Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2)

by Casey L. Bond

  I received a comm while I was out walking, blowing off steam. It said I was to report immediately to the depot. When I arrived, nothing seemed out of place. No one was around at all. The bright red metallic train of the Vesuvian city was still and cold. The clicking of heels echoed across the old wooden planks and I looked for the source. The heels were red. My eyes traveled up a sleek, skin-tight red jumpsuit that held some dangerous curves. Wow.

  One of those heels started tapping impatiently. I’d been ogling her. The girl’s eyes were dark brown, almost black, their pupils encircled by the golden Greater ring. The darkness of her eyes matched her long, wavy hair almost perfectly. Her nose was slightly upturned and her lips were full and pink. She was hot.

  “Are you quite finished?”

  I laughed. “I think so.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “We should go inside, Lesser. It’s freezing out here.”

  “What? You didn’t bring a winter coat?” I teased.

  “Vesuvius is in the far south. We barely have a winter. I do not even own one.”

  I guffawed. “I thought all Greaters had closets full of things they would never need.”

  Her brows furrowed. “We do not.”

  “Relax. I’m just teasing you.” I held the door open for her and watched as she walked inside. That jumpsuit should be standard-issue for all women.

  Inside, she relaxed a little. “You and I are to work together from this point forward.” She looked around at the small desk, the papers, the crates of goods stacked neatly along the back wall.

  “Says who?”

  “Says Kaia Kelley.”

  I nodded. “Abby’s mom wanted me to have an assistant, huh?”

  “I suppose you need someone to watch over you.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  Her dark eyes met mine. “Your comm to Senn in Olympus was intercepted. Though we understand why you contacted him, you must understand that we need to ensure that you do not compromise the fact that Vesuvius is involved now.”

  “Why is Vesuvius involved? I mean, other than the fact that Abby is Kaia’s daughter. Kaia never worried about her welfare before. Why now?”

  “Is Abigail Kelley your wife?” It was an innocent question but it cut me deep. Abby wasn’t my wife. She didn’t want to be, so it would never happen.

  “No.”

  “Then why do you concern yourself with her affairs?”

  “She’s my best friend,” I barked.

  Her features softened. “I see. You like her.”

  I stared her down, crossing my arms over my chest. She’d known me all of five minutes and thought she knew me.

  “Look, we are here for Orchard’s protection. For now, at least. Olympus knows about your communication to Senn. Senn was executed for treason. King Cole has executed many people recently. So that is one reason Vesuvius is involved. He needs to be stopped. Another reason is that he has lied to all of the Greaters about the vaccinations, their effects and about something much bigger. He will be held accountable. We will make sure of it. But we need to be smart about how we go about this. Cole cannot know that we are here. If we are to succeed, he cannot see us coming.”

  I nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry. About Senn.” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I blew out a breath.

  “Kyan Marks, you cannot blame yourself for the actions of someone else, especially those of King Harrison Cole. He is corrupt and the very definition of evil.”

  I looked up at her. This day had been crap. First Abby and Gray, now Senn.

  “Well, you know my name. What’s yours?”

  She smiled and extended her hand. “I am Julia.”

  I took her tiny hand in mine. It was soft and pale.

  “Well, Julia, what would you like to know? About how we run things here in Orchard?” Time to get to work.

  Gray and I snoozed on the couch, his arm around my shoulder, my body nestled against his. We were both clean and our stomachs weren’t eating themselves. We were comfortable for the first time in weeks.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss. Then suddenly Crew’s face would flash into my mind. I’d betrayed him. Sure, he’d betrayed me by marrying my almost twin, but still. I kissed Gray. Love doesn’t betray.

  Gray stretched. “I’m not going to do it again.”

  “Do what?”

  “Kiss you. I’m not going to kiss you again until you stop thinking about him.”

  “Who?”

  “Crew,” he answered flatly.

  “How do you know I’m thinking about him? Maybe I was thinking about puppies.”

  “Puppies?” I raised one eyebrow.

  “Yeah. I like puppies. A lot.”

  “Know what I like?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. What do you like, Gray?”

  He started assaulting me with tickles on my sides and under my arms. “Stop!” I shrieked. I needed to pee. “Stop before I pee on you!”

  Gray stopped immediately. “Go pee! Don’t you dare do it on me!”

  We laughed as I bundled up to go outside and relieve myself.

  When I came back to the cabin, Gray was still sitting on the couch, but he wasn’t alone. Kyan and a girl around our age with dark hair and eyes were sitting on it, too. She was stunning and dressed in an extremely form-fitting red body suit. But that wasn’t who stopped my footsteps and stilled breath. The woman sitting in the kitchen chair across from them did. I felt like I was looking at an older version of myself, and in a way, I was.

  “Abigail?” the woman asked. We even sounded alike.

  “Yes.”

  “I am Kaia Kelley. I am your mother.”

  “Yeah. I can tell.” She laughed lightly as I raked my eyes over her, trying to memorize everything about her. She stood up and gingerly approached me. Her eyes begged me for permission. Permission for what?

  She extended her hand. When I clasped it, I could tell that hers was shaking. Tears welled in her blue eyes. She launched forward, almost knocking the breath out of me. She sobbed into my shoulder.

  “I am so sorry, Abigail.” It took several minutes for her to calm down. The hard woman who met me so confidently at first had disappeared, replaced by a woman filled with guilt and heartache.

  “Why are you sorry?”

  She sniffed and caught her breath before answering. “I am sorry for so many things. The hardest thing I have ever done was leaving you in Lulu’s arms and not jumping from the train that took us to Vesuvius. I am sorry not to have contacted you, although Lulu and I did communicate about your wellbeing. And I am sorry about what happened to her. I had no idea she had passed. You were all alone and I should have been here with you and there for you.”

  “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

  “No,” she sniffed. “I know what they did to you.” Her eyes were filled with pain and something else. Something I imagined only a mother might feel when someone harmed her child. She continued, “I promise that Cole will pay for what he’s done. That’s one reason I’m here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I knew that there were other people in the room, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I was almost afraid I was dreaming or that she was an apparition, or a figment of my imagination. Maybe I was still in the prison, hallucinating from lack of food and sleep.

  “We had to cut off all of Olympus’s feeds to Orchard in order to get you out. We only have so long before they send someone to check on the situation. So we have to act swiftly. There are two supply trains scheduled to enter Olympus in the next twenty-four hours. Our soldiers will be on one of those trains. We will arrest Cole. He will stand trial before the Greater courts and will pay for his actions.”

  “I understand why you would be angry about the vaccinations and the cover-up, but why would any Greater court punish him for his treatment of Lessers?”

  “First of all, Greaters are angry at his actions regarding the vaccinations, but he has done a much more sinister and deadly thing.” She w
iped her eyes and straightened her back. “I am not supposed to tell you this, but you need to know. Cole ordered his scientists to create a deadly virus, a plague of sorts, not unlike the one that caused the separation to begin with. It was designed to infect and kill Greaters, leaving Lessers immune. I suppose he needs Lessers for their work. Olympus and Vesuvius are the only cities unaffected. The other three have fallen prey to this plague. The death toll is nearly one hundred percent.”

  “Why would he do that? And, why wasn’t Vesuvius affected?”

  “We didn’t get the shipment. It was on a train just after Lulu died. She was supposed to have sent the crate to us, but with her being gone, it must have slipped through the cracks.”

  What in the world? “When the other cities fell prey, it happened rapidly. We stopped receiving shipments from them. Cole believes Vesuvius has fallen as well. He had planned to rule all the Lessers and make a solitary kingdom of his own. He needed the other Greater cities out of the way.”

  “Well, he almost succeeded.” I couldn’t wrap my brain around the extent of Cole’s evil. I guess there was no rationalizing crazy.

  “Almost,” she smiled.

  Kyan cleared his throat. “The comm. You need to tell her about the comm.”

  My mother looked from him back to me. “We received a comm today from Marian Cole, Prince Crew’s wife.”

  “I know who she is.”

  “It was risky for her to contact us directly. Crew has gone missing. She is asking for help. She suspects that his father has played a hand in his disappearance.”

  I couldn’t breathe. “What?”

  She nodded. “We need to get the group of Lesser women safely out of Olympus. Do you remember where they were?”

  “Yes. I don’t know if they’re still there though.”

  Kaia nodded. “It is not fair to ask this of you, especially given your history with Cole. But, would you help us with their extraction?”

  “Shouldn’t we get all of the Lessers out of Olympus?”

  “We will, but we will need their help. I want to get those girls out, get them to safety. Like you, they have been through a trauma, Abigail.”

  “Call me Abby. And I’ll go. Am I on the first train?”

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  Gray and Kyan stood and simultaneously said, “I’m going with you.”

  My mother laughed and said, “Kyan, you have to stay here and help Julia. But you may go with her, Gray.”

  Kyan looked defeated. “Come on, Ky. We need you here,” I pleaded. “When do we leave?”

  “Three in the morning. Get some rest. I will send someone to retrieve you.”

  I nodded, accepting another hug from her. She smelled like vanilla.

  Julia stood and waited for my mother. I won’t lie. I was a bit jealous of that girl. What kind of relationship did they have?

  I watched the two of them walk out the door and turned around. Kyan’s lips were tight. He looked at me and said, “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Abby Blue.”

  “I’ve got to try to get them out, Ky.”

  His eyes were full of accusation. “You’re going to go after him, aren’t you?”

  I glanced at Gray who was sharply watching the scene unfold. “I don’t know. If I find him, I’ll help him.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Abby. He isn’t worth it. Think of what he did to you. He’s done nothing but cause you trouble. You have to think about your baby, now.”

  “I know!” I shouted. Calming myself, I tried again. “I know. I will. But I have to help. I know where Laney and the others are. I can get them out.”

  He nodded. “I hope you’re right.”

  Gray stepped forward. “We will get them out. Then, we will safely board the train and get the hell out of there. Period. No crap, Abs.”

  I blinked. “Yep. That’s the plan.”

  Kyan shrugged his coat on. “I have to go to the depot. I’m on shift tonight. I’ll come and get you when it’s time.”

  He walked over to me and hugged me, kissing my cheek lightly. “Get some sleep, Abby Blue.”

  “I will. Thanks.”

  He looked over my shoulder zeroing in on Gray. “Yeah.”

  When he left, I had to try to calm myself down. To say that I was nervous was an understatement.

  I flinched when Gray said my name. “Abs, we need to get some rest.” He was mad, but I didn’t want to deal with it. I would find Crew. My feelings for him had changed. I no longer craved him like air. He’d broken everything in me when he gave his heart to Marian in front of everyone. But that didn’t mean that he deserved to be imprisoned. He didn’t deserve to die.

  I made my way back to my room and waited just inside for Gray. So to say that I flinched when I heard the words, “I’m taking Kyan’s room,” fall from his beautiful lips, was an understatement.

  Gray and I had slept cuddled up together for weeks. In the haze of time lost, I’d thought it had only been days. My heart broke to see him close Kyan’s door, but I had to get some sleep. I was exhausted and my body was done.

  I curled up in my bed and tried to slow the thoughts that raced through my head. It didn’t work, and it felt like I’d only been to sleep for a few minutes when Kyan gently shook me awake.

  “Come on, Abby Blue. The train should be here soon. We have to sneak you on.”

  I blinked rapidly, trying to wake up. It didn’t work. Never did. Pulling on my shoes, coat and gloves, I raked my hair back into a knot and made my way outside. Gray was already waiting for me. His eyes were different. They seemed bothered, worried, and maybe a little cold. I swallowed. I never wanted to hurt him, but there was no way to avoid it. I just hoped he could forgive me in the end. And maybe I hoped that I could somehow forgive myself.

  We walked into the night, black as pitch. The sky was clear and the only light around came from the stars. But my feet and Kyan’s knew these pathways. Gray stayed close behind me. I could almost feel the warmth from his chest.

  It was frigid and still. The earth was frozen into a deep sleep. My breath billowed out in front of me with each exhalation. My exhaustion had been replaced with nervousness. I would be in Olympus in just a few hours. Then, we had to get the others out and get ourselves out before anyone knew what was happening, before Vesuvius went in.

  We waited in the shadows for the train. Someone approached from the trail. We could hear their footsteps crunching the dried leaves and packed snow. My mother’s face appeared in the light of the fire torch overhead.

  “I just wanted to wish you luck and tell you to be careful.” She approached me as one would a cornered animal. I wondered if I looked that way. I moved forward and hugged her. “I will.”

  “I’ll wait for you here. I’m not coming to Olympus. My orders were to secure the village and send the soldiers in.”

  I nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll be back soon.” My voice cracked, betraying the hopefulness I was trying to inject into my tone.

  She sniffed and squeezed me tighter. “Kaia? You’re choking me.”

  “Sorry. I just. I just got you back. I hate the thought of letting you go.”

  The train rumbled in the distance. It was go time. Ky handed me a bag, which I slung over my shoulder. “Food and stuff you might need.”

  “Thanks.”

  I stood awkwardly. “You mean your best friend doesn’t get a hug?”

  I smiled and hugged him and then pulled away. Gray’s eyes were fixated on us. Kyan offered Gray his hand. “Take care of her, man.”

  “I will.”

  Kyan’s expression was hard, contradicting his words. “See you soon, Abby Blue.”

  Tears blurred my vision. When the train passed us with a whoosh of air that sent my hair afloat, and then rapidly began to slow down, I hugged both Kyan and my mother again quickly. Ky slid the large metal door open for us and we slipped into the car, heading back to the place from which we’d only so recently escaped.

  Within ten minutes, Kyan had loade
d several crates of materials onto the train car and exchanged the necessary communications with its engineer. We were ready to leave. We could hear Kyan’s muffled voice comm the engineer. All was loaded. Cleared for Olympus.

  The train whistle blew loudly announcing our departure. The wheels began to propel us forward and I listened as they grated and groaned.

  Gray and I sat together in the frigid, metal train car that smelled of age and rust, our backs against the worn, grating steel. He was quiet. He was angry and it emanated from his person like smoke from fire. “Gray?”

  “What?” he snapped.

  “Never mind.”

  Calmer, he said, “Just say it.”

  “Do you think we’ll find the girls?”

  He sighed. “Yes. They’re probably still where we left them in the Lesser section.”

  I nodded. I hoped he was right. I wanted to see Laney, to bring her out of that hellish place.

  “Tell me about you.”

  He cocked his head back. “About me?”

  “Yeah. What are your parents like? Do you have brothers and sisters? How did you become a guard? What’s your favorite food? Favorite color?”

  He finally put his arm around my shoulders as the car gently rocked to and fro. “My parents were pretty old when I was conceived. I left them in Everest when I left to become a guard in Olympus. I had applied for guardship in Everest, but the need was greater in Olympus and I was stationed there. Guards can be moved around as needed by the cities. I have no brothers and sisters. My favorite food is anything you fix and my favorite color used to be green.”

  I bent my head. “Used to be? What is it now?”

  “Blue. Blue like the color of a clear afternoon sky. Blue like your eyes.”

  I looked up at him. He wasn’t joking. Glancing down at his full lips, he began to smirk. “Not gonna kiss you.”

  I guffawed. “I didn’t ask you to kiss me.”

  “You were thinking about it.”

  “You read minds? Any other super powers I should know about?”