by Rachel Jonas
The question made me uncomfortable, because I knew the next thing I said would be a brazen lie.
“Yes, sir. That’s the whole truth.”
Much to my relief, he didn’t press for more details, allowing me to maintain a small strand of dignity.
“Your mother is devastated, by the way,” he sighed. “Especially once I shared that you’ve taken a Doll.”
An image of Corina and I leaving the event flashed across several screens, and as I had the thought to turn them all off, Jenna did it.
I sat before him. “Please, just … tell her I’m sorry,” I stated.
For now, an apology given to her by my father was the best I could do.
“I’ll make the announcement at noon, unless there’s another way you’d prefer we proceed,” Jenna asserted, her voice carrying through the otherwise silent room.
My father continued to pace when his stare landed on me, the silver at the center of his eyes matching my own. Within them, there was no decipherable emotion.
“We’ll proceed as planned,” he answered.
The gravity in his tone wasn’t lost on me.
“Ultimately, Julian, these decisions won’t leave a lasting impression on my reign, but they will drastically shape your own,” he explained, using the words as parting advice, before heading off to attend to more pressing business. “However fond you may be of your purchase, it would be remiss of me not to caution you to, in the future, be mindful of thinking with the head atop your shoulders.” With that, he and William were gone.
I didn’t miss the insinuation. Nor did I disagree with it.
Jenna stood perfectly still, never leaving the spot she claimed near the door. While she was poised and professional as always, there was no mistaking that there was more beneath her vacant expression than she let on at the moment.
Disappointment.
Disgust, maybe.
She peered down at her phone when looking at me no longer appealed to her.
“I’m messaging my contacts now. I’ll be in touch as soon as the press conference is scheduled,” she said, laying the subject matter to rest before exiting with the others.
Today, I made the first decisions that would forever shape the legacy of my leadership.
And, unfortunately, none of them felt right.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Corina
I didn’t expect to be given details on how the conversation with Julian’s father and advisors had gone. After all, I was surprised to have even been told where we were going this morning. He certainly didn’t feel he owed me such information. However, as I watched two guards escort him from the building under the cover of an umbrella, the scowl he wore was kind of a giveaway.
The decision, for me, had been do or die. Felix helped me see that. I agreed to be marked because, if I hadn’t, I would’ve been put down instead of Julian keeping me around. As much as I hated thinking about it, being set free wasn’t an option. It was a miracle I was alive. Without a clear indicator of where I came from, or my motive for being at the gala last night, he had every excuse to order that I be put to death, but for some reason, I was still breathing.
The argument we had before leaving was infuriating. It was similar to how one might feel arguing with a brick wall. He was so stubborn and self-righteous.
He climbed into the limo he opted to take today, instead of the sporty car that had driven us home the night before. As he eased in beside me, I glanced over, still wondering why he thought it necessary to dress in a three-piece suit just to visit his dad. Was it vanity or was their kind really this stuffy?
I scanned our surroundings, finding everyday Ianites walking the streets of the Capitol, enjoying brunch outside cafes, shopping, and none seemed to grasp the concept of simplicity or casual clothing.
We sat without words as Elle drove us across town. Her consciousness, apparently, was transferrable to all his vehicles. Julian had taken a phone call from someone named Jenna a short time after we pulled off from the consulate, confirming an appointment of some sort. When the call ended, he was noticeably more irritated than before.
I turned from him and gazed out the window, thinking about how drastically my life had changed in less than twenty-four hours. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end, with me locked away in some bell tower like a tragic princess. There was still so much work to be done, so much work I wanted to do.
The temperature inside the car seemed to climb with each passing minute. Beads of sweat dampened my hairline and breathing only got harder. It was as though I couldn’t get enough air in or out of my lungs, bringing on a bout of dizziness. In a matter of seconds, I was in a full panic and bordering on delirious.
And that’s when I realized what this was, realized what was happening.
Oh, God, not here.
Not now.
Julian had no clue why I made such a fuss about my belongings being returned to me. While, yes, I wanted to get my hands on the spare com inside my purse, the item I was most desperate for was my replacement bracelet.
It was only a matter of time before I’d be stricken with a seizure and I couldn’t let that happen. Not in front of Julian. I’d given up my freedom letting myself be marked, I wouldn’t ruin whatever chance I had at survival just because my body saw fit to choose now to betray me.
It was a known fact that Ianites had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to imperfection, flaws of any sort. It wasn’t uncommon for them to discard their own offspring if they were deemed ‘defective’. So, if I intended to be kept alive long enough to devise an escape, Julian couldn’t know that I, by their standards, was defective.
“Everything okay, Corina?” Elle asked, prompting Julian to turn his attention toward me as well.
“I’m fine,” I lied, my thoughts racing a mile a minute as I tried to think of something, anything that would create a diversion.
Sweating profusely now, I struggled to free my arms from the expensive cardigan. It must have gone against everything in him, but Julian lifted a hand to help, easing it down the arm closest to him. Even without turning, I felt his gaze on me, felt his suspicion as my eyes darted around the small space. It felt like it was closing in on me, just like the darkness was beginning to at the edges of my vision.
It wouldn’t be long now.
Traffic thickened as we approached an upcoming stoplight. With so many on their morning commute, not one, but three cars pushed their way between our vehicle and the brigade of guards that stuck to Julian like glue. A separation like this was rare. Too rare an opportunity to pass up. It was then, as I breathed like a wild woman, that it hit me. I had no other options.
… I had to run.
Julian was nose-deep in his tablet, scrolling through articles with our faces plastered all over them. We’d made more waves than I realized, but that was neither here nor there. I took advantage of this opportunity to discreetly try the door handle.
Locked.
On the fly, I quickly came up with plan B.
“Um … Elle? It’s boiling back here. Would you mind rolling my window down?” I did my best to sound calm to avoid tipping Julian off that I was up to something.
“Of course,” she quickly obliged, lowering the tinted glass completely.
Perfect.
A sobering breeze and light drizzle grazed my skin, both slowing the progression of my episode, but only a little. It cleared my head enough to help me calculate the distance of the fall I’d take, when I took the only out I had.
It was my father who taught me to think on my toes. To analyze quickly and act even quicker. So, that’s what I did, ignoring the sting of the window frame as it scraped my stomach when I lunged, snagging buttons off the pristine, white blouse Elle had given me. My wrist throbbed beneath my weight when it braced my fall, preventing my face from slamming against the damp pavement.
“Corina! Stop!”
It was easy to disregard Julian’s voice when he called out to me, but the grip he had on my an
kle was harder to ignore. Desperate and losing strength, I struggled against him, eventually slipping from his grasp minus one blue pump that Elle had given me this morning.
I scrambled to my feet, too incoherent to remove the remaining shoe, so I did an awkward shuffle through the multicolored array of vehicles as horns honked from all around. I crossed the crowded lanes of onlookers when the light changed from red to green, bracing my palms against warm hoods where the engines of angry drivers revved as I pushed forward.
“Corina!”
I ignored Julian for a second time, hoping the one thing I knew to be true about him held—that his reputation meant everything. If I was right, stepping out of his car to chase me down was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. It would bring unwanted attention to his precious title.
And that was fine.
No, that was more than fine. That was exactly what I wanted.
A dark opening between two buildings caught my attention as I slowed at the sidewalk. With the light turning, and the few witnesses to my escape having moved on, there was less attention on me now. I kept my head down to avoid eye contact, using my hair at either side as a curtain to hide the color of my eyes from them. Yes, they’d smell that a human was in the vicinity, but the open air would at least make me harder to spot.
For a while at least.
My plan was a terrible one—slip into the alley before the seizure started, and then run like hell when I came to, assuming an Ianite—or twenty—didn’t find me first, and make me their lunch.
But at least this way, I had a chance. On the other hand, seizing right in front of Julian was a surefire death sentence.
I dropped to the pavement just as a hard breath left my mouth. Wedging my body between two dumpsters, I panted, hoping I’d made it into this space without drawing too much attention to myself. I needed to be invisible. My life depended on it.
I hugged both knees against my chest. The darkness was so close, and I felt myself slipping away, feeling more afraid than I could recall in recent memory. I realized that this wasn’t good enough. Julian would easily find me here. I had to put more distance between us.
I eyed the tall fence at the end of the alley and stood with my sights set on it. I officially had a new destination to reach before submitting to the fog within me. Whatever happened after that … was completely out of my control.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Julian
Time stood still while I searched, trying to find her scent. With every corner I turned, each time I came up with nothing, frustration swelled in my gut.
“I’m still looking, Your Highness,” Elle’s voice echoed from my watch.
“Keep scanning,” I instructed, knowing she would be thorough.
We split up, her driving a route headed east while I continued westward where I watched Corina disappear nearly five minutes ago. It was like she vanished into thin air.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen a stronger human, one with more grit. To a degree, I admired her determination, but it was currently a huge inconvenience.
Colin was my head of security and Winston his second in command. It was customary for both to accompany me when I ventured off our private property. However, what was not customary was having them scour the streets with me in search of a runaway human.
I shouldn’t have been out in the open like this, for so many to observe and make assumptions, especially with the current media storm still raining down on my family and I.
But … I needed to find her, the girl who may as well have been a ghost.
As if locating her wasn’t already hard enough, the light rain was suddenly a full downpour, complicating things further, throwing off my sense of smell and any chance I had of catching a whiff of her scent.
To say that I didn’t understand her was perhaps the biggest understatement of all time. Her entire existence was shrouded in mystery, and now I’d lost her, which meant the temp of the hot water I’d gotten myself into trying to save her was now boiling.
“We’ll have to spread out,” I suggested, knowing right away Colin would object.
“Your Highness, I—”
“It’s the only way we’ll find her,” I interjected.
There was a standoff between us, one for which I didn’t have time. Already, people were starting to take notice of who I was, whispering among themselves as they passed. We were wasting precious time.
Eventually, Colin nodded, sending Winston north in the opposite direction down the sidewalk when he turned to head south. I continued on track, peering through shop windows to see if she’d ducked inside one to hide, but found nothing.
I could already hear my father scolding me for letting my guard down, for not planning ahead for something like this. It wasn’t like I could have predicted she’d jump out of my car and into traffic, but I still should have kept a closer watch. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what she was capable of, wasn’t like I hadn’t witnessed firsthand how deceptive she could be. This incident was just another to add to the long list.
My pace slowed when I started losing hope. No word from Elle or the guards meant they were all still emptyhanded, as well. Our recovery mission was a bust and I was already beginning to draft a letter to issue to the press, stating that I’d decided against following in my father’s footsteps due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. If I was lucky, they wouldn’t dig too deep into my story, so maybe I’d avoid having to go in front of the magistrates, but there was no guarantee.
Time was slipping through my fingers. At this point, I almost hoped she got away. If she hadn’t, it would mean she’d been captured and, if that happened, her fate was sealed. All I’d risked to ensure her safety was in vain—the lies I’d told the sentinels, my father … myself. All for nothing because, in the end, I couldn’t do the one thing I set out to do.
Protect her.
“I’ve scanned five blocks, Your Highness.”
Elle’s update confirmed what I already knew; we were done.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and accepted that Corina had made a fool of me twice now. As if I hadn’t learned my lesson the first time, I gave her a second opportunity to prove that this fascination I had with her made me behave completely out of character. It made me one-hundred-percent irresponsible.
Beautiful or not, she was nothing but trouble.
“Should I come to you now?” Elle asked, taking me from my thoughts. “Or if you’d like, I can double-check the alleys,” she offered. “Statistically speaking, that’s the most likely place a human would hide under these circumstances.”
When Elle finished, a flicker of regret came over me. I’d ventured down a few alleys, but with time being of the essence, I had definitely bypassed several. Meaning, there was still a chance she was out here.
I rushed up and down the first three backstreets I came to, ignoring the curious stares of onlookers as I searched. The first came to a dead end with a vicious pack of dogs chained nearby. The other two let out onto busy streets on both sides, so a quick run from one end to the next proved she was nowhere in the vicinity.
I didn’t give up despite the first endeavors being a bust. I rushed down another of the tight pathways situated between two buildings—an imported blood distributor and a high-end jewelry store. Spotting nothing at first, my thought was that I’d revived my search for nothing, but then… I noticed something.
Several yards away, jean-clad legs and bare feet jutted out from behind the partial covering of a dumpster. I rushed over at the first hint of blood in the air, thinking the worst—that someone had gotten to her before me. Thinking I’d get close and find that her legs were all there was left. A civilized Ianite would at least request to see the mark of a stray human, and forego the inclination to make lunch of one with proper paperwork.
However, not all Ianites were as civilized as they liked to claim.
I approached, rounding the dumpster slowly, completely surprised when I realized she was somehow in one piece.
Unconscious and now filthy, but alive. The lone heel she’d worn after losing the other during her escape was stuck in the chain-link fence and I pieced the clues together. She’d tried to climb, hoping to put further distance between us, and lost her footing. What I saw before me was the result of the fall.
The red pool beneath her head revealed the source of the bitter, metallic odor that hung in the air. It was enough to make my fangs ache to protrude. I suppressed the urge, but keeping my composure wouldn’t be so easy. I was usually strong enough to keep the hunger at bay, but with all that had gone on today, there hadn’t been time for a meal.
I didn’t give it a second thought when I knelt to the ground as rain soaked my hair and pelted my shoulders. I hovered over Corina’s lifeless body, checking for a breath, but assuming the worse when I considered the state in which she appeared to be. After a moment, her chest rose and fell, but the breath was shallow. That didn’t stop the surge of relief that swelled within me, though.
I didn’t understand it. Didn’t understand why I cared what happened to her one way or another. She, this human girl, a liar, an imposter, shouldn’t have mattered to me, shouldn’t have made me care.
But I did.
The rosiness in her cheeks had faded, leaving a pale, graying tone that struck panic within me. Being careful not to do further damage, I turned her a bit and discovered the gash at the back of her head, soaking her hair, and now my hands and suit.
Time was of the essence and I knew I had to think fast as her life hung in the balance. If she died here, I’d have to answer for that, explaining why she’d run off if we were trying to sell the idea that she was my Doll. However, what would carry even worse consequences, would be if I did the one thing that could save her.
Deliver a dose of venom straight to her bloodstream that would heal her body, but … any amount would inevitably turn her.
There were a number of reasons that couldn’t happen, and at the top of that list was that doing so had been ruled illegal over two centuries ago. With there being a need to preserve our human blood supply, Ianites were forbidden to diminish that supply even more by turning a human into one of us. So … the dilemma only complicated itself as the seconds ticked past.
