by S. J. West
Ian took his arm off of Lux’s shoulders and crossed them over his chest. The look on his face reminded me of a brewing thunderstorm.
“Deal?” he asked me, his tone on the verge of becoming angry. “You don’t make deals with the devil, Skye. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
“I didn’t have much of a choice. Let’s get in the air and on our way back to Roanoke. I’ll tell you what you need to know,” I said, standing and getting inside the helicopter to take my seat.
Once we were in the air, I told Ian and Lux the conditions of my bargain with the Queen.
“If you think about it, it’s a perfect way for me to get close to her and finally find a way to kill her,” I reasoned.
“And what if she finds a way to reactivate your Harvester chip?” Ian asked, his eyes blazing with both anger and worry. “You can’t just hand yourself over to that woman on a silver platter, Skye! She’s insane!”
“There won’t be a chip to turn back on when I go to her,” I said. “Doc Riley is figuring out a way to remove it.”
Ian shook his head. “Can’t be done. You take that thing out and it’ll kill you for sure.”
“No, not necessarily. I can heal myself, Ian. It’ll work for me.”
“You don’t know that,” Ian replied, a stubborn set to his jaw. “What does Jace say about this asinine idea of yours to remove the chip? Or have you even told him what you plan to do?”
“Yes,” I said defensively. “I try to tell him everything. But you know as well as I do that he would never let me hand myself over to the Queen, especially if he knew it was because of him. Trust that I know what I’m doing, Ian. And I’m fully aware of the risks with the surgery.”
“What are the risks?” Lux asked.
I could see the concern on her face for my welfare, which tempered my irritation with Ian a small bit.
“There could be some loss of hand-eye coordination, repetitive speech, severe headaches, vision impairment, seizures, or I could go into a vegetative state, but that’s highly unlikely.”
“A what?” Ian exploded. He said a few choice curse words under his breath. Lux probably couldn’t hear them, but I did, clearly.
“Ian, I can’t go to her with the chip still inside my head. If I do, she’ll find a way to change me back into a Harvester. She’s a freaking genius after all. I’d rather be dead than be like that again. Hopefully while she’s preoccupied with trying to find a way to change me back, I can find a way to kill her. We’ve all known I’m her weakness. She’ll let her guard down around me. And when she does, I’ll take her down. I know you’ve had doubts that I will be able to kill her when the time comes, but I’ll have an added incentive, getting back to Jace and the kids. It’s the only way I’ll be able to escape from her and have a normal life. It’s the only way we’ll be able to see our first dawn.”
The thought of what was supposed to happen the first dawn brought an unexpected smile to my face.
“Jace wants us to get married that first morning,” I told them, feeling my heart swell with the thought of marrying Jace with the rays of the rising sun illuminating his face.
“That’s so sweet,” Lux said, smiling at me. “He must really love you.”
I nodded. “Yes. He does. And I love him.”
“Just make sure you live long enough to see that first dawn,” Ian said, sounding like a true curmudgeon.
“Neither of you can tell Jace what I just told you,” I said.
“Are you serious?” Ian shouted. “You expect me to keep this from him?”
“Please, Ian,” I begged. “The only reason I told you is because I need someone to tell Jace where I am after I’m gone and to warn him about the bomb in his head. This is the way things have to be. It’s my only chance to end things once and for all.”
I thought Ian was going to pulverize the teeth in his mouth his jaw was clenched so tightly.
“Fine,” he eventually said, but turned his gaze away from me like he couldn’t bring himself to look in my direction any longer.
The rest of the trip was mostly made in silence. Ian was pissed at me, Lux wasn’t sure what to say, and I just relished the quiet. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a dreamless sleep to escape the tension for a while.
I didn’t wake up until I felt someone kissing me.
On instinct, I grabbed the person by the throat before I even opened my eyes to see who it was.
Jace choked slightly before I came to my senses and let him go.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” I said as he sat back on the seat across from me, catching his breath and rubbing his throat.
Jace soon chuckled, looking slightly embarrassed.
“No, I probably should have known better than to do that. You just looked so beautiful, like a sleeping princess in a fairy tale. I thought it might be romantic to kiss you awake.”
I stood and walked the short distance to him. I straddled his lap and sat down.
“Let me make it up to you,” I said, touching our foreheads together before teasing his lips apart with mine.
Jace rested his hands around my waist as I leaned further into him. I felt his large, warm hands slide beneath my shirt as the tips of his fingers ran up and down my spine like a concert pianist expertly playing the keys of a piano, causing me to shiver in pleasure.
Reluctantly, I broke the kiss, attempting to catch my breath.
“We better stop,” I said, unable to prevent myself from leaning in for one more kiss. “Or I won’t be able to in a couple of minutes.”
Jace groaned in frustration and leaned his head back against the headrest.
“Did Simon take you straight to Rose?” I asked.
Jace nodded, a smile stretching his lips. “Yeah. I think we scared Kirk and Teegan half to death though.”
I laughed. “I’m sure they survived the shock.”
Jace looked at me, and I knew we were about to enter into a serious conversation as his eyebrows drew closer together.
“Did you run into any trouble getting Simon back? I didn’t have time to ask.”
“Had to kill a few Harvesters,” I told him, knowing Jace would understand how hard that was for me. I didn’t like to kill people, not even Harvesters, but I did it when it was necessary.
“Did you see the Queen?”
“Yes, she had Simon sitting on her lap when I made it to the room where she was keeping him.”
Jace’s eyes narrowed on me even further.
“And she just handed him over to you and let you walk out?”
“She tried to talk me into staying with her again. For some reason it seems important for me to come to her of my own free will. I guess she figures she tried brute force. Now she’s trying kindness.”
“Doesn’t sound much like her.”
I shrugged. “I’ve pretty much given up on trying to figure that woman out, and I really don’t want to talk about her again for a while, if that’s okay. Right now, I just want to be with you and the kids.” I held my hand out to Jace, and he took it immediately, lacing our fingers together as if he never intended to let me go.
“Then let’s go home,” Jace said.
Jace and I spent the next day alone in my house in Roanoke with our children. I think it was his gift to me. A whole day to pretend everything was normal and we were simply a family spending time with one another. It reminded me so much of the way my own home life used to be with my parents. I cherished every minute because I wasn’t sure when it would happen again. My father didn’t even try to interrupt our quiet interlude, but I chalked that up due to the influx of Cain-infected Harvesters arriving in the compound.
Apparently, Michael was being successful in his recruitment of Harvesters within the Cain virus encampments. I had mixed feelings about them. I knew some of them had indeed regained their moral compasses after being infected by the virus, but not all had. It was those “not all” I was worried about mixing into the general population of the camp. Most of the humans who
were in the camp at the time my father took it over evacuated as soon as they could. It seemed they thought life outside, no matter how uncertain, was better than staying with an army preparing to take down the Queen. Did I think less of them for leaving instead of choosing to fight? No. Especially not after seeing the devastating aftermath of what the Queen’s troops could do if concentrated and focused on one spot like Michael’s camp.
The humans who left were probably the smart ones. And a small part of me was relieved to see them go. They had been witnesses to the cruelty of the Harvester side of me. It was probably completely selfish on my part, but I didn’t want anyone around to remind me of a time in my life I would much rather forget.
We were playing with the kids on the floor of the living room, trying our best to get them to sit up by themselves without any support. Rose seemed more proficient in it than Simon, who looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa as he tried to remain seated upright on his own. Poor Blue tried to help Simon stay upright by using his muzzle to push him up when he began to lean too far to the right, but even his help wasn’t enough.
“I’m going to talk to Doc Riley tomorrow about the surgery,” I warned Jace, seeing no need to waste any time. I had no way of knowing when exactly Walsh would be coming to get me. The sooner I got the chip out the better.
“You don’t need to,” Jace said. “She spoke to me about it when Simon teleported us back here. The surgery is set for tomorrow morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before now?” I asked.
Jace sighed. “Because I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted us to have one perfect day we could remember just in case. …”
He didn’t have to finish. I understood what he wanted and why. My vision became blurred with warm tears. The thoughtfulness of the man sitting next to me continually amazed me.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” I asked him, my tears freely streaming down my face.
“Don’t cry,” Jace almost begged, extending a hand to my face to wipe away the path of my tears. “If you keep that up, you’re going to make me cry, and I don’t want you to have any sad memories of today, only happy ones.”
“I’m not sad,” I reassured him, taking in a deep breath. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Thank you for today. And thank you for trying to make it so special for me. But I don’t want you to sit there and think today will be the last day we have like this. You’ve already seen parts of our future life together, so don’t look so worried. Everything will go perfectly tomorrow.”
Jace grinned at me. “Glad to see you as a glass half full kind of girl now.”
I shrugged. “How can I not be when I have my own personal fortune teller?”
Jace held his hand out to me, and I placed one of mine in the warmth of his palm.
“Our life will be as perfect as you can imagine. I promise you that.”
I squeezed his hand. “I know.”
I didn’t worry about the world outside our house for the rest of the day or evening. No one but the four of us existed as far as I was concerned.
Not even the Queen.
The next morning Kirk, Teegan, and Kale came over to take care of Rose and Simon at the house while Jace took me for my surgery. I didn’t say good-bye to the kids because I didn’t believe anything bad would happen. I just told them we would be back soon.
When Jace passed the mansion where headquarters had been established, I turned to him and asked, “Where are we going? I thought we would be doing this at the mansion in the Queen’s laboratory.”
“No,” he said, glancing away from the road for a second to look at me. “They’re doing it at the hospital. The equipment the doctor needs is there. I’m sorry. I guess I should have mentioned that earlier.”
“It’s okay,” I said, realizing we were going back to the scene of the crime, at least by my way of thinking.
I could still remember the little girl and her father being taken into the hospital because of me. The hatred in the eyes of the girl and her vocal screams of that very emotion still haunted my memories. I tried not to think about it and desperately tried to reason with myself that it wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t truly been myself at the time. But in the back of my mind, I knew I had been myself, just the worst part of who I was. That’s what the Queen did. She was the purveyor of darkness, exposing a person’s dark side to the world and forcing you to face the monster within.
When we reached the hospital, we drove right up to the emergency room entrance. My father was there pacing back and forth on the sidewalk, anxiously awaiting our arrival.
“I hope you don’t mind me being here,” my dad said as I walked around the front of the car to give him a hug.
“Why would I mind?” I asked, letting him go so I could look into his face.
He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “I just don’t want to act like the overprotective father, I guess. And I’m tempted to ask you not to go through with this, but I know your mind is made up, so I won’t even try.”
“Everything will be fine, Dad. Jace has seen my future. I’ll survive this.”
“It’s a father’s innate right to worry about his child,” my dad told me, cupping the side of my face with one of his hands. “I can’t help but be scared for you. I’ve worried about you since the moment you were born, and I probably won’t stop until I’m dead. Even then I’m not completely sure I’ll stop.”
We both smiled at that.
“Don’t be scared,” I told him in my most confident voice. “Everything will be fine.”
It didn’t take them long to prep me for surgery after we walked in. Doc Riley introduced me to the Harvester doctor who would be performing the procedure. He was a handsome African-American with almost model like features and a pleasant smile. I instantly wondered what he thought about himself now that he was no longer truly a Harvester after being infected with the Cain virus. Did he feel any guilt over the genocide of the human race he obviously played a part in?
“My name is Ken,” the surgeon said while I was waiting in my hospital room to be wheeled into surgery. “I’ve implanted a lot of chips before, but this will be the first time I have ever tried to take one out. I promise I’ll do my best to remove it, but this sort of thing has never been attempted before. I’m not completely sure what will happen. Doc Riley said she already told you about the side effects you can expect if this goes wrong.”
I nodded. “Yes, I understand the risks.”
“Okay,” Ken looked uncertain, almost like he wanted to back out of doing the surgery. “Well, you’ll need to be awake during the procedure so you can heal any damage I do trying to remove it. I’m sorry I can’t spare you from the process.”
“It’s all right,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “I’m prepared for it.”
He nodded. “Okay then. Let’s get this done.”
Ken looked over at Jace. “Would you like to be in the room with her while we perform the surgery?”
Jace looked surprised by the offer. “I can be in there? I didn’t think I would be allowed to do that.”
“Under normal circumstances, no, you wouldn’t be allowed in there. But these are far from normal circumstances. I think your presence might make a difference to Skye,” Ken said. “It might be more calming for her if you’re there holding her hand while I dig the chip out.”
“Yeah, you could have made that sound a little more pleasant,” I said with a wry grin at Ken.
“Sorry,” Ken said with a grin of his own. “My bedside manner was never my strong suit, even before I became a Harvester. How about: delicately extract the chip with exact precision? Sound better?”
“Much,” I said with a laugh, feeling confident I was in good hands with Ken as my doctor.
“Do you want me in there?” Jace asked me.
I held my hand out to him. “I always want you with me. I need you.”
Jace took my hand and squeezed it. “Good.”
Jace was given a surgical o
utfit to wear in the operating room and was asked to wear a white mask over his mouth and nose so all I could see of his beautiful face were his eyes. Once I was inside the operating room, the prep was the same as when the chip was implanted. Someone shaved a spot on my head, I was given a local anesthetic to deaden a section of my scalp, and a bone saw was used to cut a hole in my skull. I squeezed Jace’s hand as the saw made its first cut.
“Can you feel that?” he asked, concern for me in his eyes.
“Just the pressure,” I reassured him. “It’s not painful just … odd.”
“Okay, boys and girls,” Ken said behind me to the other members of his surgical team. “Here we go. Skye, when I get to the chip, I’ll tell you. I’m going to extricate it as slowly as possible to give you time to heal any damage I do by extracting it.”
“Okay,” I told him.
As Ken worked his magic, I kept my eyes locked on Jace, finding strength just in his gaze and touch.
It didn’t take long before I heard Ken say, “I’m at the chip. I’m about to grasp it with my forceps. From here on out, I’ll tell you every move I make, Skye. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“Okay, I’m placing the tips of the forceps on either side of the chip.” I heard Ken take in a sharp, startled breath. “Oh shit. …”
And those were the last two words I heard before I died.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I found myself standing on the lookout platform in front of the Horseshoe Falls of Niagara. The cool misty spray of the water surrounded me like a wispy cloud. The sun hung like a shining jewel in the clear blue sky above me. I closed my eyes and lifted my face to bask in its warmth, relishing the feel of its gentle caress against my skin.
“It’s so beautiful here,” I heard a familiar voice say beside me. “I always loved it here too.”
Slowly, I turned to my left and saw my mother standing only an arm’s length away from me. I felt a myriad of emotions all at once: confusion, sadness, joy, and above all else, love.
“Mom?”
