She lets out a breath. “Then, a few months after we found success with the nanos and finished injecting them into people, we saw they were working. Really working. Just like they were supposed to. Sure, all the data and tests we’d done said they would work, but we didn’t know for certain until we actually put them into people and tested them on a large scale. People weren’t getting sick, even when directly exposed to diseases that should have killed them. It was fantastic. We’d found a cure for almost any disease we’d ever faced, and with no side effects. It was a huge medical breakthrough. I couldn’t wait to share it with the rest of the world. However, one night, when Eli and I were … um … celebrating…” She blushes and I almost smile. “She caught us.”
“Then what happened?” Asher asks, without even batting an eye at his grandmother’s admission. He’s leaning forward eagerly, and I have to admit I’m dying of curiosity.
“Abby went crazy. She was sure we’d done it on purpose. That we’d known she loved him and were laughing at her behind her back, which of course we didn’t and hadn’t. But she didn’t believe us. She yelled about paying us back and then ran off.
“She was only a child, really. What was the worst she could do? We thought she’d get over it. But we should have known better. There had been rumors—that I ignored or just flat-out didn’t believe—that the people who she said had died of diseases had really died at her hand. Because they didn’t fit her ideal vision. But I blew it off as ludicrous. She’d lost her entire family in the War, but she was still only a child. And even though people always seemed especially careful not to upset her, I didn’t put much stock into any of the rumors. But she instituted a new law. Unmarried—unCoupled—people weren’t allowed to touch, and she was the only one who could permit people to become Coupled. It was her way of making sure Eli and I couldn’t continue our relationship.”
“UnCoupled.” The term rolls around in my head. Coupled. UnCoupled. Touching between unCoupled people is forbidden. I glance at Asher, wondering if that’s why I’m so nervous when anyone new touches me. But his grandmother is still talking and I force myself to listen.
“So, we just figured we’d leave. There was no reason to stay. We’d finished our task. Sure, Elysium was pretty and peaceful, but that was it. We had the nanos inside us, and we knew how we’d created them. It’d be easy to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. So we got ready to leave … except she caught us. And then we realized what else the nanos could be used for. Torture. Control. Not all of the military tech had been stripped from the nanos, and she used that against us. She tortured us until I agreed to let her have him.” There’s a tremor in her voice.
Asher and I exchange a glance and he squeezes my hand. I have no idea what Mother did to torture her, but if Lenore loved Eli as I love Gavin …
Asher’s grandmother takes a deep shaky breath. “The minute she left us alone, confident she’d made her point, we ran away. Eli and I snuck out using one of the submersibles. When we got back to the Surface, he told me he loved me, but he was worried about the rest of the innocent people. That he didn’t want her to use the tech we built to hurt others, but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if she killed me, which he was certain would happen if I stayed. Then he kissed me, and jumped back into the submersible before I could stop him. I never saw him again.”
“Why?” Asher asks, voicing the question in my head.
“No way to get down there. No one believed me that it existed, and I couldn’t find a different way to get that deep on my own. Eventually, I met your grandfather and it didn’t seem to matter as much.” She looks off into space. “I’d begun to wonder if I hadn’t just been making it all up myself. A city underwater? It didn’t seem possible. How could they be there without anyone knowing about them? So I just did the easiest thing and pretended to forget about it.” Her eyes meet mine. “Until I met you, my dear.”
“Me? How did you know?”
She gives me that soft smile again. “You reminded me of Eli. Then Asher told me where you’d come from and I knew.”
“Knew what?”
She opens her mouth, then closes it and sighs. “Knew I couldn’t pretend anymore.”
“But … why didn’t you use your technology to help people here?”
She gives me a level look. “Twice unscrupulous and murderous people corrupted the technology I invented to help people. Twice I was ignorant and naive enough to be used to hurt innocent people. I promised myself never again. I would never again be manipulated or let my knowledge cause pain for any reason.”
“So…” I say, still not understanding.
She closes her eyes, and I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when she reopens them and focuses directly on me. “I think you need to go back. To Elysium.”
“You want me to go back?” My voice cracks with surprise. I don’t know why, but I never saw that coming.
She nods. Then pauses and shakes her head. “No, I don’t really want you to go back, but I think it’s the only way. Go to Eli. He’ll help you. If he’s even still alive.…” Her voice trails off and she goes back to twisting her wedding ring around and around on her finger.
Asher turns to me. “You don’t have to go back, but it sounds like it’s the best bet. Even if we can’t find Eli, there has to be someone there who knows how to fix the nanos.”
When I hesitate, thinking of everything Gavin feels about the place, Asher’s grandmother speaks up once more. “I know you want to go back, Evie.”
“No … I…” I sigh. What’s the point in lying? Despite everything Gavin said about it, I do want to go back. I want to go home. “Yes. I want to go back.” Looking first at Asher and then at his grandmother, I say, “Thank you for helping me.”
She gives me a sad smile. “It isn’t just for you I’m doing it. It’s for me, too.” Without any further explanation she stands and walks from the room, leaving Asher and me to stare after her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I found a letter today. From Eli. From … back then. I found it in one of the books I haven’t looked at since then. I don’t even really know why I looked now, except I needed to clean out that room. The baby is due any day now, and she’ll need it. Anyway, the letter warns me to never go back. Not until he gives the signal. I can only assume he never got the chance to send one.
—EXCERPT FROM LENORE ALLEN’S JOURNAL
Evie
Exhaustion pools into me and I let myself fall back into the bed. Asher turns toward me, but I wave him off. “I’m fine. Just tired.” I’m beyond tired. I feel like a husk of myself. Every time I feel that click in my head, or have a hallucination, or wake up somewhere other than where I thought I was, it’s followed by this crushing fatigue. I feel as though I’m being dragged to the floor by invisible hands.
He watches me for a minute, then nods as if he just came to a decision. “We’re going to have to leave tonight,” he says. Shock makes me speechless and he continues, either not noticing or not caring that I’m completely flabbergasted. “They’re not going to just let you walk out of here. Not after you KO’d everyone in that room. And if we go late, there won’t be as many people walking around. We should be able to sneak out.”