Free Ignition Point by Kate Corcino

Meredith that, though. Something in him was pulling back, watching. Wary. Doing exactly what the voice in his head had told him.
    Meredith nodded. “You do understand. But now we don’t have to hide Emma anymore. Your grandfather will stand for us in the Council. He’ll protect Emma. And we owe it all to you.”
    Lucas struggled to follow her leaps. He’d never said that. He’d never promised any of that. All he’d wanted was someone to share his secret.
    “No,” he said softly. Then, again, louder, “No. I didn’t say that—any of that. You want my grandfather to stand up to the rest of the Councilors against his policy? No, Merr. Grandfather didn’t even give me permission to marry you. That wasn’t what we talked about. He told me to—asked me to—”
    Her smile died. “He asked you to what?”
    Lucas shook his head. He couldn’t tell her. “I want to marry you, Meredith, but he wants to send me away.” A partial truth was better than nothing. His next words tumbled out, a rush of air to push the sin of disobedience from him. “I want us to go away, instead, start new somewhere else where we don’t have to pretend anymore. Somewhere neither of us has to be a secret.”
    “You’re a Spark,” she whispered. “It doesn’t matter where we go. It’ll always have to be secret.”
    “No. Not every Zone is like this.” This was where he could convince her. She hadn’t been outside Zone Four before. Lucas had. Whether it was biblically right or not, he knew there were places where Sparks were as free as any other citizen. His grandfather was determined to change that. But it hadn’t happened yet. “My foster family took me to other—”
    “Lucas. No.” Her voice was firm. “We stay. My place is here. Fighting with my family.”
    “Fighting my family?” He snapped the question.
    Meredith’s chin lifted. “If necessary. Your grandfather is right about one thing. We do have to stand on faith. Some things are righteous, Lucas. Sometimes God requires us to do things we’d never consider, because they are right.”
    Including betraying the man who loves you? The anger beat strong in his temples again.
    Her words echoed his grandfather’s, yet her meaning was a world apart. Both of them couldn’t be right. One of them must be a pretender. One of them was using faith to further an agenda. He loved them both. How was he to know who was wrong?
    “No. It isn’t right. No matter how hard it is on any of us, Grandfather is the one true path.”
    “No. No! Lucas, Sparks aren’t aberrations. They’re not subhuman. They’re not dogs, either. And they sure as Dust aren’t a sign of the end times. Your grandfather is twisting something good and true to suit his own purposes, and it’s wrong!” She lifted her arms again, but the stick shook this time. “We are alive, right now. And we are people, both of us. It’s just that one of us can make the Dust do what he wants. Are you less of a person, Lucas?”
    No. But I’m chosen. I’m different than the other Sparks. You should know that! If she loved him, truly loved him as Grandfather did, shouldn’t she see that he was special? Was this what the voice had wanted him to realize?
    The truth hit him like a fist. She didn’t. She couldn’t. She was working against his grandfather. Lucas was just a means to an end.
    She wouldn’t leave with him because she didn’t love him. She would never marry him.
    “All I wanted was you.” He hated that his voice sounded so broken.
    She shook her head, her eyes going soft again. She stepped closer, dropping the stick into the water to dip below the surface, then bob back and spin slowly away. Meredith reached out to him. “I want you, too.”
    He wanted to believe her. He just didn’t. Not anymore. Her fingers left a cold trail down his cheek to his chin then dropped to his chest. Her eyes followed them.
    She can’t even meet my eyes. How could I have been such a fool? The thought of how desperately