“Thank you, Joan,” I whisper. I feel drained from the new ability, but it’s worth it and it pushes me to make a decision. When I find my parents, I won’t ask them to make me unadjusted again. For this ability I will remain an adjusted.
“You’re welcome.” Joan pulls me into her arms and gives me a hearty hug.
After Joan leaves, Matt shuffles close and inspects my face. “You can stay here if you want tonight.”
I turn back into the room. The fairy lights add a comforting glow.
“If you don’t mind.” The thought of returning to my empty hollow alone, with just the picture of my parents as company, fills me with loneliness. And Joe next door. Joe, about whom I still haven’t figured out how I feel. But I can’t deny the flush that blooms on my cheeks when I think about him.
Matt settles down beside me and closes his eyes. He holds my hand. I sit for a while, staring at the twinkling fairy lights. Despite Joan’s healing earlier, tension settles at the back of my neck. It seems a permanent fixture now that comes twined with the worry—always wondering where my parents are, how they are, whether I’ll be able to save them. Watching Matt sleep peacefully, I feel a stab of envy. He has a family. A complete family. It isn’t fair.
A couple of hours later I leave Matt’s hollow and wander the passageways, trailing my hand over the cool limestone walls. After sniffing out a granola bar from the kitchen, I wind my way to the main door. I have the sudden, inescapable urge to be outside in the open, away from the enclosing walls.
Pushing open the main door, I emerge into a thicket of bushes. I fight my way through them and step into the valley. Moonlight spills puddles over the valley floor. The snap of cool air snakes around my shoulders and caresses my cheeks. My wings unfold and I step into the open. Owls hoot from the forest. The occasional bat flies overhead. I search for fireflies but can’t spot any. Maybe they’re all in the meadow where Joe kissed me.
My toes lift until I’m standing on the very tips, like Lyla in her pointe shoes. I flap my wings and rise into the sky, higher and higher until my teeth chatter with the cold. The coldness centers me. I can think clearly up here, away from everyone else.
My parents are in the city somewhere. Maybe not even in a real facility, but locked in an unknown location. I wish one of my abilities was X-ray vision or the ability to sense where my family is. Like that cell phone app my parents installed when I first started walking to school that fed them my location whenever they chose to check in. I thought it was a bit stalker-y at the time. But now, I’d give anything to find them so easily.
I hover, looking at the magical land below. With the trees and valley and nature in its purest form all around me, it looks so untouched, uncorrupted.
When my shoulder blades tremble, I recognize the signs of fatigue; my ability will soon wear itself out. I glide down to the valley floor and land in the largest pool of moonlight I can find. Bathed in the unearthly light, it feels like anything is possible. That whatever world I imagine inside my head, however I want it to be, can be, if I wish it hard enough.
It’s after midnight when I shut the cave door behind me, but I’m still not ready to sleep. The cold air has woken me up and instilled in me a more intense longing for my parents. To find President Bear. I want to kill him with my own hands.
With the scent of clay filling my nostrils once more, I wander past the chimneys, where the leftover aroma of bread mutes the cloying limestone, and back to my hollow to grab my guitar.
I follow the trail of lanterns to a more secluded part of the cave system, where a regular drip echoes at my back. I play my song for hours, rolling the words over my tongue until the anger grows and threads through every thought.
Bind me, blind me—beat me black and blue.
In all your power try me,
Let my light shine through.
And when your lies run empty,
When our rights become your wrongs,
You’ll see our banner rising,
And you will hear our song.
Claus limps into my small niche, one hand on his cane, the other on his mustache. “That’s a beautiful song.”
“Thank you.” I put the guitar down and rise to meet him. “I have a gift for you.”
Claus bows.
“You’ve done so much for me.”
“You’ve done more for me than you’ll ever realize.” Claus’ eyes glisten as another man appears at his side. “This is Evan.”
My mouth falls open. “Evan, Evan? I thought he was dead?”
Claus turns to the man and squeezes his shoulders. “So did I.”
“I didn’t die at the march. I was arrested and thrown in prison,” Evan says, leaning in to Claus. “But they put out a false list of the fallen.”
“Took as many protesters as they could to use in their nanite experiments,” Claus says.
The two men smile at each other and it’s clear they no longer care; they’re together again, even if Evan is missing a couple of fingers and an angry burn mark takes up most of his right cheek. I unsheathe the knife from my belt and hold it up to Evan. “I believe this is yours.”
Evan’s eyes widen and he runs a finger along the blade. “Never thought I’d see that again.” He picks it up and tests its weight, then hands it back to me. “I have no use for it anymore. Keep it.”
“Thank you.” I turn to Claus. “And I have another gift for you.”
“I’m intrigued.” Claus rests both hands on his cane.
“I’d like to heal your leg.” I hold out my hand and the glowing warmth plays over my fingertips.
Claus holds my gaze, smiling proudly, then raises his cane between us. “I’ve grown rather fond of this.”
Together, the three of us watch the golden glow pulse over my palm.
“You don’t want to be healed?”
“No.” Claus puts his cane down and rests both hands on top. “It’s part of who I am, and it reminds me what I’ve gone through to be who I want to be.”
I bow. “You’re a better person than me.”
“That’s not true.” Claus lays a hand over my chest. “And besides, Evan was always better at karate than I am. You can spar with him.”
Evan winks. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
His look turns challenging and before he can sweep my legs, I jump kick his shoulder. Evan laughs and Claus praises my focus.
“No abilities now.” Evan wags a finger at me. “That wouldn’t be fair on an old man.”
A smile twitches on my lips. “It’s a good thing you’re not old.”
For the next half hour or so, we spar in the dim lighting. When we’re both exhausted and agree to tie, we bow and head our separate ways.
With sweat cooling on my back, I weave a path back to Matt’s hollow. There’s still a space where I lay earlier in the night, so I tuck my body around his and plummet into sleep.
When Matt wakes me the next morning, I can tell by the force of his hand that something’s wrong.
“What is it?” I ask before I even open my eyes.
“Can you get up? I need to show you something.” His mouth is twisted and he clicks his fingers rapidly.
I pull on my boots and follow him out of the hollow. Einstein trails us, pressing his snout into my side for a pat as we leave the cave. I slit my eyes against the rising sun until they adjust. Matt leads me up the other side of the valley, onto the ridge, and under the legs of a massive electricity pylon. We sit on the grass in the stretching shadow of a mountain ash tree, its limbs dusted with white flowers, and pass a bottle of water between us. Matt removes a tablet from his backpack. “I come here to access the internet. I have it disabled when I’m inside, but here I’m far enough away to risk using it for a few minutes.”
“OK…” I gesture for him to continue.
Matt places the tablet in my lap and leans close so we can share the small screen. He taps in his security code, dissolving the picture of us from his fourteenth birthday. It was a bowling party.
We are smiling, both wearing baseball caps backward, and Matt’s arm is slung casually around my shoulder. I smile at the memory. It was from a time when life was less complicated, when I was still free to come and go from my penthouse apartment, before I came to think of it as a prison.
Matt pushes his hair on top of his head, smoothing it down with unnecessary force. “From the intel we’ve gathered, it seems they’ve halted the enforced nanite program until they can figure out how to stop themselves all going insane without our presence. But they’re still doing terrible things…” Matt rises to his feet, hands fisted. “Lyla told me what they did to some of the people in that compound.” He paces back and forth, then takes a deep breath. “But that’s not why I brought you up here. Silver, there’s something else you need to see.”
“What is it?”
Matt re-joins me on the grass and pulls up a video. “It’s about your parents.”
I brace myself. The screen loads with an image of President Bear. If anything, he looks more terrifying, more arachnid, and his eyes are now completely red, even the whites. I pray that doesn’t happen to mine. The scar under his eye pulses.
“Silver Melody is wanted for treason. If she is not found by the 15th of June or has not turned herself in, Dr. Margaret Melody and Dr. Rufus Melody will be executed.” President Bear’s mouth sets into a thin line, lips barely visible. “The reward has risen to three million dollars. Dead or alive.”
“It was broadcast two days ago,” Matt says. “Right after we got back.”
In the top left corner is a smaller clip. I double tap the screen, and an image of my parents fill the tablet. My mother is dressed in a white shapeless dress now gray with age and grime. No more than a bag of bones, skin hangs off her gaunt frame. Her once lustrous, wavy hair is now a muted gray, and her cheeks are bleached of color.
Each arm is held by an eight-foot troll. She stares resolutely at the camera. Pain radiates in her eyes, but so does her resolve to stand strong. My father is less gaunt, but bruises and blood garnish his face. His hair has been shaved.
Shame and anger burn in my chest and I cry, unsure which emotion is most dominant. Matt cradles me, strokes my back, and pulls my tear-soaked hair out of my face.
“I’m so sorry, Silver.”
“What’s the plan?” I push the words through my clenched teeth. Surely Matt will have a plan. He’ll know where they were.
“I’m working on it.” He thumbs a corner of the screen to magnify a section of the image. “I need to compare these images with ones of the other prisons in Central City. Give me an hour. Then we’ll know where they are.”
I twist the hem of my T-shirt into my tight fist. “And we can go get them.”
He nods. “But I don’t know who will want to come. It’ll be a maximum-security facility. Much more protected than the compound we attacked. There will be casualties. People who come need to know what’s at risk.”
I blot my eyes. Tension races along my jaw. “What if I turn myself in?”
Matt does a double take. “You can’t do that.”
I kick at the ground. “Matt…”
“Silver, they’ll just kill all three of you. You know that, and we could really use your parents’ help figuring out what to do next.”
I push my hunched shoulders down and lock a determined stare on him. “So what then?”
He holds up a hand. “Give me an hour to figure out their location. Then we’ll talk to Francesca and Claus.”
I don’t know whether to slap his hand away or lace my fingers through his. “It’s only three days till the 15th, Matt.”
“I know.” The haunted look in his blue eyes chills me.
We have to find my parents. And soon.
When we get back to the cave, I seek out Francesca, but words fail me. Matt fills her in on my parents’ situation while my friends gather around.
I rock on my feet, eyeballing my friends. Paige, Sawyer, Addison, Erica, Joe, Hal, Kyle and Jacob stand in a loose circle in the weapons chamber with Francesca and Claus. Matt’s still trying to identify the correct prison.
“I don’t know if I like this,” Francesca says. “I think it’s worth a day’s training at the assault course before you leave.”
“Did you not hear what I said? They’re going to execute them in three days.” I slam a fist into the other palm.
Francesca’s cool gaze doesn’t waver. “You’re asking a lot from your friends, and I won’t stop you, but some of you are still recovering from the attack at the compound. You haven’t learned to work as a team yet. You and Kyle were isolated. You can’t go off half-cocked without backup.”
I pace before her. “It will take us two days to get there, at the very least. We need to leave now.”
Francesca looks at the other eager faces. “You all want to go?”
Kyle’s eyebrows turn into a thundery mess. “I want payback for that dick breaking my arm.”
“I’m still looking for my family,” Addison says. “Maybe they’re in the same place.”
“Yes. We’re all up for it,” Joe says. “There’s a wider purpose at play here. People have been whispering about some kind of cure. We need Silver’s parents to understand if it’s even possible. Without them—”
I snap my heels together. “We’ll be stuck in this cave forever.”
“Not true,” Francesca says. “We can take down President Bear, start a coup and elect a new government.”
I laugh. “That will take years. Eighty percent of the population has abilities! They won’t want sanctions on how many nanites they can take.” My finger stabs at empty air. “It’s addictive. They want more and more.” Hell, even I’m getting to like my abilities. “It needs to be bigger than taking down President Bear. It needs to involve the whole world.”
Francesca looks at Joe. “You still have the jeep in the woods?”
Joe nods.
“Can you just do one day at the training ground with Claus and Evan training you as a team?” She looks at all the faces in the room. “Then take the jeep and you can drive all the way there. That will cut down your time. We’ve got one shot at this; let’s make it the best one.”
I wring my hands in frustration.
“Silver,” Claus cautions, wearing a fiery look. Evan stands next to him, a softer light in his eyes.
I hang my head. He is the one person who can ignite shame in me. “I’m sorry. It’s just… I want them back so bad.”
Francesca places a hand on my shoulder. “I understand, but we don’t even know where they are yet. While Matt is figuring it out, you might as well take that frustration and use it in the meadow.”
“Fine.”
“Francesca’s right,” Joe says, lowering his mouth to my ear. His breath does weird things to my skin, but I’m too fed up to think about that right now. “Let’s do this right.”
I shake off all the pitying glances and charge down the passageway. Only Kyle keeps up with me. We speed to the meadow together, and by the time I get there, some of the anger has leached away.
While I wait for the others, I take out my knife and aim it at the hay bales nearby. There are five of them with bull’s-eye targets attached. I try to remember all the advice Dad gave me in the woods and alter my stance. Distracted, I throw too early. The blade misses the target completely.
I stomp past the target and retrieve my knife. This time, I take a moment to regulate my breathing, and when I exhale, I throw again. With a satisfying crunch, the blade connects with the target, dead center.
“That’s more like it,” I say.
“Awesome,” Kyle says, startling me. I didn’t realize anyone was watching.
After a few more perfect throws, the rest of the group catches up with us. Claus beckons me over to the start of the assault course, where the others are congregating.
“Silver,” Claus says, his mustache twitching. “I’d like you to run this without any abilities. If you get maxed out, you’ll have to rely on your normal hu
man skills.”
I groan. Paige laughs and tickles me with one of her feathers.
Claus waits with a stopwatch. He presses the start button and Joe takes the lead, closely followed by a flying Erica. Then Addison. Hal is fourth, Jacob fifth, followed by Kyle and Sawyer, then it’s me and Paige taking up the last spots.
We start with the tire run—left, right, left, right; I almost stumble at the last one. Then up the ten-foot rope tied to a branch, over the tree limb, and down the other side. Joe and Hal don’t struggle much with that one, considering their height. Next is the mobile wall built from hay bales. Paige flaps her wings and flies over it. She disappears over the top of the wall while I just run into it and fall backward. Erica’s wings turn a smug shade of scarlet. Paige’s head reappears over the top of the wall, and she holds out a hand. I grit my teeth and accept it.
After that, we run through a tunnel of trees. Straw dummies hanging from branches fly at us, some painted with happy faces, some angry, to depict goodies and baddies. I manage to knife a couple in the face before one clunks me on the head and sends me sprawling into a tree on my right.
Paige and I finish the circuit last, only because I held her back. The rest are standing by Claus as he presses the stop button. “Needs some work, Silver.”
Really? You think? With my shirt, I wipe the sweat pouring down my face and neck.
Erica hovers by Joe’s side with a worried frown, red wings beating a refreshing wind. I storm off to the shade stocked with canteens and pour water over my heated face and damp hair.
“Don’t worry about it,” Paige says as she bends to pick up her own canteen. “On a real mission, you’ll be using your abilities.”
“Some people seem to be good at everything.”
One wing rises and shields us from the others. “Some people have had a lot more experience. Some people have abilities that don’t come with limitations.”
“Maybe if I’d had breakfast,” I mumble.
Claus approaches, Evan on his heels. “Again.”
Evan looks at me. “You can do this, Silver.”
The Unadjusteds Page 21
