The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Author:Alexandra Bracken [Bracken, Alexandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Adventure, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781423157373
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

See? she seemed to be saying. Get it?

“But you can’t do that to me,” I said, reaching for her hand

again. “You don’t have to worry about hurting me, because you

never could.”

I know how it feels, is what I really should have been saying,

I know what it’s like to be scared of what you can barely control.

244

A l e x a n d r a B r a c k e n

I had forced myself to stop thinking about what I had done

to that undercover PSF. I didn’t let myself wonder if I could do

it again, let alone test it out. But how, I wondered, were either

of us ever going to learn to control ourselves if we couldn’t prac-

tice? If we couldn’t stretch and test boundaries?

“Let’s see if we can find something useful,” I said, slipping

my fingers around hers again. I waited until I felt her hand close

against mine before leading her back down the aisle. “What do

you think—”

I’m not even sure what I was about to ask her, but she wasn’t

paying attention to me. Zu stopped so suddenly and gripped my

hand so damn hard, that I stumbled back a few steps. My eyes

followed the line of her outstretched arm to the upended cloth-

ing and shoe racks.

More specifically, to the lone hot pink dress dangling from

an otherwise empty rack.

Zu took off at a run, blitzing down the aisles of extension

cords and buckets. I tried to keep up with her, but it was like

the wind had caught her heels and was propelling her forward.

She stopped just short of a rack. I watched, fascinated, as one of

her hands reached out to stroke the fabric, only to pull back at

the last second.

“Beautiful,” I told her. The dress itself flared out at the waist,

with a big ribbon bow at the place where the sleeveless top met

the pink and white striped skirt. She looked like she wanted

nothing more than to pull it down, hug it to her chest, and press

her face against the satiny fabric.

I could think of about a thousand things I missed while I was

at Thurmond, but dresses were not on that list. My dad’s favor-

ite story to tell strangers and indulging relatives was the day he

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T h e D a r k e s t M i n d s

and Mom tried to button me up into a blue one for his birthday

party when I was three. Because the buttons were so small and

impossible for me to reach, I shredded the fabric by hand, bit by

gauzy bit. I spent the rest of the party proudly parading around

in Batman underwear.

“Are you going to try it on?” I asked.

She looked back up at me and shook her head. Her hands

dropped from where they were hovering over the plastic hanger’s

shoulders, and it took me a moment to recognize what was

happening.

Zu thought she didn’t deserve it. She thought it was too

nice, too new, too pretty. I felt a sweltering hate rise in me, but

I didn’t know where to direct it. Her parents, for sending her

away? Her camp? The PSFs?

I pulled the dress off the silver rack with one hand and took

Zu’s arm in the other.

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