Reckoning

by Sonya Weiss

  He massaged his wrist where the handcuff rubbed it raw. “Riley said Ide was waiting outside the Void to kill you.”

  “I know, but you should have told me.”

  “I knew how badly you wanted to escape to get Maisy. I figured you’d blow me off and take your chances against Ide. Riley was right, Juliet. The only way to get Ide off the hunt was to let him think you were dead.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “Riley’s not my favorite person, but I think we need to heed whatever he says. I saw things at the castle.” He looked worried.

  “What things?”

  “Ugly things. Ide is crazy as hell. Besides torturing and killing others, he’s obsessed with the scrolls. Passages of the predictions that have already come to pass were highlighted and hung on the walls. Like he’s constructing a sort of follow-the-future map.” He plucked at the hospital sheet, then said quietly, “There are rumors going around that you’re going to betray Riley.”

  “Going around where?” My muscles tightened.

  “The base. One of the Supernaturals slipped in and told me.”

  “Do you believe I betray him?” My voice wavered. I wanted him to say no, because I guess I thought that would mean I succeeded in my destiny, yet found a way to save Riley.

  “Do you believe it?” he countered.

  I felt the whisper of darkness I’d had to fight hard against as the hours had passed. Almost as if my power was shutting down my emotions to enable me to do what had to be done. I wished I could tell Stone the truth so he wouldn’t think I was a monster. Saving the world didn’t technically qualify as betraying someone if it meant I broke the curse in the Untolds and saved Riley as well, did it? My goal, my hope, was to save his life after I killed him. Actually going through with the killing part… I’d rather be tortured to death myself.

  “Juliet, look at me. You’re a good person. Full of amazing love, even toward those who don’t deserve it.” He licked his cracked lips. “But your power isn’t like the rest of ours. It has an edge. Almost as if it’s…alive.”

  Fear snaked through my veins. I didn’t fully understand my power. I could remember being six years old crying, afraid to go to sleep, afraid my power would kill me in the night.

  He shifted, tilting his head to one side. “Is there something I should know?”

  I reached for the handcuffs keeping him pinned to the bed. I couldn’t speak of the Untolds to him anymore than I could Riley. “Of course not. I’ll break this, and we can get you out of here.”

  “Whoa.” Stone clapped his hand over mine. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right where I need to be. I’m going to help Riley.”

  Maybe it was petty given the scheme of things, but Stone being on Riley’s side was a betrayal. He was my friend and he was supposed to have my back. Siding with Riley meant he’d be working against my mission.

  I wasn’t about to let him stay on the base and be someone else I had to worry about. Plus, I couldn’t let him get in my way of doing what I had to do. If he suspected, he’d try to stop me. My lips tightened with anger at the thought of him thwarting me. “Don’t be stupid, Stone. What if Agent Davis kills you?”

  The door swung open and Rick appeared. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. His eyes willed me to understand and play along. Two of the men who’d fired at me at the field edged into the doorway.

  “The doctor told me to go into room 221, and I walked in to find it already occupied.” I shrugged. “There are no numbers on the door.”

  Rick motioned me forward. He gripped my wrist and put a band around it, but didn’t close it. He slid his fingers beneath it and when he let go, the band was colder and heavier than the one I’d had. “Training’s over for the day. Because of what happened on the field, Agent Davis put the base on lockdown. All prisoners must return to the barracks.”

  As I passed Rick, the pocket where I’d stored the cell phone and the taser bumped against him. He could tell I had it. I saw it in his eyes. He said nothing.

  RILEY

  The colors painting the part of the sky I could see from the window of my barracks reminded me of Mallen’s eyes. No one knew the depths of love I had for the old Guard. Or how many times he’d protected me from my father’s wrath simply by his well-timed arrivals. At nine years old, I’d brought a half-starved dog into the castle. Fed him chicken scraps using one of the royal dishes, and my father had discovered it.

  Mallen had immediately taken the blame, taken the punishment, and taken in the dog. He’d kept him in his own quarters and nursed him to health. Then he’d found a home for the dog far from my father’s quick temper. I straightened my shoulders and lifted my hand in a salute to him.

  From my viewpoint, I watched the humans scurrying about, searching the base. They were spooked. Not knowing what caused the Jeeps to explode made them afraid the bogeyman had arrived. I knew the explosions were the work of Adler who’d rigged the vehicles with a quick slight of hand.

  “Excuse me, sir?”

  I turned to find Adler waiting, impatiently shifting from one foot to another. He pushed his hand through his hair to shove the blue-tipped ends away from his face. Humans colored their hair to hide gray, to look younger, or to express their creative nature. When a Tazavorn used hair color, it was a message. Blue stood for loyalty. Green meant safety. Red symbolized danger and war as well as strength and power. The thought brought me up short. When I’d first met Juliet, she’d had red highlights in her hair. I frowned, not understanding how I’d overlooked that.

  “Sir?”

  I blinked. “Yes?”

  “I secured a copy of the armory code. We’ll enter tonight and destroy the weapons, then fuse the door so they can’t open it. By the time they’re able to figure it out, it’ll be too late.”

  “Good. Then we’re on schedule.”

  “Yes, sir. The humans wanted a war, they’ve got a war.” The bloodthirst gleamed in his eyes.

  “Did you have any luck locating Henry?”

  “Negative. He’s gone underground, but I did get a report back with photos, sir.” Adler pulled out a Corresponder he’d swiped from the castle and flipped through a set of images. “I scanned them for you to see.”

  I took the Corresponder and scrolled through image after image of Henry talking to Agent Davis alone, away from the base. In one image, he was passing a dagger to the agent. I recognized it as one of the royal daggers. The handle was decorated with my family crest and inlaid with precious jewels. The last time I’d seen any of the daggers, they’d been locked away in a case at the castle. They were symbolic of passing the throne from one king to another. I couldn’t understand why Henry would give them to a human.

  “We found two Jeeps in a garage. With the one left from the field, that makes three.”

  “Take out two of them the morning of the attack. We’ll need to have one to take us to the White House. In the meantime, remove supplies and place them at the end of the fence for the Guards to retrieve.” The Guards would take the humans’ resources and use them to care for the needs of my people waiting in the woods.

  “Yes, sir.” He started to leave.

  “Adler? Find the dagger.”

  “I can search Agent Davis’s office tonight.”

  “Do that.” I walked toward the bunk bed.

  “Sir… Mallen left information with me in the event of his death. I can retrieve it and bring it to the base tonight.”

  “Fine.”

  Adler moved toward me. “He said to give this to you first.” He handed me a small gold medallion with a ruby in the center. I smiled in spite of the lump forming in my throat. The old Guard believed in an old wives tale that the ancient Shimea Prime medallions contained the power of protection. I didn’t share his belief, but it was nice to have a piece that meant something to Mallen.

  “If I may point out an observation?”

  I pulled my attention from the medallion. “Go ahead.”

  “Whatever Mallen wanted had to be significant for him t
o give his life trying to reach you. In my training protocol, I learned the only time a Guard puts himself in the line of enemy fire is to save the life of the king. I believe he wanted to warn you. Someone’s trying to kill you, sir.”

  Chapter 16

  JULIET

  Back at the barracks, Nixie greeted me with relief and a surprise hug. “I was afraid they’d taken you to interrogation.”

  “No.” I kicked my shoes off. Feeling decades older than my seventeen years, I climbed onto my mattress.

  To my surprise, Nixie climbed up beside me and let her legs hang off. She swung them back and forth. “Are you going to meet Adler at midnight?”

  I groaned and rolled over onto my stomach. The phone and taser pressed into me and hurt. I rolled back over to dig them out. I needed to hide them where they couldn’t be found. I ran my hand along the back end of the mattress. Pulling hard, I ripped a small hole and slid the phone and taser inside.

  “You should meet with Adler. It’s probably important,” Nixie said, looking too innocent.

  “You know what it’s about, don’t you?” Though I wondered what he wanted, my mind was on meeting up with Riley. I couldn’t wait to be alone with him, yet I dreaded it at the same time.

  Turning her head, she peeked down at me, then put her hand against her chest. “Me?”

  “Wait… Did you want to go with me to meet Adler?”

  “Oh. Well, if you need help, then yeah, sure. I’ll be there for you.”

  I laughed and a Supernatural girl in the bunk across from me snapped, “I can’t imagine what’s so amusing. Our people are dying. My little brother is locked up in the prison sector. He’s only twelve.”

  “Juliet’s sister is locked up, and she’s younger than him,” Nixie fired back with a surprising show of spirit. She glared at the girl.

  “Sorry,” the girl said. “I haven’t seen my brother since they brought us in.” She turned her head away, the picture of sorrow and defeat. I hated it. Hated to see my people, such proud Supernaturals, living like cowering dogs.

  The band started itching my wrist, and I scratched at it. The itch became worse. I grabbed the band to push it up a fraction of an inch to I could scratch the skin beneath it. What the…? I slid my fingers beneath it and a small key fell out. I quickly covered it, hoping no one else had seen it. It was one of the prison sector keys. I closed my hand around it. Rick had given me the key to the children’s cell. I wanted to kiss it.

  I pretended to scratch my neck and slipped the key into my bra. All I needed now was to find someone to take the tracker out of Maisy and I could get the children off the base.

  I slid from the bed and grabbed a towel from my locker. “I’m going to shower.”

  Nixie got down and sat cross-legged on the floor beside the bunk, a mysterious smile playing on her lips. “When you get back, I have a surprise for you.”

  I stepped into the shower, hating the freezing water. I showered as quickly as I could, then toweled off. When I dried my injured leg, I noticed the skin around it looked healthier than it had since the attack.

  After I was dressed, I walked back into the barracks, grabbed the thin blanket from my bed, and wrapped it around myself for extra warmth.

  “Here.” Nixie motioned for me. I walked to her bed and sat on the floor beside it. She reached under it and pulled out a pillowcase. “I thought maybe you’d like this.”

  Reaching her hand in, she removed a worn copy of Where the Wild Things Are and passed it to me.

  I immediately choked up. I’d read the book to the children when Stone and Chloe had watched over them in the woods before the war. Tracing my hand along the front cover, I said, “It’s Maisy’s favorite.”

  “I know. You told me that in the past. You should read it to her.” She beamed.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The Supernaturals who’ve been keeping an eye on the children are going to distract the humans guarding the prison sector. You can get in and visit the children.”

  “I…um…” I blinked hard, overcome. Not knowing what to say. I put my hand against my chest as gratitude and happiness flowed through my body. This moment of hope, of sunshine in the middle of the storm, made me almost believe that everything was going to turn out okay in the end.

  She handed me my shoes. “We need to go now, though.”

  I shoved my feet into my shoes and grabbed the key. We left the barracks and stuck to the sides of the buildings as we made our way to the prison sector. There was no one out front. Nixie gave me a little push. “Go. You can have about fifteen minutes.”

  I hurried into the prison and walked softly to the cell where the children were. Their voices whispered together, and I heard Maxfield make car crash noises, then laugh.

  “Hey,” I whispered.

  They jumped up from their positions on the floor, eyes wide with apprehension that was quickly replaced with excitement. I put my finger against my lips and held up the book. “I’ve come to read you a bedtime story.”

  I took out the key and pushed it into the lock, giving it a hard turn. The cell door swung open and the children swarmed me, nearly knocking me over in their exuberance. Dropping to my knees, I tried to hug them all at once. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. I had to be strong for them. They didn’t need to see me upset.

  Annora put her hands on my face, communicating with her bright smile. Tobiah held up his hand for a fist bump, at eleven, going on twelve, no longer interested in a prolonged hug. I ruffled his hair instead and he sighed.

  “Settle down. I only have a few minutes.” I moved to sit in the center of the cell. Maisy climbed into my lap and everyone else crowded around me. Opening the book, I cleared my throat and began to read.

  * * * *

  I couldn’t have been asleep long before Nixie shook me awake. “It’s time to meet Adler.”

  “Midnight already?” I started to reach for my uniform so I’d have what little warmth it offered from the cold, but she stopped me. “The humans can see it in the dark, remember?”

  Groggy, I nodded and left my pajamas on. I pulled on my sneakers, still feeling emotionally wrung out from having spent time with the children. I’d kissed them all good-bye, and as I’d turned to leave, Tobiah had said, “Don’t worry. I stay awake at night and watch over them.”

  I’d cried as I’d left. Using them this way was wrong, and I was supposed to protect the woman who’d done it. My father had taught me that everyone had a redeeming quality. I could think of none when it came to her. I despised the woman who’d locked my sister away to serve her own purposes. After I’d climbed into bed, I’d continued to cry until I’d fallen asleep.

  I headed to the window in the back of the barracks with Nixie to avoid the camera positioned at the front of it. I went out first and dropped to the ground, remaining in a crouch long enough to make sure I hadn’t alerted anyone to my presence. When I knew it was safe, I held the window up for Nixie to climb through.

  We made it to the back without being seen to find Adler already waiting.

  “How’s the pellet wound?” I asked.

  “Gave me a scar to impress girls with, so it’s cool.”

  “What do you have for me?” I wrapped my arms around myself.

  “Some information.”

  Nixie huffed out a breath. “Is the information valid?”

  “Have I ever disappointed you?” Adler said with a grin, and Nixie practically melted under the look he gave her.

  Turning her head, she peeked at the area behind us. “Shh. Thought I heard something.”

  I started to say it was her imagination, but then I saw the shadow on the side of the barracks near the window change shape. I turned around and ran toward it grabbing the girl hovering there. I took her to the ground, pressing my knee into her back as I searched her for any sign of a weapon.

  Adler knelt beside her, his face dark with anger. “I knew someone was helping them. Are you their informant?”<
br />
  “Yes.” The girl lifted her head, looked up, and I met Halo’s eyes.

  Shocked, I said, “You?”

  “They’ll let my parents go. All I have to do is give them some information.”

  Adler bowed his head, then raised it. “You trusted the humans.”

  “They’re going to kill my parents if I don’t cooperate.”

  “Idiot. You think Agent Davis will let your parents go?” Nixie asked. “He won’t. No matter what you tell him.”

  “But it’s—”

  Adler unfastened his band and pressed his hand over her life force before she could finish. He fired one burst of his power, quick and deadly.

  I fell backward, stunned as I scrambled away from his power. The jolt had been close to my face. “What…why…?”

  He calmly refastened his band. “She would have told the agent you met with me.”

  Furious, I got to my feet. “And tell him what? We were talking? She had nothing on us and you killed her. My God. You killed her.” I turned my back to the scene and pressed my hands against my head. I spun around, suddenly suspicious. “How could you take your bracelet off?”

  “Relax. I sawed off the prongs and replaced them with stainless steel ones that don’t affect my power. I did the same to Riley’s. Do you want what I have for you or not?”

  I avoided looking at Halo’s body. I wanted to throw up and couldn’t understand how Adler could stand there calmly talking after taking a life. I managed to nod.

  “The humans plan to move your sister and the other children to a room in the White House. If you fail to stop the Supernaturals from taking the president, the children will be killed on the spot. So we have to prevent the children from being taken.”

  “How do you know this?”

  He grinned. “My father is an FBI plant, and the intel passed through his office.”

  “What else do you have?” Nixie asked.

  “A doctor willing to remove the tracker from Maisy. He can do it tomorrow.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Your sister will fake an illness and be rushed to the hospital where the good doctor will be waiting.”