by Kyra Dune
“Do you want to come with us?” I don’t know why I asked, I hadn’t intended to. But once I thought about it, leaving her behind seemed like a wrong kind of thing to do.
“Seriously?” She sat up. “You mean it?”
“Yeah. I mean, you offered to help so I’m not going to leave you behind to deal with the repercussions all by yourself. You can come, if you want.”
“I want. I so totally want.”
“What about your parents?” I sipped my soda.
Hannah plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between her fingers. “Nothing’s been right between us since they let Michael die. I was planning on taking off after graduation anyway, even though it irked me something awful to think of slinking off like a whipped dog with its tail between its legs. This way,” she grinned, “I get to go out with a bang.” She flicked the blade of grass through the air.
“Not too much of a bang.” She was starting to worry me a little. “I don’t want to get anybody killed, remember.”
“Neither do I. What you think ‘cause I’m kind of goth,” she indicated herself, “I’m into death or something? No way. Death is not cool. And I’m not a killer. But you know, even if we get away, they won’t leave us alone. They’ll send trackers.”
“I know. I already have a death order on me.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow, that’s intense. Do you know who has it?”
“Zack Truant.” I untied and then retied my shoelaces so I could have something besides her to look at. “Do you know him?” I was going for casual curiosity, but I wasn’t sure I was pulling it off.
She nodded. “I remember when his mom died. Tough stuff. But we were never friends or anything. Even before the fire he was too intense, and after... Forget about it. He’s almost unapproachable.” She tilted her head to one side and studied me. “He’s the one who brought you back, right? And he’s been hanging around your training sessions with Alice.”
“Yeah. So?” Even though I tried to stop it, I could feel the heat crawling into my cheeks.
Hannah grinned. “So, you’re totally into him, aren’t you?”
“What?” I laughed. “Please. No. Are you kidding? He’s so... so irritating and ... and... sullen. Like you said, unapproachable.”
“And you’ve got a major crush on him.” She shook her head. “Falling for the guy who is supposed to kill you is not such a great idea, you know.”
I pulled my shoelaces tight. “I’m not falling for him. Besides, I didn’t know about the kill order until last night when I went to his house.”
“You went to his house?” Hannah leaned eagerly toward me. “Did you guys kiss?”
“No, we did not kiss.” I lifted my plastic fork and picked at what was left of my lunch. “We talked about his mom, and my brother, and finished up with how he was going to have to kill me soon. It wasn’t exactly romantic.”
“Sorry.” And I could tell she really meant it.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk or even think about Zack. I want to focus on rescuing my brother. I’ll need your help. He’ll be weak and he’ll probably have to lean on me. So I’ll need you to handle it if anybody tries to stop us. Can you do it?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “Absolutely. But where, exactly are we going?”
“For a helicopter ride.” I laid the plan out for her. It was all very simple really and I could see no way it could go wrong.
We parted ways when the bell rang and I headed for math class. I took my seat in the back, where I sat for all my classes, and took out my work book. It seemed as if I’d hardly blinked and the class was over. As slow as the morning classes had dragged, the afternoon classes flashed by. Probably because I wasn’t as eager to carry out the plan as I had been to tell Hannah about it.
I thought about skipping training, but I was afraid Alice would tell Alastair and he might get suspicious. So I swallowed down the butterflies and went out to the field. I thought I could probably deal with Alice, but I had no idea how I could pretend my late night conversation with Zack had never happened. I couldn’t imagine how I would be able to face him.
It never even occurred to me he might have told Alice about our little talk. Even though he’d told me he had a kill order on me, part of me still trusted him. Which is crazy, I know. But I guess that’s part of falling for somebody. And, despite my protests to Hannah, falling was exactly what I’d done.
Alice stood in the field by the table, like always. But the bleachers were empty. “Where’s Zack?” I asked. I was glad he wasn’t there, but I was also sorry to think the night before was the last time I would ever see him.
“He had something to do, so he won’t be here today.” She smiled pleasantly at me. “Ready to get started?”
So that was it. I was never going to see Zack again. It hurt way more than it should have, considering we had never even been friends let alone anything else. But I guess these kinds of things don’t always make sense.
“What’s the point?” I asked. “If I haven’t figured out a way to do this in three months, what makes you think I ever will?” Besides, I was way too worried over my escape plans to even begin trying to concentrate on floating some stupid cups.
“You have to keep trying.” She laid her hand on my arm. “It’ll get easier you’ll see.”
I flinched away from her touch, I couldn’t help it. She was such a phony. No way she didn’t know what was going to happen to me, and yet all this time she’d pretended to be so nice. Pretended to be my friend. I hated her. Her whole sweet, supportive act made me sick.
“I’m kind of tired.” I avoided meeting her gaze. “I didn’t sleep well last night. Can we skip it today?”
“I’m sorry you didn’t sleep well, but you have to train,” she said. “If you don’t learn to control your powers, you could hurt someone.”
Anger bubbled up in my chest. It felt so much better than fear. “Why do you think I would hurt someone? Because I’m a monster?”
A pinched line appeared between her eyes. “Why would you use such a word? No one thinks you’re a --”
“Oh, come off it.” It felt good to finally lash out at someone. “I’ve been here for three months, you think I haven’t noticed the way people look at me? Or don’t look, actually. They avoid me like I have some kind of contagious disease. I’m not stupid. And I know what you did to Toby.” That last bit popped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Alice tilted her head to the side. I used to think of it as her curious puppy dog look, now it reminded me more of a predatory bird. “The renegade’s baby? What makes you think anyone did anything to him? We sent him home to his family.”
“You killed his family.” Some part of my brain was screaming at me to stop before it was too late. But all the emotions I’d been holding down for so long were rushing to the surface demanding release.
“You murdered them,” I spat. “You and Zack. Killed them in cold blood. And then you killed Toby because he was a hybrid. Because it’s your law. My god, he was only a tiny little baby, what right do you people have to decide he was going to be some kind of threat to you? You don’t know what he might have been. You didn’t give him a chance to grow up. You killed him like you would have killed me if my parents hadn’t run away.”
“Wherever did you get these ideas?” Alice managed to seem genuinely shocked. So much so it caught me a little off balance, allowing the tiniest twinge of uncertainly to enter my mind.
“Did you find Derek?” Alice asked. “Is he the one who has filled your head with these vile lies? This is exactly why Alastair didn’t want you to see him.”
Oops. Oh well, the truth was out and it was no use me trying to pretend I didn’t know what she was talking about, I was not that good of a liar. “Alastair didn’t want me to see Derek because he didn’t want me to know he was starving my brother to death.”
“Derek is not starving to death,” she said. “He’s a dangerous and volatile man, he can’t be a
llowed to regain his full strength. You may not want to hear this, but I wonder, while he was telling you so many things, did he bother to tell you he murdered Zack’s mother? Burned her to death, hurting a lot of other people in the process. Including Zack’s father.” She gave me a pitying look.
“Abigail, I know this is hard to hear and you must be so confused, but Derek does not have your best interests at heart. We do. We care about--”
“Stop it!” A sudden gust of wind whirled up around us, blowing the table over and sending the cups scattering across the grass. “Don’t you dare say you--” My throat closed, blocking off both words and air. Pressure slammed against my head, much stronger than it ever was during training.
Black spots danced before my eyes as I dropped to my knees. Panic replaced anger as my frantic brain cried for oxygen. And then it was over. I fell forward onto my hands, each breath gasping from between my lips.
“Now see what you made me do.” Alice squatted in front of me. “That’s control.”
I looked up at her through the curtain of my hair. She was still smiling. I swallowed, my throat sore and raw. I was shocked she had attacked me so violently. My whole body was trembling. I had experienced a taste of battle training twice before, both times when Zack was trying to help me learn something. This hadn’t felt the same, but then she was an air dragon, so I supposed it made sense.
A realization dawned on me then. All those times during my training sessions, when I would feel pressure behind my eyes, it wasn’t strain from using my powers. I could hardly believe I’d ever thought it was. It was Alice, using her power to keep me from progressing. But I didn’t understand why. If Alastair wanted me to kill Megara, then I would need to learn my powers, all of them. So why hold me back?
Something of what I was feeling must have shown in my eyes, because Alice’s grin widened. And for the first time, I saw the real her behind the perky mask. “I think you’ve learned enough for today.” She stood. “Maybe you better go home and lay down.”
I wanted to do a lot more than that. I wanted to stand up and punch her right in the nose. Or blast her off her feet. But I caught hold of the thought and held it down before my power could respond. Fighting with Alice now would only mess up my plans. If I hadn’t messed them up already telling her I’d seen Derek.
So I rose up on trembling legs, my cheeks burning in shame and anger. The amused glitter in her eyes didn’t help my temper any. I turned my back on her and walked across the field with as much dignity as I could muster.
I told myself it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. I’d be free of this place soon enough. If Brandy had taken the first flight from Phoenix this morning, as she said she would, then she should be in Los Angeles by now, renting a helicopter and preparing to come get me. By dawn I would be long gone from the compound.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Back at the house, I found Mi Mi in the kitchen. The room was full of the warm scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to her, but she was the only person left I had any interest in seeing before I left.
“Hi, sweetheart.” She smiled briefly at me before pulling a tray of cookies from the oven. It seemed a genuine smile, but then so had Alice’s. I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t anymore. “How was school?”
“Okay.”
She slid the cookies onto a cooling rack next to two other trays and turned to look at me. “Is something wrong?”
I shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”
“Why don’t you sit down?” She indicated the table. “Let’s talk about it.”
I sat. Even though I no longer had good reason to trust anyone in this place with the exception of Hannah, I wanted to trust Mi Mi. She was my grandmother and I liked her. I knew it didn’t matter, she might feel the same way about me as most everybody else did and be hiding it like Alice. But I wanted her to like me. Is that pitiful?
Mi Mi placed a plate of fresh cookies and a glass of milk in front of me, then took the seat opposite mine. “Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”
I picked up one of the cookies and broke it in half, looking at the gooey chocolate inside rather than at her. “Do you think I’m a monster?” Not exactly what I meant to say, but it seemed like I was saying a lot of things I didn’t mean to lately.
“What? Abigail, what kind of question is that?”
“The yes or no kind.” I dropped the two cookie halves onto the plate and met her gaze. “I’m a hybrid. It makes me some kind of freak, right?”
Mi Mi pursed her lips and for a minute I thought she would change the subject like she always did when things became uncomfortable. Instead, she reached across the table and squeezed my hand.
“You’re a bright girl,” she said, “so I know you understand you’re different from the rest of us. People don’t understand different, they fear it, and they hate what they fear. Human nature, I suppose. But having had a chance to get to know you over these past few months I can say with absolute surety you are most definitely not a monster or a freak. You are my beautiful granddaughter and I love you.”
She had tears in her eyes and I almost asked her to tell me the truth about my parents. I already knew the basics of course, but I would have liked to have heard her side. How she felt about what happened, if she knew her son was dead because his own father had sent people to hunt him down. But I didn’t ask. I wanted to believe her words and I wanted to trust her with my intention to escape, but I couldn’t take the risk.
“Thanks,” I said, somehow finding a smile to offer her. “You’ve made me feel much better.”
“Good.” She released my hand and sat back, visibly trying to rein in her emotions. “What do you say we go into town for the evening? Do a little shopping, catch a movie, take your mind off things for awhile.”
Wouldn’t you know she would pick this of all nights to do some family bonding? I couldn’t refuse, she wouldn’t take no for an answer and if I resisted the idea too hard she might get suspicious. So I only nodded, when what I really wanted to do was scream. “Let me run upstairs and change first.”
She smiled. “All right.”
I jogged up the steps to the second floor, my mind racing. What was I going to do? The kitchen phone was the only one in the entire house and I couldn’t exactly use it to call Hannah or Brandy with Mi Mi right there. Hannah would be expecting me to meet her at the cornfield at seven, but I knew we wouldn’t be back from the city by then. I muttered a word which would have gotten me grounded for at least a week if my mother had ever heard me use it.
In my room, I rifled through the closet for a change of clothes without really seeing anything. I had to get a message to Hannah somehow. She had Brandy’s phone number so she could warn her about the change in plans. But I couldn’t leave the message at the cornfield where anybody might see it, even if I could sneak out without alerting Mi Mi.
“Could anything else possibly go wrong?” I asked the universe in general. My answer came in the form of a slamming door.
I froze with my pants halfway up and listened to the sound of irritated voices below, followed closely by feet pounding up the stairs. My heart stuttered. Alice. She must have told Alastair everything I’d said to her. He was coming for me.
I jerked my pants up and bolted toward the window. It was kind of crazy, I see it now, but at the time I wasn’t thinking of anything but escape. I shoved the window up and slid out onto the roof. Then I ran across the little indentation where I had spent so much time sky watching, and grabbing the overhanging tree branch. I paused long enough to run my finger across the words my father had carved there. Then I swung myself up onto the branch. It swayed alarmingly, but didn’t break.
“Abigail!”
I looked up to see Alastair leaning out my window. His entire face was one big scowl. “You get yourself back in this house right now.”
I shimmed my body toward the trunk. Alastair shook his head and ducked back into my room. I knew I h
ad to hurry. I pulled myself into a crouched position, grasped the limb, and swung my feet out over the open air. Rough bark scrapped at my hands. I looked down and my stomach lurched. It wasn’t a far fall really, but it was still scary.
“Let my fear pass through me,” I muttered. “Great advice, Mike. Not so easy to follow.”
The back door banged open. I let out a little squeak, releasing my hold on the branch. I hit the ground with my knees bent and only stumbled a little before breaking out into a run. I didn’t know where I was going, it wasn’t like I could get out of the compound on foot, but in the moment I wasn’t concerned with getting out. My mind was focused on one thing and one thing only, getting away from Alastair.
So I ran. My feet pounding the ground. My heart racing in my chest. I ran. Not once did I look back to see if Alastair was still behind me. I’d seen enough horror movies to know how bad of an idea it was.
I’m no athlete. My body is naturally slender without having to do a lot of exercise to get it that way. So it was no surprise when my lungs quickly began to burn from the unaccustomed exertion of fleeing for my life. But I didn’t slow and I certainly didn’t stop. I kept running, even when my chest felt as if it was on fire, even when a sharp pain started in my side, even though my body was screaming enough. I ran.
Avoiding the streets seemed like the best idea, so I ran through backyards instead. Lucky for me most people didn’t have fences. I passed a few people who stared curiously after me, but nobody tried to stop me.
I’m sure you must realize what I didn’t at the time. Nobody was chasing me. Alastair was pretty old and a little paunchy around the middle. I was no world class runner, but I was only sixteen and in relatively decent shape. It would have been stupid for him to try and catch me on foot. And Alastair was not stupid.
But panic and fear wouldn’t let me see reason. I was convinced he was right behind me, only a few steps away, and if I so much as faltered he was sure to catch up. So I kept running. Somehow, I ended up at the cornfield. Way too early to meet Hannah and probably not the best place to hide, but I plowed into the stalks anyway.
