45. Ash
Chapter 45
Ash
Kane dropped me back at my room without another word, and Ryan came in to bring breakfast while I sat on the bed with the books I still wasn’t sure who had given me. I read the books and cross-referenced the words in Pop’s book with the ones in the dictionary, but quickly shoved it under my pillow when Ryan arrived. I even dared to read the love story, but got fed up with the whininess and helplessness of the woman in the story and chucked the book on the floor.
“What did you find out from the meeting? Jerek wouldn’t tell me anything.” Her eyes were etched with concern as she stood by the table, fiddling with a cup in her hands.
The thing about being surrounded by so many lies and secrets was you never knew when someone genuinely cared, or if it was
all another game. Could Ryan be working for the King? Clearly, Jerek hadn’t filled her in on his part in this. Even my best friend here could be untrustworthy.
“You’re afraid to tell me.” She nodded. “I get it. You have been lied to so many times before.”
“Ryan…I…” I didn’t know what to say; she had said it perfectly.
“It’s okay, Ash. Rafe told me before he died that no matter how close you were to someone, they could stab you in the back in an instant for reasons unknown. Just so you know, I swore I would never be that person. I would never lie like that.”
Her words were like a knife sinking into my chest, and I dropped the book on the bed with a thump. “I’ve never had a real friend before, Ryan. I don’t know how to be…normal.”
Ryan started laughing. “You really think that anyone is normal and knows how to make friends?” She looked at me expectantly, and I didn’t know how to answer. “No one is normal. Everyone is messed up in their own ways. You just have to find the right friends, the ones that won’t lie to you, that you can trust have your best interest at heart.”
“How?”
“Well,” she said, stepping closer, “you can start with me.”
I searched her face, looking for deceit that wasn’t there. I knew she wasn’t lying when she said the King had Rafe killed. I’d hate him for it too.
“The Dark Rise meeting was about assassinating me,” I said.
Her mouth dropped open, and she stared in disbelief. She plopped down on the bed next to me. “I’m sorry? You said that like it was just another day.”
I snorted a laugh. “Welcome to my life. ”
She laughed then, the musical sound echoing off the walls. “You are truly insane, aren’t you?”
“Hey…you said we are all messed up in our own ways. When someone is trying to kill you every other day, you get used to it, I guess.” I chuckled.
“So, what are you going to do?” she asked, her face turning serious. What was I going to do? We had a plan in place to capture the King, but what if that didn’t work? I had to cut him deeper. I had to have more contingency plans.
“I need help, Ryan. I have an idea, but I’m not risking your life. Jerek might kill me himself if something happens to you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Jerek doesn’t get any say in what I do. He’s smothered me ever since Rafe died, and I’m ready to live my own life.”
I nodded. “Did Rafe ever say anything about the vaccines they were given when he was going to school here?”
“He mentioned it once, said they only had to get them once a year.”
I cringed. “They aren’t vaccines.”
“What?” She asked, scooting up next to me until we were shoulder to shoulder, and she rested her back against the headboard.
“Dr. Jones is extracting DNA from the blondes and injecting it in the soldiers.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re shitting me?”
I shook my head.
“So what? All the soldiers have blonde abilities too?”
“No, Doctor Jones said it doesn’t work like that. He said he couldn’t ever figure out how to get the heightened senses to pull through, something to do with brain function, but he did get the mutated gene to make them stronger and faster. ”
Her face appeared baffled. “Is that why all the soldiers are like mammoths?”
I nodded. “Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Damn. We need to tell everyone.” She jumped up and began to pace the room—an action I’d done many times myself.
“No, we can’t. Not yet. We have to get Dr. Jones out of here first, or everyone will attack him when they find out the truth.”
“Everyone should attack him. He’s the one doing this to them—and without their knowledge.“ She threw her hands up in the air. I agreed, someone should be attacked, but it wasn’t Jones.
“The King is forcing him to, by withholding medicine from Jones’s wife.”
“I hate him,” she seethed. “I hate the King with every fiber of my being. Tell me what we need to do.”
This idea had been percolating in the back of my mind for a while and I might finally have the means to see it through. “Do you have access to the King’s wing of the mansion?”
She frowned. “No, only Della has a key.”
I pursed my lips thinking it through. “Are the King and Queen ever gone?”
Ryan stopped pacing in thought before she spoke. “The winter solstice is coming up. They always go visit the cemetery the night before, but I was in the hall and I overheard that they are going the morning of the winter solstice this year.”
The corner of my lip pulled up in a wicked smile. “I have an idea.”