Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) by Casey L. Bond

bread.
    “I’ll be your pillow,” I offered. I helped him lift his head and scooted backward until my back hit the cinder block behind me. “This is my fault, anyway.”
    He looked up at me. “Why would you say that?”
    “My performance must’ve sucked. I didn’t take enough attention away from you.”
    He tried to laugh. “Yeah. Well, I kind of drew attention to myself.”
    “What happened?”
    “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
    I nodded. “Okay. Get some rest.”
    Gray looked back up at me. “You lie down here, too, when you get cold, okay?”
    “‘Kay.”
    I laid my head back against the cinder-block wall behind me and blew out a breath. Gray’s breaths were steady, but each one had a unique rattle that scared me to death. I knew he was strong. He would make it, but I ached seeing him in such a state. They’d really worked him over.
    As darkness took over and moonlight filtered into the room, I tried to think of anything other than Crew. The happiness on his face had cut me so deeply. I couldn’t get the happy couple out of my mind and it was making me sick and miserable. I was sure the two of them were getting cozy. It was their wedding night, after all.
    I swallowed thickly, and then lay down next to Gray. We could keep warm together.
     

     
    I watched from behind a huge Oak as Ardis led Abby away. I knew what I had to do. When the guards didn’t leave Orchard after the Olympian train took the girls away, they needed a place to stay. They chose Abby’s cabin. I made sure to offer to clean it out. That lasted a few hours until they got impatient and started dumping stuff out the back door. But, before that, I was able to find a few things.
    I grabbed some of Abby’s clothes and some of the things Lulu and I had given her over the years. They wouldn’t seem like anything special to anyone else, but to Abby, they were treasures; a bouquet of dried lavender, a smooth pearly stone I found for her in the lake when we were kids. Rushing around, I went into Lulu’s room to get Abby Blue a reminder of the only woman she’d ever known as a mother.
    Lulu had always worn a silver ring with a light blue stone set in it on special occasions. While rifling through her drawers to find it, I found something else. On a worn piece of paper were written two names and a Vesuvian comm number. I’d found Abby’s parents.
    I rushed home to find it and send the comm in case I was arrested. Then, I went to see Mom. She was still so sick. I wanted to see her before anything happened, at least one more time. Dad let me in the house. They’d been excused from the celebration given Mom’s condition. I sat beside him at the kitchen table that I’d eaten on since birth. “Why the late hour, Kyan?” he asked. I was shocked at how much I’d grown to look like him. It was like I knew by looking at him, what I would look like at age forty-five.
    “A lot of things happened in the village tonight. I wanted to tell you what was going on, just in case.”
    Dad nodded. “The resistance has begun?”
    My mouth flew open. He laughed and slapped my knee. “Kyan, I may be old, but I’m not dumb or blind. And neither is your mother.”
    Mom shuffled into the room, and Dad and I both helped her into a seat at the table as well. “We can go to the couch, Mom.”
    “Don’t you treat me like an invalid, Kyan Ray Marks.” Her eyes dared me to talk back to her. That was a dare I’d learned repeatedly not to take.
    I nodded. Her eyes glittered with more life than I’d seen in them in months. “So,” she said, “what happened tonight?”
     

     
    Blinking my eyes, the room slowly came into focus. My face was cold, but my body was warm. Really warm. I raised my head up. Gray and I were wrapped up together on the bed frame. We’d kept each other from freezing. I hoped I didn’t hurt him last night. I didn’t even remember lying down. He stretched as much as he could and pulled me tighter.
    “Uh, Gray.”
    “Hmmm?”
    The