The Last Uprising (Defectors Trilogy) Read Online Free Page B

for nearly an hour, but he never showed.
    Despite my best efforts at indifference, the hurt and anger that spilled into my stomach took me by surprise. I had started to look forward to Amory’s visits, even if they were a little painful. He was the only person who seemed to care about me, and now that he had abandoned me, too, I was truly alone.

CHAPTER FOUR

    After the rest of the rebels had eaten and scattered to go about their afternoon routine, a surly Roman appeared with a hot bowl of soup, two rolls, and a jug of water.  
    I wanted to ask him where Amory was, but I would not give him the satisfaction. I purposely avoided his gaze so my expression wouldn’t betray my hopelessness, and he left without a word.
    I watched the steam rising off the bowl of soup and knew I should start sucking it down before it got cold. The rolls looked inviting, too, but I did not reach for them.
    If they insisted on treating me like the enemy — depriving me of my freedom and nearly all human contact — I would force them to make a choice: Either I was their friend, or I was their prisoner. I could not and would not let them imagine I could be both.
    I allowed myself a drink of water from the jug to bolster my willpower. Then I watched the soup grow cold and averted my gaze from the perfect, golden rolls.  
    Roman didn’t show up in the afternoon to take me outside, which was strange. I began to wonder if something had happened that had kept Amory from visiting me at lunch. Surely he had bigger things to worry about than drawing me out of my shell. Maybe the rebels were launching an attack against the PMC. Maybe he’d left on a supply run.  
    Maybe he’d been injured or captured. The thought gave me pause, and it infuriated me that I was worried about him.
    I would not let myself care. So what if Amory was kind to me?  
    It shouldn’t have mattered to me, but it did.
    When the bell tolled again for dinner, Roman reappeared with another plate of food. His eyebrows lifted in surprise when he saw my untouched lunch, but he set down my supper and whisked away the cold soup without a word.  
    I waited as the last beams of sunlight disappeared from the crack between my tent and the frozen ground, and I heard Amory’s voice in the distance. He was laughing at something another rebel had said — a low, musical sound that rumbled up his chest.
    My heart contracted.  
    It was business as usual in camp. There was nothing that had kept him from visiting me at lunch. He had not left camp. He was not hurt.  
    He was probably happy to be away from me.
    I sat stiffly in the darkness until Roman’s silhouette reappeared against my tent flap.  
    He shuffled inside and untied my ankles roughly. I didn’t say a word when he pushed me out of the tent and into the snowy woods. My legs felt like jelly, and my head was fuzzy from a lack of food. Since the warmth of the sun had evaporated in the night, it was also miserably cold.  
    I didn’t even drag out the time to stretch my legs as I usually did. I just let him steer me back to my tent without a single complaint or even a dirty look. I didn’t feel like fighting. I was beaten.

    The next two days passed at a sluggish pace. Both days when the bell struck noon, I waited for Amory to come, but he never did.  
    It seemed as though the last of my “friends” had given up on me.  
    After dinner on the third day of no one but Roman, I heard voices coming toward the woods from camp. The first belonged to Roman.
    “Relax. I’m sure she’ll eat today. She has to be starving.”
    “How could you not tell me she was starving herself?” snapped Amory. His voice was low and deadly.
    “Didn’t seem that significant. She was a pain even before she’d been brainwashed by Aryus.”
    Amory made an angry noise. “You’d better fucking watch it.”  
    “Whatever. I’ve been on babysitting duty, not you. Remember? Honestly, I didn’t think you’d care if she wasn’t eating.”
    “Of