Windswept

by Gwen Cole

  I wondered if she was thinking about what Reid had said to her last night, about not giving up.

  It was a half-formed plan riding on hope, but at least it was better than what we had this morning. It was something.

  REID

  I’D BEEN IN A LOT OF FIGHTS BEFORE, BUT NOTH-ing like this.

  While I was distracted by Sam—a very good distraction, don’t get me wrong—Kiato grabbed me from behind and then we were in a field somewhere in Colombia. He was trying to get my arms behind my back, and I elbowed him in the ribs.

  I took him to a roof in Rome, getting the upper hand. I got a good hit on his jaw and then he tackled me and we appeared in a busy street in Beijing. A trolley stopped inches from us as we fought in the road, and cars honked.

  Before anyone could pull out their cell phones, we were gone again.

  A mountainside in Slovenia.

  An empty beach in California.

  A farm in Russia.

  All within minutes. Getting pushed into walls, throwing punches, and almost being hit in the head with a pipe he’d managed to grab somewhere.

  And then I was falling, like jumping from an airplane without a parachute. I’d never drifted so high up in the sky before—I didn’t even think it was possible. Wind roared in my ears and my stomach fell out from under me as I plummeted toward the ground.

  Kiato was nowhere in sight, but he was the one who had brought me there.

  Then something caught my eye to the right, coming from above.

  I turned just in time to get knocked out.

  When I came to, I was being dragged by the ankle. Everything was still hazy and my head wouldn’t stop spinning. Nausea flared in my stomach. A light flashed above and then it was dark, then another light, and more dark. It was hard to keep my eyes open.

  There was a snap of a chain somewhere close.

  “Reid!”

  I tried to open my eyes more, to see where he was. It was Jake. I didn’t imagine it. I tried to twist away, to grab onto something, but Kiato pulled me closer to a wall and dropped my leg. A groan escaped my mouth and I knew I needed to get out of there. I needed to drift. But how could I drift when I could barely lift my head?

  I’d never taken a hit so hard in my life.

  “Reid!”

  Jake’s voice was a little farther away now, muffled by a wall. There was movement above me and my eyes focused enough to see Kiato standing over me.

  I needed to get out of there.

  I thought of the first place that came to mind and drifted.

  My body snapped back into place and my shoulder screamed with pain, like I had almost dislocated it. I was still in the same place as Kiato looked down at me. I tried again and the same thing happened.

  “It’s not going to work,” Kiato said in a tired voice.

  I looked over at my wrist. There was a metal cuff around it, attached to a chain that was bolted into the cement floor.

  “What did you do?” I said, my voice rough and cracking.

  I pushed myself up and my head spun too fast, almost making me want to puke. I could feel the threads of panic starting to set in. Was he going to leave me here? And where was Jake? I swore I had heard his voice, but there were walls blocking my view and I could only see the open, empty room of an old warehouse. I was in something like a cement stall, walls six feet wide on both sides and too high for me to see over.

  They didn’t need cells or bars to keep us here.

  They just needed us to be bolted. Chained like animals.

  Kiato started to walk away.

  “Wait!” I reached for him and the chain stopped me short. He kept going, leaving me.

  I swore under my breath and looked around, trying to figure out where we were. The location didn’t come to mind—like when I was trying to find Jake. It was like it didn’t exist. The ceiling was high and covered in glass panels that showed the night sky. That fact narrowed down half the world.

  But there was sound—a buzzing. Really low and barely audible, coming from this cylindrical speaker on the ceiling with tons of wires hooked up into it.

  “Found it already, huh?” Buck appeared around the corner, smiling down at me. “It took years to figure out the right frequency, but now I’ve found out how to keep your friends from finding you.”

  I looked up at it again. This was what blocked me from seeing Jake? Something so simple as a frequency?

  “So Knox lied,” I said. “He really was taking drifters.”

  “Don’t dismiss me so quickly, Reid. Knox has no idea I was the one who stole his list and he has no idea I’m doing any of this.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked him. “What have we ever done to you?”

  Buck moved so quickly, I never saw him coming. One second he was standing at the corner of my cell, and the next he was pressing me against the wall, one hand fisted in my jacket and the other wrapped around my throat.

  I couldn’t breathe. The cuff around my wrist strained against the chain, drawing blood. He loosened his grip just enough to let me breathe.

  “When I was young, my father took me to a diner for lunch and this man showed up while we were eating. They went into the bathroom to talk and when I followed a minute later, they were both gone. They didn’t come out the door and there were no windows. Nothing. They just disappeared.” Buck paused and clenched his jaw a few times. “A couple days later, a fishing boat found his body off the coast of Japan. Everyone said it was a boating accident and I believed it until I found out about drifters. Then all the pieces came together. A drifter took my father and left him for dead in the middle of the ocean.”

  Buck shook his head, tightening his grip. “That’s only one of many stories I could tell you, Reid. Your kind acts like you’re so entitled with this great power that none of you deserve. And there’s only us to stop you.”

  Jake’s voice echoed from down the hall, desperate and angry. “Let him go, Buck!”

  Buck continued, not listening.

  “So it’s about time someone did something about it.”

  The corners of my vision swam dark and he finally let go, dropping me to the floor. I coughed and tried to breathe. Buck started walking away.

  “So that’s it?” I coughed out. “You’re going to keep us here until we die?”

  Buck stopped and turned back, shaking his head. “What good would that do? I found someone who is very interested in people with special abilities, and he even has his own lab dedicated to working on a way to harness them. So we struck a deal, and I get to find him drifters to do his testing on.”

  “So this is just a job?”

  “Enough to set me up for life,” Buck said, spreading his arms. “And getting rid of a few drifters in the process? That’s just a bonus.” Buck glanced at my wrist and the blood on the cuff. “Don’t worry, we have one more drifter to find and then it’ll be over.” He smiled. “Not much longer now.”

  “Who? Who are you sending him after?”

  Even though I asked, I knew the answer.

  “We can’t leave behind any loose ends.”

  With that, Buck left. His footsteps echoed through the room until a door shut, leaving me alone with the dull buzzing overhead. Someone coughed down from the other direction and I wondered how many drifters he was keeping here, and how many of them were dying because their bodies were already shutting down.

  It was cold with all the cement around and I was glad for my jacket. My head still hurt from being knocked out and I touched the place gently, feeling drying blood on my temple.

  “Reid.” It was Jake. From the sound of his voice, I could tell that he was probably two stalls away. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  But it was a lie.

  Sam and Gavin were our only hope now.

  SAM

  NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

  KNOX WAS GOOD TO HIS WORD AND HAD FIXED our back door, and when Gavin and I showed up, Levi was waiting for me in the kitchen, wagging his
tail too fast. It felt good to be home again, but only for a moment, because I realized nobody else was there.

  Then a glass shattered in the hallway, making me jump.

  Nella stood there, shock written all over her face.

  She screamed and then screamed again when she realized a strange guy was standing next to me.

  “Nella! It’s okay, it’s okay!” I walked toward her with my hands up. She stopped screaming, looking between Gavin and me like she had no idea what she had just seen.

  I realized that this was the reaction Reid had expected from me when he showed me drifting for the first time. It was totally understandable.

  She was breathing too quickly and looked like she wanted to scream again. I put my hands on her shoulders and that seemed to calm her down some. She kept glancing over my shoulder, where Gavin stood in the kitchen.

  “Nella, look at me.”

  She did, finally saying. “Sam, you—you . . . what just happened?”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in. Just one thing at a time, okay?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

  I stepped aside and gestured toward the kitchen. “This is Gavin. He’s a friend of Reid’s.”

  “Reid,” Nella repeated. “Right.”

  Gavin took the opportunity and said, “I’m going to start in your parents’ office. Is it upstairs?”

  I nodded, and after he passed us in the hallway—stepping over the broken glass—I led Nella into the kitchen and put her on one of the chairs. I gave her a moment to process what she had seen and I cleaned up the glass. By the time it was safely in the trash and the broom was put away, she looked almost normal. Nervous about something for sure, but better than before.

  It was an upgrade from the screaming.

  I sat down across from her and said, “Look, I know what you saw was . . . shocking, but there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  She eyed me like I had just told the biggest lie. “You literally appeared out of thin air, Sam.”

  “Yeah, like I said . . . shocking.” That finally pulled a smile from her and I asked, “What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “You weren’t answering my texts so I decided to stop by before school started. Everything just seemed—off. Nobody was here and I hadn’t heard from you. And even though we had a fight, you always text me back.”

  “I’m sorry, my phone was broken.”

  She eyed me and I knew what questions were coming. “What happened, Sam?”

  I took a deep breath, wondering what I should tell her or if I should tell her anything. But I didn’t want to lie to Nella—she was still my best friend.

  So I told her everything. Definitely a shortened version, but I hit all the important parts. I thought she wouldn’t believe anything I said, but then she started asking questions when I missed something or if she needed clarification.

  “So now that Reid is gone, it’s just you and Gavin left?” Nella asked. “There’s nobody else helping you?”

  “We have someone else helping, but she’s following another lead.”

  “Can’t you go to the police?” I gave her a blank look and she realized what that would mean. “All right, yeah. But this is a lot to take in.”

  I hesitated and said, “I know.”

  “Are you handling it all? You seem so . . . calm.”

  How was I handling it? That was a question I wasn’t sure I knew how to answer. When I found out Mom, Dad, and Logan were taken, I’d never felt so alone in my life. Even when Reid was there for me. But since then, it’d been different.

  “I don’t know,” I told her, and it was the truth. “At first it was a lot to take in. But every day that passes makes me feel like I’m less alone. Like I’ve finally found my place in the world. Does that make sense? And even though it’s really messy right now, I know I can help try to fix it. It’s . . . part of me now.”

  Nella was smiling the same way she did when she thought something was super-cute, and I rolled my eyes at her.

  “Way to make it into a joke,” I accused her.

  “No!” She fixed her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I promise. It’s just . . . I’m happy for you.”

  I nodded, trying to smile. “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  Gavin came downstairs, already talking. “I didn’t find anything useful, Sam. If you want to take a look, you can, but—”

  As Gavin stepped on the bottom floor, someone appeared in the hallway between us. It was Kiato. He looked at me first and then back to Gavin. My heart rate spiked and I froze, not knowing what to do. We should have expected him to show up at any time, but now that it was happening, I didn’t have a plan.

  Gavin looked at me and yelled, “Sam, get out of here!”

  Knowing Gavin was the bigger threat, Kiato went for him first. He drifted and Gavin slowed time. They danced around each other in the foyer until one of them got slammed against the wall. Since both of them were a blur, I didn’t even know who it was.

  Levi had his ears flat and a low growl came from his throat. He stayed near me, though, too young to know what to do.

  Nella looked like she might scream again, and I quickly grabbed her wrist, drifting us both out of there before it was too late. When we appeared in her bedroom, she looked like she was going to be sick and ran for the bathroom.

  I gave her a few seconds after the vomiting stopped and asked, “Are you okay?”

  Nella came out of the bathroom, looking gray.

  She said, “Please don’t do that again.”

  I put my hands on her arms, looking serious. “I’ve got to go, okay? Promise me you won’t go to my house again until you hear from me.”

  After a worried hesitation, she finally nodded. “I promise.” I started to pull away, but she caught my arm. “Please, Sam—be careful.”

  “I will,” I promised. Before I drifted back home, I told her, “Maybe close your eyes? It might help with the shock.”

  She gave me a sheepish smile but did it.

  I drifted back into the kitchen, completely expecting a full-on fight to be happening in my house.

  It was quiet. Like nobody was there at all. Levi wouldn’t stop staring at the hallway and finally let out a whine, like he didn’t know what to do.

  “Gavin?”

  Nothing.

  Then Kiato appeared again in the same place in the hallway, a big gash over his eye. Gavin wasn’t with him. He started coming toward me and Levi started growling, staying near my side. It was all happening too fast. I needed time to think about what to do.

  I needed everything to just slow down for one damned second.

  It was hard to understand what happened then, because I’d never experienced it before.

  Like a snap of a finger, everything became muted and Kiato stopped walking—he didn’t stop walking, but he was moving so slow that I thought he had at first. Then I thought—what was happening? Did I do this?

  I glanced around to see if Gavin was here somewhere, but it was just Kiato and me.

  Kiato.

  He was in the kitchen now, still coming for me, even if it was slower than before. If I let him get close enough, it would be over. I needed to go. I needed to drift.

  But when I tried—something wasn’t right. Kiato was almost an arm’s reach from me and when I tried to drift, I didn’t go anywhere. Not that nothing happened because something definitely did, but I didn’t drift away. Instead, the pressure inside my head intensified and something appeared next to me.

  There was a tear in the air, like a ripped piece of fabric big enough to fit a person. A seam, with threads of air reaching out as if there was no gravity. I could see the other side of the room through it, but it was blurry, like looking through frosted glass.

  It was beautiful.

  The moment the seam appeared, time snapped back to normal, and Kiato stopped short, looking at the crack—or whatever it was—next to me.

  I felt just as shocked as he looked.


  A pressure pulsed at the back of my head, stronger than ever, and I wasn’t sure if I could hold onto it much longer.

  I released the pressure and the seam disappeared.

  When I looked over at Kiato, he was gone, too.

  REID

  BEING A DRIFTER MEANT GOING ANYWHERE IN the world I wanted, whenever I wanted. There was nothing to stop me and nothing to hold me back. There were no restrictions about anything, no boundaries I couldn’t cross.

  I never knew it could be taken away so quickly. And never before had I cherished it so much.

  Time seemed to pass slowly wherever we were. I was able to sleep on and off, but couldn’t find a comfortable position and my head still swam. I was grateful for my jacket and wondered if anyone else had one.

  A few times in the night, I heard groans from down the hall, followed by a snap of a chain as someone tried to drift. They probably couldn’t help themselves, and I knew I was listening to my future if this wasn’t over soon. Our bodies would start shutting down fast, and out of instinct to save ourselves, we wouldn’t have a choice.

  I’d never been bolted before. Even though Buck always threatened me with it. But I’d heard stories—all drifters had— of drifters and sliders who hated each other more than most.

  Everyone knew—if we didn’t drift, we’d die.

  Drifting was a part of me as much as my heart, keeping me alive. Without it, I was nothing. Without it, I didn’t know who I was.

  When morning came, the space we were kept in was actually well-lit because of all the skylights on the ceiling. Jake muttered a sarcastic good morning at some point and then Buck came around with a couple other guards who gave us a breakfast that consisted of a bottle of water and a cereal bar.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” I told him.

  He smiled. “I’ll get you the bucket.”

  Kiato showed up then—literally right behind Buck, who couldn’t help but flinch. But Kiato was freaked out about something and lowered his voice. I could still hear him.