27. Raya
RAYA
“ M um, what are you doing?” I asked as I walked in through the garden gate two nights after the thinning to our door wide open. My mother’s head tipped down toward the floor as she stood outside our house.
Bodhi’s hand immediately released mine as I ran into our house to see everything had been pulled apart.
“Raya, please. They are taking back their gifts.”
I whirled around towards her, frustrated. “Because an Omega was taken?”
She nodded, looking past my shoulder briefly before dipping her head again.
“Because you are a failure, Ace. As we should have expected.”
My eyes widened as I turned around to see a Benefactor standing smugly in the middle of our living room, two of his own guards by his side.
Pillows were torn open, drawers emptied, other items broken. We had little, but what we did have, they’d destroyed.
“She would have given them back peacefully,” I replied, trying to imbue as much reason into my voice as possible, though it wavered. I was furious.
He scoffed. “Hardly. She is a criminal and a sympathiser. Zander has requested these items back because you failed.”
Bodhi stepped to the side of me, and I felt his body vibrating with anger. I stepped in front of him to shield him, to let him know that it would be okay. I would not be in the Haven for much longer, nor would any of us. This only reiterated our need to leave.
Guards trailed down the stairs, holding every weapon they had supplied us with, others taking any excess food from our fridge. I opened my mouth to protest the food, but a single warning look from an Omega guard had me shutting it.
“You didn’t earn any of this. Therefore, it is to be removed,” the pompous elite tutted.
I hated Benefactors. There was hardly anything decent about them. There were three who covered the entirety of the Haven, their purple ties signifying their status to the rest of us. Now, there were only two.
Not that they knew it yet.
But they will.
My preference was for a world where there were none. They took more than they ever gave.
The Benefactor’s attention drifted down my body, and I froze briefly, remembering what hung on my wrists. I pulled my hands behind my back, the cuffs on my wrist sitting heavy as my breaths came out short and sharp. The evidence would follow me if I could not get these cuffs off. I had to ensure nobody saw them.
His expression twisted in disgust, my body easing beneath it. Disgust was far better than desire.
With a flick of his hand, the guards moved out behind him, taking everything I had earned from the first night and leaving behind nothing but destruction.
He cast me one last smug look before swiftly turning to follow them.
“Fuckers,” Bodhi mumbled as he bent down to begin picking up items off the floor.
They were right, though. I had a powerful gift, and I still failed. I was so easily conquered.
I bit my tongue angrily as I helped pick up pillows and broken items, returning anything salvageable to where it once belonged.
We worked together quietly for some time, my mum drifting towards the kitchen, cleaning it before she joined me once Bodhi left to start on upstairs.
I took that opportunity to turn to my mum, who had been quiet, and ask her the one question that had been sitting on my tongue. “I’m asking you one more time: did you know what these cuffs could do?” I whispered.
“No.” She barely glanced up, not even surprised that they could do anything at all outside of sit on my wrists and look pretty.
“But you knew they could do something?” I prodded, and unlike last time, she nodded.
“Why are you not asking for more information?” I asked, confused as to why she was not engaging me further, the tension not easing from the room.
“Because giving information can be dangerous, Raya. It is better people know less here. You do not know what sort of talents or technology this city has that can extract information from your mind, especially information that can become a weapon.”
I blinked, not entirely understanding what she meant.
“Do not ask me anything further on this. Whatever happened, don’t tell Bodhi either. It is safer for him not to know.”
I reared back. “Do you not care what happened to me?”
She stopped in her tracks, her fingers fumbling on a broken shard of glass. “I care, Raya. I care so damn much, but I am afraid. I am terrified you will endanger others with this information, but more importantly, you will endanger yourself by passing it on. Please, don’t tell anyone.”
My gut turned. I was hurt by her words, though they were truthful. I wanted comfort. I wanted someone to tell me it would all be okay.
“We need to leave this city.”
That was what made her finally freeze in her movements. “I cannot.”
“Why?” I demanded, trying to keep my voice down so Bodhi couldn’t hear. He didn’t deserve to be involved in this mess.
“Because these people need me, Raya. They need hope.”
I gritted my teeth. “This city is a lie. Everything is a lie. There is no hope!”
She shook her head as she looked at the floor again, her shoulders slumped. I needed to think of a new strategy. My mother was stubborn.
“What if we left to get resources to save people here? What if we went beyond the shield at the next thinning to get help or find a solution to our problems?”
She kept moving, picking up another bit of glass as she listened. I needed more ammunition, so I asked a question that would prompt her. If the love of her life couldn’t, who would?
“What if we found him?”
She looked towards me. “Who?”
“Dad. What if we found him?”
She smiled sadly at me. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“But we could do it. We could start somewhere. You know what he looks like. You’ve lived beyond before…”
She tipped her head in consideration, and my heart thumped.
“With my gift, we could do so much more than just tolerating and enduring this city. We could truly find a safe haven and rebel.”
That was when her ears pricked.
“What of the Dominants on the other side?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow in challenge. Damn it, she didn’t truly believe I was serious. My lips thinned in response.
“We could outrun them. We would only need to last at most for a week if it was bad. If it is not survivable beyond the shield, then it is only a week between the third and fourth thinning. We would come back to the Haven and accept this fate as being the best this life would offer us.”
She stared at me, her fingers fumbling over one of my more decorative celestial maps I’d drawn a few years back. It was now torn, another thing those assholes ruined.
“If you want to give them hope, then what’s better than finding a place where they could start an entirely new life? One where they would be valued and equal. A life where they do not have to fight to find food, water, or shelter?”
A strand of hair fell out of her bun, and she tucked it behind her ear as silence reigned. I persisted, taking her silence as encouragement.
“They are going to enslave you. Not as a wife, but as a consort. That is your future if you remain here. That is what I know.”
I was desperate now, my arms outreached towards her, my voice pleading as I implored her to understand, to accept and do this with me.
Her face had gone ashen, but I could tell in the rigidity of her posture that she knew I was telling the truth.
“I’m not giving up on this. We have to go,” I reiterated, firmer now than ever before. I think she could see it clearly now, the truth of it all as resolve slackened her shoulders, and she subtly dipped her head in agreement, though I didn’t know what it was that had tipped her towards it.
“Okay.”
I exhaled. I would have had to resort to more drastic plans had she disagreed.
“We just have to get Riley and Bodhi,” I confirmed, and she shook her head.
“No. We go first and come back for them in a week once we explore, once we confirm it is safe for us all. They are safe enough here for now.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. My mother could be stubborn, and I could see determination set in her face. I was doubtful we could pull a return off, but we had to try, didn’t we? The only option we had was to leave.
I would just need to make sure my gift was enough to execute it.
Because it was my mother’s life I was now gambling on.