Galdoni Read Free Page A

forward into a
sitting position. “I’ve gotta get outta here.”
    “ You can’t!” She took a
step back. “You'll be killed if you're found; I’ll go get
Nikko.”
    I shook my head quickly, then leaned my
forehead against the side wall to stop the nausea that followed. My
wings ached with every movement, but I kept myself from wondering
whether I would be able to fly again. I definitely wasn’t in a good
enough mental state to consider what I would do otherwise. “Wait,
please. I can’t stay. You heard that guy. I’m a danger. You
shouldn’t have brought me here.”
    I felt the bed lower when she sat on the
corner. “You would’ve died.”
    I fought back the impulse to say I wasn’t
afraid of death. The phrase had been drilled into us at the
Academy, and I thought I believed it until death had actually
stared me in the face. Anger rose in my chest. “They would have
killed him if I hadn’t stopped them.”
    “ Who?”
    “ A boy; they were beating
him because he was a Galdoni.” My lips curled in disgust. “They had
a gun, and he was afraid to fly away.” I stared in the girl's
direction, angry beyond the attack itself. That simple act had
shattered my every hope of the world outside the
Academy.
    We sat in silence for a minute, then the
girl gave a low chuckle. It was a pleasant sound that chased away
my dark thoughts. “What?”
    “ You wouldn’t get very far,
blind with two broken wings and a shot leg. Where’d you plan to
go?”
    I gave a small, wry smile at the thought. “I
don’t know. Not far, huh?”
    “ Definitely not
far.”
    I turned one of the pillows so that I could
lean against the wall and face her without putting pressure on my
wings. They ached with the movement, but I ignored the pain.
    “ Why'd you help
me?”
    “ We couldn't just leave you
there.” Her tone was one of amazement that I would even suggest it.
Then her voice brightened. “Hey, I don’t even know your
name.”
    I thought about it for a minute. “Kale,” I
answered cautiously. “What’s yours?”
    “ Brielle, but everyone
calls me Brie.” She sat in silence for a minute, then said, “You
know, you’re different than I thought.”
    Her curious tone caught my attention. I knew
I shouldn’t encourage her to talk to me; my presence put her in
danger, but talking to her kept the pain at a bearable distance.
“Different, how?”
    The bed moved as she shifted her weight. Her
movement made a sharp stab of pain race from my knee up my thigh,
but I didn’t show it. “Well, Galdoni are supposed to be savage,
brutal fighters. Animals, really; at least, that’s what they tell
us.”
    A knot began to form in my stomach. “Who’s
they?”
    “ The Arena reporters. They
say it before and after every show.” Her voice darkened. “I think
it’s to make sure people don’t think of Galdoni as human, because
you’re killing each other.” She paused, and then said in a quieter
tone as though uncertain she should continue, “According to the
reporters, Galdoni were a failed genetic experiment. You only want
to kill, which is why you were chosen for the show.”
    Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed hard.
“We were made, not chosen. We’re trained to fight, to not be
afraid. But I didn’t know it was for some show.” I didn’t hide the
disgust in my voice. My head started to throb.
    “ Not just some show, the most
watched television show in the world. People throw away their life
savings betting on you guys.”
    “ Betting on which one of us
will die?” The implication made my stomach roll. It had never
occurred to me to question what we did at the Academy. None of us
did. Training and fighting was all we knew; but what Brie said
brought it all into a perspective I wasn’t prepared to
face.
    I saw the Academy for the first time from a
profitable point of view. There was too much to consider at once,
but jarring details swirled through my mind like the forbidden
questions, the separation of ages, the