Nerve

by Kirsten Krueger

  “Oh, don’t worry, the trauma isn’t over yet,” Danny crooned, tightening his grip on Eliana. “You’ve arrived just in time for the second act of the show to begin.”

  “The b-battle should not be over,” William stuttered like a malfunctioning robot. “If the fighting doesn’t resume, I’ll—I’ll shoot this girl!”

  Eliana didn’t even process the ridiculousness of his statement. All she comprehended was the anguish in Kiki’s expression and the fact that this Regg threatened her life. Yet again, someone she cared for would die before her eyes. With Hastings, she had done nothing. She had watched in terror, too shocked to intervene. She could not make that mistake again.

  “You want the fighting to resume?” Danny’s eyebrows perked as if he’d been presented with a platter of his favorite food. “How incriminating. This must mean the government plans to watch us kill each other off—eliminating a mass of Affinities all at once.”

  “I-I will shoot her,” William stammered so unconvincingly that Danny laughed, “and then I’ll shoot you all!”

  The man had lost his mind. Eliana wasn’t at all mournful about his sudden insanity, but his volatility increased the chances of Kiki’s death. If their theory was correct, he’d played a part in Angor’s attempted assassination—Hastings’s death. He had no problem with using children for his own agenda.

  Why did he even need to at this point, though? If Artemis was the mind controller, she could have forced the Affinities back into battle, but why would she want them dead if she was one herself?

  None of it made sense. All she knew was that she had to remove Kiki from William’s clutches, and she couldn’t startle the man in the process. She would have to be discreet. She would have to use her Affinity in reverse. She would have to become the very thing she loathed: a mind controller.

  Tray would have laughed at this plan. It was ludicrous, really, a futile hope that defied logic. Eliana had the ability to decipher others’ thoughts, but she had never managed to project her own, not even on the few occasions she’d tried. Failure was imminent, but in this moment, with Hartman injured and Nero half-sedated and any of her other potential allies detained or absent, she would have to turn her Affinity into a weapon.

  “This is proof,” Danny said, his voice a distant echo in her hazy ears, “that all of you should be on our side.”

  He spoke to the Periculanders, even Eliana, but she didn’t listen. Her attention was trained on William’s brain. His thoughts were sporadic and panicked, but she had to hope she could slip one of her own in there, a very specific command: Drop the gun.

  “The Reggs want to annihilate us all,” Danny went on, his outer voice matching the passion of her inner one.

  Drop. The. Gun.

  “Just because they haven’t labeled you a ‘terrorist’ doesn’t mean they don’t see every single one of us as a threat—as the enemy. They’ve groomed you for death. You’re like a bunch of innocent chickens they’ve prepared for the slaughter.”

  “This is why we should all be vegetarians!” Nixie cheered from across the circle, receiving a few chuckles from the tense audience.

  “Let’s not be rash here, Mardurus,” Danny retorted, quenching Nixie’s grin. Whether it was his rebuttal or the use of her last name that perturbed her, Eliana didn’t care. Her concentration rested in repeating the same mental command over and over—to no avail. “The slaughter of animals is not the problem. Animals are beneath humans, and the problem is that Reggs see us in the same light. They believe Affinities to be a lesser species—one they can control—when in reality, we are the ones who can control them.

  “Let’s put aside all this bullshit,” he proclaimed, releasing his grip on Eliana’s throat. The heat of his fingers lingered there, and when she brought her hand to it, she found the skin was raw and sticky. “Let’s forget this battle, the past, our differences. It’s time to join forces, to end the Reggs once and for all. Do you think, Affinities of Periculand, that people like this Regg deserve to be in charge—deserve to live? He’s threatening to murder this little girl in a lame attempt to get us to murder each other!”

  “You’ve threatened to murder a lot of little girls,” Tray huffed as he materialized from the throng, Lavisa at his side. Based on the cuts and bruises marring their skin—and the abnormal swelling of Lavisa’s entire body—they had endured a rough evening, but they were present now, and all of Danny’s attention had averted to them, giving Eliana the opportunity to divert all of her attention to William.

  The female Wacko hadn’t resumed her hold on Eliana, so she used the distraction of Tray’s appearance to inch closer to William, hoping the proximity would magnify her efforts at mind control. Until now, she’d tried very simple, half-hearted orders, so she exerted all her effort this time and thought a specific demand: Remove your gun from Kiki’s head, William. Now.

  She hadn’t expected anything to happen. Which was why, when William rotated his head away from Danny and toward her with absolute bewilderment, she instinctively mirrored his expression. He had heard her. As a result, the gun slowly descended from Kiki’s brow, freeing her from danger, even though the man seemed not to be acting of his own volition.

  “Threatening little girls does seem to be the trend these days.” At that melodic voice, every head whipped toward the center of town. The crowd parted, revealing Olalla Cosmos, strolling down the path to Town Hall with Fraco and Aethelred on either side.

  “Cosmos,” Danny greeted, lips pursing tartly. “Finally decided to grace us with your presence, did you?”

  Throughout this entire battle, the Affinity ambassador hadn’t crossed Eliana’s mind once. Why hadn’t she been here to quell the bloodshed with her peace Affinity? Curious, the mind reader prodded at the woman’s thoughts, but her brain was as elusive as ever. The murkiness of Olalla’s mind had always seemed a little suspicious, but it was the patronizing smirk on her lips now that made Eliana wonder what her true motives were.

  “Who am I to stop you from your goals, Daniel?” Olalla countered, joining him in the center. Tonight she wore a floor-length dress, the same plum purple as her glossy hair. With the matching shawl draped over her shoulders, she looked even more professional than the men in their suits or the Wackos in their leather. When she paused her strides, Aethelred and Fraco halted, as well. “Isn’t it also a trend these days to give children whatever they desire?”

  Danny’s eyes slivered. “You’re forgetting I’m not a child.”

  “Oh, no, I think you’re forgetting you are.” Her following smile was tight-lipped, but it irked the Wacko leader more than any toothy grin would have. His irises flared, but Olalla continued before a full reaction could form. “I think you’ve done enough damage here tonight. Ephraim would be proud to know he’s finally had his revenge on Angor, but…Angor doesn’t rule this town anymore.”

  “Ah, yes, the pathetic Rosses do.” He cast a glance in William’s direction. The Regg hadn’t raised his gun since Eliana told him to lower it, but his hand was tangled in Kiki’s hair, and Eliana knew her heart wouldn’t calm until her roommate was completely liberated. “Even more of a reason for me to level it. The Reggs have shunned you, Cosmos. They didn’t want you as vice president because they don’t even want you alive. They want all of us dead. When will you admit my father was right?”

  Olalla opened her mouth for a response, but it was William’s voice that penetrated the frigid air.

  “Fraco, what are you doing! I instructed you to find shelter for my wife!”

  Eliana’s gaze cut straight to Tray. His jaw was slack, his mind spinning with the same question as hers: Why would Artemis, the mind controller, need shelter during this battle? In a few seconds, Tray had conjured a dozen answers, but none aligned with the details they’d uncovered.

  “Yes,” Fraco acknowledged, sounding bolder than Eliana had ever witnessed, “but it’s not your instructions I heed; it is Ms. Cosmos’s. Ever since you framed Mr. Periculy for your own crimes and overthre
w his leadership, I’ve been following Ms. Cosmos’s directions with the hope that we can free this town’s true principal from imprisonment.”

  This confession instilled shock amongst the Periculanders. Eliana had never seen Fraco as anything more than the vice principal, a man whose duty was to whoever governed the town, but his loyalty had always aligned with Angor.

  “You don’t deserve to control this town. You and your wife tried to kill Mr. Periculy!” he exclaimed as if scolding one of the students.

  “No.” William shook his head relentlessly. “Periculy tried to murder my wife! Where is she now? What have you done with her?”

  “Your wife is safely underground.” Olalla’s tone was so casual that Eliana didn’t catch the connotation at first, but then she felt the incredulity clanging through the crowd, the hundreds of minds all processing her confession to murder.

  “Y-you killed her?” Tray questioned, swaying. “But—you’re a woman of the government—the justice system—”

  “I’ve done what is just,” Olalla assured him with a sad smile. “She is at peace now, and that’s another step toward what I’ve always strived for: peace for all.”

  “No,” William moaned, finally releasing Kiki’s hair as he staggered forward. She scampered away, dissolving into the crowd until Eliana could only sense her frazzled consciousness rather than see her physical form. “Artemis can’t—she can’t—”

  “Oh, William,” Olalla cooed as if speaking to a child who had lost his favorite toy. “What will you do without your precious wife? What will you be without her? What is the point of your life if you’re alone?”

  These words sunk into him with an unnatural impact, his thoughts immediately mimicked them. What am I without Artemis? She was my best friend, my closest ally, the only person with whom I could confide anything. I can’t go on without her—I can’t go on—

  Despair and self-loathing oozed from him. Eliana should have felt vindicated that Artemis was dead and William now suffered—Hastings’s murderers finally subjected to consequence—but the man’s lament reflected her own grief upon Hastings’s demise.

  This was not peace for all. There could never be peace for all, because what brought one person joy brought another anguish. Peace was subjective. Peace was relative. Peace was an illusion.

  A manipulation.

  The gunshot made Eliana jump, Fraco squeak, Kiki scream, Ackerly gasp, Tray shout.

  It was as deafening as Danny’s explosions. Eliana couldn’t distinguish what anyone said or thought or did. All she perceived were the droplets of blood sprayed on her face, the splintering of sanity within the frantic crowd, the thud reverberating through the ground with William Ross’s collapse.

  “Peace,” Olalla stated, her soothing voice ringing through the pandemonium, “for all.”

  It should have been clear before now. It should have been clear when Olalla first came to Periculand and wooed the entire town onto her side with a single speech, but Eliana had been too naive. It should have been clear when Hastings had died, but Eliana had been too convinced Angor was the villain to detect it. It should have been clear during their entire investigation, but Olalla had blocked suspicion from their minds.

  With her mind controlling Affinity.

  “You made him kill himself,” Eliana blurted out. The commotion faltered as she met Olalla’s bottomless purple eyes, deep with deception. The Wackos had been unfazed by a Regg’s death, but this accusation startled them. The only person who seemed unsurprised now was Danny. “You’re the mind controller.”

  From where he lay on the ground, Hartman groaned, “Why do all the attractive females have to be evil! First Nixie, now Olalla—”

  “Maybe you just have bad taste,” Lavisa interjected. A few paces away, Nixie rolled her eyes, but Tray, at Lavisa’s side, was too absorbed in the revelation of Olalla’s abilities to acknowledge the banter.

  “No—but—you—” Every sentence he started soon became nonsensical to his fast-working rationalization. Olalla could instill peace as effortlessly as she could instill discord. Olalla could have convinced them she wanted to help them when all she’d really wanted was to help herself. Olalla could have mourned Hastings’s death as easily as she could have killed him—and she had.

  “Controller, or manipulator?” the woman questioned, her gaze sweeping across the crowd. “Or…neither? My Affinity is to implant beliefs in people’s heads. I made William believe his wife was dead. Whatever he did after that was of his own free will. Mostly. Perhaps he wouldn’t have been so distraught if I hadn’t made him believe his existence relied on her so heavily, but…we’ll never know.”

  “You murdered Hastings,” Eliana snarled, “and you made us believe it was anyone but you. We blamed Angor, then Artemis—is she really even dead?”

  “I said she was underground; I never said she was dead. Her idiot husband only thought so.”

  “Because you made him think that,” Tray snapped, looking equally as uncomfortable as he did enraged. It was then that Eliana noticed the strange white fabric clinging to his torso—and the claustrophobia he experienced because of it.

  “It’ll be true soon enough,” Olalla dismissed with a wave. “Although, her death won’t be quite as quick. William’s was far too merciful to atone for all the Reggs have done to us.”

  “Why use Hastings to kill them when you could have done it yourself?” Tray demanded, practically spitting the words. “Obviously, you’re capable.”

  “And I thought you were the smart one, Tray.” Olalla tsked as she took a few languid steps in his direction. “I’ve been waiting for you to piece it all together. Why do you think Fraco told the Rosses you’re the smartest student at this school? Because I told him to. I wanted to see how capable you were—not of hacking into Angor’s office, but of turning against the Reggs. You passed that test, just as you passed the suit test.”

  Tray covered his mouth to withhold his nausea. “Wh…what?”

  Olalla cocked her head, simpering. “Why do you think you had such a sudden interest in the Reggs’ suits? Because I planted it in your mind. I wanted to see what lengths you would go to for the sake of science. You banished your morals for it, stealing that suit and then examining it when you knew that you shouldn’t have. True lovers of knowledge don’t comply to the limitations of ethics.”

  “I—follow—ethics,” Tray coughed as if each word were a wad of bile.

  “When you can, sure. There’s no need to be unnecessarily immoral, but it’s reassuring to know your priorities are in check. It’s also reassuring to see how eager you are to participate in my experiments.”

  Based on his thoughts—and his squirming—Tray’s strange white suit had been a gift from Olalla, a gift that now seemed more like a garment of unwanted bondage.

  “Why do you think I gave you the suit, Tray? To see if you’d be willing to risk yourself for the sake of science.”

  Panic spiked through Eliana in the same instant it spiked through Tray. Olalla must have detected his reaction, because her grin widened. “You aren’t in danger; the suit is perfectly safe. Don’t you trust me?”

  “I’ll trust you when you stop breathing,” he grumbled, earning a chuckle from Danny.

  “Sounds like we might have to fight for Stark.” The Wacko leader’s eyebrows arched at Olalla, and her humor didn’t waver.

  “You know it wouldn’t be much of a fight, Daniel. Your mind could be mine in a matter of seconds, just as Tray’s could. I like to keep the game fair, though, so I won’t infect your thoughts…yet.”

  Eliana almost wished she would take hold of Danny’s mind just to prevent his impending destruction. Her jabs seeped into him the same way her Affinity would. Perhaps Olalla’s ability to read people so well—to elicit desired responses from them—was the origin of her Affinity.

  “I want you to deduce with a clear mind what my motives are,” she continued, eyes boring into Tray. She didn’t invade his mind, though; his mental processing
remained untainted by any outside forces. She really did want him to finish this failed investigation. “What could have provoked me to kill the Rosses a month ago when I’d worked civilly with them for years?”

  “You…lost the election.” His eyes flitted toward Eliana for some kind of confirmation, but Olalla’s mind was too swampy to discern anything of value. “It made you hate the Reggs. Like…Danny said…they turned their back on you…and now you want to kill them all.”

  Olalla emitted a high-pitched laugh that had half the crowd cringing. “Killing them all seems a little extreme. If I wanted that, I would have simply joined Daniel—or sat back and watched him do all the work.”

  “My father always said you had a habit of letting others do your dirty work,” Danny countered, but Olalla ignored him.

  “I will admit, the election left me in a sour mood.” She fidgeted with her shawl—the first sign of discomfort. “Perhaps the plan would have gone smoother if I hadn’t been in such a peeved state of mind. But Harold and I had anticipated the loss. There was no fair way we could have won—”

  “I wasn’t aware fair was a part of your vocabulary,” Danny injected, and Eliana sensed Naretha considering echoing the statement right back at him. It would have sparked a cycle of bad people incriminating worse people—an endless cycle in a crowd such as this.

  “I had no interest in winning the election unfairly,” Olalla said. “It would have been exhausting—and, frankly, impossible. My powers only extend so far. I have limits, like any other Affinity. But I am capable of murder, with or without my Affinity. So then, Tray, why did I need Hastings—or rather, why did I want Hastings?”

  The boy bit his lip, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. He didn’t want any clues. Figuring out this puzzle wasn’t merely an option anymore. “You didn’t want to be linked to the murders. Hastings was Angor’s son. If he killed the Reggs, it would have been traced back to Angor, not you.”