jane in her uniform. “How they think you can protect anyone is
beyond me.”
    Kiri drank her
hot chocolate pointedly. “Bullies are boring, Asher. Get a hobby or
something.”
    Jane’s stomach
started to burn, as it always did when Asher was around. Kiri would
have eviscerated him by now and read the omens in his entrails. She
talked about it in great detail, and would no doubt bring it up in
the next ten seconds. Sometimes Jane wished she was anyone but
herself. Asher smiled slowly. “Should I tell her a little secret,
Jane?”
    The burning
coal in her belly tuned to a shard of jagged ice. The Directorate
had handed Asher a new weapon. All he had to do was tell Kiri a
single detail about the Program and she would disappear in the
middle of the night. Her mother would offer a reward, she would
post bulletins with Kiri’s photo, and none of it would make any
difference whatsoever.
    Asher loomed
over Jane, until she bowed her back to inch away. Fear turned her
into a rabbit, frozen and quivering and hating herself. Blissfully
unaware, Kiri lost the few ounces of patience she had. She bared
her teeth. “Go away now, Asher. You’re pissing me off.”
    The last time
Kiri had gotten into an argument with another student, they’d both
walked away with stitches. Asher didn’t look particularly
concerned. The fact that he was a foot taller probably had
something to do with it. Seeing as most people were taller than
Kiri, she didn’t look particularly concerned either.
    She dumped her
hot chocolate on his head. He gave a shout that sounded more like a
shriek. “Oops, better dry off.” Smiling sweetly, Kiri grabbed his
wet, sugary collar and propelled him into the guard house
changeroom. She wedged a chair under the doorknob, locking him
inside. “I guess Asher will be late for his shift. He might even
get a demerit for that kind of disrespectful behaviour.”
    Jane winced.
“Maybe we should---.”
    Kiri eyed her
hotly. “Don’t you even dare. I know where you got those bruises on
your arm last week. He deserves worse than this. Now, I’m going to
go stand in the rain and pretend I’m doing anything else anywhere
else ever.”
    Jane was
stopped at the gates by Protectorate soldiers. She hoped Kiri
didn’t see them, she’d be relentless with her questions.