Chapter 15 #3
“Okay,” I say weakly. “Cool. Sure. Shadow powers. That’s…new.”
His gaze stays locked on me. “The Institute calls me Ascended.”
“You’re going to have to start giving me some fucking explanations here, Reese.” I hate the way my voice shakes. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on or what the hell that means.”
It still feels as though my brain is buffering, like understanding isn’t coming fast enough. I didn’t even feel this way when Harrison told me reincarnation is real. I suppose superpowers aren’t much more of a stretch, but it’s still asking a lot for me to wrap my head around.
“I died in that basement. I flatlined, was resuscitated, and came back Ascended,” he says, still so much calmer than I could ever hope to be right now. “A Pulse Zero Event is what your uncle calls it. A P0E. After living most of my life in the shadows, now I control them.”
A chill slides down my spine.
I remember the man who used to sit across from me in his basement chair, gun in easy reach, eyes sharp. He was harsh but human. This version of Reese feels like something carved out of night. Haunted and chilling.
He died and came back with powers. He was killed and came back changed.
I swallow. “He did this to you?”
“It was his plan from the beginning. To hire me to kidnap you so he could use that as a cover for my death, my P0E. To turn me into his first Ascended soldier, nothing more than a pawn who had his whole life stripped away from him. That’s what I was for two years before I was able to build something outside their reach, something you tore down in a matter of minutes. Exactly the way Malcolm needed you to.”
I screw my eyes shut and lean my head back against the wall. There are still so many missing pieces, but I’m slowly starting to put them together.
This piece?
Malcolm made a fucking fool out of me.
“Reese,” I say carefully without opening my eyes. “What exactly did I destroy?”
“A resistance.”
I look at him now to see his expression harden.
“A resistance of Ascended who slipped through the Institute’s net. People who crossed the veil of death and came back wrong, but powerful and dangerous. The Institute hunts them. Owns them. Erases them. We were putting up a pretty good fight before you destroyed everything.”
The way he snarls the last few words makes me flinch. I shake my head as though I could deny it.
“No. I didn’t…I was trying to—”
“You were doing your uncle’s dirty work, taking down the one thing that dared to defy him. You got people captured and tortured. People I was trying to protect got exposed. Killed. That is on you.”
The words feel like they’re splitting my skull open. There’s a vise around everything in my chest, constricting my lungs. My hands feel numb.
“Why?” I swallow, but it doesn’t get rid of the knot in my throat. “Why would he do this?”
“Because he believes things he can’t understand should be controlled.
He collects us like coins to keep in his pocket.
We either join his army of Ascended or we die.
” Reese takes a breath and stands straighter.
“I was his first soldier, at least the first one he decided to keep. That backfired on him before he used you to take the next shot. A fatal shot.”
“I—” Again, I shake my head. My jaw aches from where Reese punched me, but it’s only background pain. “I can’t believe he’d do this.”
“Believe it,” he snaps. “He manipulated everything. Your kidnapping was the cover. My P0E was the experiment. The press storm that made you the center of the story while I disappeared was the distraction. As far as the world is concerned, Reese Morgan died seven years ago.”
I’m not sure what I should be freaking out about first. Reese calling himself Ascended. The fact he has some kind of superhuman powers over shadows. The fact that Malcolm was the one behind my kidnapping, that he was behind everything. Or the way Reese is looking at me right now. Like…
Like he’d love nothing more than to kill me.
I look back at him. Really look. At the scars. At the sharper edges, the colder eyes. The living shadows curling faintly around his feet. I stare at the man I mourned for seven years and feel something in my chest start to crack open all over again.
There are still so many holes, so many blanks to fill in. But I don’t think my brain is capable of taking in any more information. It’s already about to overload.
There are three things I know with absolutely certainty.
One, Reese is alive, and he’s more terrifying and powerful than I could’ve ever imagined.
Two, my uncle has hurt people, manipulated me, and is apparently some kind of control-freak, mad-scientist asshole.
Three…
I fucked up.
When I realize my cheeks are wet, I don’t bother wiping the tears away. I don’t have the energy to. I haven’t felt like this in seven fucking years.
“Reese,” I whisper because I’m not capable of more. “I’m so sorry.”
And just for a moment, something wounded flickers in his hard exterior.
“You should be. You helped them win. And now you’re going to pay for it.”
Then the shadows start pressing in.