It was only recently, soon after King Maxen's ascent to the throne. By some twist of providence, two incidents I haven't been able to ignore occurred within the space of a few days. I discovered the real reason King Maxen commissioned Benuxupane, and the truth about the marked boys of Matrus.
Since the two incidents, it's simply been a matter of waiting for the right opportunity. If I am going to escape, I want to leave with a bang, so to speak. I want to leave a mark on both nations—one neither will forget in a hurry.
When the egg went missing from Matrus, I saw my opportunity and seized it.
The truth is, even I don't know what's within that sleek metal egg. All I know is that anything both governments want can't be a good thing for anyone, no matter how many self-serving lies they spout.
And so, with this mission, I will be able to accomplish both objectives in one strike. Mark, and flee.
Just as I will leave a note for Matrus, I will also leave one for Patrus.
I don't know where I will head, or if I will survive. If there is anything at all beyond that mass of forest.
But even if The Green is indeed as endless as people believe, if my aircraft gives way before I manage to cross it and I never live to discover what lies beyond the trees… I don't care.
I will have lived a fuller life in the past twenty-four hours than in all of my twenty-five years of living.
I will die a free man.
Not a pawn in someone's game.
Lee."
As I finished reading, my hands were trembling so hard I could no longer hold the paper straight. This strange letter exploded a dozen questions in my mind, but I could focus on only one.
The boys. What had Lee discovered about the boys?
Folding up the paper, I slipped it back into the bag. My heart palpitating, I continued to search through its contents. I discovered a small silver key in one of the side pockets. Retrieving it, I stood up again and opened the seat. I planted the backpack inside before reaching down to scoop up the egg. I placed it on my lap as I resettled.
The keyhole was near the base. Attempting to still my hands, I managed to insert the key into the hole and twisted it clockwise. It moved two hundred and seventy degrees before stopping. There was a click, and then a smooth crack appeared around the center of the egg. Drying my hands of perspiration against my ripped dress, I eased open the egg's lid… and stared.
Only the top half of the silver casing would unlatch and it lifted to expose a second, smaller egg that fit snugly inside it. Its walls appeared to be made of some kind of extremely thick glass, and within it swirled… a sack of liquid. The sack's wall was thick, spongy and transparent. It stuck flush to the glass like it had been glued there. The liquid's texture was gooey and semi-transparent, its color brownish-amber. I touched the exterior with my finger. It was warm. Shockingly warm. The very bottom of the egg was taken up by a black plate whose base was concave, to fit the shape of the egg. I guessed that was some sort of temperature-controlling device. Shining my flashlight directly through the murky liquid, I spotted something else. It was small, smaller than the center of my palm.
It looked like an embryo.
What type of embryo, exactly, I wasn't knowledgeable enough about biology to tell. It was still in early stages of development. I could make out the bulge of a head, the curve of a back, several bumps which I guessed would be limbs. A translucent cord was attached to its midriff. The cord connected the fetus to the center of the egg's base, that strange plate thing.
What is this?
Why do Matrus and Patrus want it so badly?
What did Lee want with it?
It could be an animal… It could be a human.
A sudden gust of wind shook me out of my stupor. It was strong enough to wobble the aircraft. Given that I hadn't been holding on to anything for support—and I still couldn't with the egg in my hands—my feet shot outward over the floor to steady myself. In the process, my heel shifted a lever at the base of my seat that I hadn't even noticed.
Two alarmingly loud creaks emanated from the wooden boxes fixed to either end of the motorcycle. I tensed up, petrified I'd done something fatal.
What I was not expecting was for the bases of the wooden boxes to suddenly flap open, and for four bodies to tumble out.
Four male bodies.
I almost choked on my tongue as I realized I recognized one of them: his faded dungarees, his gray-speckled hair. His frozen, stubbled face. It was Chris the mechanic.
Hurtling down with the other three men to a quiet suburban street, they made contact with the concrete with a sickening splat.
The other three men. They had to be the other three red dots on Lee's monitor. Duncan, Seb, and Jacob.
Lee was a madman. What was he doing carrying them in his aircraft? He must have murdered them shortly before the banquet, and stored them in the boxes out of convenience. Maybe he'd been planning to dump them in The Green. Clearly, I'd never known the real Lee. The flat, Matrian-male persona he'd put forward throughout my stay with him had been an act.
Unable to focus on the egg any longer, I closed and locked it up before replacing it in the seat compartment with more care than I'd previously handled it. There was a life in that thing.
After zipping up the key in the backpack, I sat down and faced forward. I gripped the handles for support. I felt like throwing up.
Lee's letter replayed in my mind.
Desmond.
Why was it addressed to Desmond? That was one of the strangest things about the letter.
Desmond was Lee's middle name. Perhaps the letter was some kind of journal entry, an upheaval of guilt before the night. But still, it didn't make any sense to me that he would use his middle name. Why not address it to Lee? He'd called himself only Lee around me, and I hadn't heard a single person address him as Desmond either.
As I recalled the explanation Lee had given me for the name, the very first night I had arrived in Patrus, a thought struck me.
"My full name is Lee Desmond Bertrand. Named Lee by my father, Desmond by my mother… I'm native to neither Matrus nor Patrus. In fact, I was born in the middle."
It drew my mind back to a question I had mulled over and posed to Viggo the evening we’d sat atop the roof in his backyard.
What happens to someone who doesn't feel they belong in either nation?
Lee's father was a Patrian. His mother a Matrian.
Lee of Patrus.
Desmond of Matrus.
A chill ran down my spine as I wondered if Lee truly was insane.
Maybe he had some kind of split-personality disorder. Maybe his childhood had messed him up.
Maybe I finally had an answer to my question and Lee was an extreme case of what could happen to a person who felt they belonged in neither nation. They rebelled against both.
Suddenly, the night seemed to grow much colder. I shivered.
I was beginning to near The Green.
Ms. Dale had been right. She'd told me, not far away from where I soared now, that once I reached the other side of the river I should trust no one. I just hadn't considered Lee to be a member of the other side.
Now, whether I liked it or not, I didn't belong to either side, either. I was a fugitive from both nations.
And I was sitting exactly where Lee would be sitting right now. On an illegal aircraft, accompanied by the egg, some meager supplies, and a few pieces of survival equipment.
My eyes fell to the compass I'd placed in the holder.
Lee had intended to head north. But my heart felt torn in two directions. North and west. My brother and Viggo. They were the only two people who mattered to me anymore. It felt like the world could implode (which it might do anyway after tonight's events), but if I could find those two alive, I would be content.
But now I feared that both of them were already dead. Although Lee had decided not to kill Viggo earlier, for all I knew, he could have gotten caught up in the blast. Maybe Lee had set off more bomb
s on the ground floor than I was aware of. He'd seemed keen to destroy the building as much as possible.
And my brother. After Viggo's suspicion and now Lee's words, I feared that Queen Rina had lied to me all along about a reunion. I had only a sliver of hope left in my heart that Tim was still alive.
But, somehow, I had to find out. My soul would not rest until I had.
However many days or hours I had left to live after tonight's disaster, I had to make them count. I had nothing left to lose.
I didn't know how I would pull any of this off, or in what order. I still barely knew how to navigate this darn aircraft. I didn't know how to change its direction, and I sure didn't know how to land.
But whatever I ended up doing, and however I ended up doing it, there was one thing I knew for certain:
From this moment on, like Lee Desmond Bertrand, I had to be a player of my own rules.
No longer a pawn in someone's game.
* * *
Ready for the next part of Violet’s story?
Dear Reader,
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Bella x
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Also by Bella Forrest
THE GENDER GAME
The Gender Game
The Gender Game 2
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
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The Gender Game Page 28