Greg shrugged. “Okay, then I’ll do it.”
“As much as I’m sure you’d enjoy ripping my mind apart and making me scream like a little girl, unfortunately, you’re not equipped to unlock the information.”
“Scream like a little girl?” Lia’s voice was higher than usual.
“Gotta keep the information nice and secure, right Jesus Camp? Unlocking the information is a special kind of torture for the person carrying it. Not for the faint of heart.”
Lia looked pale. “So, you’d have to torture yourself to get the information out?”
“Yep. But, like I’ve said, I’m in no condition to do it. Lucky for Team Watcher, Orrick built in a second key.”
Morgan’s mind flashed back to what Wen said earlier. “Me.”
Kellen looked at her, his expression clouded. In his face, she saw the person who first introduced her to the reality in which she now lived, the person who insisted her hope that her mother was still alive wasn’t in vain. She saw the person who could have killed her at Desideration Tower, who later almost lost his life because he chose to help her.
He had Orrick’s location locked somewhere in his mind. If she could find it, she could finally confront him—fulfill her destiny, stop this war. She could go home to her father. But torturing Kellen, ripping through his mind to find the information—was it a price she was willing to pay?
The corners of Kellen’s mouth upturned in a smirk, as if he could discern her thoughts from the expression on her face. “You up for it?”
“I have to be.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I don’t like this.”
Lia sat at the edge of the desk chair in Lucas’s room, like some great bird preparing to take flight. A line etched itself between her eyebrows.
“I think that’s what Orrick’s counting on,” Lucas said from his place on his bed. His voice was quieter than usual and the color hadn’t fully returned to his complexion, but he was able to keep awake and follow the thread of the conversation. “Think about who he programmed to be the unlockers. For Kellen to get the information for himself, he’s gotta make himself suffer. And, let’s face it, Kellen’s not really the sort to wanna inflict violence on himself. Then there’s Morgan. I bet Orrick likes the idea of making Morgan cause Kellen pain, because it’s not something that’d come easy to her.”
Morgan looked down at her hands. The queasy feeling that had been ebbing and flowing within her since she committed to unlocking Orrick’s whereabouts returned and she pressed her lips together in a tight line.
“It just…” Lia chewed on the inside of her cheek, her expression thoughtful. “It seems like—”
“—there should be another way,” Lucas supplied. Lia had been oscillating between not liking the idea of what needed to be done and insisting there was an alternative for the last ten minutes.
“We’ve been over this,” Morgan said. “Both Kellen and Wen say it’s the only way. Believe me, I wish it weren’t the case. I don’t like this any more than you, Lia. Less, probably, since I’m being cast in the role of torturer.”
Lia stood, pacing the width of Lucas’s bed. “The worst part? I think Kellen wants you to do it. I think he believes he deserves it.”
She continued to pace and it occurred to Morgan that Lia was talking more to herself than to anyone else. Turning her attention to Lucas, she offered a faint smile. “You’re really feeling better?”
Lucas nodded. “Seventy-five percent, I promise. I’m like a battery getting recharged.”
“Good. Because we’ll need you when we make our move.”
The door creaked open to reveal Wen, face somber. “Morgan. We’re ready for you.”
The strongest wave of nausea she had yet experienced overtook her as she stood; she swallowed back bile. She swayed slightly, the prospect of forward motion too daunting to attempt.
Lia appeared at her side, offering her arm for support. Morgan took it gratefully and the two started after Wen.
Kellen waited in the library, sitting in the same seat he’d been in the day he arrived. Morgan found she was glad she couldn’t see his face as she entered the room, convinced her stomach might not be able to handle it.
“Where… How do I…?” Morgan looked at Wen, unsure what she wanted to ask.
Wen held his hand out to her, gripping her upper arm firmly. “Like I said earlier, I’ve only ever seen this done once. But K and I agree that you’ll probably have to be touching him for it to work. Orrick would’ve made sure about that.” He guided her toward the back of the chair. “You could stand here, if you want. If it’s easier…”
“What he means to say is if it’s easier not to look at me while you do it.” Kellen didn’t turn as he said it. There was no bitterness or malice in his tone; there was hardly emotion in it at all.
Lia gently extricated her arm from Morgan’s hand and moved toward Kellen. She knelt in front of his chair.
“Jesus Camp! Come to watch, huh?” His tone took on the easy, teasing cadence it so often held. “Not much in the way of entertainment around here, is there?”
“How can you say that? She’s about to torture you and you think—what? That I’m here to enjoy it?”
Kellen was quiet for a moment. “It makes sense, though, you know? In the galactic scales of justice, it’s gotta take something huge like this to even out all the crap I’ve done.”
Lia rocked forward on the balls of her feet. “You can’t believe that.”
“Just because you can’t doesn’t mean I can’t.”
“Kellen.”
“Lia.” He reached forward, catching her hands in his. “I came here to help because I think Orrick’s wrong about the Prophecy. He’s willing to do anything for power. I’ve been that person, and I don’t want to be him anymore. This is what I can do to help. Let me do it.”
Morgan watched as Lia squeezed her eyes shut, surprised to see dampness gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“I’m staying here. I’ll be right here.”
Kellen shook his head, releasing Lia’s hands and pressing himself back into the chair. “No. It’s going to be awful enough without you watching.”
Lia nodded and stood. She rocked forward as if preparing to walk away, but at the last second she lunged forward, wrapping Kellen in a fierce hug.
Morgan looked at Wen, but his expression told her he was as surprised by this turn of events as she.
When Lia released Kellen, she stood and walked away as quickly as she could. She paused briefly in front of Morgan. “Be careful.” Then she was gone.
Wen glanced at Morgan. “You ready?”
She didn’t respond. Instead, she closed the distance between herself and Kellen, positioning herself behind his chair. She rested her arms on the chair back, lowering her hands toward his scalp. It would be easier to work this way, without being able to see his face. But before she could touch him, she stopped herself, moving around the chair so she could face him. With her abilities, she Moved the room’s other chair so that it was a foot in front of him.
Kellen’s mouth twitched as she settled across from him. “Sure you want to do that?”
“Shut up and give me your hands.”
Kellen complied without another word.
Wen cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I’m taking off. This isn’t something I want to see again.”
Kellen turned to look at him. “Even if it’s me?”
Wen looked at the floor for a moment before meeting Kellen’s eyes. “Especially because it’s you, K.” He pivoted and started toward the door.
“Hey, Wen,” Kellen called after him. When Wen paused, he continued. “Make sure Lia’s okay.”
Wen nodded once before exiting the room and pulling the door closed behind him.
Morgan squeezed Kellen’s hands as he turned back to face her. “I’m so sorry, Kellen.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be sorry, Morgan. This isn’t you, it’s him. It’s Orrick’s
fault. You’re just doing what you have to do to stop him. I know that.”
She nodded, even though his words didn’t do anything to quell the bubble of guilt blossoming in her stomach. She closed her eyes, feeling that she might lose her nerve if she looked at Kellen for any longer. Centering her energy, she allowed herself to press forward into his mind. She knew she wasn’t the first to go looking for information in Kellen’s thoughts, and she knew that whatever locking mechanism Orrick had put in place was particular to her. She wondered if the way in might be related to his memories of her. It seemed logical that they would be, that way whether she accessed them or he accessed them, he had to be confronted with the reason for his betrayal.
Scenes began playing in Morgan’s mind like flickering images in an old movie: Through Kellen’s eyes, she saw the way she looked at Corbin’s house party—which felt like a million years ago—the night they met. She saw the look in her eyes the day he told her about the Veneret, about taking energy from common people; the look in her eyes when he pressed her against the window of Orrick’s office in Desideration Tower.
Moving deeper through his thoughts, she sought the emotions accompanying each of these events. Her brain swam in a wash of surprise, fear, elation as she pushed still deeper into his mind.
Then she saw it: a shining silver thread weaving each of these impressions together. Without knowing how she knew it, she realized this thread contained Orrick’s location. From the thrum of power coursing through it, she also understood it wouldn’t give up the information easily.
Morgan imagined herself standing amid the swirl of Kellen’s memories, each one playing out like a movie on a different screen. She moved toward the silver thread as it spiraled out of one image and plunged into another. In her mind’s eye, she reached her hand toward it, feeling a charge like static electricity as she approached it.
Kellen’s hands twitched in hers, pulling her to present for a moment. It was affecting him already and she wasn’t even touching it yet. The nausea swept through her physical body once more, but she managed to push it down. Focusing again on Kellen’s energy, she allowed her ethereal self to take hold of the silver thread.
The scream that emanated from Kellen’s mouth pierced Morgan’s soul like a sword. She gripped his hands with a crushing force, afraid his thrashing would cause their tenuous connection to snap and force them to start the process over. Willing her ears to mute the world around her, she focused on the silver thread, felt the pulse of it in every atom of her body. Just to hold it wasn’t enough, she quickly realized. To possess the knowledge she sought, she needed to internalize the thread. She imagined herself hastily drawing it into herself, the glowing filament slipping through her arm and into her vein. But the strand was impossibly long, weaving its way from memory to memory, and each time she extracted it from one, she felt Kellen’s body convulse. Try as she might to ignore them, she still heard every scream.
It seemed as if days passed before the last bits of glowing silver passed into Morgan’s consciousness, and it felt like days more before she could unclose her eyes.
Kellen was breathing. It was the only sign of life he showed. His face had an unhealthy pallor and his eyes were half open, unfocused and unmoving. Morgan looked down at their hands and was surprised to see glistening pearls of blood on his wrist where her nails had pierced flesh.
Overcome with an emotion she couldn’t pinpoint, she sank to the floor between their chairs, pulling Kellen’s body down with her and cradling his inert form. Holding him, she rocked back and forth, her eyes burning and her cheeks wet with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Kellen. I’m sorry.”
Warm hands pressed themselves against her back and she opened her eyes and looked toward Kellen. When she found him still limp in her arms, she glanced to the side to see Greg crouched beside her.
“You can let him go now. Wen’s going to take him to his room.”
For a moment, she didn’t comply, and when she did she was surprised to find her arms stiff and her legs sore. How long had she been in this position? Wen immediately swooped down and gathered Kellen into his arms. As he walked with labored steps toward the hallway, it occurred to Morgan that he could have Moved Kellen with abilities. Her eyes prickled when she realized Wen chose to lift his old friend with his own strength, to offer whatever physical comfort he could.
A sob escaped Morgan’s mouth and she turned her face away from Greg. “I’m sorry. I’m okay. I’m sorry.” She repeated the words until they lost meaning.
Greg wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, holding her in much the same way she had been holding Kellen. “Sh,” he said quietly as he rested a hand on her head. “He’ll be okay. It’ll be alright.”
Morgan allowed herself to get lost in the sound of Greg’s voice, not fighting the tears as they rushed down her cheeks in fresh waves. When finally the tears ran dry and her body stopped shaking, she pulled just far enough away from Greg to look at his face.
“I know where Orrick is.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The sky had been dark for hours when Greg summoned everyone into the common area. Lucas, who had been awake for the last half hour, brushed off Morgan’s attempts at assistance as he moved into the room. From the opposite hallway, Kellen emerged, moving slowly, weight supported by Wen.
Morgan found she couldn’t look at him. She felt bile rise in her throat as the memory of what she did to him resurfaced. Instead, she put her hands on Lucas’s arm, gripping more tightly than was strictly necessary. When Lucas sat down, he pried her fingers away and caught her hands in his.
Greg and Ellie sat on the couch against the front window. Greg waited until Kellen and Wen were seated before clearing his throat.
“We’ve been able to make the arrangements we need to get us to the location Orrick planted in Kellen’s subconscious. After talking with some of the other Watchers, we’ve decided that it’s to our advantage to make our move sooner rather than later. Kellen had a point this morning when he said that the Veneret are likely closing in on our location. If that’s the case, we’d rather them find an empty cabin than a full one.”
Corbin shifted in his spot on the couch adjacent to Morgan’s. “When do we leave?”
“Fifteen minutes,” Ellie said.
“Wait—that’s too soon,” Joss said. “I mean, Lucas still needs to recharge or whatever after this morning.”
“I’m good,” Lucas insisted. When Morgan pushed forward with her abilities to check the validity of his assertion, he turned to her and smiled. “Ninety-eight percent.”
“Okay, still. What about Kellen?” Joss continued. “He looks like he’s gonna throw up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Queen Bee,” Kellen murmured.
Ellie offered an understanding smile. “If we wait for conditions to be perfect, nothing will ever get done. Given everything that’s going on right now, we have to move. The longer we wait, the more of a risk we take that the Veneret will find this location, or that Orrick will move from the safe house he’s at now.”
No one spoke and it took Morgan a moment to realize that all eyes were on her. She shifted a little, suddenly self-conscious. Lucas squeezed her fingers and gave an encouraging nod. She took in a breath. “I think Greg and Ellie have a point. I don’t think we’ll gain anything by waiting.”
A tense silence permeated the room. For months, they had trained for this moment, and now that it was upon them, Morgan found she couldn’t ascribe an emotion to the situation. She should be excited or apprehensive, or she should be burdened by the heavy weight of destiny pressing itself down on her shoulders. Instead, she just felt full in a way she couldn’t quite identify.
Kellen clapped his hands together once, sharply. “Okay, then. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? Are we hiking through the forest, or do you guys have some fancy escape system in place? Is it a teleporter? Tell me it’s a teleporter.”
�
�We’re going through the tunnel,” Greg said, looking at everyone but Kellen. “You should still dress warm. Like Ellie said, we leave in fifteen minutes. Do whatever you have to do to get ready.”
Greg and Ellie stood, and the others took it as their cue to do the same.
The cabin was a flurry of activity over the next quarter of an hour. One by one, all the cabin’s residents made their way to the kitchen to stand before the island that would reveal the escape hatch. Lucas was the last to arrive. He snaked an arm around Morgan’s waist and pulled her against him in a quick hug.
Greg glanced at Joss. “Care to do the honors?”
Joss nodded, her lips pressed into a tight line. Taking in a breath, she stepped forward, fixing her gaze on the two cabinets that hid the entranceway. A moment later, the cabinets receded, revealing the pole and stairs that led to the escape tunnel.
They arranged themselves into the order they’d descended so many times before. Ellie went down first, followed by Lucas. Morgan glanced at Lia, noticing she wasn’t taking her usual place at the top of the ladder.
Lia shrugged. “If this is the scariest thing I do tonight, I’ll count myself lucky.”
Kellen placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “That’s a girl, Jesus Camp.”
Morgan looked from the smile touching Kellen’s mouth to the flush of color in Lia’s cheeks, a thought forming in the shadowy corners of her mind. Before it could take shape, Greg touched her lightly on the back, guiding her toward the pole. She moved to it and began her descent with practiced, mechanical motions. The thundering of her heart in her chest on the way down had little to do with the free-falling sensation in her stomach; rather it came from the knowledge that this descent was different than the drills they enacted before: There would be no return to the cabin, no going back to bed, no training in the morning. Tonight was the night she would put into motion the prophecies that had been foretold about her for generations. There was no going back to a normal life after this. It was this thought that caused her blood to surge through her veins, caused a trembling in her extremities.
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