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

The number of people thinned out until we were the only two left on the whole floor. The screen was still dark, its light mute. Cautiously I took Kyer’s hand in mine and pulled it into my lap as I leaned my head on his shoulder.


The light stayed off, the screen blind.


Kyer cupped my chin with his free hand and turned my face towards his. There was no one to see us, but my heart still seemed to stop in my chest as he lowered his mouth onto mine. It was a gentle, secretive kiss, not the heated exchange we’d shared before but something sweet, something tender. Something that warmed me from the lips all the way down to my toes, and tingled everything in between.


“Don’t go outside without me,” he whispered.


I nodded and raised the arm between us to curl it around the back of his head, keeping him close. “I don’t really want to go outside at all,” I admitted, “but I need to find some way to be with you. I can’t…I can’t let you go now.”


Chapter 37