When All Else Fails (A Push of a Button Novella)

Chapter Twelve

After trying and failing for nearly thirty minutes, he gave up. He lay there and stared at the ceiling, praying harder than ever before for a miracle but unsure if what he hoped for was even right to want. And when he exhausted that, he moved on to praying about everything else with Viv and Dane and the mess with the Supremacy. Finally, when the sun's first rays were peeking over the hills, he dropped off to sleep.

VIV SAT ON the porch beside Dane. The week had dragged on, but she'd survived and things between them weren't so bad. Not good, certainly, but not as bad as expected.

"Have you made up your mind on joining me?" Dane interrupted the quiet morning.

She sighed. "What choice do I have, Dane? I can't go along with what they want, and we both know you'll just sideline me if I say no. I made a foolish decision back in those woods that night. And now, there's no way out of this situation, so I have to face the music."

He frowned. "You made a wise choice, Vivian. One that saved Auclaire's life."

But not Mr. H's. And what life would Seb really have out there on the run? Did he know to look for her here? No. And was he even looking? Probably not anymore. She'd vanished, and he knew what happened when those with access to the Supremacy's resources got their claws in someone. He knew she wasn't coming back to him. Hopefully he'd move on someday and find love with someone else. He deserved that much. He certainly didn't deserve to mourn over a woman who was too dumb to realize a trick when she saw it.

If she had her button, she'd be out of here already. It really was true what the Diexebels said about the devices. They were a tool to keep the masses dependent. She'd never understood that until she lost her own button. Now she saw it clearly. She and the rest of society were lost without them. No one would defy the Supremacy, question their lies, or refuse to follow because it meant losing their skies-cursed buttons. She pressed her fingers to the scar behind her ear.

"Do you miss it?"

She glanced at Dane and dropped her hand into her lap. "Miss it? Not really. But not having it makes me feel like a piece of me is..." She searched for a way to describe the hollow sensation she got in the pit of her stomach when she reached for the button, for escape, only to find it gone. "Lost, I suppose. I feel trapped without it."

"Because you can't run anymore. You can only fight or accept."

She nodded. All these years, she hadn't given him enough credit for how well he really did understand her. "And because I don't know what to choose now that running isn't an option."

"Choose both." Dane stood with a smile and extended a hand to her. "Choose to accept me and my deal. Choose to fight the Supremacy, and choose to stop what's happening."

Was it that simple? She stared at his offered hand, knowing that taking it meant surrender and an uneasy alliance with a man she'd been running from for weeks. Did it matter if it were simple? Seb couldn't save her now. No one could besides herself and, maybe, Dane. And saving herself no longer left room for errors or for running. This was her only way forward now. She reached out and placed her hand in his.

MORNING CAME TOO early, and the sun splashed over his face through the thin shades on the window. He sighed and sat up. Time to find out what Corentin would say. Everything hinged on this, and he didn't believe in coincidence anymore. At least, not when he was literally guided every step of the way until he ended up on Corentin's property to be shot at.

He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood. He stretched and yawned then shuffled to the door and down the hall. Corentin's door opened, and Corentin poked his head through the crack. "You're up early, kid."

"Sun woke me up."

"Well, might as well talk, then."

Seb shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the wrinkles in his dirty pants. If he'd been thinking about it last night, he would've stripped before sleeping in Corentin's guest bed. Well, if Corentin didn't kick him to the curb—or the fields, in this case—he'd offer to wash them himself.

Corentin opened the door and ushered him inside. The older man didn't look like he'd slept either. Or, if he had, he'd slept in his clothes too. He raked a hand through his graying hair and eyed Seb with a frown. "You know, I've seen some crazy things in my time, kid. Some crazy, crazy things. But nothing crazier than what I'm about to say. Now, I'm only going to say it once, so you listening?"

Seb cleared his throat and nodded.

"Good. I wanted to tell you no. I don't want anything to do with trying to take down both the Supremacy and Oblivion. But even though I went to bed determined on that, I couldn't sleep. And the thought that I should help just kept coming back. So did the memories."

What did this have to do with anything? "The memories, sir?"

"Don't interrupt." Corentin paced the length of the bedroom. "I haven't thought about Angelica for years. Now you show up, and the memories come back with a vengeance. She wanted me to stop them too. Not with violence, but by changing it from the inside. Wanted it right up until the moment they made me kill her with my own two hands."

And the man hadn't thought about it in years? Was something wrong with him? But he didn't interrupt.

"I wiped my own memory of it, kid." He spun on his heel and jabbed a finger into Seb's chest. "Now you show up and ask me for help, and what do you know? The memories all come right back." He shook his head and backed off with a shaky laugh. "I went to great lengths to forget her and everything about her, kid. Now she's back."

"Does that mean..." Seb swallowed hard. "Does that mean you'll help?"

He turned to the window with a heavy sigh. "Yes, boy, it does. Against my better judgment, I'll help. But this won't be easy. We need a plan, and I need to figure out how we should do this. I'm doing it for her, and Skies take it, I won't dishonor her memory."

Indeed they did. Seb swallowed down his excitement. Whooping and jumping around like a five-year-old probably wouldn't earn him a good opinion from Corentin. "I know, sir. There are people who would help, if we can reach them."

"I've got one person. Just one person I want on our team." Corentin turned to him with a smile. "Dane Calister."

Seb's heart skipped a beat. What were the chances? Dane as in the Dane he knew as Dane McGayen? He swallowed hard. If it was, there was going to be a serious issue. Because there was no way he'd work with Dane McGayen after what he'd done.