The Torchbearers by Ally Condie

Author:Ally Condie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

18

OPAL

Opal swore under her breath.

Crap! Not now.

Looking out her bedroom window, she saw a grinning, googly-eyed dollar sign bouncing down Overlook Row. The figment—for that’s obviously what it was—must’ve sprung from their trip through the Darkdeep yesterday, and she was pretty sure whose mind had created it.

“Nice job, Logan,” Opal muttered, rushing to grab the Torchbearer dagger she kept hidden in her desk. An impossible-to-explain creature, on the loose right here in town. Just what we need. At least this one came from someone inside their group, meaning it should be easier for them to dispel. She hurried downstairs and outside, ready to jab the thing and send it packing.

Logan appeared on his porch a few houses down, gripping his hair as the goofy dollar sign boinged happily toward him, humming tunelessly. He was wearing full SpongeBob pajamas.

“That has to be yours!” Opal whispered-shouted, pointing repeatedly at the prancing figment. “Get it get it get it.”

“I think about more than just money, you know!” But Logan vaulted down to the sidewalk and crouched in front of the capering cash symbol. “For example, I was just dreaming that the two of us got stuck on a Ferris wheel overnight, and we had to convince a talking caterpillar to help us down. So this doofus doesn’t have to be my idea. Now gimme that knife!”

Overnight? Opal felt a weird twinge as she hurried to join him. “Just take care of it. Here!”

She tossed him the dagger. Logan caught it deftly and lunged at the sparkling dollar sign. It took a couple of tries—the glowing nightmare kept bobbing around like a deranged kangaroo—but Logan finally tapped the blade against its side and the figment blipped out of existence. Opal and Logan breathed twin sighs of relief.

Opal gave Logan a once-over, then covered her mouth. “Nice jammies.”

Logan didn’t flinch. “SpongeBob rocks. I’ll wear these until they fall apart.”

“There’s gotta be more figments out there,” Opal said, doing a quick scan of the block to make sure they hadn’t been observed. Thankfully, it was early enough on a Saturday morning that the street was still empty. No other figments were in sight, either.

“Four at least.” Logan frowned. “Five, if Aster made one on her way back from the Void—I’m not sure how that works. And that joker almost made it into Timbers.”

“I take it you still need to change?” On their way home the night before, she and Logan had planned a trip to the public library to double-check Aster’s story. It wasn’t that Opal didn’t trust their new friend, but it never hurt to be sure.

Are we friends? Can I call her that?

“I wonder what mine’ll be,” Opal muttered anxiously. “I wasn’t thinking of anything specific when I jumped into the Darkdeep, just that we needed to get through the well and reach the Rift. It could be anything. At least yours is handled.”

“We don’t know stupid Dollar Guy was mine,” Logan insisted stubbornly, before pivoting and stomping back into his house. Minutes later he reemerged in a BEAST PATROL sweatshirt he’d designed himself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.