Collide (Entangled Teen) (The Taking Book 3)

by Melissa West

  Jackson. My chest tightens. How will I find him when I’m stuck underground, with him a world away?

  Chapter Three

  I listen tentatively as Mom explains that soon after all the humans crossed over to Loge, Parliament decided to use the Underground, a complete world below Sydia, built when the capital was first developed, when WWIV was still fresh in everyone’s minds. It would be used in case war broke out again, but for years it sat untouched. Then after the neurotoxin was released, and Zeus announced that he’d used it against us, and thousands of humans died, they realized war wasn’t a fictional, future thing. War is imminent. The question isn’t if, it’s when.

  We walk down a long composite-steel hallway that reminds me of the Chemist labs, all business with no hint of emotion or care for decor. Mom stops at the end of the hall and Dad presses his thumb into a keypad beside a door. “This is our room,” he says, motioning me inside. “We had yours linked to ours. They installed the adjoining door the day you arrived.”

  I follow him in, my stomach sinking at the thought of how much things have changed, from a three-story house to just two rooms, one for my parents, one for me, each space the size of my bedroom back home. The only similarities are the furnishings themselves, which are at the very least real blankets, real pillows, real beds.

  “We live here?” I ask.

  Mom drapes her arm around me, hugging me close. “At least we’re alive. For now, that’s all that matters.” I can tell by the way her voice shakes that some part of her never thought she would see me again, but she’s forcing herself to act casual, which worries me all the more. Mom was never one to hide her feelings.

  “Can I see my room?”

  “Sure,” Dad says. He gestures to a door on the left-hand wall, and I press my thumb into the keypad, as he did before, causing the panel to slide open, a gust of artificial air whooshing over me. I step inside and peer around. It’s smaller than my parents’ room and contains nothing more than a bed, a dresser, and a small table and chair. I imagine identical rooms line the halls, and I realize that we, the wealthy people of Prospect Park, are now living like we forced Landings’ people to live.

  Mom sits down on my bed. “Can you tell us about Loge? What happened to you there? Do you feel…different?”

  Loge. A flash of the blueroom. Lydian staring at me, only to betray me later. Emmy lying on the ground, lifeless, and then Jackson and me, our bodies linked together, as though nothing could tear us apart. Tears prick my eyes, and once again, I have to fight to keep them from falling. Crying won’t tell me where he is or what’s happening to him. There’s only one person who might know. “Where is Vill?” I ask.

  Vill—Jackson’s cousin had promised Jackson he’d take me back to Earth no matter what, then dragged me through the portal while I screamed Jackson’s name. My chest aches at the memory, and I press my hand to my heart to try to massage out the pain. I should be angry with him, but he was just doing what Jackson asked. I might have done the same.

  “He’s just down the hall, like Gretchen.”

  “Gretchen?” I can’t keep the excitement from my voice. It feels like forever since I’ve seen her, forever since we sat in her room, sorting through masquerade ball dresses, her choosing mine because I never really cared about those sorts of things. “Can I see her? Them?”

  Mom smiles. “Of course.”

  She leaves Dad behind and leads me down the hall to the last door on the left. She knocks once and then starts to walk away.

  “Wait. Where are you going?” I ask, nervous to be alone. I’ve been alone for so long, and all I want to do is crawl into bed beside Jackson and have him pull me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me. What if I never feel his touch again? What if— No. I refuse to go down that road, refuse to mourn him. Not yet. I know in my heart he’s out there, alive, fighting. I just have to find him.

  “I thought you might want to talk to your friends alone. It’s been a while. Gretchen…she’s…” Mom trails off, shaking her head. “The changes haven’t been easy on her. Certain people haven’t been easy on her.”

  My mind shifts to Law, to his cold demeanor, and I wonder if he’s acting the same way with Gretchen. I expected them to be together now, a couple, but something in Mom’s expression has me worried. “Okay,” I say, and then Gretchen’s door opens and she’s there. I smile and open my mouth to say hello, when she bursts into tears.

  I glance nervously at Mom, who just backs away. “And that was why I thought you should talk alone.” I plead with my eyes for Mom to come back, but she’s already down the hall.

  “Uh, hey, are you okay?” Before I would have pulled her into a hug, but it’s been months since I’ve seen her, and I’m not sure if she’s the same Gretchen I once knew. Law certainly isn’t the same Law.

  She steps back for me to come inside, and then the door closes behind her and I see Vill sitting at her desk, whittling away at some composite material. Always the artist. It doesn’t surprise me that they became friends. My smile widens when I see him, because I know no matter what, Vill will always be Vill.

  “It’s good to see you up,” he says, smiling at me. He crosses the room and hugs me, but the move is awkward. We’ve never hugged before.

  “You, too.” I want to ask him about Jackson, about where he is and how we can go there, but right now, Gretchen needs me. I spin around and hug her close, despite my uncertainty. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  She nods against my shoulder. “No. Well, yes, I’m fine. I just…I wasn’t sure you’d wake up. That Kelvin would let you wake up.”

  Her response makes me wonder how long I’ve been here, and what all they did to me before allowing me to wake. “Do you know what’s going on? Mom and Dad seem worried. Law is a stranger now. He shot me, Gretch. Shot me.”

  She swallows hard, nodding. “It’s Kelvin. He’s got him brainwashed into believing Zeus is controlling you.”

  “What? That’s insane.”

  “I know. He doesn’t trust anyone that’s come over. Least of all you. Well, you, and, of course, Jackson.”

  My eyes shoot up. “What did you say?”

  Vill steps up beside us. “He’s here, Ari. Kelvin has him.”

  And then before they can say another word, I’m out the door, racing down the hall, unsure of where I’m going, but knowing I have to find him. A hand wraps around my arm, jerking me to a stop, and I remember that Vill was never part Ancient. He was born an Ancient and can outmaneuver me at his will. “Stop, before they see you and take you back.”

  I feel my throat closing up, every fear and emotion in me bubbling to the surface. “I can’t just leave him,” I say, my voice shaking. “There’s no telling what Kelvin will do to him. What he’s already done.” My knees go weak at the thought. Please let him be okay.

  “You won’t. We feel sure they’ll release him like they did you.”

  “Like me? Hardly. Tomorrow Kelvin plans to torture me into giving him information I don’t have. What do you think they’ll do to Jackson, Zeus’s grandson? I can’t let that happen. I won’t leave him again.”

  Dad and Mom are in the hall now, walking toward me. I can tell by their expressions that they intentionally kept this information to themselves. I eye each of them. Dad. Mom. Gretchen. Vill—all of them looking at me as though I’m crazy, capable of anything. And they’re right. I feel crazy. I feel it deep in my bones, rattling me whenever I try to regain a piece of my sanity. I’ve been through so much, and something tells me it’s nothing compared to what I’m about to face.

  I focus on Vill, because of the four of them, he loves Jackson as much as I love Jackson. He wants him to be okay. “How did he get here? Have you seen him? Is he okay?”

  Vill tugs me to him, hugging me for the second time. All this hugging is getting ridiculous, but I can’t bring myself to pull away. We have to comfort each other right now. That’s all we have. “I don’t know. To any of it. I don’t know.”

  “Then
how do you know he’s here?”

  Dad steps around Gretchen, lowering his voice. “We told him. Your mom and I have seen him, though not in person, only through the glass of one of the examination rooms.”

  I suck in a breath, then two, desperate to calm down so I can process what they’re saying. “So he’s really here?” Tears run down my face, refusing to stop.

  Mom takes my hand. “Yes, Jackson is here.”

  Chapter Four

  I lie awake all night, my mind on repeat, again and again seeking out answers that will never come. Where is he? Is he in pain? Does he know I’m here? Did he ask for me?

  The questions continue until my eyelids are too heavy to remain open and then I sleep, my fears taking new shapes in my dreams. Of fighting. Of war. Of death in numbers too vast to understand. I wonder if the pain I feel in my chest will ever disappear or if it’s a mere scratch compared to the real wound to come.

  A knock on my door shakes me awake and I jolt up, expecting to find Gretchen or Vill outside. But instead, I find they’re all already there with me. Mom. Dad. Gretchen. Vill. All of them in my room. Mom and Gretchen are sprawled out on my bed. Vill and Dad are asleep in chairs. I wonder when they came into my room, or if they were there all along and I was just too gone to notice.

  The knock hits again, and Dad stirs. “Who is it?” he calls.

  I hear someone clear his throat and then, “It’s Lawrence. I’m here for Ari.”

  Dad hits a button beside the door and storms out, narrowly missing Law. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”

  Lawrence opens his mouth to reply but closes it, his eyes taking in my room and the people in it. There was once a time when he would have been one of them. I concentrate on him, desperate to feel a change in his mood, see his color move to something darker—sadness, frustration, anything—but beyond a hint of regret in his eyes, his demeanor is as steady as ever, and I know, with certainty, the Lawrence standing before me isn’t the Law I knew. That boy is gone, replaced by nothing more than a pawn in Kelvin’s plan. A plan I’ve yet to uncover.

  I slip out of bed and walk over to Dad. “It’s okay.”

  “There is nothing about this that is okay.” Then he dips his head and walks back into my room. I watch him go, wondering where the strong man who raised me went, but then I see the same brokenness in Mom’s eyes, in Gretchen’s, and I wonder, yet again, what they went through while I was away.

  I swallow hard and focus back on Lawrence and an Op standing a few yards away. “Fine. Here I am. Let’s go.”

  They escort me to the same room I was in the day before—an interrogation room, I realize. I listen to the soft ticking of the desk clock, each second that I sit there across from Lawrence more painful than the last. I want to ask him why he abandoned himself. Why he chose to become the sort of person we always hated. I want to ask about his mom and how Kelvin became so powerful. If there is still a Trinity or if Kelvin now rules by dictatorship alone, much like the Octave did before the fall. But I can’t bring myself to say anything at all. Once I open my mouth, I won’t be able to stop myself from saying every horrible thing I think of him, and I can’t afford to be so rash. Not now. Not until I find Jackson.

  The door to the office opens and Kelvin walks in, his demeanor commanding and full of authority. I try to sense what he’s thinking, try to find a hint of stress, but there’s nothing. Either he has learned to control his feelings or he doesn’t have any. I’m not sure which worries me more.

  “Nice to see you again, Ari,” he says, taking a seat beside Lawrence. “We would like to ask you some specific questions today, and to ensure your cooperation, we have invited a guest.”

  The large two-way glass in the wall across from me lights up, no longer a mirror, but a window, revealing a room directly beside the one I’m in. I sit up taller in my seat to peer inside, and my heart speeds up, beating, beating, beating, unwilling to slow down. The walls are white and there is nothing in the room, only a rectangular table and a chair behind it. Nothing of any importance. I glance at Kelvin, one of my eyebrows raised in question, and then his face breaks into a slow grin—a grin of joy too great for a man so horrible. It can mean only one thing.

  My insides sour, dread pouring over me as my gaze switches back to the room. Its door opens and two men drag in an unconscious man with a sack over his head. For a moment I have no idea what’s happening or whom it’s happening to, but then they remove the sack and drop Jackson into the chair and I’m out of mine, rushing to the window, torn between breaking the glass or breaking Kelvin Lancaster’s neck.

  I press my palms flush against the glass, my eyes stinging as I take in his appearance. How his once-perfect blond hair is tangled and dirty. How his eyes are sunken in, lifeless. And every part of me breaks in two. For a moment, I want to beg Kelvin to release him, I want to say I’ll do whatever, anything, just return him to me so I can breathe again. But I know begging will do nothing here. I start to ask Kelvin what he wants from me, when the man on Jackson’s left pulls a gun and presses it to Jackson’s head. And that’s enough.

  “Stop!” I rush for Kelvin, shaking so hard I’m not sure how I’m even walking. The xylem running through me sparks to life, telling me it’s time to fight, but my mind isn’t as sure. One wrong move and I could watch Jackson’s life taken before my eyes. I wonder if he can see me through the glass, as I can him, or if he’s even lucid. Maybe he’s been drugged. I close my eyes at the thought of what Kelvin’s done to him, what horrifying ways he’s attempted to get information out of Jackson. I draw a long, rattled breath and turn around.

  “Okay, you have my attention. What do you want?” I ask.

  Kelvin smiles. “Information. Now sit.”

  It takes all my strength to leave the window. I want to watch what they’re doing, make sure that Jackson is okay, but I can’t. The game is best played with my attention on the opponent. I just never thought my opponent would be someone here on Earth.

  I return to my chair at the table, my eyes on Kelvin, but everything else in me is completely attuned to Jackson, seeking some sign from him that everything is okay. That he’s okay. I cross my arms and wait as Kelvin seems to decide how to proceed. He nods to Lawrence, who stands immediately and goes out the door, only to return a few moments later with a tea service. They’ve got to be joking. Jackson has a gun to his head, and Kelvin thinks I’m going to drink tea with him? I stare at Law pointedly as he sets a teacup in front of me, my rage barely contained below the surface.

  “Would you like some tea?” he asks.

  “I didn’t realize you’d become a server.”

  Law’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t respond. No doubt an order from Kelvin, who I realize is watching me, his expression unreadable, and I realize he isn’t going to move until I answer him.

  “I won’t touch anything you give me,” I say.

  “That is a shame,” Kelvin says, tapping his cup. “Your mother makes wonderful tea.”

  My eyes snap over to him, but I refuse to respond. He’s baiting me and I have enough anger in me right now to destroy this room. I can’t let it overcome me. I can’t afford to become reckless. “She does,” I say, holding his gaze. Breathe, Ari. Stay calm. But all I can think about is Jackson and the gun and how quickly my entire world could be gone. My legs jump from nervousness, and it takes effort to still them. I curse myself for showing this bit of weakness, knowing Kelvin sees, knowing he’s enjoying my unease. But Jackson…

  My eyes drift back to the window, and I have to blink and breathe and blink again, to keep from losing it. What have they done to you?

  Lawrence sits back beside Kelvin, his fingers laced together in front of him as Kelvin speaks, drawing my attention again. “We believe Zeus intends to attack within the next two weeks. Do you know this to be true?”

  A sarcastic laugh releases from my mouth. I can’t help it. Their assumptions about Zeus are so ignorant they are nearly childish. “I know only that whatever informa
tion you have was implanted on purpose. Zeus is too smart to reveal his strategies. It’s likely a trap, or a diversion.”

  Kelvin tilts his head. “Do you know where Zeus is right now?”

  I shake my head, growing frustrated. They act as though we were great friends, like he confided in me. They don’t realize that Zeus confided in no one, least of all me. He beat his wife, tortured his grandson, Jackson, for no other reason than to build strength. He has no regard for anyone or anything other than power and control. Those are his friends.

  “I have no idea where he is. Why would I?”

  At that Kelvin nods in the direction of the window and the Op behind Jackson pulls out a blade and slices straight through Jackson’s earlobe as though it were nothing more than paper. Jackson grits his teeth together at the onset of pain, but the xylem in his body heals the wound almost immediately. My back tightens, anger coiling around and around in my gut like a snake, poised to snap. It takes me several long, deep breaths to calm down. An impulsive reaction on my part will only worsen things for Jackson, and I need him free. I need him with me, wrapped around my body. Him comforting me and me him…if only for a moment. Nothing else matters right now.

  “Let’s try this again. Where is Zeus?”

  I lift my chin and steady my gaze on Kelvin, channeling my anger instead of fear. One emotion will drive me, and I can’t allow it to be fear. “You can question me all night. You can torture Jackson until he’s unable to stand. That changes nothing. We don’t know where he is. Zeus took Jackson, then the fight broke out—just like we had planned. What you had planned. We made it to the main portal, saw the last time stamp read ‘Briya,’ and thought Zeus took Jackson there. But he’s here, which means Zeus could be anywhere. I have no idea. He has no idea.” I jab a finger at the window. “You are wasting your time.”