The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Minds Novel, A)

by Alexandra Bracken

  Vida reached over, giving the boy’s shoulder a tight squeeze of approval.

  As the engine rumbled on again and the tanker began to vibrate, I could have sworn I heard Max say, “I knew she wouldn’t.”

  But even as we drove on, only Liam dared to speak. Over and over again, asking the same terrifying question of the silence.

  “She’s not waking up—why isn’t she waking up?”

  THE DRIVER BROUGHT US BACK to the lot where we had left the vehicles, and, to my surprise, there was already someone waiting there. Cate.

  Her pale hair was covered with a baseball cap, and she was dressed casually in jeans and a loose shirt. I didn’t recognize the van she had pulled up beside the dusty sedan and the SUV, but it hardly mattered.

  The distance between the bottom of the tank and the opening was so great that Chubs had to use his power to lift each of us out, one at a time. By the time I was through, Cate and Vida were already talking over a map spread over the sedan’s hood.

  “I thought you said there were eight of you, plus the kids,” I heard Cate say as I helped one of the kids down the slippery ladder.

  “It was eight,” was all Vida said in reply.

  The driver had climbed out of the cab and was watching Chubs as he continued his work. Her face went slack with wonder, as if she were watching a magic trick. I started toward her, meaning to tell her how grateful we all were, but she only held up a hand.

  “I don’t have to know the details about what was happening in the lab,” she told me. “I brought my boy there every week for testing until IAAN took him. You just take care of yourselves now, understand?”

  Liam levitated Chubs up through the hatch first, then somehow passed Ruby from his arms up to Chubs before Chubs used his own power to raise Liam out.

  At first I thought it was just the water soaking the side of his shirt, but the stain was too dark. He must have torn his stitches at some point. Chubs saw it, too, but neither of us tried to stop him as he carried Ruby across the back of the tank, and gently lowered her into Vida’s waiting arms.

  Max had gathered up the kids and was trying to distract them with some story as he led them toward Cate’s van.

  “I have a medic I trust meeting us at the safe house,” Cate said as she and the others passed by me, heading toward the SUV. “She’ll give us an honest answer.”

  “I don’t want honest,” Liam said, sounding exhausted. “I just want good.”

  “I know,” Cate said softly, opening the back door so he could climb in first. They lifted Ruby in after him.

  I waved a hand at the driver, knowing she probably couldn’t see me. It didn’t matter.

  Vida had already taken the driver’s seat of the SUV with Chubs next to her in the passenger seat. That left me to slip into the space in the back, with Liam and Ruby. Priyanka and Max took two of the kids with them in the sedan, and Cate ushered the rest into the van.

  It was quiet and quick, with all the efficiency of people who wanted to get as far away from a place as humanly possible. We followed Cate out onto the street, and then out of town completely.

  The radio remained on, buzzing quietly with the news so that Chubs could monitor it. I tuned it out, focusing instead on Liam’s labored breathing as he held Ruby. He caught me watching him, his eyes going soft. If I kept looking at him, I was going to cry, and right now, crying was the least useful thing I could be doing.

  “I’m sorry about Roman,” he said.

  I knew he was. I knew it was eating all of them up, the same way the pain in my chest felt like it had knotted my lungs together. I couldn’t tell him it was okay, and I couldn’t bring myself to explain what had happened, or what could happen with Roman and Lana back with Blue Star, so I said nothing at all. The longer we drove, the deeper the shock seemed to set into my system. I didn’t fight it. My silence had become a place of recovery, not a trap. Right now, I needed it.

  Liam reached over with his free arm, drawing me close to his side and to Ruby.

  Right now, I needed that, too.

  The safe house in Dover must have been a relic from the days of the Children’s League, but I didn’t ask and Cate didn’t offer to explain. It sat at the end of an otherwise empty street, a weathered American flag still hanging from the front porch. Deeply ironic, all things considered. But it seemed secure enough, especially once we got the van into the garage and the kids into the house, so I didn’t understand why Liam looked like he’d seen a ghost.

  “It’s the only one we kept open after the League dissolved,” Cate was telling him as she came back out to open his door. “Believe me, it wouldn’t have been my choice to bring either of you back here.”

  A short dark-haired woman stepped out of the front door.

  “Bring her inside,” she said, glancing up and down the street.

  With visible effort, Liam carried Ruby up the path and up the porch steps. Chubs kept close to them, a supporting hand under her prone form. Just in case.

  “Thank you for doing this, Maria,” Cate said as the boys lowered Ruby onto a bed upstairs. It was bare, save for a sheet over the mattress. The doctor stripped off her own oversize cardigan, rolling it up to give Ruby some kind of a pillow.

  “What do you need?” Cate asked, hovering anxiously beside the bed.

  There was an array of small handheld equipment over the nightstand, as well as an IV bag.

  “Clean water and a washcloth, clothing for her,” Maria said. “I looked just in case, but didn’t see much of anything in the cabinets.”

  “We stripped the house of anything that could ID us as its owners,” Cate said apologetically. “But I do have purification tablets in my bag. I’ll bring a pitcher up for you.”

  “I’d also like the room to do my examination,” Maria said, giving Chubs and Liam a meaningful look.

  Liam tensed, but Chubs put a hand on his chest and shook his head. “Come on. I can patch you up, at least.”

  I lingered in the doorway, even after the others left. I wasn’t sure what to do, other than wander out to the cars and assess what we had by the way of supplies and what food we could give to the kids.

  Hauling the bags inside, I was careful not to wake the kids sleeping on the couch and the rug on the living room floor. They’d curled up together like kittens, and it reminded me, again, of how resilient kids were, and how much this world was testing the limits of that resilience.

  There was nothing for me to do but disassemble the packs and sink into the mindless task of laying out the supplies on the kitchen counter. Max and Priyanka drifted in and out of the edge of my vision, but none of us seemed capable of talking just yet. I reached for the last bag. My fingers brushed a bundle of fabric.

  The familiar gray shirt took the air out of my lungs. This was Roman’s pack. It was empty, save for this spare set of clothes, a flashlight, and the remnants of the first-aid kit we’d taken from Haven.

  “Zu?” Chubs called from upstairs. “She’s ready.”

  The words shook me from the trance I’d fallen into. I made my way back up to the room, not realizing I was still holding Roman’s shirt until Vida gave it a quick glance. Someone had found an extra set of clothes for Ruby; the gray sweatshirt was too big for her, but it disguised her skeletal form better than the blankets had.

  “As far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with her,” Maria said slowly. “She’s dehydrated and slightly malnourished, and I found various cuts and stitches from where they probably took tissue samples.”

  Liam shook his head. “That’s not nothing.”

  “I meant,” Maria said, raising her hands, “they didn’t operate on her.”

  I slumped back against the wall in relief.

  “Then why hasn’t she woken up?” Chubs asked, his arms crossed tight over his chest. “Is it a bad reaction to the sedatives? Even a strong dose should have worn off by now.”

  “I don’t have the right kind of equipment here to confirm that she doesn’t have a traumat
ic brain injury. She needs a real scan and an actual neurologist, but if the point was to study her specific ability, they wouldn’t have wanted to harm the normal processes of her brain,” Maria said. “My guess is that it could be a medically induced coma to combat brain swelling incurred during their testing. I find it equally likely that they wanted her completely subdued, knowing how powerful she is.”

  Could some part of a person still be aware, even if they were trapped in unconsciousness?

  Liam shook his head, pressing his face into his hands. “Dammit…She had to have been awake at some point, otherwise Max wouldn’t have been able to do his reading. We wouldn’t have seen what she was seeing well enough to find her.”

  Cate’s brows rose at that.

  “Has she shown any kind of reaction?” Maria asked. “To your voices, to being moved…?”

  I haven’t told them. “Yes.”

  “Zu…?” Liam said. “You saw something?”

  “She showed me where to find the kids upstairs,” I told them. “When we found her, I touched her to check her pulse and she…it was like I wasn’t in the room anymore. I was upstairs, being walked down the hall. I know it sounds impossible, but it was a memory, and it wasn’t mine.”

  Liam’s face transformed, his expression blossoming with hope as he turned back toward Maria.

  “I haven’t the slightest idea of what’s possible,” she told him. “She could wake up in a few minutes, or she could wake up years from now, or she might not be able to wake up at all. Like I said, you need a specialist. What I do recommend, in the event that she’s unable to wake herself up by this evening, is keeping her on an IV drip and using a feeding tube. I can do that much, at least. Let me get what I need from my car”

  “Thank you, Maria,” Cate said. “I owe you.”

  The woman stopped in the doorway, glancing at Ruby. “You don’t owe me anything. I have to tell you, though, I got a call from Beth. Your absence has definitely been noted in the office.”

  “I figured as much,” Cate said. “The Bureau needs all hands on deck right now.”

  Maria nodded. We listened to her footsteps padding down the stairs before we gathered closer at the foot of the bed.

  “Are you going to be all right?” I asked Cate.

  She gave me a fond smile. “I did manage to have somewhat of an excuse. My boss is sympathetic to the Psi and gave me the day off to find somewhere outside the city for Nico and a few others to stay until things calm down. But I don’t have to go back at all.”

  “You should,” Chubs told her. “For the time being, you’re the only one of us who can keep watch on what’s really happening.”

  “For the time being?” she repeated. “Do you have a plan?”

  “We have something,” Vida said. “Clearing Zu’s name and exposing Mercer’s and Moore’s roles in all this will hopefully go a long way in mending what Cruz just burned the fuck down.”

  “We just have to hope it won’t start another, bigger fire,” Chubs said.

  “It won’t,” I said. “Not if we focus on the part that’ll get people angry: the fact that they’re selling Psi outside of the United States to potential enemies. They may hate us, but it’s clear the government doesn’t want anyone else to have us or our potential, either.”

  “That’s awfully cynical,” Cate said.

  I shrugged.

  “Ruby wouldn’t have acted without proof,” Liam said. “After everything we went through, she knows to always gather evidence.”

  Because very few people believed our word without it.

  “She does,” I said. “And I think I know exactly where it is.”

  Vida raised her brows. “Zu, Our Lady of Complete Fucking Surprises. Anything else you’ve forgotten to share?”

  I shook my head.

  Liam rubbed a hand over his face, looking back over at Ruby.

  “What’s the matter?” Chubs asked him.

  “I was just thinking about my kids—the Haven kids,” he said. “I trust Mom and Harry to take care of things, but I don’t know what’s happening with everyone—if they’re even okay. I can’t bring Ruby back to them like this, but she would kill me if I didn’t go check on them.”

  “You can,” Chubs told him. “Stay a few more days to make sure she’s stable and to see if she wakes up. If she’s still like this, then you can go for a day or two and I’ll stay with her and keep everyone updated. My dad will be able to bring the supplies we need from his hospital and can probably find a neurologist we can trust for a consult. Let me do this, please. I can’t go back to DC yet, I can’t get myself in front of a camera and tell the world the truth, but I can help my friend. And I will.”

  “Maybe…” Liam said, his expression torn. “But if something happened while I was gone—”

  “Nothing will happen,” Chubs promised. “It’ll give me time to start figuring out where the kids downstairs came from, and if they have homes they need to be returned to. Or it’ll give me time to figure out a different safe place for them to go.”

  Maria came back in, her arms full. I stepped into the hall to give her room to pass, but once I was out, I couldn’t bring myself to go back in. That sensation, like static crawling beneath my skin, was back. The room felt too small to contain me.

  A hallway light winked as I passed by, heading into one of the empty rooms at the back of the house. This one had no bed or dresser, just a window and a chair-less desk. I leaned against the latter and closed my eyes, pressing Roman’s shirt to my lips. I breathed in the smell of cedar, leather, and smoke.

  Priyanka and Max still had no idea why I’d gotten out when Roman and Lana hadn’t, and I was too much of a coward to go down and tell them. As it was, the longer I thought about those last few seconds, the less they made sense to me.

  I could see it so clearly, how he’d lifted his scarred hand higher, pressing it repeatedly against the opposite shoulder until I’d noticed it. Until I’d gotten his message.

  I’m okay. This is okay.

  He had to have known they were Mercer’s soldiers, and what the risks were. That was what I didn’t understand: Why would he give himself and his sister back over to Blue Star? Why not come through the door with me or try to fight them off to escape another way?

  Because, a small voice whispered in my mind. You.

  He’d stalled the Blue Star soldiers so I could get away, along with Ruby and the others. Maybe some part of him had finally recognized what Priyanka and I had upstairs: Mercer had emotionally and mentally manipulated Lana, but she couldn’t see it, and that made her a danger to all of us. But Roman couldn’t leave her alone with Mercer. Not again.

  I’m okay. This is okay.

  Anger pulsed through me, sweeping away the ache and guilt. “Like hell it is.”

  I wasn’t going to lose him or anyone else to this cycle of nightmares. I was done accepting what little we’d all been given—I wasn’t going to be tricked into believing that the wheel of our story would continue to roll on without being pushed forward by sheer force. There was no time to sit here and just hope it would all get better. If we’d only wait.

  The time for waiting was over. If they wanted a Psion Ring, then they’d have one.

  On my terms.

  Downstairs, Max and Priyanka were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. Max had put his head down and shut his eyes, but Priyanka’s finger was tracing the knots in the wood, her expression haunted. I found a sticky pad and pen by the landline phone and wrote a quick note of explanation, slapping it on the refrigerator. No leaving without good-byes. That would always be the rule. I’d decide on the rest as we went along.

  At the sound, both of them sat up.

  “Are either of you interested in going for a drive?” I asked.

  “Why?” Priyanka asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Ruby left us a gift,” I said. “And we’re going to go get it.”

  Two Weeks Later

  WE DIDN’T BOTHER WITH TH
E door. We blew the whole damn wall out.

  I looked back, watching the flames reflected in Priyanka’s dark eyes. The black ski mask hid her face, but satisfaction radiated from her as the last of the dust and bricks settled. Muggy, smoke-stained air swirled against my skin. I took in a deep breath, touching the comm in my ear.

  “Three minutes start now,” I told the others. “Vi, you in position?”

  The response I got was another small explosion, this one at the front entrance to Mercer’s warehouse, where Vida and her team of seven Psi were positioned.

  “We’re in,” Vida said in our ears. The gunfire was immediate in response. I waved the group behind me forward, into the smoldering remains of the room Mercer had set aside for his stooges to sleep in. Jacob stepped up and, with a thrust of his hand, sent two of Mercer’s men slamming into the nearby wall.

  “Stay here,” I told him. “Make sure no one comes in or gets out until we’re back.”

  He and Lisa had answered my call for help, as had a dozen other Psi I hadn’t seen or spoken to in years. Once the network was alive again, the current of change that moved between us was as unstoppable as it was growing.

  One voice could be drowned out, but not a dozen. Not a hundred. Not a thousand.

  Our goal wasn’t violence, and it wasn’t subjugating others through terror—it was working outside the law to gather information, protect Psi, and speak directly to the public with the truth denied to them by the people in power.

  “We’re in, Max,” I told him over the comm. “Get ready.”

  Outside, waiting for us back in the transport truck, Max said, “Ready.” There was a flicker of static over the line as he added, his voice softer, “My dad…”

  “I know,” I said, leading the others out of the room. “Don’t worry.”

  One of Mercer’s men was waiting in the hallway, half-dressed, half-wild with adrenaline from having been woken from a dead sleep. He fired off a shot that went too wide. One of the Kin lifted him into the air, then slammed him back down onto the floor, stunning him.