Read Halo (Blood and Fire Series (A Young Adult Dystopian Series)) for Free Online Page A

heart is pounding too hard for me to concentrate. I whisper the words to myself again, testing them out in my mouth to see if I can find some truth in the weight of them on my tongue. I can’t. The idea just seems too strange.
    Penny grabs hold of my hand, pulling back my focus. “You have to leave.”
    My head whips to the door, expecting someone to come crashing through. Maybe the Therin that let me in, or even True Father Asha, himself. Penny shakes her head. “No, Kit. You have to leave the Sanctuary . It’s not safe for you here now. They’ll find out. They’ll make you wear it again.” She points to my neck where my halo still lies, albeit crookedly, beneath my jacket.
    “This is ridiculous. Where am I supposed to go?” No one leaves the Sanctuary. Well, no sane person leaves, anyway. There are the Radicals, of course, but they’re crazy. Everybody knows to avoid them. They’re wild.
    “There are plenty of places you can go. You just can’t stay here. Caius would never forgive me if I didn’t make you leave. He wanted you to be free.”
    “Penny ― ”
    “Kit!”
    I grip the edge of the bed until my knuckles turn white. “Why are you calling me that?”
    “Because he didn’t just rename himself, okay. He renamed you . Kitsch. Kit. I don’t know why he shortened it. I never asked, but, please, just listen to me. Or at least tell me you’ll think about it. He’s gone and I couldn’t bear it if that’s for no reason. He didn’t even try and fight you. You owe it to him. You have to ― ”
    “Okay!” I hold my hands up. “I’ll think about it.”
    “Promise me you won’t go and see the technicians?”
    The look in Penny’s eyes is desperate, and I’m too stunned by the idea that my friend was in love with me to really think about what I’m promising. “Okay, I won’t,” I say.
    “Good.” She stands up and paces back and forth as though she’s filled with nervous energy. A second later she drops to her knees and reaches under Cai’s bed. She fiddles around for a moment before tugging gently, and when she pulls her arm back, she’s holding onto a small holostick. The small, black square of plastic and metal is scuffed and old, an archaic model in the grand scheme of things. “He would want you to have this.”
    “What’s on it?” I take it with shaking hands.
    “I don’t know but he carried it around with him everywhere. Now it’s yours.”
    I look down at it and panic, wondering what secrets are recorded on the device. It’s about two inches square, cold and heavy in my palm. A small blue light flashes on the top and I drop it onto the bed. “I can’t. I just can’t.” If what she says is true, I definitely don’t want to see what’s on it.
    Penny snatches up the holostick and presses it into my hand. “Don’t be so selfish!”
      She’s right. I am being selfish, which is a new experience for me. I let my fingers curl around the device, feeling its corners dig into my skin, and then stow it into the back pocket of my combat gear. I feel like a monster wearing these clothes right now.
    “You should probably go,” Penny tells me. When I get up to leave, she doesn’t join me. “You promised, remember. You won’t go to the technicians.”
    “I know.”
    “Come and see me in two days. That should be enough time for you to figure out when you’re going.”
    Her faith that I will leave the Sanctuary is surprising, given that the only thing beyond the city limits is a wild and desolate landscape. I stuff my hands into my pockets and take a long look around Falin Asha’s old bedroom. He’s not here anymore, and I know that whatever happens, I won’t be coming back again.

RUN

    I don’t have the courage to watch the holostick. I don’t want to go home either, even though I can see the Kitsch Household from where I’m standing outside the place where Cai used to live. Instead, I start walking in the opposite direction. The houses by the river are well built,