Chapter 16 Unlikely Alliance – Luna #2
“She’s going to offer us to the highest bidder,” I whisper.
“Or disappear you if you prove too difficult to control.” Leyla meets my eyes. “That’s why I’ve been so scared. Why I’ve been following you so closely. Because I’ve seen what happens to students who fight back. Who ask too many questions. They don’t leave this island.”
“Then we make sure we do.” I stand. “Leyla, we’re getting off this island before The Harvest. And we’re taking you with us.”
“That’s impossible. The ferries are monitored. The boats are locked. Security patrols the shores.”
“We know. We’ve been looking for ways out.” Erik pulls out his phone and shows her the map Max found. “There are old maintenance tunnels. They connect to the north shore dock.”
“Those tunnels are condemned. They’re filled with water. Unstable.”
“But they’re our best shot. Max and I have been scouting them. Finding the safest routes.” He puts his phone away. “We’ll need three weeks to finish preparations. To gather enough evidence. To coordinate with people off island who can help us.”
“Three weeks.” Leyla’s laugh is slightly hysterical. “You want to wait until right before The Harvest? When security will be at its highest? When Selena will be watching everyone even more closely?”
“We don’t have a choice. We need that time.” I take her hands. “But we need your help. We need you to keep reporting to Selena. Keep her thinking everything is normal. That we’re settling in. That we’ve stopped being suspicious.”
“You want me to lie to her?”
“We want you to survive.” My voice is fierce. “And the only way any of us survive is if we work together. You help us, we help you. We all get out. We all go free.”
“And my father?”
“We have encrypted communications that prove the network’s structure. Proof of blackmail. Proof of crimes.” I squeeze her hands. “When we expose Selena, everyone she’s controlling gets released from that control. Including your father.”
Leyla is crying now. Full, desperate sobs. “I’ve been so scared. So alone. I thought I was the only one.”
“You’re not alone. None of us are.” I pull her into a hug. She clings to me like I’m the only solid thing in her collapsing world. “We’re going to make it through this. Together.”
When her sobs finally quiet, she pulls back. “What do you need me to do?”
“Tell us everything. Every detail about The Harvest. Who comes. What happens. Where they meet.” Erik’s voice is steady.
Determined. “And keep feeding Selena information. But make it useless. Tell her we’re adjusting.
That we’re making friends. That Belle and Max are just a normal couple.
That Luna is dealing with trauma through therapy. ”
“What about Professor Austin?”
“What about him?” I ask carefully.
“Selena had him taken two days ago. She said he was asking too many questions. Getting too close to discovering things he shouldn’t.” Leyla wipes her eyes. “I overheard her talking to someone on the phone. She said Austin had become a liability. That he’d been removed.”
My chest tightens. Belle was right. Austin is gone. Either dead or imprisoned somewhere we can’t reach him.
“Did she say where they took him?”
“No. Just that he wouldn’t be a problem anymore.” Leyla’s voice drops to barely a whisper. “She sounded pleased about it. Like she was proud of how cleanly it was handled.”
I think about Austin risking everything to help us. Leaving evidence for Belle even though he knew they were coming for him. Making the ultimate sacrifice so we could have a chance.
“We’re going to make it count,” I say. “His sacrifice. We’re going to use what he gave us to bring them all down.”
“What did he give you?”
“Everything.” I meet her eyes. “He gave us everything we need to destroy the network. We just have to survive long enough to use it.”
Leyla nods slowly. “Okay. I’ll help. I’ll keep reporting to Selena. Keep her thinking you’re all just traumatized kids trying to heal.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. If she finds out I’ve betrayed her…” Leyla doesn’t finish the sentence. She doesn’t need to. We all know what happens to people who betray Selena Harpsons.
They get removed.
We leave the chapel separately. Leyla first, then Erik and me five minutes later. As we walk back toward campus, Erik takes my hand.
“That was a risk,” he says quietly.
“It paid off. We have an ally now. Someone on the inside.”
“Or we just told a spy exactly what we’re planning.”
“She’s not a spy. Not by choice.” I squeeze his hand. “She’s a victim. Just like us. And victims need to stick together.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Me too.”
Because if I’m wrong, if Leyla runs straight to Selena with everything we just told her, we’re dead. All of us.
But something in her eyes when she looked at me. That desperate hope. That need to believe someone could save her.
I know that feeling. I’ve felt it myself.
And I refuse to let Selena take that hope away from another girl.
Not while I’m still breathing.
Not while we still have a chance to fight back.
The Harvest is coming. Three weeks away. Three weeks to gather evidence. To plan our escape. To prepare for war.
Three weeks until Selena tries to offer us to her network of monsters.