Sixteen year old Aine lives in the Colony, and his whole life was decided before he was born. In two years he will marry the girl next door, Brin, who was assigned as his Other at birth. Then he will be given a position in the Colony's workforce that best suits his talents. Each night he takes four pills, like everyone else in the Colony, and he knows the pills keep them safe and their world in order. Everything is fine. Perfect, in fact. Until Aine accidentally drops one of his pills. Terrified, he tries to hide the mistake, but when he dreams for the first time in his life, he discovers all he's been missing. What scares him more than not taking the pill, though, is how alive his dreams make him feel. Because it isn't Brin he dreams of but his best friend Kyer. Another boy. Suddenly Aine's world turns upside down, and he doesn't know what to think or who to trust. All he knows for sure is he's falling in love with Kyer, which is forbidden by the Colony's Code, and he will do anything to protect their budding relationship. Even if it means defying the Overseer and leaving the Colony behind.

The Colony Book 1: Rebellion

I arched up a little and saw Kyer’s eyes widen, but he didn’t pull back. He watched me come closer, and the tip of his tongue licked out between his lips as if in anticipation. Then he tasted sand and spit it out, right at me, and I flinched and rolled away. “Ew, yuck!”


He laughed as he rolled in the opposite direction. “This sand tastes like feet.”


“How do you know what feet taste like?” I asked, wiping my face with my sleeve.


Before he could answer, I heard the tell-tale click of a screen coming on and turned instinctively to the one mounted on the wall above the door. A Monitor stared impassively down at us, and for a moment I was sure he’d seen the almost-kiss. Kyer wasn’t my Other, nor I his. It was against the Code to engage in intimate physical contact with anyone who wasn’t your Other.


Surely almost kissing someone counted as intimate, didn’t it?


Chapter 21