The Legend Read Free Page B

cotton nightshirt aside, but he re-enters as soon as I am done.
    â€œI need shoes,” I point out.
    â€œI don’t have any here, but I can get someone to fetch you a pair.” He pauses, and then tries again. “You should rest.”
    â€œI’ve rested enough.” Declining his help, I make my way from the room and head down the passageway. I don’t recognise my surroundings at all.
    â€œAre you insane?” Reed roars, catching me as I fall. I made it only halfway down the corridor unaided. “What the hell are you doing out of bed?” I knock aside his arm, which has encircled my waist, supporting me.
    â€œI’m going home,” I reply cuttingly. “I’m going to have a shower, clean myself up, and then I want everyone in the Gold Room in an hour.”
    Like Aidan, Reed eyes me quizzically, finally sensing the change in me. A look of comprehension flits across his face, followed by something I can’t identify. Relief? Fear? Understanding? Unlike Aidan, however, Reed fights fire with fire.
    â€œOkay. Firstly, as much as I agree with you getting cleaned up because I don’t actually think anyone can stand the smell any more, you can’t go home. Because home is almost two thousand miles away. No Gold Room either,” he adds sarcastically.
    â€œWhere the hell are we?” I narrow my eyes in confusion.
    â€œGainesville, Georgia, love,” he smiles, his green eyes sparkling with amusement.
    Unbelievably, our entire community had travelled over two thousand miles through the Rebeldom to get here. I learn that they left the morning after I had been captured by NUSA – General Ross and my father had overseen the entire operation. It had been Kwan who had fetched Reed and the two of them had come to my rescue, while the others had travelled across the country to find a new home for our people. Nevada was no longer safe, now that NUSA had discovered the location of our headquarters. It was a devastating blow and we had lost resources it had taken the Resistance years to accumulate.
    Reed regards me steadily, an unreadable expression on his face. His hair has fallen into his eyes, and it irritates me far more than usual.
    â€œYou’re really going to be okay,” he murmurs, almost to himself, and I can hear the underlying relief in his voice as he lets his guard down.
    â€œI’m fine,” I insist, feeling uncomfortable, “and I’m not going back to bed.”
    In the end he consents to helping me through to the new meeting room and orders me to stay put while he rounds up the council.
    My father is the first to arrive.
    â€œYou feeling okay?” he asks, but I notice he stays on the opposite side of the table.
    â€œWhere exactly are we?” I ask, changing the subject and glancing around the room. It is very grand – all cream walls and oak panelling, albeit a little rundown. The long table in the centre seats eighteen people, the cracked leather chairs a faded cerulean blue.
    â€œLakeside Military Academy,” my father replies. “It’s our new base of operations. Two hundred and six acres nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the shores of Lake Lanier.”
    â€œOur entire community is here?” I ask incredulously. There were a little less than two thousand people living in Nevada.
    â€œNo,” my dad shakes his head. “The Legion is here, a few civilians, and of course Adam and his men. The rest are in town. Norman and Cathy – my cousins – have been helping them settle in and finding room for everyone. There are probably about three hundred of us here on campus.”
    â€œWhere is everyone staying?”
    â€œThe dorms in the barracks complex. I understand that in its day the school housed over four hundred and fifty students, so we have plenty of space. We do, however, have a few of the former students to contend with.”
    â€œWhat do you