Made of Stars by Jenna Voris

Made of Stars by Jenna Voris

Author:Jenna Voris [Voris, Jenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2023-03-28T00:00:00+00:00


* * *

• • •

The others were done eating by the time Ava and Clara made their way back across the desert. Glen noticed them first, and his face broke into a hesitant smile as they crested the final dune. “There you are!” He motioned them forward with barely contained enthusiasm. “We were beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

Ava kept her voice light as she plucked a roll from his hand. “And miss your cooking? Never.”

The bread was cold, but she finished it in two bites. It did nothing to fill the hollow ache in her chest, but it made it easier to face Shane as he shifted forward on his knees.

“What took you so long?” His gaze was sharp, edged with something Ava didn’t recognize, but she shook her head and glanced pointedly at Clara. She’d let him draw his own conclusions tonight. Each one was easier than the truth. She nodded to Shane’s parents as she passed, ignoring their tight-lipped scowls, and knelt next to her mother on a worn blanket. Ava hugged her longer than she meant to, and for a brief, terrifying second, hot tears clawed up the back of her throat.

“You’re cold.” Her mother’s hands fisted in the back of her dress. “Where’s your jacket?”

Ava might have laughed if she hadn’t felt like she was coming undone. When she pulled back, she noticed a swirl of fresh radiation burns under her mother’s sleeve. She’s worse. Everyone was worse. She fished in her pocket until she found the bottle of pills she’d stolen off the last supply barge. “Here. You have to remember to take them.”

She didn’t let go of her mother’s hand as Shane’s family resumed the conversation, trading stories with forced, steady voices. They coped by pretending things were normal, like their son wasn’t the most wanted convict in the system. Ava usually ignored them, but she was grateful for their voices now. Every whisper of wind through the brush was an Opian soldier. Each cricket was a gunshot. Any second now, Cyrus would turn around and finish the job his planet started. He’d save her for last, probably, make her watch as the consequences of her own actions turned the sand red.

“I saw your friend Sayra the other day.”

Ava jumped when Glen spoke, and turned in time to catch the sandwich he threw in her direction. “Sayra?”

It felt like years since she’d heard that name.

Glen nodded. “She said to tell you the schools are low on heat lamps and if you could send the next Opian supply ship straight to her—ow!”

His mother elbowed him in the stomach, but it was too late. Shane leaned back on his hands, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Did she say anything else?”

Ava could feel the satisfaction radiating from him in waves. They know who you are. The knowledge was always enough to lift the weight from her chest. Because people knew them. Not Cordova, not Opian officers. Real people from West Rama whose lives were better because of what they were doing.



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