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CHAPTER 1

Glass

Glass’s hands were sticky with her mother’s blood The realization cah a thick haze—as if the hands belonged to sohtmare But they were her hands, and the blood was real

Glass could feel her right pal to the arm of her seat in the first row of the dropship And she could feel so her left hand, hard It was Luke He hadn’t let go ever since he’d pulled Glass away froers were grasping hers so tightly hepain out of her body and store it in his

Glass tried to stay focused on the warth of his grip, how he showed no signs of loosening his hold even when the dropship began shaking and dipping on its violent trajectory toward Earth

Notin a seat next to her ether But now her uard desperate for a spot on the last shuttle to escape the dying Colony Glass squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the scene fro, silently, to the ground Glass dropping onto the floor next to herto stop the bleeding Glass, pulling hersobs to say howthe dark stain on herher face go slack, just after hearing those final words: I’m so proud of you

There was no stopping the i the truth Her h space on a ship that would crash into Earth at any moment

The dropship rattled loudly and jerked froue sensation of a harness digging into her ribs as her body followed the ship’s ed deeper than the metal buckle

She’d always iht about it at all The old Glass hadn’t spent a great deal of tied after her best friend’s mother died, and she’d watched Wells slu an enormous, invisible burden But Glass felt different—carved out, hollow, as if all e her that she was still alive was Luke’s reassuring hand on hers

People pressed against Glass from all sides Every seat was filled, and men, women, and children stood in every spare inch of the cabin They held on to each other for balance, though no one could fall down—they were packed too tightly, an undulating mass of flesh and quiet tears Some whispered the names of people they’d left behind, while others jerked their heads wildly, refusing to accept that they’d said good-bye to loved ones for the last time

The only person who didn’t look panicked was the ht, Vice Chancellor Rhodes He was staring straight ahead, either oblivious or ination momentarily masked her pain Wells’s father, the Chancellor, would’ve been doing everything in his power to comfort those around him Not that he would’ve accepted a spot on the final dropship in the first place But Glass was hardly in a position to judge The only reason she’d ht Glass and her mother with him when he forced his way on board

A violent jolt threw Glass back against her seat as the dropship lurched sideways, then tilted al itself with a stoh the collective gasp Several people shrieked as the ht in the grasp of a giant fist A high-pitched,to burst their eardru out the cries and terrified sobs

Glass gripped the are of fear But it never came She knew she should be afraid, but the events of the past few days had left her nu her hoh risking an insane, unauthorized spacewalk to make it from Walden to Phoenix, where there was still breathable air Everything she’d gone through had seeh, when Glass, her mother, and Luke had made it onto the dropship But at this ot to see Earth Better to end it all now than have to wake up every one

She glanced to the side and saw Luke staring straight ahead, his face a stonyto be brave for her? Or had his extensive guard training taught him how to remain calm under pressure? He deserved better than this After everything Glass had put hi to end? Had they escaped certain death on the Colony only to hurtle headlong into a different horrific fate? Humans weren’t scheduled to return to Earth for at least another century, when scientists were sure the radiation left after the Cataclys, a desperate exodus pro but uncertainty

Glass looked over at the row of sray clouds filled each portal It was oddly beautiful, she thought, just as the s suddenly popped and shattered, spraying shards of hot glass and h the broken panes The people closest to the s frantically tried to duck and o They leaned backward, falling onto the people behind the of scorchedelsefear, Glass realized it was the smell of burned flesh