Curses, Fates & Soul Mates

by et al Kristie Cook

  CHAPTER 11

  My lungs protested when I sucked in air. I stepped back, raising my hands. “No. You can’t—I can’t be here—please, I’m going to just walk out of here and never come back, okay?”

  “Skylla,” Kale pleaded, his voice still soft, his posture unthreatening, “I meant it when I said I’d never hurt you. I regretted throwing you up against that wall when I found you in the restaurant closet. One look into your eyes, and I knew … you were worth protecting.”

  My lips trembled as I continued to stumble backward. “How would you know something like that about a stranger? You can’t know something like that. You don’t know me.”

  “I do now.” He inched forward, raising his hands defensively.

  “Stay there! Don’t fucking come near me. Don’t you dare move!” Something had been off about Kale’s behavior. It wasn’t hard to see it, but I hadn’t wanted to examine its cause. I barely knew this guy, but the little I’d gotten to know made me want to believe his radical views on the invasion were just part of his charismatic personality.

  I didn’t want to believe this.

  “Before you run and chance getting yourself killed, just hear me out. Why did I go back for Jet, Skylla, huh? Why did I bring him here, with us? Because I wanted to keep my word. I wanted you to trust me. I wasn’t lying when I said I need allies.”

  “Trust you?” My vision blurred while I worked to make sense of his words. He was being sarcastic, surely. Adding salt to the wound, enjoying his sadistic little game.

  “I didn’t know why I’d instinctually felt you were worth protecting. Why I wanted to be near you. My parents eliminated my implantation years ago. I shouldn’t feel anything, shouldn’t have this kind of instinct. But I do. And I know now. I need you to think clearly, need you to pull it together and accept it, if we’re going to make it through this alive.”

  “What are you…?” I shook my head, my chest heaving up and down. It was working to keep up with my shaky breaths. Nothing was working as it should. Even my lungs had forgotten their proper function, everything sideways. “What are you saying?”

  He pressed one last button on the panel and the seventh prototype lit up, the continents shining and sparkling as they rotated. Kale chanced a peek at it but dragged his gaze back to mine, blowing out a harsh breath. “When I was sixteen, my parents abandoned me. Left me a letter … and this scar.” He swiveled around and pointed to the back of his neck. A sharp, raised area of pink skin sliced vertically from the bottom of his hairline to the top of his back.

  My lungs officially seized up and I felt the color drain from my face.

  “The letter told me everything. About the Invaders. Their plan of attack. That I was one of the Seven Shepherds, selected at birth. They said my role was so sacred, they’d be killed if it were discovered that they’d removed my chip, destroyed my preselected activation. They said they wanted to be honest with me, wanted to leave me with a choice. They didn’t want to make the decision for me, but they removed the chip to give me a clean slate, just in case I decided I didn’t want to help the Invaders with their plan. So with the letter, they left me this….”

  Kale dug into his pocket and pulled out a necklace. He extended it so I could see, but I stepped back. I couldn’t distance myself from him enough. Still, I glanced at the silver chain. A chip similar to the one Jet had shown Lillian hung from it, smashed and disfigured, but still in one piece.

  “Okay, so?”

  “So I tried to ignore it. All of it. Didn’t want anything to do with it. I was put into foster care, eventually started college, moved on with life. But my curiosity wouldn’t let it go. I started researching, started learning about all of the Underground rebel groups. About their theories for how the world would end. I thought I was losing my mind. It didn’t help that my parents had taken off and never came back. They disappeared, I guess to save themselves and me, but I was still so angry at them for leaving the way they did. I was … infuriated.”

  “Why did you lie? Why are you telling me this now? I don’t … I don’t understand.” My hands began to tremble, and it was then I realized my cheeks were wet.

  “I didn’t know where I belonged, Skylla. For the longest time, I was a lost, scared kid … just trying to figure out what I was and what I was supposed to do, now that I’d turned my back on my destiny. So I joined the rebels. Learned all I could, tried to understand if or when the Invaders would arrive. When they did … everything was so surreal. I stumbled across Rico and his men, and I thought they were different. I was drawn to Rico—his leadership, his vision to gather the Seven Shepherds and confront them somehow. I wanted answers, and he was the first one to seem interested in the same thing. All the others were only interested in annihilating the Invaders and taking back what was theirs.

  “But knowing what I’d known—that Earth wasn’t really ours—well, it kind of changes your perspective. I wanted to meet them, get to the bottom of everything. Not just destroy them and go on as if nothing had ever happened.”

  He inched forward, closer and closer, and my body was too stunned to back away any farther; my reflexes fried on the spot.

  “I needed to know where I belonged,” he said. “Just like you did, back in Morton.”

  “No. This is … no. I won’t listen to this. You lied to us. Why would we trust you?”

  “Because you and Jet want the same thing.”

  “No. We want revenge. Revenge on these … these things, for all they put us through.”

  “You want answers, not revenge. You just don’t see it.”

  “Why do you need me and Jet?”

  “I only have some of the answers. I need more. That starts with Lucenta, and you and Jet. The Invaders’ underwater city. It’s been buried here on our prototype for centuries. I need to access it, but I can’t do it alone. And I can’t go with just anyone. I need allies who trust me. Who have the courage to follow me all the way. The second I saw the loyalty you and Jet shared, I knew you were the ones. You were fearless. Honest about what you would and wouldn’t do. Both of you determined to protect one another. That’s rare when Earth is torn to pieces. Everyone’s out for themselves. But you two … you acted as a unit.”

  He gave a frustrated sigh. “Here’s why I’m telling you all this. If the Invaders find out my chip’s been removed, they might execute me on the spot, or worse, I don’t know. I want the chance to communicate with them, to find those answers we’re all looking for. I’m begging you, Skylla. I need some help. I need a team I can trust.”

  Kale’s face seemed foreign now, albeit as warm and friendly as I’d known it to be. I didn’t recognize the man standing before me, and I wasn’t sure if I ever would again. Not after what he was revealing to me. What made my blood go colder was the scar he’d shown me. Acknowledging how eerily it resembled mine was unthinkable. Mama and Daddy always called it my birthmark, so I never thought otherwise. Besides, it was on the back of my neck—who thinks about what they never see?

  “What do you want from this city?” I said. “This, this Lucenta. What do you expect to find? Jet would never agree to going there with you. I won’t, either, Kale. This, this friendship—whatever you call it that’s between us—it ends now, do you understand? It’s over.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. The city holds the key to our fate as Shepherds. It’s where we’re sent to claim our leadership once we gather after activation. I have to prove my loyalty to the Invaders, prove to them it wasn’t my choice to remove my chip.”

  “Jet and I are no use to you, then. That’s something you’ll have to do on your own.” My legs remembered to move and I began to back away again, sneaking a glance at the door. “Where are the Invaders? They should be here by now.” If I wanted to escape alive, and make sure Jet and Hera made it out with me, I had to make my move now, before the invincibility drug wore off.

  “They retreated back there, I don’t know.” He dismissed my concern and worked to pull my attention back to his gaze�
�which only made me more concerned. What had happened to his urgency since we’d entered the control room? “Look, you’re wrong,” he continued. “You’re like me, Skylla. You’re one of us. And Jet’s the human link. He’s a leader. Charismatic, confident, strong. And he loves you, I can see it. I need him, too. With both of your help, I can show the Invaders a new way of life is possible. We can coexist, can rewrite all the wrongs we’ve made—”

  “Stop it!” I screamed, my lungs erupting with fury. My body was still shaking, but it was no longer from fear. My limbs were alive with fire, with pure fury at what he was saying. “I am not like you. I am human and will never, I mean never betray my race.”

  “You don’t think I felt betrayed, Sky?”

  I stopped moving. I hated how he said my name. How it rolled off his tongue so easily, as if we’d known each for years. I equally hated that I really felt that way, like he was a long-lost friend.

  “I kept my identity quiet, didn’t dare say a word when I joined the rebels. I knew I had to play smart. When Rico sent me on my first mission, the one to C1 in New Orleans, I’ll never forget the betrayal I felt. It was all there … the control panel, the prototype models. Even though I wasn’t implanted, I could understand their language. I despised that. At least the others have the luxury of losing their ability to read the Invaders’ language. The minute they rip out their chips, it’s all gone. They can only remember bits and pieces. But when you’re one of the Seven? The instinct, the connection … there’s no escaping it. So I used Rico and the rebels, yes. And I’ve made it too far to turn back now. And … I think you’re one of us, Skylla. I wasn’t sure at first, but I’m almost positive now.”

  “I said stop it, Kale! Stop pushing your crazy bullshit onto me, because I’m not buying. I’m not one of you. I don’t care if I make it out of here alive, but I’m willing to try if it means getting away from you and your delusions. You’re nothing but a liar.”

  I finally found the strength to turn for the door.

  “What about that mark on your neck, Skylla? Do you know where it came from? Just a birthmark, right?”

  Kale’s words turned my feet to stone. My back to him, my chest rose and fell with deep, heavy breaths, my body stiffening. “I can’t read their language. I don’t have whatever connection you’re talking about. I’m. Not. Like. You.”

  “Maybe not. But you have the same scar. You’re drawn to the water. You almost let yourself drown in the Abyss, didn’t you? Only it wasn’t drowning. It was like breathing to you, wasn’t it? We’re the same, Skylla. All the signs are there. Only, when the Invaders make contact with you, they cower and retreat. That tells me one thing. We are different. You’re more important than I am. Than any of the other five Shepherds. Don’t run from this.”

  I spun around, penetrating him with a fiery gaze. My damp cheeks were warm, my throat constricting while I worked to swallow, to push the words out. “Fine,” my voice cracked, “then what am I? Tell me what I am!”

  No other question was more vital than this one. It was the answer my soul thirsted for since I was a curious little kid running around our farm in Morton, wondering if I’d ever see more than the flat, open fields and the barn animals I’d cared for.

  “You’re the Seventh Shepherd.”

  CHAPTER 12

  My knees buckled and my shoulders sagged. The room began to spin, the water in the fish tank walls swirling and shifting, its bubbles creating a spellbinding illusion while I digested his words. My mind rejected them at first, kick-punching them backward, sending them ricocheting in the opposite direction, but some visceral part of me knew the truth.

  I was different.

  Not just from Kale, but from all the other children I’d grown up around. From my classmates and coworkers … even from my parents. For years, I’d felt the need to wander. To stray and find something, only I wasn’t sure what. I was bored, restless, and misplaced, and all of that led me here, to this. To Kale, to all he was revealing to me. Yeah, me either, his voice echoed loud and clear in my mind, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

  And as I pondered the reality that my feeling of being out of place had been more than just a typical young-adult phase, I was acutely aware of one thing: I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Because I was here now. And finally knowing what you are changes you.

  “You feel it, don’t you?” Kale whispered. “Way deep down, you know what I’m saying is true.” He shifted, an intrigued smile curling his lips. “The oldest Keeper legend says the Invaders are forbidden to touch the Seventh Shepherd.”

  He suddenly moved, closing the space between us in two swift strides. His arms wrapped around me, his hot breath at my lips. “That only the Creators in Lucenta have permission to communicate with you. You’re set apart. What happened to your chip, Skylla? Think hard. Do you remember anything?”

  “No.” My voice was a shaky breath. “They’ve attacked me … I’ve been held prisoner … I can’t be the Seventh—”

  “Without your ID, they have no way of telling who you are. Unless they touch you.”

  “That can’t be right.” My tone was fueled with more anger now, refusing to accept his words. What good did it do to know who I was, if they were out to destroy me anyway? “That would mean they know I exist, and that I haven’t been activated. They’ve touched me before, so they know I’ve been out there, running somewhere.”

  A fuzzy image of the Invader I’d shot in my backyard surfaced, along with the others, who’d been in my home, who’d killed my parents. I’d been so close to them, right underneath their noses.

  “What if they died because of me?” My vision blurred and I lost my balance, the room’s spinning increasing. “Oh my God, Kale … what if my parents died because they removed my chip … just like your parents? What if the Invaders found out and—”

  “You have no way of knowing that, Skylla. The Invaders have no way of finding you. They’re waiting for you to come to them. Just like they’re waiting for me. They’re not storming these doors right now because they must know … when they touched you in that hallway … they must know you’re here. They could’ve barged in here and executed me, but they’re keeping their distance. Now we can go to Lucenta together.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Yes. Yes you can. Look,” he pleaded, his voice strained. “I know you’re still attached to what this planet can offer you. I know it’s hard to separate your human life here and the life the Invaders have planned for you. I’ve run it through my mind over and over again, for years. I understand everything you’re afraid of right now, and I can’t take away that fear. But I can offer to share it with you. You don’t have to do this alone. We’ll have each other. No matter what happens, I’ll be by your side in this. I know … I know you want Jet. But this is where you belong. With me.”

  My eyelids floated shut and then his mouth was moving with mine, his thumb spreading over the thin skin near the corner of my eyes. Our connection was broken by a loud slam, the door opening and closing just as quickly.

  “Skylla?” Jet’s voice bounced around the room, splitting and breaking, its disappointment palpable. Kale released me and I turned, my gaze landing on a small, demure Asian beauty, her sleek, shiny black hair hitting her shoulders and wide brown eyes gazing up at me. Her hand was clamped tightly in Jet’s.

  “You found her,” I breathed, eyes flicking between the two of them. “I knew you would.”

  “If I didn’t have the invincibility drug, I never would’ve made it through security.” Jet’s glare was scalding hot, penetrating Kale with restrained fury. “I owe you one, man.”

  Kale cleared his throat and shuffled away from me, unable to look Jet head on.

  “Care to tell me what’s going on?” Jet said. “The drug’s already wearing off. Whatever you’re here to do, better wrap it up.”

  “Uh, yeah,” Kale said. “We’re all set. I made sure Rico can’t rig the location coordinates. Just one more thing. We have
to head down to the Shepherd Capsule dock. That’s where the Shepherds are waiting.”

  “So they’re all activated?”

  “All except for two.” Kale’s gaze skipped to mine. “Are you going to tell him, or am I?”

  “Tell me what? Why you had your mouth on my girl?”

  “Jet,” I started, but I didn’t get farther.

  “No,” he said, glancing down at Hera. “There are more important things to worry about right now. Let’s get to this, what did you call it? This Capsule dock, so we can get this over with and get out of here. Where are all the Invaders?” He scanned the room. “They don’t have security here? Something’s not right.”

  “Uh, okay, let’s get moving,” Kale said. “Rico’s men have rigged the Shepherd Capsule dock with explosives—it’s the entrance to Lucenta. We have to strip the bombs before it threatens Lucenta. Jet, you’ve been trained in weapons combat. You know how to dismantle explosives?”

  Jet pulled Hera tighter to his side, tucking her into the crook of his arm. She was still staring up at me, her brown eyes searching me. For what, I didn’t know.

  “Wait, what’s Lucenta?” Jet said.

  “It’s an underwater city, buried here by the Invaders. The next stage of the Shepherds’ activation process is to gather there. It’s the beginning of their leadership on Earth.”

  “Forget it. I have to get Hera out of here. Explosives? No, I’m sorry, but this is as far as I go.”

  “I thought you’d hold up your end of the deal,” Kale said, rushing forward. Jet moved Hera behind him, his broad shoulders squaring as he came head to head with Kale.

  “I did hold up my end of the deal. I gave you weapons. And I helped you make it to Central Control. You gave me a chance to get revenge, and you’re right … I don’t want it anymore. I found all that matters to me. I’m done here.”