The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles 1)

‘Brilliant.’ Ethan jumps in much too quickly. ‘How’d you figure that out? Maybe from her telling you the first day she met you?’

‘Don’t smooth things over for me, Ethan,’ I say. His leg stops jiggling, and he draws in a deep pleading breath.

Allys shakes her head. ‘It’s all coming together. Most people don’t pay attention to that kind of news, but working in the ethics office, I hear it all. I remember something about a daughter,’ she says. ‘I should have put it together when you told me you were in an accident. You’re the daughter of Matthew Fox.’

‘Would that make me the enemy?’ I ask.

‘No …’

‘But?’

Ethan shakes his head ever so slightly. ‘Jenna,’ he whispers.

‘They

said his daughter was in an accident. One that most professionals believed was not survivable.’

‘At least with the FSEB’s current point system in place, right?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Well, then maybe I’m not her, after all. Jenna Fox is a common name.’

‘Maybe not,’ she says. ‘Because if you were her, that would mean …’ She trails off, deliberately leaving a space for us to fall into. I see it. Ethan doesn’t.

‘What?’ he blurts out. ‘You’d have to run to your little squadron of FSEB bureaucrats and report her?’

Allys sits back. Her eyes narrowing on me, then Ethan. She pulls off her prosthetic arm and rubs the stump. It is red and scarred and ugly. ‘You give me too much credit, Ethan. I can’t run anywhere. I can only hobble. Obvious, isn’t it?’

She returns her prosthetic arm to her stump, wincing at the momentary pinch of the magnetic fields that hold it tight. She tests her fingers, one by one. ‘I’m beginning to forget, I think. What they ever felt like. It scares me, what science can do.’ She pushes away her sandwich. ‘I guess, right along with my fingers, I’ve lost my appetite.’ She stands. Neither Ethan nor I stop her, and she leaves.

I lift my fingers until they are silhouetted against the sunlit window. I test them just as Allys did. One by one. Packaging.

Maybe

‘She’s going to tell.’

Ethan pulls me close. We are behind the market, knee deep in overgrown grass, sandwiched between forgotten picnic tables and trash bins. He pulled me away when I began to cry, leaving his lunch and curious stares from other customers behind.

I feel his arms stroke my back, his hands tighten around my waist, his breath, and his smell, my tongue warm against his, a stirring inside of me that makes my tongue press farther. Did I ever feel these things before? Do I care? Our kisses are desperate.

My sobs return. Wild. Like an animal. Ethan holds tighter, like he can squeeze away my demons. I push away. ‘Why do you care, Ethan? You don’t know me.’

His hands drop from my sides. He closes his eyes and shakes his head.

‘Ethan,’ I whisper.

‘I don’t know, Jenna.’ His eyes are wide again. Glassy. ‘I—I feel something. Every time I look at you. Don’t ask me to explain it all. Does everything have to have a tidy explanation?’

‘I’m not like other girls.’

‘I know.’

‘Ethan.’ I cup his face in my hands. ‘You don’t know. I’m beyond different. I’m—’

‘Maybe that’s what I see when I look at you, Jenna. Someone who will never fit in again in quite the same way. Someone like me. Someone with a past that’s changed their future forever.’

‘Or maybe it’s just that you see me as a second chance. You couldn’t save your brother, but maybe you can save Jenna. Justice. Is that what you’re looking for?’