Oh. Wow, wow, wow. Dizziness nearly topples me. As I fight to remain standing, a crack of thunder booms so loudly my eardrums actually rupture. Grimacing, I stand. Again I teeter. With a single step forward, I almost face-plant. Ember-bugs were waiting nearby and now strike en masse, burning me.
I wave my arms. Another crack of thunder causes pain to explode through my skull. I cover my ears, but as the third crack sounds, I realize nothing can muffle the power of the boom. My scream joins the thousands of others still ringing out. Tears streak down my blistered cheeks.
Ten's tears fall, and I call.
The childhood song consumes my awareness, the perfect distraction. Nine hundred trees, but only one is for me.
Something hard slams into my back, knocking me down. The ember-bugs scatter, but it hardly matters. The bird-skeletons are back, and they've come to finish the job! I jab my elbow backward, hear a grunt.
"Hold her."
Through my pain and injuries, the voice is muffled, but I'm lucid enough to know birds squawk and humans speak. I've got a human on my back and another human--the speaker--somewhere nearby.
Two against one.
Two sets of hands latch on to my wrist in a tight clasp. A shackle. I buck up, dislodging whoever is straddling me.
The boy at my right says, "We're trying to help you, girl."
Maybe he's telling the truth, maybe he isn't. Remembering what Archer and Killian taught me, I turn my wrists to grab hold of the hands still holding me. I use both as leverage, yanking on the owners as I hoist myself up, at the same time kicking back, nailing the other person--three against one--in the chest.
I'm released as the two at my arms stumble for purchase, and I end up in a crouch. I swipe up the bug-covered branch, ignore the new stings and throw it at the person--a guy, roughly six feet tall, brown hair, unfamiliar and dirty but definitely human. He catches the branch, instinct I guess, and grunts as the insects bite him. With him, the playing field is now even, at least. We've both been bitten. Poisoned? The dizziness...
I straighten and turn, my hands balled into fists, my legs braced apart. I'm ready. One boy and one girl left. The boy has shoulder-length blond hair. At least, I think it's blond. It's matted with dirt and blood, dried leaves woven through the strands. He's on the short side for a guy, though he's taller than me, and he's thin, as if he hasn't had a decent meal in eons.
The girl is shorter and cleaner with braided blond hair and the face of an angel, despite the streaks of dirt she's sporting. When my gaze moves to her, she ducks her head. She's timid. Noted.
"Idiot!" The shorter boy scowls at me. "We're trying to save your stupid life."
Another boom of thunder nearly sends me to my knees, yet the three amigos merely grimace.
"When the rain falls, you don't want to be out here," he continues. "Your skin will melt off your bones."
"If you knew me," I reply through gritted teeth, "you'd know trust doesn't come easily. So. How do I know you're not as bad as the animals, leading me into a trap?"
The scent of something fetid wafts on the breeze, and I gag. This is death itself, and it's closing in.
"Stay here or follow us," he says. "The choice is yours."
Always. "Who are you?"
"Out here? I'm food." He turns and runs into the thick of the forest. The other two follow him, and I don't have to think for long. I sprint after him, too, mimicking the zigzag pattern as they dodge chomping limbs and shimmery patches of air. The scent of death begins to fade.
Nine hundred trees, but only one is for me.
The song starts up again, but I shake my head to clear the words. Not now. Concentrate!
Finally, the shortest boy says, "My name is Brett."
"Kayla," the girl says.
The taller boy is next. "I'm Reed."
"I'm Ten."
"How'd you die?" Reed asks.
I flinch. "I don't know. You?"
"Ever heard of HART?" Brett jumps over a rock. "We were at a meeting, planning a peace rally. There was an explosion, and we woke up here."
I rack my brain for news reports but come up empty. Must have happened while I was locked inside Prynne.
"Where were you based?"
"LA."
"My old stomping ground. And you truly believed you could make the realms stop fighting and start hugging?"
Kayla throws me a glare and misses the rock in front of her. She stumbles. Unlike me, she falls to her hands and knees. Brett and Reed immediately rush to her side to help her up. They are like a well-oiled machine. Clearly, they've had to do this before.
A squawk sounds--the bird-skeletons!--and I automatically reach for my scalpel. Zero! When will I learn?
Eight times eight times eight they fly, whatever you do, don't stay dry.
Wait. They fly. They. The birds?
The song can't refer to this place...can it? Lina couldn't have known I'd end up here. Right?
Always spoke in past tense. As if the future had already happened.
Always knew I'd escape Prynne.
One of the creatures lands just in front of me, and I skid to a stop. Wings made of bone and metal stretch on and on, knocking down trees. The boys draw weapons--crudely made wooden daggers. Good, that's good. Four of us against one of them. Excellent odds.
Kayla crawls to the base of a tree and curls into a ball, whimpering.
Okay. Three against one. Not bad odds. But even now, the skin-melting rain is closing in. Except...do we want to get wet? Eight times eight times eight they fly, whatever you do, don't stay dry.
Don't stay dry. But...if the rain melts us, it isn't water; it's some type of acid.
So the rain is out.
"Water," I say. "We need water." It's worth a shot.
"No." Brett jumps from one foot to the other, preparing to leap. "The lake is more dangerous than the creatures."
Clawed feet remain embedded in the ground as the creature lunges forward, its neck stretching...stretching...its beak snapping at Brett, who dives out of the way at the last second.
"No one ever returns from the lake," Reed adds.
But the song--
Is probably meaningless. Get over it. Concentrate.
I'm weaponless. I can't help the boys fight, but I can act as the bait.
"Hey," I shout. "Over here. Come get me."
The creature focuses on me. At least, I think it does. The head swings in my direction, but the eye sockets are clear.
The boys understand my intent and dive on the creature as it steps toward me. Another squawk is followed by another crash of thunder, this one louder than any of the others. Warm liquid gushes from my ears. I scream as I fall--
"Ten!"
My eyelids spring open. Killian looms over me, the sunglasses gone, the gold flecks in his eyes bright. I pat my ears as the throb fades. I don't... I can't...
"You're all right. I'm here, I'm here."
Yes, yes, he is. He's here, and I'm alive. Thank Firstking!
I scan the vehicle. We're stationary, pulled to the side of the road. "Where's Archer?"
"Don't worry. He'll return shortly...had to run an errand."
Even though my synapses aren't firing at full capacity yet, I detect doublespeak. "Did you destroy his Shell?"
His teeth flash in a smile that's part delight, part malevolence. "Define destroyed."
So, yes.
"I didn't punch him," Killian adds, "I just showed him my fists really fast."
We'll have to address that, but not now. Now I have to go back. "The Realm of Many Ends," I say. "There are kids there. They need me." If they aren't already dead...dead...dead again. I can't go back without dying.
I don't want to die.
He cups my jaw and I can't look away from him. He's too relieved, too gut-wrenchingly gentle. He acts irredeemable so much of the time, but he has these great moments of compassion.
"You were in the Realm of Many Ends?" he asks gently.
"I was. But how did I
die?" The fog in my mind...the pain in my chest. Oh...zero. Bowel check!
I don't want the last memory people have of me in this life to be soiled pants.
I manage a discreet glance down. All clear.
"How was I brought back?" I ask.
Killian releases me to rub his forehead. "You were poisoned. I looked you over, found an injection site." He slides his hand under my back, tapping a sensitive spot. "Your heart stopped, and I poured Lifeblood down your throat."
Poisoned while I was alive? Impossible. "When could I...? How?" No one knows where I am. "Who?" I sound like an idiot, but I don't care.
"My guess? The kid at the charge station. He bumped into you on purpose, must have had a needle hidden under the stone in the ring he was wearing."
I remember the sting in my back. But...but... "Why?"
"Whoever wants you dead could have had someone waiting at every charge station between New York and LA." Killian closes his eyes, draws in a deep breath. "The realms are definitely tired of waiting for you to make up your mind. They won't give you more time."
"That sounds like a me problem, Killian. You can ease off--"
"No! I won't ease off." He gives my shoulders a little shake. "This is an us problem."
We stare at each other, silent, and I wonder if my expression is as tortured as his.
I know the realms are capable of murder. Not just because of the plane crash and the poison, but also because of the kids from HART. Someone feared their end goal enough to bomb them.
I sit up, fighting the dizziness that followed me out of the realm. Cars whiz past our SUV. The sun is in the process of setting, which means I slept--and dirt-napped--another day away.
"I'm sending a message to Madame Bennett," he says, typing into his arm. "Telling her you're very close to signing with us."
"But--"
"It should buy you a little time. If the ones who want you dead are from Myriad. If not, and word of this gets out, Troika will strike again and strike harder."
I disagree. A sneak attack isn't Troika's style.
Know them so well, do I?
No, but I know Archer and Deacon. I know their laws mean something to them. I know how precious life is to them. "I don't want you to lie for me, Killian."
He stops typing and lowers his head toward mine, the scent of peat smoke and heather thick between us, heady and intoxicating, making me shiver. "I'm not. I do think you'll sign with us. Why wouldn't you? You'll have a place of honor, you'll be adored by the citizens...and you'll be one of mine."
I gulp.
"If that doesn't convince you--I hope that convinces you--just remember the horrors awaiting you in Many Ends."
Like I'll ever forget. "I'm rolling the dice on this." At least for a little while longer. If I really am a tipping factor of the war, backing the right people--the ones I'll have to live with--is more important than ever.
"You make protecting you an almost impossible task, lass."
"Don't protect me, then. I can take care of myself. I've been doing it for a long time."
"You shouldn't have to." He cups my cheeks again, his grip stronger, his thumbs caressing. "It's a sad way to live, and I don't want that for you."
I curl my fingers around his wrists, holding him in place. "How do you know it's sad? You have Elena and Charles."
"They report directly to Madame Bennett. I'm on my own and have been since Archer left."
I slide my hands up his arms and cup his cheeks. "We'll look out for each other, then."
As he holds my gaze, something shifts in our relationship. I don't know what. I've never experienced anything like this. But I feel the change deep, deep inside. I think he does, too, and it throws him.
He pulls back, severing contact. "Let's get back on the road. Time is our enemy."
In more ways than one. "Agreed." I'm not worried about Archer. I know he'll find me. He always does.
Killian exits the car, walks to my door and, his motions jerky, "helps" me out and leads me to the front passenger seat. I buckle in as he takes his place behind the wheel.
We sit in silence...silence that continues as we pass a group of picketers outside a virtual-reality tour facility owned by Myriad. Though there are at least fifty people, and each of them carries a sign, there are two slogans. One reads The Many Are Doomed! The other reads Your Might Isn't Right!
Their efforts are wasted. They aren't going to convince anyone they're a better choice this way. If I were part of Troika, I'd--
What? Try to change this, definitely. But how? I've never really been part of something bigger than myself. Never been on a team or put the good of many over the good of, well, me.
"Are you hungry?" Killian asks me, shattering the quiet.
"Starved, actually."
He exits the highway and turns into a burger joint and inches along the drive-through line. He orders a hamburger and fries, and the girl who collects his cash gasps.
"Killian." Her eyes go wide with a combination of shock, hope and anger. "I thought I'd never see you again."
He stiffens, stares straight ahead.
"How are you?" She looks to me for a moment then yanks her gaze back to Killian. "Who's the girl?"
Finally he deigns to glance in her direction. "Our food?"
Oh, wow. He's cold.
The color drains from her face. She trembles as she hands him a bag with grease stains on the bottom. He accepts and drives on.
"Your kindness brought a tear to my eye," I say drily. "Is that what's in store for me?"
"I was cruel to be kind." His fingers clench on the wheel. "And I don't know what's in store for you. I'm in never-before-explored terrain."
To hide my own trembling, I dig out the burger. "She was once your target, right?"
"You mean assignment. And yes, she was."
"Did she know you were a Laborer?"
"No."
"And yet you still managed to sign her."
"I'm that good."
His favorite reply. I pop a fry into my mouth, swallow. "Did you use your tried and true method of hitting it and quitting it?"
"Yes," he says with only a slight hesitation. "I slept with her. But unlike your precious James, I didn't tell her I loved her. I've never promised forever."
Ouch. "But you make girls hope for forever, even though you know there's no chance you'll offer it."
"Just because I haven't offered it doesn't mean I won't sometime in the future. I'll give the right girl everything."
I fight a wave of intense longing. I would love to be the right girl. But only if he's the right boy for me.
Am I? Is he?
"Why did Myriad want Miss Cashier so badly that they sent you, a precious resource? Why did they leave her to a life of drudgery inside a fast-food restaurant after she signed?"
"I don't know."
"Surely you can guess. You've lived in the realm your entire life, were favored by the King. You know their ways even when they refuse to explain their reasons."
He works his jaw. "Troika sent a Leader to her, rather than a Laborer, telling us she was singular to them. She turned him down. I swooped in and ensured the realm couldn't have her. And she doesn't need an exceptional Firstlife to do what we need her to do in the Everlife."
This. This is the boy who first arrived at Prynne. I don't like him. "What do you need her to do?"
"Join our army. Fight for us. Help win the war. But more important, stop her from doing whatever it was Troika wanted her to do."
How cold. "She didn't strike me as a soldier."
"But she is a voice. One whisper into the ear of another can spark another whisper and another whisper, until the noise is deafening."
"A numbers game," I say, lamenting the irony yet again. "Why are people like my dad given so much?"
"Some people--most people--accept our first offer. But others, those who have something we covet, are given preferential treatment. Your father's contract came with very few benefits. It w
asn't until you were born that he was offered a new, better deal."
"A deal that turned a child into a commodity." My bitterness is showing.
"That reminds me," he says. "Eighteen years ago, Madame had a daughter, Ashley. A girl who'd been Fused and reborn multiple times already. She was the youngest General at the time, and she'd always wanted a brother. I was irresistible, which is why I was chosen. But she died soon after, and I was returned to the Center."
My heart hurts for him. How much loss has this boy known?
"You're feeling sorry for me again, aren't you?" There's no upset in his tone, only intrigue.
"Well, you were just a little boy, and you were abandoned. I wish you'd had better."
He reaches over, takes my hand and lifts it to his mouth. As he kisses my knuckles, a tingling warmth mists over me. "Anyway," he says after he clears his throat. "I recently discovered Madame thinks you are bonded with Ashley."
Oh, wow. Madame Bennett's personal stake in me makes even more sense. "That's kind of creepy. I mean, how many times have you made a pass at me?"
"I said she believes you're bonded with Ashley. I don't. I'm certain you're bonded with one of the other slain Generals."
"So, how many Generals are there at a given time?"
"Ten."
"What?"
"Ten."
"What?" I repeat.
He rolls his eyes. "Ten Generals at a time."
Ah. I snort.
"Now eat," he says. "Keep your strength up."
"Sure thing...bro."
He glowers at me. "That's not funny."
"It kind of is."
He glowers at me again, but a moment later his eyes go wide. There's flash of light. As I turn, Killian shouts, "Brace--"
Boom!
I'm thrown toward him before I'm thrown in the other direction, only my belt keeping me in my seat. My skull slams against my window, breaking the glass. Pain explodes through my head as different bones shatter. My vision goes dark, my mind an ocean of panic, vibrations from impact causing ripples of misery as I'm tossed upside down again and again until finally landing that way, basically hanging from my belt.
Wake up, Ten. Now!
The words scream through my aching head, the English accent familiar. Archer's back? I blink open my eyes. My vision is no longer black but it's still hazed...until I use a shaky hand to wipe away the blood. No sign of Archer.
Grab the semiautomatic in the console. Turn the safety off, aim and squeeze the trigger.
Irish accent that time. "Killian?" I look, but he's not here, either. However, bits of ash are floating through the car.
Firstlife Page 23
