Chapter 15
chapter
fifteen
Haven
“Excited to see your sister?” Knox asks.
I’ve been rolling and unrolling my window for the past two minutes. I can’t help myself. It’s been far too long since I saw my twin. Five whole weeks. Mercy and I aren’t exactly attached at the hip, but we have lived together our entire lives. This distance feels strange.
“You have no idea,” I say.
“I’m surprised Ender allowed you,” he says. “All things considered.”
My head turns towards him. His blue hair is lazily mussed.
“You know windows are supposed to be kept up during transport,” he advises. “The military truck is bulletproof, but it doesn’t apply if you give them a clear shot.”
I wind up my window and sigh.
“What do you mean by ‘all things considered’?” I ask.
“You lied about your marriage to Grayson,” Knox says.
“Huh,” I say thoughtfully.
“What?”
“I didn’t think he’d look that up,” I say. “But I can’t say I’m upset he wasted a few precious hours of his day.”
“Actually, I wasted a few precious hours of my day,” Knox says, giving me a pointed look.
I smile sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Why did you lie?”
Knox has this easy-going quality about him. It makes me want to confide in him. Besides, it’s a twenty-minute drive to Ender’s house, and we have to kill time somehow.
“Grayson is not my husband, but he is my best friend,” I say. “We were close before he got transferred to Division Six. And even if he isn’t my husband, if anything happened to me, Grayson and Reed Sullivan would destroy Ender. I said it to frighten him.”
The Sullivans were the closest thing to a family I had. Even when I signed the contract to join Black Star, I knew they would be the only people besides my sister to be outraged at my death.
“I think you just pissed him off,” Knox says.
“Well, I—”
Just before I can finish the thought, a car crashes into our side, and we careen off the road.
A scream escapes me as the truck flips on its head. And then there is only darkness.
Bright lights flash from above, twinkling like stars. My wrists are bound in iron with a long chain that is latched to the bars of a dirt-stained window. My head throbs, pain pulsing behind my eyes, and I wince at the sound of muffled voices.
It takes far too long for my vision to clear.
“Mercy. Mercy.”
I turn my head. Knox is tied to the door across the room. His eyes are tense with worry.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
“Like we just got hit by a car.”
“Listen, I can’t—”
The door opens before he can finish his sentence. A woman enters, her face hidden behind a theatre mask. One designed like a roaring lion. I expect her attention to go to Knox, but her gaze is fixed on me.
“The High General’s daughter,” she says. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“You too,” I say. “I’d shake your hand, but…” I lift my bound wrists in a shrug.
She doesn’t laugh. Tough crowd.
“What did you do to me?” Knox demands, straining against his restraints. “I can’t feel my power.”
The woman lifts a small black remote.
“This nullifies your abilities,” she says calmly. “Anyone with the Bind can be controlled this way. All your senior officers carry one to keep their soldiers in line.”
Knox’s face drains of color. “How did you get that?”
“We have our resources.”
My pulse spikes. She has to be a rebel. Excitement sparks through me despite the fear. Maybe she knew my mother. Maybe she can tell me about her. And I can share everything I’ve learned at the Forge. It might interest them to know that I am part of a covert unit.
She walks towards me, stopping inches away from my boots. Her voice drops, cold and deliberate, and I press back against the chains.
“Mercy Warrick,” she says. “Always at your father’s side. His companion at every important dinner. I suspect the bastard might even love you.”
Love? The thought catches me off guard. Warrick did spend more time with Mercy than he ever did with me. But he was incapable of affection. At best, he tolerated my sister.
“Warrick isn’t capable of love,” I say slowly. “Unless you count his love for status and wealth.”
Her head tilts. “You are amusing. It is a shame you must be used this way.”
“Used for what?”
“Your father holds a high-value prisoner,” she says. “One we want. We will grant you your freedom in exchange for him.”
I laugh, tossing my head back at her statement.
“You think Warrick would trade anything for me?” I ask. “You’re insane.”
She straightens, peering at me through the hollow cut of her mask. Her eyes are a deep gray, clever and assessing.
“We’ll see.”
She turns and leaves, shutting the door behind her. I’ll have to wait until Knox sleeps to ask her my questions.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
There are blood marks on his forehead. Small flecks dot the barbell between his brows, and a bruise blooms on his cheekbone.
“No,” he says, shifting uncomfortably. “I feel empty without my power.”
“Welcome to the life of a Common.”
He groans. “How can you joke right now? These people could kill us.”
“Not a chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if we’re in real danger, I’ll save our ass, pretty boy,” I say.
Knox lets out a breathless laugh. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“I know.”
Exhaustion crashes through me. My body still aches from the impact, every muscle bruised and trembling.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Knox asks, concern threading his voice. “You look a little pale.”
The lights blur, and that’s when everything goes black.
Voices are whispering around me.
“Where did you find him?” the woman hisses.
“Outside,” a boy says defensively. “Look, we needed a doctor. We have no leverage if the girl dies from internal bleeding.”
“This guy isn’t a doctor,” the woman says. “He’s a damn technician.”
A man clears his throat. “May I look at the girl? Do you have a medical kit?”
“What’s in your fancy bag?” the boy asks.
“A testing kit,” the man says dryly. “You didn’t let me pack anything when you took me off the streets?”
I laugh, before it turns into a cough. Blood splutters on my chin. I slowly open my eyes. There is a man beside me. His hair is graying, and he has a warm look in his eyes. Fear laces through me at his sterile, white uniform. I jolt upright, but the cuff on my wrist yanks me back.
They have me lying flat on a bed, and my hands are restrained.
“I don’t need a doctor,” I rush. “Let me go.”
“I’m not a doctor,” the man says. “I am a—”
Panic rises in me. He has his kit here. What if he tests me without my permission?
“I know what you are,” I bite. “Just let me go. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” the lion-masked woman says. “Let the doctor look at you.”
“He isn’t a doctor!” I repeat. “Did you not hear him? I don’t want him anywhere near me.”
“Why are you freaking out?” the boy asks. He has one of those silly masks on, too. His is a hyena.
My heart thumps. “I’m not, I just don’t like doctors.”
“He’s not a doctor,” the woman says curiously. “You know that. Which means you don’t like lab technicians. Why is that?”
She approaches the edge of my bed.
“Fine,” I say through clenched teeth. “Check my head. Make sure it’s working right.”
“Had a bad experience with one?” she continues.
I refuse to respond. Her eyes are locked on me, and I suck in a sharp breath when she looks at the lab technician with a calculating look.
“Test her.”
“What?” I snap. “Are you insane? My brain is leaking matter into my skull. I’m going to die in five minutes max, and you want to test me?”
“You just said you were fine,” she says. “Test her. Now.”
The lab technician sighs and reaches for his kit, and my heart races. Even if my mother worked with the Resistance, I don’t trust them. Not with my biggest secret, at least.
“It’s a waste of time,” I say. “I was tested as a child, and I have a fear of needles. You don’t need to do this.”
“Your father is a powerful Kinetic,” she says. “It doesn’t make sense that both his children possess no powers.”
“But we don’t,” I say. “Haven and I are Commons.”
The lab technician is preparing his syringe.
I blink, and time freezes. It’s probably not smart to use my powers now, but I need a second to collect myself.
I need to get a hold of those keys. The woman stands nearest to me, and I stretch my torso to rifle through her jacket.
A frustrated sound escapes me when I realize she doesn’t have it.
Instead, it dangles from the boy’s waist.
“Think, Haven,” I whisper. “Think.”
I look around for something to hook into the circle that holds a bunch of keys, but there is nothing even remotely useful near me. I have to get that boy to come closer.
I blink, and time resumes.
“Can you hold my hand?” I ask the boy.
My lip trembles, and I stare at him with wide eyes.
He glances at the woman for permission.
“Don’t go near her,” she warns. “She was looking at your keys just now.”
Damn it. She is smarter than she looks.
My sleeve is rolled up by the technician, and the same dread that hit me all those years ago returns. Tears prickle my eyes because I don’t have my mother to protect me. I have to figure it out all on my own.
The needle slides into my skin, and my blood begins to fill the tube.
Slowly, he places it in the synthesizer. The device that will determine if I possess the gene that only the Gifted carry.
A thin line of light shifts across the device from green to red.
“A Gifted,” he says, surprised.
I clench my teeth.
“How interesting,” the woman says. “Give me the vial.”
The lab technician hesitates. “She must be added to the record so she can receive her implant and—”
“Now,” the woman bites out.
He gives it to her, and she lets it fall to the ground. I wince as the glass shatters and my blood stains the floor.
“Check the girl,” she says.
The lab technician seems annoyed, but he peels back my eyelids and presses on my ribs.
“Mild lung bruising,” he says. “She’ll need time to recover and should avoid any strenuous activity.”
“Good,” the woman says. She turns to the boy beside her. “Tell him to forget everything and send him on his way.”