Chapter 25
“ E m, you have a patient.”
I cracked my eyes open, blinking in confusion at the daylight. Wolf was crouched next to my mattress, shaking me gently.
I sat up, rubbing my gritty eyes as Wolf disappeared down the ladder.
I peered over the loft’s edge to see Smith, and adrenaline jolted me awake.
He was pale-faced and cradling a broken arm.
I quickly got dressed, went downstairs, and tried to pretend that Smith wasn’t still looking at me with a wariness that hadn’t faded since he found me sitting next to Madame’s dead body.
“Sorry, Ember,” Sable said. “I thought it might be easier for you to heal him than for me to splint his arm.”
“No, that’s fine,” I said, still raspy with sleep.
All the bedrolls were put away. It looked like it was past breakfast. Had I slept that late?
I gestured at Smith to sit in the chair while I washed up at the sink. The ice-cold water on my face helped wake me up. When I returned to where Smith sat in the chair, I hesitated at his side, my eyes scanning his arm.
“I’ll have to set the bone before I can heal it,” I told him, trying to keep my expression even as he stared at me. “It will hurt.”
“Alright,” he muttered.
I pulled over the little rolling table that fit over the exam chair. “Can you put your arm here?”
He grunted in pain but managed to get his arm onto the table.
I steadied myself and carefully put my hands on his arm, my powers tingling in my fingertips, and moved his arm as quickly as I dared.
He swore through his teeth, gripping the arm of the chair with his good hand.
When my powers felt the bone line up, they rushed through, mending the bone and healing the injury.
He swore under his breath again, but it sounded less pained this time.
I let go, and he experimentally lifted his arm and flexed his hand.
“Is there any remaining pain?” I asked.
“No,” he answered gruffly.
“You’re good to go, then.” I returned to the sink and washed my hands, but when I finished, he was still standing by the exam table, watching me. “Did you need anything else?” I asked, trying to keep my unease from my voice.
“I just wanted to say…” he hesitated, shifting on his feet. “I hope you’re… feelin’ better.”
I stared at him, unsure of how to respond. What did he want to hear? Don’t worry, I don’t feel like murdering anyone else? “Um, thanks,” I mumbled.
For a few uncomfortable seconds, he didn’t move, but then he forced a smile, said thanks, and left. I wiped down the exam chair, pretending I didn’t see how Wolf and his crew were studying me.
“What was that about?” Lee asked.
“What?” I didn’t look up from what I was doing.
“Who was that guy?”
“Smith, he’s one of Nemo’s men,” I answered, moving to the sink to wash my rag.
“Does he have a problem with you?” Wolf asked, his voice sharp.
I didn’t turn around. “I don’t know.”
“Ember,” Wolf sounded frustrated, “we’re never gonna find who vandalized the clinic if you don’t tell us what’s goin’ on.”
I shut the water off and attempted to wring every tiny drop of water out of the rag, stalling.
My stomach flipped uneasily at the realization that Wolf had made it his mission to find whoever vandalized the clinic.
He rarely failed when he focused on finding someone, and he’d only gotten better if the stories were true. “I don’t think it was Smith.”
“Why was that whole exchange so weird, then?” Lee demanded.
I took a breath, feeling tendrils of shame creep in, but I forced myself to turn around and meet six pairs of narrowed eyes. “Because he found me in Madame’s cell after I killed her.”
“But you don’t think he wrote ’murderer’ on your wall?” Wolf’s eyebrow raised.
Because you clearly are one, my brain filled in for him. I tried to breathe evenly, to keep the pain and guilt from my face, as I turned to hang my rag up to dry. “No.”
The silence thickened, and I studied the clinic, trying to find something to do to keep my hands busy. Wolf’s crew did more cleaning than I expected, which was helpful but also annoying when I desperately needed something to do. Vulture’s crew hadn’t cleaned a damn thing.
I swallowed hard, pushing down the memory of the manacle around my ankle.
“Mac came by earlier, but we didn’t want to wake you. He said they’re busy tryin’ to get a hold of their contacts from Angel City on the radio.” He huffed a humorless laugh. “I told him good luck.”
I glanced at him, wondering if I was supposed to know what that meant, “Why?”
Wolf’s brow furrowed. “Because of the uprising.”
“Did our radio towers get damaged during the fight?” I asked, confused.
Wolf frowned. “Not the uprising here, the big one… in Angel City.”
I’d never been to Angel City, but the Reapers had loved asking if that’s where I came from, thanks to Juck’s nickname.
I knew the Voiceless had a base there and that it had once been an enormous city in the Before.
Since then, most of the ruins had been swallowed by the ocean.
Rally once told me the best scavengers there would dive from a boat to swim through the underwater ghost city, looking for anything of value.
“What uprising?”
“Seriously?” Wolf looked strangely shocked, and I felt I was missing something.
“I haven’t heard anythin’ about an uprising,” I said, defensive.
“The people overthrew the Voiceless.”
My eyes widened.
“It wasn’t as bad as the Sin City Uprising, but it was still a bloodbath.”
I knew Sin City had another large Voiceless base, but that was about it. “What happened in Sin City?”
Wolf’s brow furrowed even further as he stared at me. “You’ve never heard of the Sin City Uprising?”
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be askin’,” I snapped.
“It was about ten years ago. The people formed a resistance and fought back against the Voiceless, but they were badly outgunned. The Voiceless slaughtered them all and anyone who was even the slightest bit related or connected to the resistance.”
I stared at him, processing that. I knew the Voiceless were spreading like a toxic weed, but I had no idea they were powerful enough to have uprisings against them.
“They killed everyone—the elderly, children, pregnant women. Thousands of people died, Ember,” Wolf added like he was disappointed in me.
“Well, I’m sorry the Reapers never told me,” I snapped.
“You didn’t even hear them talk about it?”
The only time the Reapers spoke to me was usually to call me names or taunt me or worse.
I couldn’t count how many times someone told me in detail what disgusting things they wanted to do to me as I tried to bandage them up or stitch their wounds.
I heard bits and pieces about other things happening, but usually it was shit about warlords or other gangs.
After a few years, unless someone spoke directly to me, I retreated into myself and didn’t listen to anything happening around me.
I used to look forward to the evening bonfires because that was when I would hear exciting tidbits about the world, but after Rally’s death, I did everything possible to get out of going to them.
I hated how often I forgot he was gone and searched the faces for him, but worse was how Juck started acting at those bonfires.
He’d always sat next to me and sometimes demanded I sit in his lap, but after Rally, it was like he wanted to flaunt me in front of the gang.
His hands would be all over me, and the Reapers would stare.
I’d never felt more like his whore than I did in those moments.
But I wasn’t going to tell my brother any of that.
“No,” I muttered.
“What about New Seattle?” he crossed his arms over his chest.
I had no idea what he was talking about. I glanced at the others and found them watching with expressions similar to Wolf’s.
“The Minnie Riots? The Badland Ambush? New York?”
I felt more and more stupid. I’d never heard of any of these.
“How the fuck did you not know anything that was goin’ on around you? Phoenix fell just five years ago. Didn’t the Reapers stick around that area?” Wolf sounded more shocked than mean, but my hackles rose even more.
“Juck never said anythin’ about any of that.”
“So you have no idea the Voiceless have been tryin’ to take over?”
“No ‘tryin’ about it,” Lee muttered. “They are takin’ over.”
I felt the blood leave my face. Juck had talked about the Voiceless a lot, but mostly, he went on and on about his take on their religion. He’d never said anything about battles or uprisings.
“It’s not her fault, Wolf.”
All of us looked at Sable, startled.
“He kept her isolated. She’d only know what he chose to tell her.”
“Yeah, but what about the past year? You never even heard people at the Vault talking about it? I’ve heard people here talking about it, and I’ve only been here a few weeks.”
My eyes were prickling now, and guilt began creeping in. Maybe Juck kept me isolated, but I hadn’t realized how isolated I’d continued to keep myself after I got away. I hadn’t spared a single thought about what could be happening in the world.
Wolf appeared to be waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t hear anyone talking about it.”
“Not even at the canteen?”
“I didn’t go to the canteen,” I mumbled. “Sam brought my food here.”
“Sounds right,” Kai muttered, and I attempted to ignore him.
“What about your patients or your crew? They never mentioned it?”
“I didn’t talk to people, Wolf,” I snapped.
“At all?” Wolf looked so confused. “You never stopped talking when you were a kid.”
Anger flashed through me. “I told you, I’m not her .”
“Wolf,” Scar murmured.