Decision Point (ARC)

by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

that was now.

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  He wanted the ordered, clean lines of the city around him.

  “Where are we going?”

  Before she could answer, he realized where she was taking

  him. It wasn’t anything directional. No more than a feeling, like

  an echo of his grandfather’s words. Those conspiring against him

  consorted with Sparks. His mind flashed to the scene in the alley.

  And isn’t she already guilty of the same? His mind hissed the

  thought. She loves you , after all.

  “Merry, are you taking me to the Kennels?”

  Her happy expression flashed into irritation. “Don’t call it

  that. It’s a village. A community, just like the one we live in.”

  “Okay,” he said. A feeling of wrongness worked through his

  belly like spreading fingers. What business did she—did either

  of them—have in the Spark village? “But are we?”

  Meredith smiled and glanced over her shoulder at the far

  shore, still focused on luring him onward.

  Was she a lure? What had Edgar said? Once they had Lucas,

  they had his grandfather?

  How had Edgar known he was a Spark? Lucas had told only

  one person.…

  “Why?”

  She let an impatient huff of breath escape and tilted her head.

  “I wanted to surprise you. Dad said to wait, he was afraid.… But

  the Councilor knows now. You talked to him, and we’re getting

  married!” She let a giddy laugh escape and threw her arms to the

  side, gesturing her happy disbelief with the long stick. “He

  knows about us, and of course, he knows about you. The

  Councilor’s own grandson is a Spark. Dad couldn’t even hardly

  believe it when I told him.”

  Lucas felt a sick sort of spinning in his midsection, as if

  something—his breath, his understanding—was being sucked

  down into a death spiral.

  He’d told her she had to keep that between them. It was his

  deepest secret. It was his shame. He’d shared it with her because

  her love somehow eased it.…

  What had she done?

  She’d given his weakness to her father as a weapon.

  A rush of heat suffused his face. His pulse throbbed in his

  temple. He could hear the pounding in his ears, the force of his

  blood echoing the anger that flashed through him.

  “Yes, we’re going to the village.” Her voice was breathless,

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  excited. “We’re going to see my niece. She’s strong, so strong.

  Stronger than any of the men. Do you know the Council policy

  on girls like that?”

  He nodded automatically. Lucas had heard Grandfather

  discussing policy with aides. But what difference did the stupid

  policy make? Why was she even talking about this? She’d

  betrayed him. And she was babbling on like it didn’t matter.

  “They take them away,” he said. “Because the Council

  believes they’re a danger to the delicate balance of freedom and

  production.” It was easy to parrot what he’d heard. The Council

  wanted Sparks just strong enough to power the cities but not so

  strong that they could do more. Not so strong that they could

  want more. With a matrilineal power, that was dangerous. The

  rare strong girls, a one-in-a-thousand evolutionary slip, would

  grow into women who’d pass on their strength. They’d create a

  generation of monsters just like them.

  He didn’t tell Meredith that, though. Something in him was

  pulling back, watching. Wary. Doing exactly what the voice in

  his head had told him.

  Meredith nodded. “You do understand. But now we don’t

  have to hide Emma anymore. Your grandfather will stand for us

  in the Council. He’ll protect Emma. And we owe it all to you.”

  Lucas struggled to follow her leaps. He’d never said that.

  He’d never promised any of that. All he’d wanted was someone

  to share his secret.

  “No,” he said softly. Then, again, louder, “No. I didn’t say

  that—any of that. You want my grandfather to stand up to the

  rest of the Councilors against his policy? No, Merr. Grandfather

  didn’t even give me permission to marry you. That wasn’t what

  we talked about. He told me to—asked me to—”

  Her smile died. “He asked you to what?”

  Lucas shook his head. He couldn’t tell her. “I want to marry

  you, Meredith, but he wants to send me away.” A partial truth

  was better than nothing. His next words tumbled out, a rush of

  air to push the sin of disobedience from him. “I want us to go

  away, instead, start new somewhere else where we don’t have to

  pretend anymore. Somewhere neither of us has to be a secret.”

  “You’re a Spark,” she whispered. “It doesn’t matter where

  we go. It’ll always have to be secret.”

  “No. Not every Zone is like this.” This was where he could

  convince her. She hadn’t been outside Zone Four before. Lucas

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  had. Whether it was biblically right or not, he knew there were

  places where Sparks were as free as any other citizen. His

  grandfather was determined to change that. But it hadn’t

  happened yet. “My foster family took me to other—”

  “Lucas. No.” Her voice was firm. “We stay. My place is here.

  Fighting with my family.”

  “Fighting my family?” He snapped the question.

  Meredith’s chin lifted. “If necessary. Your grandfather is

  right about one thing. We do have to stand on faith. Some things

  are righteous, Lucas. Sometimes God requires us to do things

  we’d never consider, because they are right.”

  Including betraying the man who loves you? The anger beat

  strong in his temples again.

  Her words echoed his grandfather’s, yet her meaning was a

  world apart. Both of them couldn’t be right. One of them must

  be a pretender. One of them was using faith to further an agenda.

  He loved them both. How was he to know who was wrong?

  “No. It isn’t right. No matter how hard it is on any of us,

  Grandfather is the one true path.”

  “No. No! Lucas, Sparks aren’t aberrations. They’re not

  subhuman. They’re not dogs, either. And they sure as Dust aren’t

  a sign of the end times. Your grandfather is twisting something

  good and true to suit his own purposes, and it’s wrong!” She

  lifted her arms again, but the stick shook this time. “We are alive,

  right now. And we are people, both of us. It’s just that one of us

  can make the Dust do what he wants. Are you less of a person,

  Lucas?”

  No. But I’m chosen. I’m different than the other Sparks. You

  should know that! If she loved him, truly loved him as

  Grandfather did, shouldn’t she see that he was special? Was this

  what the voice had wanted him to realize?

  The truth hit him like a fist. She didn’t. She couldn’t. She was

  working against his grandfather. Lucas was just a means to an
>
  end. She wouldn’t leave with him because she didn’t love him.

  She would never marry him.

  “All I wanted was you.” He hated that his voice sounded so

  broken.

  She shook her head, her eyes going soft again. She stepped

  closer, dropping the stick into the water to dip below the surface,

  then bob back and spin slowly away. Meredith reached out to

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  him. “I want you, too.”

  He wanted to believe her. He just didn’t. Not anymore. Her

  fingers left a cold trail down his cheek to his chin then dropped

  to his chest. Her eyes followed them.

  She can’t even meet my eyes. How could I have been such a

  fool? The thought of how desperately he’d wanted to run away

  with her made his stomach clench.

  “I’m right,” she said. She raised her gaze to his briefly then

  moved it over his face. “You know I’m right. Come with me so

  you can see. Let us convince you. Being a Spark isn’t a curse.

  It’s a gift.”

  It was the exact word his grandfather had used. Except his

  grandfather hadn’t used it to manipulate Lucas. He’d used it to

  shame Jacob, to show him the divine in Lucas—the divine

  Meredith could not see.

  That was why he’d given Lucas this assignment. It wasn’t

  merely so Lucas could prove himself to Grandfather. Jacob

  sneered at Lucas at every opportunity. He expected Lucas to

  screw up. Jacob expected Lucas’s defect to stain everything he

  did.

  With sudden icy clarity, Lucas realized it might already have

  done so.

  He’d sworn to keep his Spark a secret. Not a single member

  of the Brayer family had been born a Spark in the two hundred

  years since Sparks were engineered, until Lucas. If it had been

  up to his mother, he’d have been left at the edge of the contained

  Spark community as a foundling. Or drowned.

  Grandfather had saved him. He wanted Lucas. He needed

  him. And Lucas had repaid Grandfather’s devotion by sharing

  his secret with the family intent on destroying grandfather’s

  legacy.

  “You know I’m right.” Her hand rested on his stomach, her

  fingers curling into his shirt. “Baby, you’re not a curse.”

  His nerves fluttered under her touch, his body trying to

  respond, even as his stomach curled with nausea. Lucas

  swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. She had been using his

  weakness for her this whole time.

  He looked away from her, turning his head back to the

  shoreline behind him. His gaze swept along the tangled forest,

  looking for an answer, a path.

  He found it.

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  Two men crouched in the underbrush up the shore from them.

  One of them was Jacob. How had he and Meredith not heard

  them?

  You were too focused on your plans to betray the only man

  who has ever believed in you. And she was focused on plans of

  her own, wasn’t she?

  Lucas was certain Jacob watched not only to ensure Lucas

  acted, but to complete the task himself if Lucas failed. The men

  were following her. They must know she was being used as a

  lure to corrupt Lucas. He had his answer. All he’d had to do was

  listen.

  And believe.

  Meredith really was the key to Lucas’s future. He was

  chosen.

  Tears of gratitude welled in his eyes. Was this what

  righteousness felt like? The making of impossible decisions?

  “No,” he said. “It’s not a curse. It’s a weapon.”

  He felt a wave of serenity settle over him, easing into him

  through his skin like a misty cloak of virtue that cooled away the

  anger. Lucas knew what he was now, even as he turned back to

  look down at the only person he’d thought had loved him in spite

  of what he was—

  No, he corrected himself sternly. That’s wrong. Grandfather

  loves me. Even when Mother rejected me, he always came for

  me. “Maybe you’re right, Meredith.” He soothed away the

  confusion in her eyes after his last words. He lifted her hand from

  his stomach and gave each knuckle a soft kiss then settled it back

  by her side. “But you’re a gift, too. You were meant for me.”

  It was true. Just not in the way that either of them had

  thought.

  “You were always meant to show me the right way.…” He’d

  just had to see her through faith instead of desire. He bent and

  touched his lips to hers.

  Meredith rose on her toes to meet him, lifting her arms to his

  shoulders.

  It made sweeping her under easier. He wrapped his hands

  tight around her neck and pushed her beneath the water.

  Her hands clutched at his shoulders at first, as if she thought

  it might be a game. After a moment, she fought him. Her fingers

  curled into claws that strafed his neck and chin. His height kept

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  his eyes from her nails. His long legs set wide gave him stability,

  even as her own legs kicked.

  The water boiled around her from her desperate flailing. Her

  hands suddenly gripped the front of his shirt and then slid loose.

  Her arms fell to the water and bobbed under and back up again,

  just as the branch had moments before.

  Her long black hair swirled around his wrists, an inky cloud

  that helped him focus. He held her under, waiting. He had to be

  thorough. Grandfather would expect no less.

  Two crimson drops dripped from the gouges she’d opened

  on his chin. They settled on the surface of the water then slowly

  distorted with the lazy swirling of the water around his wrists.

  The blood caught in the floating strands of her hair and separated,

  spreading in the water until they couldn’t be seen. They were still

  there, he knew. Still Lucas. But hidden.

  He took a deep, cleansing breath and lifted Meredith from the

  water. Her green eyes stared up. Water drained from her nostrils

  and mouth, poured off her hair. Somehow heavier now, her body

  resisted him. He pulled her to him, crushing her softness to his

  chest a last time.

  Lucas turned, dragging her with him. He trudged the few

  steps back to the shore to settle his accomplishment in the

  detritus of the river’s narrow beach. A slender thread of grief

  fluttered in some wind within him. Soon, it would be gone, as

  ephemeral as the life of the traitor he’d loved.

  The footsteps of the two men crunched closer and then

  stopped. Lucas took two steps back, allowing them in. His

  brother would want to check her, to be certain Lucas had done as

  he’d been told.

  Edgar’s oldest daughter was dead. The family would know

  the cost of their betrayal.

  As Jacob inspected the body on the beach, Lucas turned his

  impassive gaze to the other man. He could see the energy haze

  of the man’s Spark. Jacob was partnered with a Spark? Jacob

&nb
sp; detested Sparks.

  But we do what we must for the good of the family, no matter

  how unpalatable.

  “Who are you?”

  The other man gave him a cocky dip of his head as his lips

  curved up in an expression halfway between a grin and a smirk.

  “I’m the man who’s going to train you to be the best damn mid-

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  range agent-in-training Zone Three has ever seen.”

  “You’re an agent?” It was less a question than a

  confirmation. His grandfather used the tools that God provided,

  as Lucas himself had finally done.

  “Marreau.” The man stuck out his hand as he offered his

  name.

  Lucas calmly took it, offering a firm shake. “You’ll be

  training me?”

  “And escorting you down there, yes. Looking forward to a

  little dry heat.” The man shivered at the damp coolness of the

  Pacific Northwest’s version of summer.

  Beside Marreau, Jacob shifted, his hand dropping from the

  dead girl’s neck. He nodded over his shoulder at Marreau then

  flicked a warily respectful gaze over Lucas.

  “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Spark.” The words were

  grudging, but honest.

  Lucas nodded. “We’re not done today.”

  Jacob cocked his head at his brother.

  “There’s a little girl being hidden in the Kennels. A strong

  one. Emma.”

  Jacob’s brows lifted. “We can run a sweep now.” He finally

  offered his brother a smile.

  Lucas felt his lips curving in response.

  “Grandfather will be proud,” Jacob said, “especially because

  of the relationship.”

  Lucas let the curve become a full smile. Yes. That was the

  feeling that had blown through him, a wind to push away the

  grief, leaving behind the purity of their goal. That was the feeling

  surging in his chest. Pride.

  Kate Corcino writes adult speculative fiction. Her debut novel,

  Spark Rising , placed second in the Paranormal, Futuristic and

  Fantasy category of the Toronto RWA Catherine Award for

  2014. It also won the 2015 National Excellence in Romance

  Fiction Award for Paranormal/Futuristic. Her latest novel,

  Spark Awakening , has just released. Her short stories include

  “Border Time,” a forthcoming story set in The X-Files universe

  of the TV show. She has also released Ignition Point , a collection