Superior

Chapter 53

This is it, guys: the last chapter :(

Listen to the song on the side! It has nothing to do with the story, but I just got John Mayer's new album and I feel like the tune of the song fits this chapter :).

Chapter Fifty-Three

Delaney

"Are you ready, Miss Escott?"

Sioban stood in the doorway of my room, smiling timidly. She wore a heather gray pantsuit, and a clipboard was clutched in her hands.

I smiled back at her. "Just a sec."

Taking a deep breath, I gave the mirror a final glance. I inspected my freshly curled hair and lightly made-up face—complete with new contacts—my eyes roving down my reflection with careful scrutiny. With a final glance, I smoothed down the front of my simple blue dress before sliding my feet into a pair of black ballet flats.

"I'm ready," I said, though my stomach was doing backflips.

I followed Sioban out of the small white room, passing a few doctors and nurses as we made our way down the wide hallway. Sioban's heels clicked on the linoleum.

It had been three weeks. Three weeks since we'd watched the Capitol fall. Since that day, Fairleigh had personally escorted us back to Seattle, where he'd deposited us in one of the best hospitals in the city. They'd been reluctant to admit us, but Fairleigh was adamant. He'd stressed, especially, the importance of my condition, and had somehow managed to get all the top doctors on my case.

As it turned out, Leary had been wrong. Despite all the stress I put on my body during those last minutes in the Capitol, I had not dropped dead at the end of the hour. Though I doubt it was his intention, his serum was nonlethal. The doctors couldn't find a trace of anything deadly in my body. And maybe it was my imagination, but now that the fever was gone and I was back to normal functioning, I felt better, health-wise, than I ever had in my life.

"Here we are," Sioban chirped as we got off the elevator and entered an underground parking lot. I felt giddy with excitement; this was my first time leaving the hospital since we'd arrived. Though I'd been in perfect health for the past two weeks, Fairleigh had insisted that Trai, Caleb, and I stayed put until we had completely recovered from "the shock" of our ordeal. He'd ordered the doctors to keep us there until he gave word, and by then, they'd recognized him well enough to obey without question.

In those first few days in the hospital, Jeremy Fairleigh's cordiality had done nothing but make me angry. Why are you being nice? I wanted to demand of him. If I had died, you wouldn't have given it a second thought. I'd said about as much on one occasion, about a week after the fall, when Fairleigh had paid me a surprise visit.

"I have made mistakes," he responded. "I never should have abandoned you like that, not after all you did for our organization. You are a true soldier, Delaney, and you have all of my respect. I only hope that you can forgive me."

That Fairleigh had been a stark contrast to the furious, volatile man who had blown up the Capitol all those days before. But that episode, I quickly learned, had been one of a kind. On a normal basis, Jeremy Fairleigh was calm, collected, and effortlessly charismatic. He carried himself like a Popular, as if he owned every square inch of land he set his foot on. It was empowering to be around him; I felt as if I was feeding off of his positive energy.

But I hadn't forgiven him.

No amount of charisma could change what he was, and that was a liar, a deserter, and a killer. I'd called him out on all three charges, to which he simply said, "I'm better than Leary," and I'd had no response.