by Melissa West
“Honey,” Mom says. “You have a few visitors. I’ve kept them away while you slept.” She shakes her head in obvious annoyance. “They refuse to leave until they see you.” She opens my bedroom door, and Jackson and Lawrence fight to get through the doorway. Mom rolls her eyes. “You have ten minutes. She needs rest.”
I wait until I can hear her descend the stairs to speak. “Why are you two together?” I ask.
“We— I— Jackson?” Law shoots him a look.
“A bomb was planted at the school,” Jackson says.
“Bomb? Mom said it was an electrical fire.”
Jackson stares at me, almost in disappointment, like he expects better than for me to just accept what someone tells me. “No. And we’re running out of time.” He paces the room, raking a hand through his hair and scratching his chin. “Zeus is growing impatient, and he’s not the sort of leader to care who he kills. I think… I fear…”
“Genocide,” Law says. The word hangs in the air, a dark cloud over us. “Which is why I had to help. I’m the next leader. Besides, Jackson thinks they’ll kill our mom soon if she doesn’t cooperate. That’s all he told me. He approached me as soon as he found out. I’ll admit,” he says, glancing at Jackson, “it took me a while to believe him, but there’s too much evidence. Plus—”
“Wait,” I say, waving my hands in the air, confused. “What do you mean our mom? Who is our?”
Lawrence’s eyes shift from me to Jackson. “Seriously? You couldn’t even be honest with her about that?”
“You’re…brothers?” I ask, putting it all together. I cover my face with my hands, wishing I wasn’t so tired so I could think. “Get out,” I say. “Both of you. I want to be alone.”
Jackson starts to explain, but I point at the door before he can continue. “I said, get out!” I’m so sick of all the secrets.
Mom rushes in, hearing my shouts. “What’s wrong?” she says to me.
“I’m tired.”
She looks from me to the two of them and nods. “Okay, guys, she’s had enough.”
Once they’re gone, I’m able to think through what they’ve said and what it means. I feel gross inside. Law kissing me in public all the time, like he was marking his territory. Jackson stiffening every time he saw Law with me. I can’t believe they didn’t tell me. No, I can’t believe he didn’t tell me, because I know this was all Jackson. He could have told me at any point that Law was his brother. Why not tell me? Why not be honest? I slump down in bed, wrapping the covers tightly around me. Exhaustion overcomes me, and before I know it I’m asleep.
When I wake it’s dark outside and my alarm clock reads one a.m. I slide up in bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and freeze as my foot connects with something hard.
“Glad to see you awake.” I lower my hands to find Jackson sitting at the foot of my bed. “Sorry, did I startle you?”
I hesitate, torn between telling him to leave and wanting to know more. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, my voice hard.
He walks around the bed and sits next to me. “I’m sorry. It was selfish and mean. I just… I wanted you to trust me because of me, not because of him.” His face turns bitter, and I realize he’s jealous of Law.
“You know, honesty builds trust, not withholding stuff. And I was beginning to trust you, but now…I don’t know.” I lean back, taking him in.
“I’m sorry,” he says again.
I stare out into my room, wanting to stay angry, but I can’t keep my curiosity from bubbling up. “So tell me how this works. How are you and Lawrence brothers?”
He straightens. “We’re not brothers. We may share the same blood but he isn’t my brother. I don’t know him, not really. My family is on Loge. To the Cartiers, I was just a mistake.” He pulls back, his face reddening, but not out of embarrassment, out of anger. “Did you know the patch used to not exist?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah, years ago there was nothing blocking humans from seeing Ancients. You can guess what happened—hormones kicked in, attraction overcame logic, and a few mixed breeds were born. Sandra Cartier, my birth mom, was twenty-two when she had me. I think she cared for my dad, and he for her, but none of that mattered. My grandparents came for me. See, half human or not, once xylem enters our bodies, it multiplies. With half of me already Ancient, it took very little time for the xylem to spread. I became a full Ancient within three months of my birth. I never saw my mother, or even knew who she was, until I came here. My grandfather was afraid I would sense a connection to her and seek her out, so he told me everything. I agreed to not speak to her, and I haven’t. But once I learned she was in danger, I had to tell Lawrence… Regardless of what’s happened, I don’t want a war.”
“That’s horrible,” I say.
He glances up. “I know. I guess my grandparents assumed I would hate her for ditching me. I should feel that way, but I don’t.”
He seems so sad and broken that my body moves before I remember that I’m supposed to be angry. I lean in, wrapping my arms around him in a hug that sends a flood of warmth through my body. I ease away slowly, so slowly I can feel his breath against my neck, my cheek, my mouth.
Jackson separates, and it’s as though all the warmth in my body went with him. He smiles awkwardly and scratches his chin. “I thought you were mad at me.”
I look down. “I am, or I was. I guess I understand why you didn’t say anything, but that doesn’t make it all right. If you want me to trust you, you have to be honest with me. From now on, got it? And you need to trust me, too. This isn’t going to work unless we can be open with each other.”
He tilts his head as though contemplating something, and then finally says, “I do trust you, and I’ll prove it. Come someplace with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Jackson opens my window, letting in an easy breeze. I reach behind me for a sweater and slide on some shoes. “Okay, ready,” I say, then stop. “Wait, what about the Taking?” Most of his Takings lately have been short, but still he hasn’t missed a night.
“Nah, not tonight. You’re just recovering. I don’t want to risk weakening you.”
Jackson slips out my window onto a wooden ledge and waits for me to follow. The platform stretches from my window to a giant oak behind my house—the Ancient tree assigned to my family. I glance to my right and left, seeing tree after tree, all similar to this one, all allowing Ancients into homes along my street. It’s a surreal sight, viewing it from here. I’ve always known how the Taking process works, how an Ancient is assigned to each of us at age ten, but I’ve never witnessed a visual like this row of trees that shows just how connected the Ancients are to our lives. I can’t believe I’ve never walked out on this platform until now.
“We’re pretty high up, so watch your step,” Jackson says as he maneuvers his body under one of the branches. I freeze. We are seriously high up. My heart begins to race, and then Jackson swings through the limbs, his body curving and folding around branches as though he is one of those gymnasts in our athletic tablets. I watch him in awe. Then a thought leaks into my brain. Can I do that? Surely not, but something inside me screams that I can.
Jackson reaches the ground and looks up. “You can jump. I’ll catch you.”
“Jump?!” I whisper-scream. “I’m not jumping.” I eye the branches in front of me, tangled and chaotic, and a moment later I’m within them, swinging from branch to branch just like Jackson before finally landing on the ground, a triumphant smile on my face. “Did you see that? I just…um…well, whatever you did, I did it, too! Isn’t that amazing?”
But his expression seems worried, even afraid. “Uh, yeah, amazing. Let’s go.”
I hesitate, wondering what’s with his changed mood, but then my focus is on the forest trail. Goose bumps rise across my skin. The forest isn’t just dark, it’s blacker than black and thorny and overgrown. I stop short. “Won’t they sense us?”
“Th
ey?” He smirks.
“Never mind. Let’s go.”
“No, no, no. Who’s ‘they’?”
I sigh, shaking my head. “You know the stories. The wild Ancients who stalk the forest like animals wanting to feed off our souls.”
I glance over to see him fighting back laughter. “Trust me, there’s no one in the forest but you and me. And besides, am I detecting fear? Is the future commander actually afraid?”
“No, of course not.” I stare through the thick branches and leaves, trying to find wandering eyes or razor-sharp teeth. “Fine, okay. Let’s go.”
Jackson leads the way, tearing down spiderwebs and overgrowth. We’re several yards into the forest and away from earshot of anyone when something dawns on me.
“Hey,” I say, turning on him. “My patch. I lost it the night you asked for my help, and then the next day it just reappeared. Did you—”
“Yes. I took it and then returned it when I told you to close your eyes. I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you what I was. You’re too skeptical for that. I had to show you.”
“So have you always been assigned to me, or was there someone before?”
“No, all the leaders are assigned RESs, and with you being a future leader, you were assigned an—um—trained RES.” He looks away like he’s hiding something.
I stop. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing. Look, we’re here.” He motions beside us, and I crane my neck to peer up at the largest tree I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s like someone took a normal tree and then stacked a couple more on top of it. The knobby branches fork off in strange directions, like it’s reaching out for something, but that’s not the weirdest part. In the center of the trunk, as though it’s been cut out of the wood, is a dark triangular opening that must be six feet high. The opening slants to the right in a painful sort of way, and I wonder if this tree can feel, because if so it seems miserable. “What is this thing?” I ask.
“This is our original entrance, called the Unity Tree. It’s the only port not monitored by Mainland.”
“What do you mean, monitored?”
“We created and continue to control all the ports on Earth so leaders of your world can travel to ours as needed,” Jackson says. “But humans still monitor them. Not this tree.” He points to the Unity Tree. “It can only be seen if you know where to find it. I thought maybe this could be, you know, our place. For coordinating and stuff.” He glances up, looking nervous.
I inch forward, reaching out to touch the tree, when Jackson takes my hand gently in his, surprising me.
“It’s a portal, remember,” he says.
“Oh, right.” I step back from it, pulling my hand from his. The chill of the forest seeps through my clothes and I wrap my arms around myself.
“Jackson?” I ask.
“Yeah?”
“I need to know what happened at school.”
“I thought you might,” Jackson says, walking over to lean against a nearby tree. “Though I don’t know much. Zeus gave a last-minute order. I found out moments before the bomb exploded.”
“But why the school of all places? Didn’t he know you and Mackenzie were in there? Didn’t he—”
Jackson pushes from the tree, tossing a twig to the ground he’d been fiddling with. “Oh, he knew; he just didn’t care. Zeus has changed, hardened. He doesn’t care who he hurts, least of all me. The clock ticks away, and everyone thinks it ticks toward Zeus’s decision, but really it’s his mind. He’s closer and closer to losing it, and trust me, when he does there won’t be anything or anyone left to fight for. That’s why we need the strategy now. He’s convinced that if he knows the strategy, he can stop it from happening and negotiate coexistence. That bit of information could have prevented the attack at school today, but I can’t find it.” He kicks at a rock, causing it to crash into a patch of leaves. “I’ve tried everything I can think of. I’ve involved anyone that could be useful, but still I couldn’t prevent this. I couldn’t help those people today. I—”
“Stop,” I say. “This isn’t your fault. You’re doing everything you can. You aren’t the one who can prevent this, anyway—I am.”
…
That night I dream I’m running through the forest screaming Jackson’s name, but he doesn’t respond. Laughter floats through the leaves, as sharp as the wind before a storm. It taunts me forward, yet I can’t make out the words. I stop in front of the Unity Tree. But where darkness lay in its center before, I’m now greeted with a light as small as a candle. I walk toward the light, reaching out to touch its warmth, and then I’m inside the tree, a sparkling waterfall gushing down from above me and disappearing into a sea of roots below my feet. It sparkles green and yellow with hints of shimmering pink mixed into the water like flecks of glitter. I think I’m there alone, absorbing this magical place, until the scene changes and I’m standing on a stone cliff overlooking a lake, Jackson by my side.
He leads me out onto a path beside a smaller pond, where several Ancients stand on flat bamboo-looking boats, an older one watching me. Lightning fills the sky, and then the man is in front of me. He releases a musical laugh, and then leans in until his face rests against mine. “Danger lies with those who ignore the signs.” I pull away to look at him, my words failing me, but he doesn’t say more. Instead, his eyes dart to Jackson, and only one word can describe the expression on his face—fear.
CHAPTER 12
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I jerk up in bed and stare at my door. What the—?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The last of sleep evaporates from my brain, and I go to my closet, pulling out the gun Dad gave me for my birthday last year and edge to the door before the next round of banging can start up. I slip beside the door, hit the open button, and whip around to blow the head off my intruder, only to scream in unison with Gretchen, who is on the other side, her fist still midair, her face painted with shock.
“Seriously?” she says as she pushes the gun out of her face and walks into my room. “You need to invest in some quality nerve pills. Like the kind retired Ops take so they can sleep at night. The hard stuff. That’s what sick people like you need.”
I sigh heavily as I return the weapon to the small gun cabinet in my closet. Maybe my reaction was a little rash, but after yesterday’s attack, I’m not sure what to expect. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Have you seen the news?”
“No, what’s going on?”
“It’s insane.” She taps my T-screen to awaken it, clicks the convert button, and then surfs through the channels until she reaches the news. And she’s right; it’s horrible. Protestors have popped up all across the country, maybe the world. Some are burning their patches, others chopping down their Taking trees. It’s the largest show of rebellion I’ve ever seen, and I can only imagine what horrors lay in store for these people. Their passion is admirable, but it’s also futile. They still think we have the control, when I’m starting to wonder if we ever had control. Something doesn’t feel right to me. Jackson claims Zeus wants the strategy so negotiations can be made before a war erupts, but it feels like the war has already begun—if nothing else, droplets of it, spreading through our world. I’m not sure delivering the strategy to Zeus will stop the attacks, but knowing what we have planned is vital to figuring out how to stop the rising tension. I can’t say what Zeus will do—I can’t even guess—all I can do is trust Jackson.
“Hello, anyone in there?” Gretchen asks, snapping in front of my face. “I asked you if it’s all right if I click that message.” She points to the screen where an emergency message from Parliament flashes in red.
I reach over her, tap the message, and then crack each of my knuckles one by one as the letter fills the screen. A voice-over sounds through my speakers, reading the letter to us in a thunderous voice.
“Today, October 15, 2140, Parliament announces a mandatory education day. All applicable students are expected to
arrive promptly to their respective schools. No excuses will be accepted. Any student not accounted for will be summoned into questioning. We appreciate your cooperation.”
Then the letter folds away, disappearing as quickly as it emerged. Gretchen and I stare at the screen. A mandatory school day. That’s never happened before—ever. I can’t imagine Dad agreed to this, but maybe he did. Maybe it was his idea. The only reason they would do this is to show the Ancients that we can’t be bullied into coexistence. Everything is moving much faster than I thought.
Gretchen reaches over to click off my T-screen when another letter appears from Coach Sanders—Op testing continues today.
…
Gretchen and I walk into school wary. Everyone looks as uneasy as we do, even the professors. The Chemists must have sent their construction team to work through the night because everything looks exactly as it was before, as though nothing happened. As though the Ancients didn’t try to wipe out our school just twenty-four hours ago. Sure, no one died, but plenty of students and professors were injured. Forcing us to come back so soon is torture. They want to show face to the Ancients, but they’re doing it by punishing us. It isn’t right. And what’s even more shocking is that we have another round of Op testing today, which means Parliament wants a stocked military as soon as possible.
The halls are silent, the students are ghosts, dazed and empty. Law is waiting at our lockers when Gretchen and I arrive. “You okay?” he asks, his eyes darting from me to Gretchen, where they linger. I glance from him to her. Gretchen’s cheeks redden, her eyes looking anywhere but at me. Hmm, that’s odd.
I start to ask what’s going on when I spy Jackson in the middle of the hall. Mackenzie walks up to him and whispers something. He straightens, smiling, and then pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her. I look away.
