Chapter 35
35
Kor isn’t a Sire. He can’t be. He doesn’t have the symptoms I grew up with. I look at his upper lip, and his scar is still there. Sires don’t scar. Could he have gotten ahold of a Ha’i stone? But his hands are empty.
“I don’t understand.”
“Isn’t it amazing? Do you know how much good I’ve done already?” His face is glowing. “I’ve been helping at the charity clinic. There are so many little things I can heal with my energy alone. I’ve saved lives, Ada.”
He closes his eyes, brow furrowed. “There used to be so much noise . All these fans thinking I was someone special, treating me as if singing songs was bringing meaning into their lives. I felt like such an impostor with nothing real to give.” He opens his eyes. “But now, now I have so much to give.”
He takes my hand in his, his gaze growing somber. “I’m sure there are some nice people on that island, but I will do whatever it takes to help our world.”
There’s something about the way he says this that makes my body grow cold. “Kor. What have you done?”
But I already know how someone who wasn’t born a Sire can gain Sire powers.
“You’ve been drinking the abducted Sires’ blood,” I choke out in shock and disgust.
He nods.
“But… you’re a vegan!” I hardly recognize the person talking to me.
“I’ve accepted that this power comes with a cost.”
“Human blood!” I back away from him in horror. “How are you even able to digest it?”
“Prometheus gave me the information I needed to change myself.” Prometheus. Kor’s ally from Avant. I know he’s given important information to the Families but nothing that would give them direct access to the people. Nothing like what they were hoping to get from me. “It was not an easy surgery.”
I gasp as Kor lifts up his shirt. There’s a brutal crisscross of scars, a map of torn flesh. “Sire abilities only heal your body as it is now, not any damage from before they kick in.” There is bitterness in his voice. Kor had worked hard for the body that had earned him a slew of shirtless magazine covers. His scarred abdomen is a far cry from photo shoot worthy now.
If Prometheus taught Kor how to do this to himself, I can only imagine what other medical knowledge he may have.
“Can Prometheus help cure Grandfather?”
“Tomás?” Kor pulls his shirt back down.
“From his cancer.”
“Tomás isn’t sick.”
I’m so confused. “He is sick.”
“He’s an old man, Ada. He had a routine operation while you were in Italy, and another since then. There was a difficult recovery period, but he’s fine now.”
“But what about all the stem cell stuff and the blood transfusions?”
Kor’s posture stiffens, and he won’t meet my eyes. “That was for me.”
“You mean… for all… that?” I motion to his body.
“No. Ada, I’m the one who has cancer.”
“What?” Kor is young and vibrant and healthy.
“Leukemia. Stage four.” His gaze is calm and resigned.
I raise my hand to my mouth in horror. It feels like time slows as I try to put the pieces together.
“But if I can stay well enough for long enough to succeed with our plan, no one else will have to deal with this wretched illness ever again.”
I think of all his visits with Dr. Ambrose, the nosebleeds, the postponed tour. “How come you never told me?”
“I wasn’t ready to tell you, and then you had to leave. But it’s okay now. The Sire blood keeps me well.”
“Why couldn’t Prometheus have just given you a cure?”
“The cancer was too far gone. It was too late for any of their cures.”
Too late. Kor was dying , and he never told me.
“But now that you are a Sire, you’re… better?” Despite everything I’ve learned tonight, I want him to be better.
“No. The Sire blood gives me abilities and keeps me well while it’s in my system, but once I stop taking it, I deteriorate quickly. The girl seems to have a universal blood type that could have been more effective. But she’s been too unwell for me to try it.”
Try it. As in, try drinking it. My brain is tangled trying to rearrange all my feelings. I’m furious and disgusted by what Kor’s been doing, but the part of my heart that has loved him for so long is breaking from knowing how sick he is.
“Why didn’t you use my blood? I would have gladly given it. I’ll give it to you now.”
“I considered it, but your mother wouldn’t allow it.”
I hear rustling on the path behind me, and I turn my head to find my mother approaching. Despite the late hour, she’s as well groomed as always. I want to rush to her, fall into her arms, and have her protect me from all this unwelcome truth. But she doesn’t even look at me until she’s standing right next to me.
“I won’t let them turn you into one of their experiments, freely stealing your platelets whenever they need,” she says. A practically professional squeeze of my shoulder is the only affection I get.
She says to Kor, “Just let her go, and let her take the girl.”
“You can’t give me orders. You’re not my superior anymore.”
“That may be true, but I am your aunt.” She crosses her arms. “Prometheus was unhappy about the girl as well. He’s been demanding her release before he helps us further, and rescuing her will make Ada look good to help her cover. It’s to our benefit to let them go.”
“Ada doesn’t need to help her cover,” Kor retorts. “She’s not going back.”
“Ada will decide what’s best for herself,” my mother says with finality. Words I’d never thought I’d hear her say.
Kor looks as if he is about to protest, but I say, “I want to go back.”
He turns to me, eyes wide. “You’ll leave me for them ?”
How can he look so hurt? I’m the one who has been betrayed.
“No. I’m going to help you. There’s something called a Ha’i stone. If I can find it, maybe you won’t need anyone’s blood.”
His expression hardens. “Fine. Go. And take the girl. If she’s ill, she should be returned to her family. But think twice before you leave. We don’t need you there anymore. We have a new informant at Genesis.”
“What?”
What?
Who could it possibly be? Are they the one who stole the Ha’i stone? And if it wasn’t Nora Montaigne, how is she involved? Gah. Everything is muddled in my mind.
“Go on.” Kor turns away from me.
“Wait. What more have you learned about Ozymandias Tech?”
He freezes, and without turning, he says, “We no longer think they’re involved.”
That can’t be right. They have to be involved somehow. I want to tell Kor what I’ve learned about Nora Montaigne’s family connections, but something else takes precedence in my mind.
“If it wasn’t Oz Tech, then who kidnapped me?”
Kor’s shoulders fall, and he finally turns back to face me again, his face devastated.
I can barely breathe.
I look to my mother, and she has tears in her eyes. “I swear I had no idea,” she says.
I look back to Kor. “But you did?”
He nods in affirmation. I feel as if I might crumple onto the ground, but, somehow, I remain standing.
“How could you?” I finally choke out, unable to stop the tears that well up. “Kor, they put me in a crate. I couldn’t move. I could hardly breathe.” I choke on a sob. “And the gloves, they burned me. It hurt so much—” My voice breaks, and I try to swallow the painful lump in my throat.
“I had no choice.”
“They knocked me out.” I instinctively reach to the spot at the back of my head.
“They should not have done that,” he says with steel in his voice. “They were never supposed to hurt you.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I wanted to. I should have. I… Your response had to be genuine.”
I blink up at him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “I couldn’t be positive that you having abilities would be enough for the heretics to recruit you. They needed to think you were in danger. And the rest of the Inner Chamber had to be convinced you were at risk so they’d agree to send you away.”
He not only didn’t tell me about it, but he was the one who planned the whole thing.
I look to my mom for some kind of explanation.
“No one outside of the Oculus knew about the abductions until recently. Most of the other Sires came willingly,” my mother explains quietly. “So your abduction seemed like an external threat to the rest of us.”
I don’t even have words. I’ve known Kor for so long, and this is so far from anything I can imagine him doing, but so is drinking a young girl’s blood. There’s not enough room inside me to contain so much shock and confusion.
I saw something I wasn’t supposed to.
That’s what Izzy’s message had said. But whatever she saw, it wasn’t at Oz Tech. It was with the Families . Whatever it was made her want to leave the order, and she’d tried to protect me from them too.
I hope that wherever she is, she’s safe.
“Please understand.” Kor’s expression is genuinely contrite. “I did this for you, not just for the Families. Everything has worked out better than we could have hoped. I’m sorry you were afraid and hurt. I will never forgive myself for your scars.” He grabs the cross at his neck, squeezing it in his fist. “But I’m also glad it worked.”
I just shake my head, at a loss for how to respond to so great a betrayal from one of the people I love most in the world.
“You will forgive me,” he insists with the conviction of someone who always gets his way. “You’ll go back to get more information from the heretics, and together we’ll bring radical change to the world. Then you’ll realize it was all worth it and forgive me.” His tone is confident, but his eyes are pleading.
“You need to leave, Ada,” my mother says. “The entire Inner Chamber was alerted about the breach, and they won’t all want to let you go.” I follow her, turning my back on Kor without saying goodbye.
Mom leads me with a flashlight to the area of shore where Rafe’s waiting. When we’re almost there, I second-guess myself and stop walking.
“This doesn’t feel right. I thought the Families were good .”
“It’s not so simple. And many in the Families are not okay with what has been happening here.”
“Then should we even be helping them? Or should we be stopping them?”
My mother is thoughtful for a moment, then says, “I have always believed in the mission of the Families. Kor has a new, radical plan to help make it happen, and the Oculus approves. I’m not the only one who doesn’t agree with his methods, but he’s just one person who holds temporary influence within a greater organization, and he may yet make the world a better place.”
“Maybe I should stay.”
“No.” Her voice is suddenly sharp. “It’s safer for you to go.”
My stomach churns at how clinical she is about me leaving again. “You just told Kor that I can choose what’s best for me.” That had felt like a breakthrough between us, like she was finally starting to treat me like an adult.
She sighs. “Of course you should choose. But you also don’t have the full picture to make the best choice. Your safety is my priority, far above the duties of being part of the Families. I can’t keep them from using you for your blood if you stay here.”
“Mom, you need to protect yourself, too. Part of why I came here was to warn you. The Makers know who you are.”
“Don’t worry about me. We know what they know. Just keep yourself safe.”
“And what about Grandfather? Is he really okay?”
Her expression is strained. “He’s fine.”
“Even if it’s not cancer, is there something else wrong with him? He seemed so sick. Rafe is a… healer. He agreed to try to help Grandfather. Maybe we should go to him before we—”
“No. You have to leave. I promise you that he’s not sick. He had a series of surgeries, but they were successful, and he’s recovering well.”
“Why didn’t I know about them?”
“He didn’t want you to. He thought your concern for him might affect your choice about whether to leave.”
Why does it feel like she’s not telling me everything?
Mom’s pocket has been buzzing nonstop. She hands me the flashlight and takes out her phone. Her eyes flick to the screen and then back to me with a familiar detached determination. She says, “I’ll figure out a way to smooth things over with the Oculus.” Between sentences, she expertly reapplies her lipstick, no mirror needed. Her armor before heading into battle. “Go now. When you get back to the institute, you can continue to spy, or not if you don’t think that’s the right choice, but make protecting yourself your main goal.”
I return her flashlight, then move to give her a hug, but she’s already turning and walking away. So I do too.
When I push through the brush, Rafe is right there. Not down by the boat as I’d expected. We were whispering, but I know that blood doping has given him enhanced hearing. I know he’s heard our entire conversation.
Continue to spy.
My mother said those exact words. “It’s not… how she made it sound.” I try to swallow, truly afraid. I know how he feels about traitors to his people, and this time the proof is much more damning.
His eyes are like ice over a frozen lake, cold and harsh and hiding endless depths. He’s surrounded by the bodies of the unconscious security guards that he somehow managed to overpower single-handedly.
“Please…,” I squeak. “I’m not planning to spy.”
“Ada.” His commanding voice silences me. “Don’t worry. I believe that you did not know what they were doing and do not want to help them anymore.”
“Rafe, I swear…”
He shushes me with a finger to my lips. “Ada, I trust you.” He steps closer. “You’re shivering.” He shucks off his jacket and wraps it around my shoulders. “Now, we have to get out of here. Let’s go.” And without another word, he walks to the boat where Hypatia is resting.
It takes me a moment to recover from the surprise, and then I follow him.