“As they were,” Orrick said. “But Miss Roderick proved more resourceful than we had given her credit for.” He offered Lia a smile and the slightest of bows. “And once Mr. Starling realized she was there and offered his assistance to her…” He sighed. “Kellen always did speak highly of your abilities, Mr. Starling.”
At the mention of his name, Morgan turned her attention to Kellen, expecting him to lift his head, to smile, to reveal his part of the deception. But his chin remained firmly against his chest. He was still unconscious.
“I’ll admit,” Orrick said, stepping closer to Kellen and Aurelia, “this is not the way I wanted things to happen. Morgan, I really did anticipate that this exercise would kill two birds with one stone, as it were: you would join our side and deal with this… unpleasantness.” He waved a hand in Kellen’s general direction. “But now I assume you aren’t inclined to do either of those things. Am I correct?”
The question seemed rhetorical and Morgan didn’t offer an answer.
“As I thought.” Orrick straightened, suddenly more businesslike. “Then I’ll offer you a proposition, Morgan: you and your friends can join me, or you can watch Kellen die.”
“What?” Morgan asked, taken aback.
Orrick looked confused. “I thought I was being clear. Join me, join the Veneret cause, or Kellen’s life is forfeit.”
Corbin tugged gently on Morgan’s hand. “He’s bluffing. He won’t kill him.”
“I assure you, Mr. Starling,” Orrick said as easily as if Corbin had been speaking to him, “I will not hesitate to take every atom of energy from Kellen’s consciousness and leave him an empty husk on this concrete floor. He has betrayed me, and I have no need of traitors.” He glanced at Morgan. “I believe you know the betrayal of which I speak?”
Morgan knew. She flexed the fingers of the hand that had hit Kellen only hours before when he’d told her to escape.
Orrick closed the remaining distance between himself and Kellen and placed a hand on Kellen’s forehead, as if checking for a temperature. For a moment, nothing happened, but then Kellen’s body began to shake ever so slightly. Then, a low moan issued from his mouth, a moan that quickly rose in pitch to a wailing scream.
“Stop it! Stop!”
Morgan hadn’t realized she’d made the decision to speak until her words hung in the air. Orrick looked up at her, the slightest hint of a smug smile on his lips. He removed his hand from Kellen’s forehead and placed it on Kellen’s shoulder—an almost fatherly gesture.
“Am I to understand you agree to my terms?” Orrick asked, watching Morgan with interest.
Corbin placed himself in front of Morgan, facing her, so that he blocked her view of Orrick, of Kellen. “Morgan, you can’t,” he said quietly. “You can’t join him—not for anything.”
“She knows that,” Lia hissed, moving closer so the three of them formed somewhat of a triangle. “Don’t you?”
“Of course I do. But I can’t let Orrick kill him.”
“Why not?”
Morgan stared at Corbin, shocked by the question. “He’s only in this position because he tried to help me.” She removed the hand still clasped in Lia’s and placed it on Corbin’s cheek, cradling it. “What if he had you? What if he was doing this to you?” She skimmed her fingertips through the hair above his ear. “Would you want me to let Orrick kill you, or would you want me to try to stop him?”
Corbin took Morgan’s hand with his free one and gently pulled it from his face. “But it’s not me, it’s Kellen. How do you know this isn’t just an elaborate game? Him coming to you in the dream, seeming like the good guy—maybe he’s been playing you from the start just to get you to this point.”
Morgan gaped at him. She turned to Lia. “Is that what you think?”
“Maybe… I don’t know. But doesn’t it seem convenient that Kellen was at the shopping center earlier to let you get away? Maybe it is a huge act and Kellen’s in on it—”
A piercing scream rang out through the expansive room. Morgan pushed past Corbin and Lia, just far enough to get an unobstructed view, and watched as Orrick pushed Aurelia roughly away from Kellen.
“They’re taking too long!” Aurelia insisted as she regained her footing. “They need a little persuasion—” She lunged at Kellen once more, but Orrick was able to keep her from moving forward as if with a force field.
In that moment, Morgan knew that it wasn’t an act. She could Feel Kellen’s energy, and it was perceptibly dimmer than it should be. His arms and legs twitched at random intervals.
“That’s enough, Aurelia,” Orrick said, the picture of calm. Whatever he was doing to keep Aurelia from moving seemed to be taking no effort from him. His face was perfectly placid, and his hand was still resting gently on Kellen’s shoulder. He turned his attention back to Morgan. “She is quite right, however. Have you reached your decision? Or should I continue with Kellen?”
Morgan took in a deep breath. She knew there was only one answer. Looking him directly in the eyes, she said, “No.”
Orrick looked politely puzzled. “No, I shouldn’t continue with Kellen? Or no—”
“No, I won’t join you,” Morgan clarified, a clenching sickness gripping her stomach. She knew what would come next.
“Very well.” Quick as lightning, Orrick’s hand was back on Kellen’s forehead.
The scream that issued from Kellen’s mouth this time caused the hairs on Morgan’s arms and the back of her neck to stand on end. Kellen’s body went rigid as Morgan Felt the energy flowing from his body to Orrick’s.
She felt a tug at her arm.
“Morgan, run!” Corbin yelled over Kellen’s screams. “We have to get out of here!”
Morgan glanced at Lia just long enough to see her wide-eyed horror. When she turned her gaze to Corbin, she did not see a similar look mirrored there; instead, she saw only insistence and Felt only urgency to vacate and indifference about the scene before them.
Fury like Morgan had never known boiled up, white hot, within her. What Orrick was doing was horrific in itself, but, to Morgan, it was nothing compared to Corbin’s apathy. She allowed the feeling to fill her, allowed it to fill both Corbin and Lia through their joined hands. When she felt as if she might explode from the overwhelming pressure of it, she released it the only way she could think to.
“Stop it!” she screamed, and her voice shot out like an explosion, shaking the warehouse around them with the force of a small earthquake.
For a moment, Morgan could see only blackness, and there was a ringing in her ears. She wondered if the lights had gone out, but then her vision began to return in the same way it would if she were emerging from a long, dark tunnel. The first thing she could make out was Kellen, still in the chair, but no longer rigid or twitching. In two heaps on the floor several feet from Kellen’s chair lay Orrick and Aurelia. The ringing in her ears subsided and she heard a shuffling sound all around her. She turned to see what was causing the noise and noticed that Lia and Corbin were doing the same.
“We should get out of here,” Lia said, glancing nervously around them. “Before—”
But the thing Lia was worried about appeared before she could finish her thought. Suddenly, dozens of people appeared from a handful of doorways around the warehouse, and Morgan knew immediately that these were Orrick’s people. She watched as a team rushed to Orrick’s side, she assumed, to make sure he was okay. Before she, Corbin, and Lia could make a move to run away, another group closed ranks on them. Morgan felt hands clamp down on her upper arms as she watched the same thing happening to Corbin and Lia. Their captors pulled the three away from each other, wrenching interlocked fingers apart.
“Morgan!” Lia screamed, attempting to flail against the man holding her.
“It’s okay!” Morgan called back—empty words. She tried to muster up some of the energy that coursed through her just moments before, but she felt utterly empty. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping her going.
She
kicked and struggled as the viselike grip on her arm pulled her inexorably backward, away from both Lia and Corbin. She had lost, she realized. After somehow being able to stop Orrick from hurting Kellen, she had still failed. Now Orrick would have her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
It was reckless to come here. And now she would pay for it.
As this realization washed over her, the adrenaline in her system ebbed. There was no point in fighting it. She allowed herself to go limp, figuring the dead weight of her body would likely be more difficult to transport than her struggling self anyway.
And as she closed her eyes, Morgan gave up.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cool air caressed Morgan’s face and she realized she was outside. She opened her eyes—just a slit—and caught sight of the bright, full moon up above. It hung silently, bearing witness to what was happening to her. At least something was doing so. Who knew what would become of her after tonight?
As the arms that held her dead weight pulled her across the asphalt parking lot, she heard a metallic rolling and glanced in the direction of the sound to see a black van with no windows in the back. In fact, as she took in the scene before her, she realized there were three identical vans. One for each of them, she realized, an ice cube of dread forming in her stomach. Wherever she, Lia, and Corbin were being taken, they were not being taken together. They might not even be taken to the same place.
The black van before her seemed to grow larger and more ominous the closer she was dragged to it. This was really happening, and she was powerless to stop it.
A sound like the scuffling of feet against asphalt met her ears, and she wondered if either Corbin or Lia had started struggling more fervently. She hoped that was the case—hoped they could both somehow get away. They shouldn’t have to pay for her stubbornness.
But then the sound changed. The scuffling continued, but voices now joined. If there were real words being spoken, Morgan couldn’t make them out, but she could hear soft uhf’s and sharp, high sounds of surprise. She attempted to see what was happening to cause the sounds, but her captor dragged her faster and more roughly than before. It seemed the only thing in her entire world was the black van. She could smell the upholstery of the interior.
Suddenly, her body was jostled. The arms hooked beneath her armpits squeezed her even more tightly, but now hands clamped around her ankles. For an instant, she had the idea that the two people holding here were going to swing her and throw her into the van, but then the hands on her ankles pulled in the opposite direction of the arms under her armpits. It felt like the two forces were working to tear her apart at the navel.
Morgan managed to look toward her feet and had to give herself a mental shake to be sure she was really seeing what she thought she saw. Sure enough, Mr. Kment was the one using her ankles as his end of the tug-of-war occurring on her body. She watched as his lips moved and, finally, sounds started making sense to her.
“Wen!” Mr. K yelled.
Wen appeared at Mr. K’s side and took hold of Morgan’s ankles, just above Mr. K’s hands. She watched as Mr. K’s eyes closed and she realized he was attempting to Move the person who was trying to pull her into the van. However, the grip around her upper chest tightened instead of loosening.
Morgan screamed as the fight over her body intensified. It felt as if her arms and legs were being pulled out of their sockets. She fought the urge to kick her legs, knowing that Mr. K and Wen were not her enemies. Instead, she began striking out with her arms, hoping to injure the other person holding onto her. However, no matter how she flailed, she could not seem to make contact with his body.
But a moment later, it didn’t matter that her hands couldn’t find purchase on her attacker: he let out a surprised cry and, grip on Morgan loosening, stumbled backward. Morgan’s behind hit the asphalt hard as her captor released her, but before her head could hit, Wen had moved in and scooped her up.
“Take her and go,” Mr. K said sharply to Wen. “I’ll get Lucas…”
Morgan couldn’t make sense of what Mr. K was saying: Lucas wasn’t here, just Corbin and Lia. But as Wen took off at a run with Morgan in his arms, she glanced over his shoulder and saw Mr. K extricating Lucas from a scuffle with the man who could only have been the one dragging her toward the van only moments before. Then Wen rounded the corner of a building and Morgan could no longer see what was happening.
“Wen—stop! Lucas—” Morgan managed to say.
“Greg’s got him,” Wen said, not slowing.
Headlights illuminated the two of them, and Morgan heard Wen sigh with relief. A van door slid open, and Wen deposited Morgan inside. Panic rose up in Morgan—Hadn’t Wen just fought to save her from one of these vans?—but her fears were allayed when she saw Miss Scotford behind the wheel. As Wen climbed in after her and closed the door behind him, Morgan looked around the van’s cargo area and saw Corbin and Lia. Both looked a bit rumpled and scared, but unharmed. Morgan’s heart swelled at the sight of them. She attempted to move toward them, but her body wouldn’t cooperate.
“Greg and Lucas are back around the building,” Wen said, panting slightly.
Miss Scotford just nodded and pressed on the accelerator.
“Morgan, are you okay?”
Morgan looked to the person in the passenger seat and was relieved to see Joss staring back at her. “Been better.”
Joss struggled with her seatbelt for a moment before unhooking it and launching herself into the back of the van and wrapping Morgan in a bear hug.
“Ow,” Morgan protested.
“I was so worried,” Joss wailed, her voice muffled as she buried her face in Morgan’s neck. Morgan felt warm dampness and knew Joss had been crying. “Don’t ever do something like that to me again, you idiot!” Joss added, pulling away to look Morgan in the eye and punctuating her words with punches to Morgan’s torso.
“Ow!” Morgan said, more forcefully this time. Though her cousin wasn’t hitting her hard, her body felt tender everywhere.
They stopped abruptly and Morgan rolled toward the front of the van. As pressure hit her shoulder, she let out a whimper of pain. Perhaps her arms had been pulled out of their sockets.
Wen slid the door open and Lucas jumped in. The drivers-side door opened and Miss Scotford slid into the passenger seat, allowing Mr. K to assume the wheel. Moments later, the van was in motion again, causing Morgan to roll and whimper some more.
For several minutes, no one spoke. The tension in the van was palpable, and Morgan realized they weren’t quite out of danger yet. But as they put miles between themselves and the warehouse, the atmosphere in the van began to calm.
Miss Scotford was the one the break the silence. She turned around in her seat to survey the back of the van. Her eyes landed on Wen and she reached a hand to his cheek. “Your face is cut,” she said quietly. She brought her hand to her mouth, licked her thumb, and attempted to wipe the blood from Wen’s skin.
Wen knocked her hand away from him. “Seriously? Knock it off, Eleanor, that’s sick.”
“Don’t call me Eleanor, Wendell.”
“Eleanor.”
“Wendell!”
These words cut through the fog of Morgan’s pain. She looked back and forth from Miss Scotford to Wen and back again. Suddenly, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t put it together sooner. Of course she’d noticed they both had blond hair, but now that she realized, she couldn’t believe she’d never seen the other similarities. She managed to laugh. “Pain in the ass sister, huh?”
Wen just smiled at her. “See what I have to put up with?”
Miss Scotford shot Wen a dirty look before looking to Morgan. “Just know that pain goes both ways.”
As the siblings shared a laugh, Lucas moved across the van’s floor so he was seated by Morgan’s head instead of nearer to her feet. “Speaking of pain, how are you?”
“Only hurts when I do certain things,” Morgan said. “You know, like breathe.”
“Sucks.” Lucas took her hand gently.
“Yeah.”
“You guys should probably try to rest,” Mr. K said from the front seat. “We’ll be on the road for a while.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Morgan woke with a jolt when the van came to a stop. When Wen pulled open the van’s sliding door, harsh sunlight spilled in, causing Morgan to squeeze her eyes shut again. She attempted to cover her eyes with her hands, but one arm was wedged between herself and Joss, who was asleep, and the other hand was still held in one of Lucas’s.
She nudged Joss with her elbow, and Joss stirred slowly. Without prompting, Lucas released Morgan’s hand and began to climb out of the van. Corbin, Lia, and Wen had all exited through the sliding door by the time Joss woke and was able to follow them. For a moment, Morgan remained stationary, afraid of how much it would hurt to move. Finally, she decided to just suck it up—she could always lie down as soon as she got to wherever they were now. To her tremendous surprise, when she moved there was barely a dull twinge throughout her body. Amazed, she got out of the van and followed the others up to the door of a cabin.
She took in their surroundings as she walked. The cabin was situated in a clearing surrounded by dense forest. The sun was nearly directly overhead, but Morgan could tell that in a few short hours, it would be obscured by the tree line.
The sun was overhead? Morgan wondered how long they’d been driving. It was nighttime when she’d fallen asleep.
When she glanced toward the cabin again, she noticed that Mr. K was standing in the doorway, waving for Morgan to enter. She jogged to the cabin, still shocked she could do so without screaming out in agony.
The cabin was rather open on the inside. The front room was decorated in neutral tones and full of a great many couches and chairs. The room opened up into the kitchen and a large window and doorwall beyond, overlooking a deck and the forest. There were hallways leading off on either side of the front room. Morgan forced her observations to end there, however, when she caught the look on Mr. K’s face. She took a seat beside Joss on an olive colored couch.
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