But she was far from that place. And she wasn’t sure she’d ever get to go back.
Emery broke her gaze from the shards of glass on the floor, focusing her attention on the blank faces staring back at her.
Torin. Mason. Warren.
They’d all survived the lethargum attack, thanks, in large part, to her. Their uniforms were still speckled with orange dust from the sanaré bomb that had lit up downtown Chicago just two hours prior. She never would have guessed that sanaré would be their saving grace. They’d sat in Torin’s apartment since then, not moving or talking, stunned by the events that had just taken place.
Emery decided it was time to break the silence. “Well, that was eventful.” She looked directly at Torin, mentally egging him on to respond.
Torin bowed his head to the floor and scratched at his scalp.
“Can someone fill me in on what just happened?” Mason interjected. “In case you failed to notice, I was shot. In the head. By Theo. By my own team.” He twiddled his thumbs, his eyes flitting back and forth between Emery and Torin.
“I wanted to tell you when we were hiding behind the trashcan,” Emery started. A flash of guilt crossed her face.
“Tell me what?” Mason asked through clenched teeth.
Emery sighed. “That we were fighting for the wrong side. Everything Theo told you about the Seventh Sanctum was a lie. The members of the Federal Commonwealth are the creators of Dormance, the ones who want to control all of mankind.” She glanced over at Torin. “And had it not been for Torin and his impeccable timing, they probably would have succeeded.”
Torin’s cheeks flushed a rosy shade of pink. “That’s not entirely true. It was all Emery’s idea. I just did what I was told.”
She felt her face burn with embarrassment.
“I hear what you’re saying, but you can understand why it’s hard to believe,” Mason said. “I still don’t understand what the hell is going on.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than you realize,” she explained. “Trust me. I’ll find more time to explain later, but first, there’s somewhere we need to go.” She walked over to Torin and grabbed him by the arm, leading him toward the fire escape she’d used earlier that day.
“You two stay here,” she demanded, pointing her index and middle fingers at Warren and Mason.
Mason opened his mouth to object, but decided shortly after that it wasn’t worth the hassle. He fell onto the couch, the toe of his boot knocking against what remained of a metal coffee table.
Emery climbed out of the window and slid down the fire escape, Torin’s feet dangling just a few feet above her. When they’d both landed safely on the pavement, she turned to face him, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I left something behind in Dormance. Something important. At least, I think it’s important.”
“Well, that probably wasn’t the smartest idea,” Torin chided. “What was it?”
Before she could answer, a loud buzzing noise filled the space between them. Torin held up his hand as if to pause the conversation, and reached into his pocket for his phone. Disbelief crossed his face.
“It can’t be . . .”
“What?” she urged. “Who is it?”
“It’s a call . . . fr—from Dormance,” he stammered. But before he could answer it, the buzzing came to a stop.
She rushed to his side, her eyes scanning the device. “What happened? Who was it?”
“I’m not sure. The call dropped.”
It didn’t make any sense. They had deactivated Dormance just short of three hours ago. The voice in the control room had confirmed it. How could Torin receive a call from Dormance when it had been terminated?
Unless it hadn’t been.
“It didn’t work,” she thought aloud, kicking the pavement with the toe of her boot. She shook her head. “We didn’t deactivate Dormance.”
A wave of confusion washed over Torin’s face. “Yes, we did. I was there—I heard the confirmation.”
“No,” Emery argued, her heart pounding. “We must have missed something.”
Torin wrinkled his nose. “You sound mental, you know that?”
She waved her hand absentmindedly in the air, as if the insult had landed on deaf ears. She took a few steps forward in a zig-zag pattern, then back again in the opposite direction. Her eyes met his as a coy smirk crossed her face. “I need you to send me back.”
Torin coughed as if he’d choked on a giant wad of his own spit. “I take back what I said. You don’t just sound mental, you are mental! How can I send you back to Dormance if . . .” his voice drifted off as he caught up to her train of thought.
“You couldn’t have received a call if we’d fully deactivated Dormance.” Her eyes lit up like a child on Christmas morning. “That means it’s still active. And you need to send me back.”
“But what if something happens? What if you get stuck there?” Torin asked, searching for any reason that might change her mind. “What if there’s retaliation? What if it’s a giant black hole?”
Emery rolled her eyes. “Everything will be okay,” she coaxed as she searched her pockets for the crystal dials. “I promise.”
He shook his head, eyes wide with fear. “It’s too dangerous. You know I can’t let you go.”
“Torin,” she reprimanded as she extended her right palm. “Give me the dials.”
He stood his ground, unflinching. After a few seconds of her seemingly endless death stare, he couldn’t help but give in. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the dials, watching as they fell from his fingertips into her open palm. Her hand closed securely around them.
Emery walked briskly across the street to the nearest platform with Torin hot on her heels. “Can you still connect to the holodevice in the common room?” she asked through hurried breaths.
“I’m working on it now.” He fumbled with his phone, trying desperately to keep up with her swift pace. “If you’d just slow down a little—”
“We don’t have time to slow down,” she called over her shoulder. After walking another block, they finally arrived at a T-Port on the corner of 5th Street and Main. She hopped onto the platform and placed the crystal dials into her wrists, her foot tapping impatiently as she waited for him to catch up.
“Okay, I think I’m connected now,” he panted as he approached the platform. “Are you ready?”
“Born ready,” she teased. She closed her eyes, waiting for the familiar gust of air, the tingling in her legs and feet.
But it didn’t come.
She opened one eye with caution. Her surroundings hadn’t changed. Torin was still standing right in front of her, looking dumbfounded.
“Try it again?” she asked, noticing that her palms were starting to sweat. She wiped them on her pants and took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
“I can’t,” he muttered, looking up from his phone. “I’m getting an error message.”
“What does it say?” she asked impatiently.
“It says that the portal is closed . . .”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Emery’s phone buzzed uncontrollably. She didn’t recognize the number, but history had proven more than once that she should answer it. She clicked the accept button, waiting for the voice on the other end.
“Hello?”
Static.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Emery? Is that you?”
Her breath caught. She recognized the voice on the other end of the line immediately.
It was Naia.
Kristen Martin is the author of The Alpha Drive trilogy: The Alpha Drive, The Order of Omega, and Restitution. A graduate of both Arizona State and Texas A&M, Kristen currently lives in Texas with her fiancé, two rowdy dogs, and skittish cat.
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Kristen Martin, The Alpha Drive
The Alpha Drive Page 22
