by Jus Accardo
“Go ahead and test me, Dylan.” The fury in her voice, in her stance, was something to see. Fierce and brave.
Dylan laughed and made a swipe for her arm. When she violently smacked it away, his expression darkened. “Gonna be like that, then?”
“Damn right,” Sera said with a growl. “I’m not leaving him like this. If you wanted me to come with you, you should have kept your word. We had a deal.”
Dylan shrugged. I tensed, sure he’d make another grab for her. I wasn’t confident that I could stop him right then. But instead of pulling a snatch and grab, he folded his arms and frowned. “You stay with him and you’re as good as dead. Come with me and you have an opportunity to live.”
“I’ll take my chances with him,” she said.
Another shrug. He lifted his arm and woke his chip.
No way. It was this easy? He was just going to walk away, after all that?
“Once I’m gone you’re stuck. I’m guessing that chip won’t work when he’s dead. You’ll be stranded wherever he drops.”
“Leave before I hurt you,” she ground out. Even took a menacing step forward. God. She was even more perfect than I’d imagined.
Far too perfect for someone like me.
With one last look in my direction, Dylan smiled. “Enjoy her while you can, man.” And then he was gone.
For a second, I stared at the spot where he’d been, then turned to Sera. She watched me with an odd mix of elation and fear. “Obviously I missed something. What’s—”
She fell to her knees and collapsed against me, arms winding around my waist like a vise. I hesitated for a moment before locking my arms around her, as well. It was weird. I estimated that it’d been more than 372 days since I landed in Cora’s cell. 372 days since Sera—the faceless girl who I’d come to depend on as much as I did my own limbs—came into my life. Her voice had become a source of comfort, her unshakable hope a light in the dark. But this…this was the first time I’d really gotten to touch her. Sure, she’d taken my hand earlier. But that was a hand. This…this was her. This was Sera.
My ghost. My dream.
I savored the feel of it, soft and warm and calming, while at the same time stirring my insides into a jumbled mess. My arms tightened, and I buried my face in the crook of her neck, reveling in the silkiness of her hair. But as many nights as I’d fantasized about touching her, about feeling her close and looking her in the eye—there were other things to deal with now. Mainly, what Dylan had said.
It took every ounce of self-control I had, but I pulled away. “Why did that asshole think my eternal dirt nap was imminent?”
Lips pressed thin, she paled. “We should probably talk.”
…
“How long?” I’d skipped us out—just in case Dylan changed his mind about leaving Sera behind. I felt bad about leaving Cade, but the guy could look after himself and could track me if he wanted. We’d been hunkered down in a public park just north of the center of town for over an hour now. It was cooler here than it’d been on the last world. There was a breeze that made it feel closer to the end of December than November. Still, despite the temperatures, the foliage was in full bloom. Brightly colored flowers, shades of blue and lavender, lined the walkway, while the trees overhead shaded us with golden leaves.
She shook her head and tucked both feet beneath her on the bench. She wore dark blue jeans that seemed a size too big, and a men’s hoodie. Her hair, mostly free of the elastic it’d been pulled back with, whipped wildly in the wind. It looked darker than I remembered. Chocolaty brown. And her cheek bones, sharp and defined… They gave her an almost ethereal look. She was stunning, no doubt, but it was what I saw in her eyes, the hope and trust and emotion, that made her truly unique. No one had ever looked at me like that.
She kind of cringed a little. “When Cora gave him the device, she said a few days. No way to know for sure.”
The good news? I’d gotten Sera back. The bad news?
I was going to die.
“But there’s a way to fix it? To neutralize the poison?” Dylan had flipped a switch that started the disintegration of a pod Cora had implanted in my body—one I hadn’t even been aware of. It contained a toxin that would kill me if left unchecked. But there was an antidote. She’d given it to Dylan along with the device to release it. Of course, he—and it—were long gone. I might have called bullshit on the entire thing if I hadn’t seen the look on Dylan’s face when he pushed the button.
“Dylan has it,” Sera confirmed with a nod. “We just need to get to him and take it.”
Sounded simple. Sure. Except for one small problem. We were both on borrowed time. The pendulum was swinging over her head as much as it was mine. “And the way to fix the failing chip in your head is to find Karl Anderson?”
Again, she nodded. “The chips that Phil MaKaden stole, then implanted you and the others with weren’t the standard kind. They were part of a special set she created and can do more than the others.”
“More, meaning?”
She made a move to grab my arm but hesitated, the tips of her fingers grazing my bare skin. It took every ounce of self-control not to sigh like an idiot at the contact. “I… Sorry. Can I?”
I held out my arm and looked her in the eye. She inhaled sharply, and my heartbeat sped up. After a particularly bad night, I’d once told Sera that if I ever managed to get out, I’d never let another living person touch me. Apparently she hadn’t realized she was exempt from that statement. “You are the one person who never has to ask me that, Sera.”
She flushed and cleared her throat, refocusing on my forearm. It took a minute of fumbling, but she finally managed to wake the chip. “See this?” she said, pointing to a small circle in the bottom corner. “There’s a code—6256. It pulls up a hidden menu. Within that menu is a way to track Karl. She said it can do a lot more than that, but obviously she wasn’t going to give up all its secrets.”
“If these chips are that advanced, then why isn’t she trying to take them back?” Knowing Cora the way I did—which was too damn well—she’d never let a piece of tech like this go. Especially if she had plans for it.
Sera frowned. “I thought about that. To be honest, though, it wasn’t my main concern.”
“One thing at a time,” I agreed. I stood and glanced around. The sun was setting, and the park had all but emptied. It was just us and a tall man with a dog a few yards away. “We go after Karl, then we’ll hit up Dylan.”
She jumped from the bench. “Not a chance. We go after Dylan then we chase Karl.”
“We find Karl first. We don’t know how much time you have.” The chip Cora implanted in her brain to help the serum work was malfunctioning. It could go at any moment. How the hell did she think I’d take the chance?
“But we know how much you have—and it’s not long.”
“I’m not debating this with you, Sera. I’m the one with the chip. I’m calling the destination.” Was I being an asshole? Yeah. But I was looking out for her. First and foremost, it was always Sera first.
“Hey!” Cade crossed the park at a jog. He looked winded and pale. “I’ve been looking for you for hours!”
“Took you long enough to find us,” I said.
He looked from me to Sera, and relief crossed his features. Huh. Maybe he wasn’t just worried about payback. “You okay?”
“Debatable at this point,” she said, shifting subtly closer to me. Someone else would have perceived it as weakness. Maybe think she was timid and afraid. After everything she’d been through, it would be understandable. But I knew that wasn’t what it was about. It’d been just the two of us for so long. It didn’t matter that Cade and his friends had freed us from a living hell, or that they’d tried to help get her back. We were so used to relying on each other, even if only for verbal support, that everyone else was the enemy.
“We have a problem. Two of them.”
Cade groaned and rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
I nodded to my forearm, where the chip had been implanted. “Grab on. I’ll explain on the way.”
Chapter Nine
Sera
I lifted the glass and drained the rest of the dark liquid. It was bubbly with the faintest taste of cherries and mint. Not great, but definitely not the most horrible thing I’d ever ingested. Cora’s idea of keeping us hydrated had been tepid water that smelled strongly of sulfur. Anything was an improvement over that. Across from me, Cade and G were currently engaged in a stare down, both their drinks untouched.
Cade folded his arms and leaned back in the seat. His eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head from side to side. “I don’t like it.”
“Of course you don’t,” G responded with a snort. “Because you can’t control it.”
We’d skipped and found an out-of-the-way café that took a form of cash Cade was carrying; he’d been collecting money during their travels. We’d found a table and were trying to iron out the details of a plan that would allow both G and me to continue breathing.
The boys were having a hard time agreeing on logistics.
“I’m all for splitting up,” Cade said through clenched teeth. He jabbed a finger against the tabletop. Something about the way he did it made me think he was picturing G’s head. “But we’ve got a better chance—”
“No.” I knew that tone. There was no arguing with G. He’d made up his mind, and nothing Cade—or I—could say would change it.
A part of me understood—and agreed. Sort of. We were going after Karl. We hadn’t agreed on what we’d be doing with him when we found him—neither one of us believed Cora would fix my head just because she’d said so—but it was a step in the right direction. Cade would go after Dylan for the antidote. That’s where the disagreement came in.
Cade wanted to skip home to his world, where Noah and the others had gone to keep Ash from Cora. Ash was under the protection of his military and, therefore, untouchable. Searching for Dylan would go quicker with Noah’s help, Cade had insisted. G didn’t agree.
“The two of you chased him together for a year,” G said. “You couldn’t take him down then. What the hell makes you think this time will be any different?” He narrowed his eyes. “If anything, you’d be less motivated than before.”
Cade opened his mouth, but G cut him off.
“This is it, man. You want to help, then this is the way to do it.”
I took his hand and squeezed. I recognized the danger signs by just the tone of his voice. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, Cade. You really have no idea how Cora played with our minds in that place—”
“And we don’t trust you,” G finished. It wasn’t totally true, though. There was a part of him that trusted Cade—even if only a little bit—despite the fact that he kept insisting he didn’t. He wouldn’t have stayed with him otherwise. Maybe it was their blood. Different worlds or not, they were still brothers. That had to mean something, right? There had to be some kind of connection. Maybe there’d been a Cade where he’d come from. The memory might be fuzzy, but a fact like that had to leave some kind of imprint.
“We’ll compromise.” Cade leaned forward and planted both elbows on the table. “I’ll go after Dylan alone—for now. But we don’t have time on our side. You both understand that, right? If I don’t have any luck, I’m going to get help.” He pushed away from the table and stood. There was a resemblance to G. They had the same brown eyes and perfectly sculpted cheek bones. Their hair was the same shade of night. They even had the same frown, something they both wore too often.
For a minute I was sure G would argue. He was nothing if not stubborn. But after a tense moment, he nodded just once. “Fine.”
Cade woke his chip and disappeared before our eyes.
“He’ll find Dylan,” I said, slipping my hand into G’s. “I don’t believe he’ll let you die.”
He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “I’m not going to let you die.” He woke his own chip and pulled up the secret menu. Finger hovering above Karl’s PATH line, the thing that told us his unique frequency, he said, “Ready?”
“More than.”
He jabbed the line, but nothing happened. “Crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I must have lost count. Guess we’re on cooldown.”
The sand in the hourglass was sliding, but the truth was, part of me was glad we were stuck. I’d been skipping, been dragged from one place to another, for almost a month now. I was both mentally and physically drained. Half a day or so to get my bearings and come to terms with everything that had happened? I’d take it. Of course, it was easier to swallow knowing Cade was out there, looking for a way to save G.
“Then we make the most of it. Food and rest. We both deserve at least that.”
“Cade didn’t leave any of this world’s money. How are we supposed to pay for it?”
I smiled. It felt strange, yet wonderful. The first real grin I could remember. The muscles in my face were stiff, having not bent that way in God knew how long, but so help me, this would be the first of many. We could fix this, G and I. Together we could do anything. “I think I can take care of that.”
…
G flopped onto his back, noisily chewing the last of his fries. The mattress on the other bed groaned, the sound tugging at the frayed edges of my memory in ways that threatened to drive me mad. We’d gotten a room and ordered more room service than we could both possibly eat, thanks to the cash I’d pickpocketed off a creepy guy on the street corner a few blocks from here. I’d mimicked what I’d seen Dylan do a hundred times while we were stuck together. I didn’t think it’d work—but we’d gotten lucky.
I’d kicked off my shoes and lain back as well. This was nothing like the rooms Dylan and I had stayed in. The carpet was clean, and the sheets smelled fresh. The paint on the walls was pristine, and there were several vases full of fresh flowers.
“What do you think Cora really wants with Karl?” The silence between us was comfortable, but I wanted to hear his voice. I’d gone almost a month without it, and even though he and Dylan were technically the same person, clearly it wasn’t even close to similar.
“Hard to say. He could have actually stolen something she wants back, like she said—or she could just want revenge because he left. Bitch is crazy.”
“Do you think she’ll keep her end of the deal?”
“No,” came his response, instant and unwavering. There was anger in his tone, but also certainty. No one knew Cora’s cruelty like G did. With me, she’d at least tried to present herself as human—most of the time. With him, though, she’d been a monster at every turn, heartlessly taunting and punishing him when he didn’t do exactly as she wanted. “I’ll make her. She’s done hurting us. Don’t worry.”
I rolled onto my side so that I was facing his bed. He was still on his back, staring up at the ceiling. The slight rise and fall of his chest made the hard lines even more defined; I wondered what it would be like to run my fingers across. We’d lost so much time, locked away in those cells. There was a part of me that worried this newfound freedom wouldn’t last. I wanted to do everything right now. All the things we’d talked about. All the things we swore we’d get to do together. “Do you remember our last night there? What you said to me?”
…
Cora came down this morning to claim him herself. She’d brought her entourage and dragged him from the cell. The whole thing had been eerily silent. G never kicked or screamed. He never thrashed or fought. He had, in the beginning. I’d heard the chaos and could only imagine the damage he’d done. It took six of Cora’s men to subdue him. But she was a smart one. One threat to make me pay for his actions had rendered him as docile as a kitten.
Footsteps at the other end of the hall pulled me from my reverie. Soft voices, a creaking door, then the echoing snap as the cell was closed and locked. I waited until the footsteps faded again.
“G?” The question terrified me. One of these days, would he
not be able to answer? Or worse, would he just not be there anymore at all?
A few moments passed. “I’m here. You okay?”
Was I okay? I was sitting on my ass in a cell. He was the one who’d been taken up. “Are you okay? What happened? You were gone so long. I thought…”
“Thought you could—” A violent string of coughs filled the air, followed by a grunt of pain he tried to mask, and a moment later, the sound of something wet slopping against the floor. “Thought you could get rid of me?”
“Why were you gone so long? What did they do?”
“You know. The usual. We threw back a few beers. Played some pool. Nothing exciting.” He coughed again, trying to cover up the sharp inhalation of breath with each new wheeze.
He was particularly bad off tonight. He only joked like this when it got really rough. “Why won’t you tell me? If you think it’ll scare me—”
“Scare you?” He laughed, a sound that seemed to rattle through the small space. “You’re too tough to be scared, Sera.”
“Then why not tell me? Why keep it to yourself? You’re not alone here. You’re—”
“I’ll tell you.” His voice dropped to a barely-there whisper. Not because he was afraid someone would hear, but likely because it was hard for him to breathe. The sound of his labored puffing was soft, yet the loudest thing in the room in that moment. “When we’re free, I’ll tell you everything.”
…
He was quiet, and I figured he’d simply fallen into old routine. G had a habit of shutting down when this particular subject came up.
“Why is it so important for you to know?” The sun had gone down, and we hadn’t bothered with the lights. I think we both liked the dark—it was a calming contrast to the harsh lights of Infinity. Sometimes Cora would go weeks without turning the lights off. Another person might not think that was a big deal, but when you craved some kind of schedule, any shred of normalcy you could latch on to, it was. G’s voice was soft. Barely a whisper. “Why do you need me to paint you that picture when you know it’ll be ugly?”