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Tuesday, May 14, 3011
The covers were stifling.
Tahni fought her arms free of the tangled mess of her bed. She put a foot out from under the covers. That helped for about 15 seconds.
Then, of course, she felt chilled and pulled her foot back in. She cuddled down under the blankets and took a breath, rolling over. Hopefully she’d be able to sleep soon. It was only a couple of hours until she had to get up for work.
Now she was hot again.
Sitting up in the dark, she sighed. Her hand traveled to her husband’s long-empty spot. She collapsed close to his pillow and the memory of his scent.
Tap-tap. She looked up at her windowpane. Did she really hear something? Or was it wishful thinking?
Tap-tap-tap. Louder this time. What could it be? There were no trees near her window. The azaleas had been trimmed recently. There were no birds, squirrels, or mice in the Dome. The windows were nearly soundproof, anyway.
Her imagination was getting the best of her. Too many sleep-deprived nights. Surely he would not risk a visit to the Dome.
She slipped out of bed and tiptoed slowly to the window. She was afraid the Seraphim would hear her, or see what she was up to. Could they look into her room from her armcam? It was definitely possible that they had installed a tracker on her bio-implant. She had been so careful after he left … but she still worried. She tried to be nonchalant. She tried to convince herself that she had heard nothing. She was just going to the window to take in the scenery. She loved the silver sheen of the filtered moonlight on the grass.
Examining her yard, she did not see him. She stared hard at the neighbor’s garden walls, at her own side yard and the climbing roses in full bloom. They were a purply-black sculpture in the night, robbed of their deep, unblemished daytime red. The memory of their smell was vivid and visceral. Her heartbeat calmed. She took a breath, and her left arm fell to her side.
She remembered working the flowerbeds with Nyk. He and the twins would hang around with her in the garden—to “help.” Alin and Alaric always squabbled about who got to do what, until Nyk could get them working together again.
Nyk often kept watch over her beloved roses for her when she became too involved with her work. Sometimes she would get home late, after dark, to find that he had brought some of the newly opened buds indoors and placed them in a cryovase for her on the table.
Tap-tap-tap. She jumped, jolted out of her memories.
Looking down, near the ground outside her window, she inhaled sharply. As she exhaled, she stared into the inky darkness to check her perception. She squinted. There was the dark, cloak-shrouded form of—she squinted harder—a woman, pressed into the shadow beside her azaleas. Who was she? Her heart beat uncontrollably as she tried to deny the possibility. She pointed her arm away from the window. She tried to control her breathing. Heaven only knew what the Seraphim were capable of monitoring without her knowledge.
Her sister looked up toward her window.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Tahni mouthed the words, even though she already knew the answer. She pointed her sister to the side door. They found out!
She looked around the yard for her sister’s husband. Cale was at the end of the residential circle, looking back, with a small lump under his cloak. Little Ien. Something must have gone wrong at his checkup, and his parents were attempting a night flight.
Tahni’s arm silently vibrated. An alert had gone out in her area. Citizens were asked to stay indoors, so as not to be mistaken for the Impures about to be Redeemed.
Jana had come in the side door, and Tahni met her in the kitchen.
“The alert is out already. You’ve been discovered! They will change the codes. There is no way out! You need to hide Ien. Leave him with me. Go back to your house..."
100 Review Goal
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