The kid actually giggled.
“I’m a Memory Reader. And I know the people in charge made up the whole DAMND thing.”
“That’s not possible,” I persisted, because I couldn’t accept that what this kid was saying might be the truth. If he was right…if there was no reason for the third high law except a fear of super-charged Magics….
The little kid seemed to be enjoying the fact that my entire world was unraveling before my eyes. “I also know that hospital staff are paid to say that some deaths are because of DAMND, when they’re actually just other diseases. There is no Acriobacterial stuff. They made it up.”
I dug my palms into my forehead, finding it harder to breathe by the second.
“That’s the only reason for the third high law,” the kid continued. “The Nats don’t want Super Mags, because then they’d be at even more of a disadvantage. And the Mags in power wanted to hide anyone with mixed blood. Once they realized they could use us, they started MagLab.”
My vision started to go hazy.
“Are you upset because you didn’t think you could have a baby with her?”
I jerked my head up from where I’d been studying the floor tiles.
“What?”
“The pretty one in all your memories.”
“You can see into my memories?” I asked, horrified at the thought.
First off, my memories were private. Second off, the ones where Kai was concerned were no place for a ten-year-old to be poking his nose.
The kid pointed a skinny finger at the plaque on his door where Memory Reader was typed and gave me a duh look.
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything else, the sound of soft crying came from another one of the glass cages. My heart lurched into my throat at the sight of a kid, maybe half the age of the one I’d just been talking to. Her tiny palms were pressed against the glass.
“Where’s my mommy?” the little girl asked me, her eyes huge and round in her too-thin face.
“I—” I looked back in the direction of my friends, but I couldn’t see them through the sliding door.
“I want my mommy,” the girl said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Okay,” I told her. “Let’s get you out of here, and then we’ll find your mom.” I glanced around at the other kids. They all had their noses pressed to the glass with forlorn gazes fixed on me. Fury at the sight of all these kids locked up like lab rats washed through me. I thought about their drugged mothers…their murdered fathers….
“Same goes for the rest of you,” I told the kids. “We’re getting out of here.”
I got to my feet. The little girl had stopped crying and was now sucking her thumb. I gestured for her to step back from the glass door.
I grasped the door handle and yanked on it with all of my strength. It didn’t budge. There was an old-fashioned lock—one that opened with a regular key, rather than a digital code that Smith might be able to hack. Cursing, I shielded my face and kicked the base of the door.
Nothing. It didn’t even rattle.
The little girl began to cry again.
“It won’t work,” the boy from before said, his voice heavy with defeat. “It’s reinforced with magic.”
I grunted as I kicked at the glass again. And again.
The little girl’s cry was joined by others. Some of the kids were sitting on the floor of their cells, clutching baby blankets or teddy bears as they sobbed. Others banged on the glass with their own fists. One of the older ones left a streak of blood on the glass from his frantic pounding.
Something inside me tore apart at the sound of their cries. I couldn’t stand it. I thought about Kaira, stuck inside the containment room and witnessing all of this on a tablet screen. She’d be frantic by now. If I didn’t get these kids out of here myself, she’d come bursting through the door, poisonous air or not.
I renewed my efforts to break through the glass, putting the strength of my entire body into each kick.
Nothing.
Abruptly, the kids stopped crying. The little girl took two wobbling steps toward her cot. She collapsed before she made it.
I heard a scream—Kai’s.
“Come on!” I shouted, kicking at the glass again.
I saw the other kids had collapsed, too. I looked up and saw mist filtering in through the grates in the ceiling.
And then the door at the far end of the room burst open. People wearing HazMat suits stormed into the hallway.
I heard their muffled exclamations as they raced toward me. I turned back to the glass cubicle. I couldn’t just leave these kids here, passed out and breathing poisonous air….
The sliding door where my friends were waiting opened.
“Kai, get back!” I yelled.
“Not without you.” Her voice was faint, and she doubled over as she braced herself against the wall.
A shot rang out. I ducked as a bullet hit the cell next to me. The bullet bounced off the glass without making so much as a crack.
Cursing, I abandoned my fruitless attempts to break the glass.
“I’ll be back,” I promised the little girl—all of the kids—even though there was no one conscious to hear my promise.
“Come on!” Bri motioned me frantically.
Smith opened the elevator doors, and we raced inside. A hail of bullets struck the doors just as they slid shut.
Our harsh breathing was the only sound as the elevator descended.
We reached the lobby, and the elevator doors opened. I could see the main set of doors directly in front of us. No fewer than fifty guards holding machine guns spanned the entire width of the building, blocking our only escape route.
Every one of their weapons was pointed straight at us.
CHAPTER 43
Ihad never seen so many guns in my life, and every single one of them was aimed at the seven of us. It was pointless, but I still pushed Kaira behind me before raising my hands in the air. A.J., who was standing beside me, lifted his hands, too. As he did so, the guns moved. They slid out of their owners’ grips and rose into the air.
Surprised and furious exclamations came from the men who were now weaponless. Some of them jumped in the air as they tried to reclaim their guns. And then, like the weapons were part of some choreographed dance, they all spun around so they were aimed at their owners. Gasps and curses came from the guards.
“Maybe I haven’t made myself clear,” A.J. said, his voice rising to fill the whole lobby.
He clicked his right forefinger, like he was squeezing a trigger. One of the guns fired. A row of bullets blasted into the glass wall just above the guards’ heads. The men ducked and shielded their heads.
“Next ones go in your brains,” A.J. called.
The guards scattered. A.J. turned the weapons in the air so that no matter where the men were, their guns were still trained on them. As soon as our path to the doors was clear, we made for the exit.
“My range is two miles,” A.J. told the guards. “Keep that in mind when you consider coming after us.”
As soon as we were outside, we broke into a run. We didn’t stop until the air rippled, and the illusion of the construction site settled back into place. The building behind us was no longer visible. It was like it had never existed.
We needed to get out of here. And yet, as soon as we were through the illusion, we all stopped in our tracks.
“Oh my God,” Bri gasped. She doubled over and threw up.
A.J. and Yutika crowded around her, patting her back and murmuring to her.
“My niece. They said a DAMND baby killed her. This whole time we thought…and now, I don’t even know—” Bri retched again.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but that only made my vision of all those glass cubicles clearer in my mind. I couldn’t wrap my brain around the horror of it all. Everything the boy had told me came back in a rush. And with it, the knowledge that the Alliance, which was supposed to protect and unite, had deceived us all.
&nb
sp; Baby killers.
I had spent a lifetime learning that the crime of loving a Magic was equal in the eyes of the law to murder. Worse than murder, really, because it was the most vulnerable members of our society who were at risk.
Kaira and I had spent close to a decade sneaking around, lying to the people we cared about, and hiding what we were to each other.
I’d always known we wouldn’t be able to stand up in front of our friends and family and vow to love each other forever. I’d always known we would never have kids.
None of that had really mattered before. It was the price for being together, and we had both been glad to pay it. But now I knew the real reason for the law. It was all about power.
A sob from somewhere nearby cut through my black thoughts. I opened my eyes, and what I saw tore through my insides in a way nothing else ever could. Kaira was on her knees, her whole body shaking with the force of her sobs.
My limbs unfroze. I crossed the space between us and sank onto the ground in front of her. I grabbed her and crushed her to me.
I couldn’t make my throat work, so instead of trying to offer comfortless words, I held her. I kissed the tears streaming down her cheeks, far beyond caring who saw.
“Our babies,” Kai gasped. “Our babies would go in those glass cases.”
“No.” I tightened my hold on her. “Kaira, that will never happen.” I pulled back and took her face in my hands, making her meet my gaze. “We’re going to fix this. I swear it. We’re going to fix this.”
I held onto her, because if I didn’t, I knew I’d go storming back inside that building without a thought of danger or consequences. My grip on Kaira was almost violent, but I could feel her nails digging into my back as she held me just as fiercely.
“They lied!” Kaira’s scream was hoarse. “I want them to suffer. I want them to know what it’s like to be drugged and put in cages and have the ones they love killed—”
Furious, gut-wrenching sobs wracked her body.
“I won’t let those monsters lock me in a cage,” she said, her voice cracking.
My mind went white with rage at the very thought.
Never! my thoughts screamed. I’d kill every one of them and tear this whole place down with my bare hands.
“I’d die a thousand deaths before I ever let that happen to you.” Hatred and disgust burrowed deep inside me, like a thousand briars in my heart. My mind roared against the senseless horror of it all.
“You heard what that woman said about all the fathers,” Kaira gasped, breathless as she fisted her hands in my shirt. “I can’t survive in a world where you don’t exist.”
“I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.” I pressed my lips to hers, hard. “These people won’t so much as lay a finger on you or the kids we end up having one day.”
Kai was shaking her head back and forth.
“I could never put you or our babies in that kind of danger. We can’t ever have that. We can’t—”
“Listen to me,” I said, my voice rough with emotion. “We’re going to get the women and kids out of here and demolish this place brick by brick. Then, we’re going to expose these sleazes along with Remwald and every other corrupt member of the Alliance. Okay?”
Kai nodded slowly.
I continued, “And then I’m going to marry you in front of everyone we know. And someday, we’re going to have kids together. As many as you want. And they’re going to grow up and go to school and play with their friends like regular fucking kids. That’s a promise, Kai.”
“Three,” she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
“What?”
“I want three kids.”
I managed a choked laugh as I pressed my lips to her wet cheek. “Then we’re going to need a bigger house.”
CHAPTER 44
We were all numb on the ride home, going through the motions of ditching the van and trading it for two others as Kaira changed out our illusions.
I numbly accepted Bri’s heartfelt apologies and listened with half an ear as the others debated what to do with this new information. I knew I’d have to deal with all of it, and soon, but for now, I couldn’t think. I held Kai, needing to feel her in my arms in a way I never had before. I pressed my face into her hair, breathing in her jasmine smell that made me feel like I was home.
Once we were back in the safety of our house, we collapsed on the couches in the living room. We stared at each other in disbelief.
Kaira was the first one to speak.
“Obviously all of this…MagLab stuff…is personal for Gray and me in a way I’d never expect it to be for the rest of you. And I get that this,” she gestured to the way we sat pressed against each other, “might still be repulsive to some of you. I’ll understand if you don’t want anything to do with this…us…anymore.”
“It’s not repulsive,” Bri said quietly. “At least, not now that I know the third high law is BS. I mean, we’ve all been brainwashed.” She gave us a wobbly smile. “I’m not saying I’d be cool with you guys making out in front of me yet, but just give me a little more time to get used to everything. Besides,” she straightened her spine, and a fierce expression came over her face, “I’m not letting this drop until I find out what happened to my niece.”
“If you think I’d sit this one out after we just learned there’s a confirmed conspiracy,” Smith said, “then you people don’t know me at all.”
Yutika let out a shaky breath. “I have a confession to make.” She looked at Michael. “We have a confession.” She covered her face with her hands, so her words were a little garbled when she said, “Michael and I have been secretly dating.”
“Get outta town.” A.J. clutched his chest.
“It’s true,” Yutika cried, having missed A.J.’s sarcasm entirely. “We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want things to get weird since we all work together.”
The rest of us looked at each other. And then we started to laugh. It began as a chuckle, and then all of our emotions from the past few hours bubbled over until we were in hysterics. Tears rolled down A.J.’s cheeks as he slapped his thigh. Even Kai’s devastated look softened.
“What’s so funny?” Michael asked in his rumbling voice, looking a little puzzled and a lot embarrassed.
“Yeah, what’s so funny?” Yutika demanded, planting her hands on her hips. “You guys didn’t laugh at Kaira and Graysen.”
“Come here, you silly little goose,” A.J. told her, before wrapping his arms around her.
Michael made a little sound of protest when A.J. hugged him, but after a few seconds, he gave A.J.’s back a pat.
“So, what are we going to do about MagLab?” Smith asked, a slight scowl on his face. The poor guy had probably never dealt with so many emotions in his entire life.
We all sobered at that.
“We have two options,” Kaira said, becoming the fierce leader of our little group once again. “We can try to figure out how to get all those women and kids out of there quietly, and then we all go into hiding.” She swallowed. “Or, we can expose MagLab and all the Alliance corruption to the rest of the city and let Boston decide where we all go from here.”
“I say we expose the bastards,” Bri said, her skin turning to titanium.
“Agreed,” Yutika said.
Michael and Smith nodded.
“Um, have you kittens forgotten Remwald’s threat?” A.J. raised his eyebrows.
We all looked at him.
“The idea of exposing the Alliance is all lovely and heroic, but if we do this, Kaira and Graysen will still be on the hook for breaking a high law.” His expression grew serious. “Even if people know the truth about the third high law, their prejudices won’t change overnight.”
I thought of those pictures splayed out across the Director’s desk. The simmering rage inside me began to boil.
“We can, uh, give you a few minutes to talk by yourselves,” Michael told Kaira and me. He got off the couch and gestured for
the others to follow him.
As soon as we were alone, I turned to face Kai.
“A.J.’s right,” she said in little more than a whisper. “Even after we tell the truth, people are still going to see us as baby killers.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Fear and hatred were powerful emotions, and there were plenty of both when it came to the third high law.
“Maybe we can find a way to expose Remwald and MagLab without the world finding out about us,” Kai said, her eyes brightening with unshed tears. “That way, you can step into the void filled by all those corrupt leaders at the Alliance, and no one will question you.”
I met her gaze. She gave me an encouraging nod, giving me permission to walk away from her again. She was giving me a way to take back the life I’d always wanted.
The life I’d thought I wanted.
I shook my head. “You were right.” And even though the words hurt, I said, “The Alliance is flawed. It isn’t what I thought it was or what I wanted it to be. Besides, I don’t want the same things I used to.” I ran a hand down her bare arm. “Or maybe I want what I’ve always wanted, but it took me this long to realize what that was.”
I pulled her onto my lap, marveling at the way I wasn’t afraid to hold her, even though anyone coming down the stairs could see us.
“I was so passionate about the Alliance because I wanted to make things better for Nats and Mags,” I continued. “I should have known any organization that kept us apart was rotten to its core.”
Her eyes searched mine.
I reached up and cupped her cheek. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you, babe. I was angry and stupid, and I didn’t bother to ask any of the right questions. I hurt you.”
She put her hand over mine. “You don’t need to apologize.”
“I do,” I insisted. “And I promise you, I’ll never doubt you or be that much of an idiot again.” I frowned as a new realization crept up on me. “But if I tell the truth, people will find out you’re unMarked. You might not be able to hide unless you stay illusioned.”
Kai combed her fingers through my hair as she met my gaze. “If we’re really going to fix everything that’s broken in this city, I can’t do it from the sidelines anymore. I’m going to be right there by your side.”
Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set Page 31
