Chapter 45 - For Rary
July
The atmosphere inside the house is worse than expected. Internal alarms must have gone off simultaneously when the stranger approached the barriers, their deafening echo whistling louder the closer we get to a door with no handle or lock.
But when Mack presses his thumb on a spot on the sleek metal, at his heart level, the door purrs like a kitten happy to see its owner back, and slides open inside the wall.
“Where is Tabitha? Why didn’t you go straight to her?” Kris pants as we rush down the stairs towards a subterranean wing of the building.
“I couldn’t find her anywhere, you silly,” Mack argues, waving a hand in the air, marching a few steps ahead of us. “Maybe she just needed some time away from all of us after the awful trick Roden played on her. I still can’t believe…”
“Mack, one thing at a time. Don’t let your mind go after every single thought you have in there.” Kris stops him, landing a hand on his shoulder.
We come to a halt in front of another locked door.
Mack speaks to us without turning, “She’s gone after Merya told her Galen would survive. What if Roden broke her? What if she couldn’t take it anymore and decided to leave us for good?”
“Mack?” I step in front of him, searching for his eyes. “Would you like to show me how this wonderful door works? I bet this is one of your creations as well.”
His face lights up with a large smile. “I know what you’re trying to do. Distracting me to put me back on the right track.”
“Is it working?” I smirk.
“Of course it is, I taught you what to do when my mind goes on a trip of its own.”
Kris clears his throat, but I don’t have time to investigate his reaction because I’m suddenly trapped inside Mack’s hug. My feet lift a few inches off the floor, and something sparks in my mind.
Mack and I are sitting next to each other in a tunnel, his arm covering my head. He whispers that everything is going to be fine. A whistle grows louder in the background before turning into the roaring sound of an explosion.
I gulp in some air, and Mack puts me down gingerly.
He stumbles back while Kris’ face fills in the space where Mack was until a second ago.
“Another memory?” he asks, leaning in to brush my cheekbone as if it’s the most natural thing.
I nod, still catching my breath. “I…I think so. An explosion outside a tunnel similar to the one we used to come here.” I slide my eyes to Mack, who’s staring at me agape. “You were there with me.”
“Mack, what is happening? That memory doesn’t even belong to her.” There is urgency and worry in Kris’ voice.
“It’s your soul, Kris. What’s left of it,” Mack replies after a moment.
“I’ve been thinking about this since your last visit.
” He glances at the metal door, then tilts his head to address me.
“July’s mind had to adapt to bits of your soul being hosted inside her, to make space.
We don’t know what memories the Deleteri took from her, and we don’t even know if they could distinguish between what belonged to her and what were, instead, traces of your own life. ”
I pinch my lower lip, nodding as everything begins to make sense. “Perhaps, some of my memories simply went to sleep, and the Deleteri couldn’t take them because they weren’t even available for me.”
“Correct!” Mack snaps his fingers. “But that means that your mind is probably nearly over maximum capacity and is pushing out all the memories you unconsciously laid to sleep. Tabitha probably knew as well, and that’s why she wanted you to retrieve your past lives as soon as possible, to avoid some sort of mental explosion.
” Mack mimics the image of a bomb going off, clenching his fists above his head, then spreading his fingers wide in the air.
Kris starts pacing back and forth, nodding at some internal mind-dialogue. Then he comes to a halt, snaps his head at Mack and marches towards him. “My friend, you’re a genius!” he exclaims, smacking a kiss on Mack’s forehead before moving his attention to me.
“Let’s see what that trespasser wants from Tabitha first, before they attract too much attention.
” He’s next to me in one step, so close, yet not enough.
“Then, we will discuss our next move. And if Tabs is half as clever as I think she is, I probably know where she’s gone.
If I’m right, you won’t need to harvest the last of my soul, but you will need to retrieve what’s in those caves. ” He smiles, losing his gaze into mine.
“Ah, the caves—” Mack blinks like a child who’s just discovered his voice.
Before he can add anything else, I open my arms, scrunching my face to hide the guilt of - most likely - the biggest elephant in the room. “I may have hidden bits of Kris’ soul in the caves under The Mother…”
I wait for Mack to snap, to tell me I acted irresponsibly, abandoning his friend’s soul so close to enemy territory.
Instead, he studies me, tapping his finger to his nose.
“If you would let me finish…We came up with that majestic plan together, Missy Forgetty.” Mack slams a hand on the door, making us jump, then braces himself, reminding me of a pangolin.
“Sorry, Kris, I couldn’t tell anyone else.
I didn’t know if and when Roden might burst into our minds, and I didn’t have enough protection keys.
But—yeah, we need to retrieve your soul as soon as possible. ”
Something gurgles in my stomach. “Mack? What happens if we leave it there for too long?”
When Mack’s face goes dark, I regret asking.
“A soul, even if powerful like yours and Kris’, needs a vessel. And if it doesn’t have one, it will do whatever it takes to find one. The idea was to infuse Reds with a drop of Kris’ soul because he’s the only one who can purify them—”
“But?” I urge him.
“But you refused even to try because you didn’t want to lose him…So you locked part of his soul in the caves and then - well - you forgot where exactly. And because you didn’t show anyone, that’s a memory hard to unlock—even for me!” Mack lowers his eyes, tousling his hair in distress.
Kris brushes my back with his fingertips, but I instinctively shy away. “I’m selfish as much as the monster that created me,” I mumble, but the shape of the staircase carries my voice away.
“That monster made me shoot my best friend. Not you!” Merya booms from the top of the stairs, with Galen beside her, a bit pale and holding himself against the wall, but alive.
“I’m not sure you noticed, but there is a woman out there, in what looks like very expensive silk pyjamas, shouting for Tabitha.
She also keeps yelling that she left all her nice clothes on fucking Libera!
” Merya stomps down the stairs, followed by Galen, his expression changing rapidly from worried to shocked, like mine, when Merya mentioned the island.
“That’s not possible,” Galen and I say at once.
“Unless…If Roden is on his way to Horigos, Libera is just a pile of dust sinking to the bottom of the sea, but that doesn’t mean Roden is travelling alone.
He’s probably sent scouts all over Horigos to find us.
His brief visit in my head may have given him a hint of our location,” Galen adds, pausing midway to rest his wounded leg.
“Quick, Mack, open that door,” Merya jumps off the last two steps, waving at her brother, who doesn’t wait for her to ask again.
He quickly turns around, facing the door as a ray of red light shoots out from a minuscule hole in the metal surface, straight into Mack’s right eye.
While Mack steps away, the door starts sliding to the left. Cold blue light pours out of a dusty room, lined with giant monitors transmitting images from the building’s outside perimeter and, kneeling on the ground, only mere inches from the fences that nearly killed me—Lucretia.
“Can I speak to her? How do I—is this a speaker…” My eyes dart over the complex control panel in the middle of the room.
“I wouldn’t touch that, unless she is someone you really hate,” Mack gently nudges me away before I can push a black button.
“Do something, please. Tell her to stay there until you pick her up,” I implore him, and almost forget that it’s Lucretia’s life I’m begging for.
“I do what?” Mack shakes his head, confused.
“Right, you know that woman.” Merya saunters between Mack and me, studying me first, then Galen, who’s stalling by the entrance. “But we don’t. Why should we let her in?”
“Because I will vouch for her,” Galen mumbles. “Lucretia can be frustrating and a tad selfish, but she’s not a spy, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Mack, please open the comms channel before she attracts unwanted eyes.”
Mack’s finger brushes a red switch but lingers while he scans Galen from head to toes. “I’m only doing it for Rary,” he snaps, flipping a switch and lowering over a small, round black speaker. “Hey, you, do as I say if you want to live.”
Mack’s voice sounds normal to our ears, but the speakers’ volume must be louder because Lue stops shouting and springs back on her feet, holding something in her cupped hands.
“Yes—what? Tabitha? I’m looking for Tabitha Lorne.” She moves dangerously close to the fence.
“No, stay there,” I can’t control myself and shout into the speaker.
Lucretia snaps her head back, looking up at the building’s skeleton, her eyes darting left to right searching for the source of my voice.
“July?” she mumbles, pulling her hands to her heart. “Is that you?”
I glance at Mack, silently asking permission to use the control panel, and he nods, offering me some space.
“Lue, you need to listen to me. Stop yelling and don’t touch anything. Someone is coming for you. They will bring you inside, but you must swear you’re alone.”
Her tiny image on the monitor shrugs. She nods a few times, looks behind her and drops her head.
“I am now. Miss Popplewish was with me, but…” By coincidence, she makes eye contact with one of the hidden cameras; her eyes are red, tired, and her face is covered in scratches. “I think she betrayed us.”
Everything becomes silent. Not a heartbeat, not a breath.
My finger is stuck on the switch, my neck so rigid it hurts when I look behind me, at the line of stunned faces that, like me, are fighting back the weight of Lucretia’s words.