Chapter 23
Cayden makes us both coffee while Bella walks in, dressed in her Academy issued pyjamas and raising a brow at me. I know what she thinks, she knows more about life than I do, so she probably knows what sex is. Ew. I still hate the word.
“Rough night?” she asks, a smirk on her lips, but I roll my eyes.
“Piss off, Bella.”
“Coffee, Bella?” Cayden asks, cutting into the tension effortlessly.
“Please,” she groans, sitting down on the bar stool. Marcus walks in next, looking rougher than I do. He’s in sweatpants and a white t-shirt, and his hair is a complete mess. I turn to Bella; this time I’m the one smirking. “Rough night?” She pulls her middle finger at me, making me laugh.
“At least I made the effort to walk out presentable.”
“She has you there, love.” Cayden laughs, handing me the mug while passing the other over the counter to Bella.
“You didn’t clean up, either,” I mumble, lowering my head in shame.
“I didn’t need to, love, and neither do you. You look beautiful,” Cayden says, kissing my forehead.
There’s a moment of silence we all sit in, only filled by the sound of something chirping outside. A sound I’ve never heard before, but it’s beautiful. For the first time ever, I think I know what peace feels like.
“I think we should all chat,” Bella says, ruining the moment. Immediately, I know where this is going. The conversation I’ve been avoiding like my life depended on it.
“You can’t avoid it forever,” Cayden whispers as if reading my thoughts, lifting my chin so my eyes meet his. The deep brown irises stare down at me; he’s worried about me. I can see it in his eyes. But neither of us voice it aloud.
“I just wanted to feel normal for one day,” I whisper, unable to hide the pain in my voice, not at him, but at this impossible situation. I never got a choice, I was chosen, and now I have to choose a side. I never asked for this, never wanted it.
Bella scoffs, rolling her eyes before standing.
“Darlia, I love you, but your head is literally in your ass. You’re forgetting who you are, what you have survived.
You were selected in the first round of trials for an assassin academy.
Not many others survived from your trial, and here you are.
You have fought off people twice your size, you have ended countless lives with your skills and you’re sitting here all fragile like we have time for it.
We don’t. You don’t get to break yet, we still need all the details.
And fucking smiley over there only talks to you. ”
The room goes completely silent, until I laugh. “Smiley?”
Bella breaks slightly, her lips twitching. “Not the point, you idiot.”
Without realising Marcus had even stepped out, he walks back into the room with a cardboard box in his arms, placing it down on the dining table. “This is everything we have on The Academy.”
Cayden looks like he’s about to protest, but is quickly shut down with a glare from Marcus. “They need to know. You can’t keep protecting her forever.”
“I can try,” Cayden mumbles, his shoulders stiff, but doesn’t protest further.
The box is big. I have no idea what to expect, and I’m not sure if I even want to open it. If I don’t, I can still convince myself those papers were fake, that I wasn’t stolen, that it’s all some illusion and I was just making it up.
But the little girl inside me, the one that was stolen…she needs answers. So I do it for her. I cross the room and open the box, pulling out all the papers, the blueprints, the photos. Everything. I set it all down on the table, laid out for Bella to see as she walks over.
I grab out one of the files, sitting in the dining chair before opening it. It has everyone’s records, all injuries ever received, even Shayleen, my first assigned partner is in here, including her cause of death.
I look up at Cayden, trying to read what he’s thinking. Clearly he’s seen this, but I don’t want him knowing this, knowing what I did, what I was forced to do.
Bella and I keep reading, going through every girl until I get to Lauren. She’s smiling in the photo, her hair is up in the ridiculous braids I would always tease her for sleeping in, but there’s an ice cream in her hands, and I remember the day exactly.
It was the first and only time The Academy gave us such a luxury. A taste of freedom, literally. We were never allowed anything sweet, no chocolate, no ice cream, no sweet drinks. The government made them a luxury for the elite only after the famine.
To help retain order, we were told, but how can I trust anything they said anymore?
“It doesn’t have her date of death,” I whisper, realising I had been crying and wiping my eyes quickly. “Do you not know it?”
Cayden shakes his head. “No, we still haven’t found out what happened to her.
But she hasn’t been removed from the records yet, so we’re waiting for that before diving in to get more information.
” I nod and turn to see Bella picking up a photo of a group of boys, all dressed in similar Academy uniforms.
“What is this?”
“The first trial run, they didn’t start with girls, they started with boys.
But the boys questioned too much; they didn’t believe their lies, and they wanted out.
After they realised that girls were more likely to believe their manipulation, they moved to them instead,” Marcus answers for Bella.
His eyes soften as he speaks, and I look to Cayden eyes wide.
“What happened to them? They are just kids…”
“Some were killed,” Cayden answers, crossing his arms over his chest.
“And the others?” I’m afraid to ask, I don’t think I want to know, but I need to know.
“Some escaped, the others were let go because they were too young to remember any of it.”
“How many survived?”
“Five. They started with twelve. Four were shot, two died because of the injuries they received in The Academy, and one…one didn’t make it during the escape.
” His eyes dampen slightly, like he’s trying to hold back tears, like this is personal.
He didn’t mention having a brother. Is it possible he had one that was in there?
“Where are they now?” I don’t know why I ask, I truly don’t want to know that. Cayden said he won’t let me go back to The Academy, but I’m not free yet. I won’t be free until it’s gone completely. There’s still a chance they could come and find me, they know where we are.
“All in this house. It’s why I’m your target, Darlia. I was PX-1.”
My heart stops beating in my chest. It feels like it physically dropped out and split apart. Cayden, my Cayden was in The Academy. He was the first, he knew this entire time, and he didn’t tell me. Was this all a test? Was he a part of the Academy test, too?
I trusted him.
“Darlia, wait. I know what you’re thinking.
I would never—” He’s cut off by the sound of glass breaking, and a smoke grenade is thrown into the kitchen.
In an instant, Cayden is by my side, rushing me out and up the stairs.
We turn left at the top of the staircase, walking into his office where the Overseer and Major are waiting.
This was a trap.
Cayden trapped me.
“Darlia, no, I would never. Don’t. Don’t you dare think like that.
I promised to keep you safe, remember?” But his words no longer hold value.
His words no longer have the weight in my chest I thought they did.
I feel my stomach drop, not out of nerves or anxiety.
Out of betrayal. Cayden made me trust him, only to lie to me all along.
“I trusted you!” Screaming, I try to fight off the guards at my sides, holding me down.
“How could you? After everything I did, the danger I put myself through! I would’ve died keeping your secrets!
” Another emotion flows through me. Another I’ve never felt until Cayden.
It’s not anger, it’s more than that. It’s an indescribable amount of pain. Heartbreak, maybe?
I feel a sharp prick in my neck and watch as Cayden is restrained by three masked guards, the world around me quickly blurring as I fall to the ground and the world turns black.