5. Vesper #2
I elbow him away, sneering at him. “Get the fuck away from me.”
The man beside us looks over with a raised brow, looking between me and Orion. “There a problem here?”
“Mind your business, Remainder Toy,” Orion snarls.
The man doesn’t even flinch. He just levels his gaze on the Union leader. “Glad to see you lot never change,” he says. When he looks at me, he grins. “Make sure to stab him for me when we get into the Harrow. He definitely deserves it.”
“I’m going to enjoy tying you down,” Orion snarls in my ear, ignoring the other man. “I’m going to fuck that sweet pussy until you beg me to stop. But I won’t. Not until you’re bleeding and broken and screaming.” He reaches up and tucks a hair behind my ear and I jerk away.
I bare my teeth at him. “I’m going to enjoy gutting you like old tech, Orion.”
The man beside us chuckles and shakes his head. “Locke, by the way.”
I raise my brow despite the situation we’re in. “Vesper and Dox.”
Dox waves anxiously while she stands on her tiptoes to count the people in front of us.
We’re very far back and there’s no way to know how long the gate will remain open.
The hum of the thrusters has faded by now, but it’s done the damage already.
We lost an hour before the gate opened. I’m not an Astronomer.
I don’t know how to calculate how much time the gate will remain open by that.
There are at least a dozen Ascendant Guards standing around.
Their armor covers their bodies, but it’s their apparent powers that make people lean away from them.
We don’t ever see the truly powerful Luxe dwellers here—they stay in Luxe—so we don’t see anything too crazy like wings or insane looking perks.
Instead, it’s the Ascendants with tougher skin, unearthly beauty, and gentle reminders that they’re not like us.
That’s the kind of power we’re going to be faced with once inside the Harrow.
“Step right up! Enter the Harrow and play the game. You could make it to Luxe. You could be powerful. You could escape,” one of the guards says from the back of the line, encouraging more and more people to get in line behind us.
“You there! You look sick! Wouldn’t it be nice not to die by black lung and instead die fighting? You can do that in the Harrow.”
I shake my head. The propaganda is never ending.
The line starts to move quickly once people start stepping through the gate.
Dox continues to watch the numbers, trying to predict how many will get through before it’s our turn.
Around us, I take in just how many kinds of people are in line.
Typically, children under fourteen are discouraged from entering, not by the Ascendant Guards, but by Dross.
We all collectively decided children don’t belong there, but the guards don’t discriminate.
There are always parents willing to take their children inside in the hopes of giving them a better life.
Sometimes, it’s because the parents don’t believe the propaganda.
Sometimes, it’s because if they stay, the child will die anyways.
Most people would prefer to at least try to save their babies.
I’ve never been more grateful to not have had to make such a choice.
No, the dirty air of Dross had taken that choice away from me once. I hadn’t ever dared to take such a risk again.
“You aren’t going to make it,” Orion purrs. “And then you’re all mine.”
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I snarl, shoving at him with my shoulder. An Ascendant guard looks our way and I pretend everything is okay, even smiling and waving at him.
“What’s better than bringing my baby home?” Orion continues. “My pretty little Vesper.”
Locke scoffs. “Real smooth.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Orion spits. “Fucking rat.”
“We probably don’t have much time,” I say to Dox, trying to ignore the man behind me. “I don’t know if we’re gonna make it through.”
“We’ll make it,” Dox replies.
“How do you know?” I ask, thinking she knows something I don’t.
“I don’t,” she admits. “I’m just being hopeful.”
“Hope is dangerous,” I rasp, pressing closer to her, holding on as I try to put space between me and Orion, but the bastard keeps pressing his hard cock against me. If I thought the guards wouldn’t drag me out of line for it, I’d turn around and cut it off.
Finally, it comes to the family in front of us. “You’re taking the child?” the guard asks.
The mother nods. “She won’t make it another rotation—”
“I don’t care,” the guard cuts her off and gestures for her to go. He looks at his watch. “Go through.”
The woman winces. Taking a deep breath, she steps into the harrow gate with her baby clutches in her arms. The man sprints through after them without a word.
“See you on the other side, Vesper and Dox,” Locke says. He tosses me a wink before he looks at Orion behind us. “And you too, motherfucker.”
He throws himself through the gate.
“Next!” The guard says. “Come on. The gate is about to close.”
I grab Dox’s hand and square my shoulders. “Ready?” I ask.
“No,” she chokes and squeezes my hand tighter to let me know she’s ready anyway.
I take a deep breath and shift my weight—
“Hey! The timer is about to run out!” Someone in the crowd shouts, and suddenly, the two of us are jostled and shoved to the side and the crowd begins to swarm.
“Get back!” the Luxe guard snarls, drawing a large sword he begins to swing at the converging Wastrels.
Their desperation makes them careless and a few of them take the blade across the chest. A frenzy begins.
“The gate!” I shout, trying to drag Dox toward it. “We gotta get through the gate!”
I start to drag Dox through the stampede of people, watching as they overcome the guards and start spilling through. I’ve seen what happens when the gate closes while people are still going through. I’ve seen the bodies.
“V!” Dox shouts. “We’re not gonna make it!”
“We’re gonna make it!” I snarl, dragging her through the swarm. The strain on my hand starts to pull and fear fills me. “Hold on!”
“Vesper!” she screams, her fingers slipping.
“Hold on!” I scream again, terrified, reaching back with my other arm and grabbing her wrist. Something pops and she screams.
“Enough!” the guards shout, slamming some sort of power into the crowd that throws them backward. The crowd screams, too many people on the ground as they get trampled, but no one stops. Stopping means failure. Stopping means being stuck in Dross for another month.
My fingers slip and I get a good look at Dox’s face as she seems to realize it the same time as I do. “No!” I cry, just as our hands are separated.
I’m swept into the crowd swarming toward the gate. Dox is swept in the other direction.
“Vesper!” she screams, reaching for me, as she’s thrown backward. “Vesper!”
“Dox!” I scream, as Orion grins from the mass of writhing people.
Time slows as I fall backward. The sound of the gate starting to crackle and fizz makes my head hurt.
“Vesper!” Dox screams again, reaching for me, trying to scramble over the crowd and dive in after me. “Vesper!”
I can’t move. I can’t fight it as I’m swept toward the gate, as it crackles around the mass of bodies I’m trapped in. I see Dox’s panicked face, her hands outstretched to mine, too far to ever hope to make it into the gate in time.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this isn’t what I think it is. Maybe she’ll be right behind me.
“Dox!” I scream one last time, just as I crash into the swirling blue of the Harrow Gate.
Her face disappears along with the only place I’ve ever known.