The Supreme Elite held the pose, waiting for everyone to acknowledge his presence, to show their loyalty. One by one, the people around me slapped their left shoulders before thrusting their arms straight. Bile rose in my throat, but through sheer force of will, I repeated the sign of deference. Although Renold’s eyes weren’t on me, I knew I was being watched, and now wasn’t the time to make a stand.
“Citizens,” he repeated, lowering his arms. “We gather here today not to celebrate, but to mourn. One of our own, the man you see on the screen, has betrayed us all. He seeks to destroy everything we stand for. Our way of life, our pride and joy, the city that was designed to keep its citizens safe from the dangers of the outside world. But he’s not the only one. There are insurgents among us, perhaps the person standing right next to you.”
A panicked murmur swept over the crowd. Faces turned to each other in suspicion. Fear. I could have sworn Renold smiled, but his troubled frown returned before I could be certain.
“In the past,” he said, hushing the masses, “malcontent was dealt with swiftly and quietly. But my generosity has been taken for granted, and the betrayal has gone too deep this time. From now on, we must show that disloyalty is not tolerated. Anyone who seeks to undo what my forefathers have painstakingly built will be publicly disciplined.”
With a wave of his hand, he drew our attention to the screen once again. Guards were securing the beaten man’s restraints to a wooden support beam. When they stepped away, the man slumped, but the beam forced him to remain upright.
A fizzle of bright blue caught my eye.
The guards. They were carrying volt sticks. The weapon was rarely used, its electrical charge higher than a volt gun’s. I had only ever seen handlers use them to control the mutated beasts.
Oh stars.
“Ryker,” I breathed, helplessness washing over me. His shoulder brushed against mine in silent acknowledgment. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”
As an Elite Guardian, I should have been the first to know. Unless Renold knew what I’d been up to this past week.
“He must be warning you too,” Ryker responded, confirming my fear.
This was happening because of me? Stars. The guilt. It coiled around my chest, tightening until I could barely breathe.
Before I could come to terms with it all, the four guards lunged. Blue electricity zapped along the rods as they found their target. The man immediately convulsed, his muscles stiff with shock. Screams rent the air. Mothers covered their children’s eyes. A few pushed to get away, but there were more guards. Surrounding us. Boxing us in. Making us watch.
I was frozen solid. Completely helpless. Unable to look away.
When the man slumped against the wooden beam, hanging limply from his restraints, a hush fell over the crowd. A silent question saturated the air that no one dared ask. But the longer we stared at the unmoving form projected on the viewing screen, the clearer the answer became.
Frightened whispers of “He’s dead” reached my ears. A cold numbness trickled through me. I knew there would be casualties—I wasn’t disillusioned anymore. But I hadn’t been prepared to see a man electrocuted to death simply for believing in a better tomorrow.
A moan rose up from the crowd.
It wasn’t over.
As one body was carried away, another was brought forward.
And this one. This one I knew at a moment’s glance.
But I must be dreaming. Stuck in a waking nightmare. Because this. This.
Was impossible.
I pinched myself. Hard. Hard enough that tears pricked my eyes. But the vision of him didn’t disappear. This couldn’t be. He was far away from here. Safe.
“Wake up, you idiot. Wake up!”
Fingers squeezed my arm. “Quiet,” Ryker hissed in my ear. “He’s watching you.”
Who was watching? I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except the man being chained to the very same spot someone had died just seconds ago.
An amplified voice, a voice that I hated, started speaking. He listed the man’s crimes against the city. There were many. A guard tore the shirt off the man I loved. I flinched, almost feeling the material tear from my own skin. I checked the viewing screen. His face was turned away from the crowd, the exposed lines of his back the only thing I could see.
That was my soulmate, restrained and helpless.
My other half. He needed me.
A ringing. A screaming. A storm of emotions barrelled through me.
Ryker gave my arm a shake. “He can handle it. This is a test. Stop reacting.” But I heard the doubt in his voice. The panic. That his friend, his brother, was about to die.
And his emotions added more fuel to mine. They were my weakness. My ruin. I felt and thought too much. But I didn’t care. I didn’t care if the whole world knew how to destroy me.
Because he already was. Brendan Bearon—the one who’d taught me to love fiercely and believe in something greater than myself—was destroying me by destroying himself.
I couldn’t let that happen. Every inch of me railed against that outcome. So when I saw the whip—the same one I’d felt across my back for over a decade—and saw the guard position himself behind Bren to destroy a perfectly beautiful part of him, I exploded.
“No!” I surged toward him, shoving aside anyone and anything that separated us. Arms shot around me, pinning my flailing limbs. “Let me go, Ryker!”
I thrashed against his grip like a wild beast, cursing him for holding me back.
I knew he’d betray me again!
“Lune Tatum.” The sound of my old name, my fake name, made me pause for a moment, just long enough to hear Renold say, “You will do it. Deliver thirty satisfactory lashes and Mr. Bearon will live to see another day.”
A lightning bolt to the chest couldn’t have shocked me more. I seized up, replaying the words over and over, but I couldn’t grasp them.
Renold repeated his demand. “My daughter, our esteemed Elite Guardian, will have the honor of delivering justice. After all, it is her duty to defend this city, inside and out. Hand her the whip.”
I knew what he said, but I still didn’t understand.
I grew aware of my surroundings. The gaping faces. Everyone was watching me. Of course they were. They wanted to see what I would do. To see if I would remain loyal—or disobey a direct order. This moment was pivotal, a turning point in the game for control over this city. Would I rise up? Or would I crumble under the demands of a dictator?
When I didn’t move, Ryker nudged me forward. He practically carried me, my feet dead weights, the people soundlessly parting to let us pass.
Bren’s back grew sharper as we neared. The only thing marring his smooth skin was the faint scar where he’d been shot. I was still a shell of confusion, unwilling to believe the order I’d been given. But when he looked over his shoulder at me, when I saw his beloved face, reality sucker-punched me.
This was real. He was real. Somehow, Bren was in Tatum City and I was being told to mutilate his back.
Someone—the guard—pried my fingers apart, placing a cold object on my palm. I looked down. Stars, I shouldn’t have. There was the whip. In my hand. The whip. There were nicks on the handle where Renold’s fingernails had gouged the leather while he’d beat me.
My hands started to shake. I tore my gaze away, fixing wide eyes on Bren.
And then he did something terrible. With a whispered, “It’s okay,” he gave me permission to whip him. To destroy him.
Tears distorted his features. Tears of hurt. Of anger. I was suddenly mad at him for being so calm and accepting of this. I wanted him to beg me not to do it!
I flung the vile whip as if it were a snake, spitting, “I can’t. I won’t.”
If Renold meant to unearth my true loyalties, then he’d won. But I wouldn’t give in to this ultimatum, this deal that would destroy my heart. Bren would live another day. I just had to find another way.
“Guard, pick up the
whip,” Renold said without inflection, as if he knew all along I wouldn’t go through with it. “For my daughter’s weakness and inability to do her duty, Mr. Bearon will receive double the lashes. Proceed with the whipping.”
My heart forgot to beat. “No, don’t—!”
The whip’s high-pitched whine cut through my words, slicing the air and into Bren’s flesh. I sucked in a gasp, too stunned to move. But when a thin red line slowly formed across his back, my knees gave out. Ryker bore my weight, refusing to let go. I stared at that cruel line. Stared and stared.
With a crack, the whip came down again. This time, Bren tensed, gripping the chains attached to his wrists. Blood trickled down his back and soaked his pants. But he didn’t cry out, even when the whip’s metal tip struck his rib cage, tearing free a chunk of flesh.
I bit my lip until a metallic tang coated my tongue. The pain wasn’t enough to dull the throbbing ache in my chest.
Sixty lashes.
Five down, fifty-five to go.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stand by while his back was pulverised to raw meat. Screw the consequences because it was time to fight back.
I lunged at the guard. Startled by the abrupt move, Ryker’s hold on me slipped. I stumbled but quickly righted myself. As the guard’s head turned my way, I plowed my fist into his face.
Blood instantly spurted. He yelled and dropped the whip to clutch at his broken nose. Before I could deliver another blow, I was picked up off my feet. Ryker’s hold was punishing this time, so tight that I couldn’t breathe. I tried to headbutt him, kick his kneecaps—anything I could reach. But there wasn’t enough room.
Despite everything we’d been through together, I wanted to kill him right now.
“Let me go,” I snarled as he dragged me back. The crowd wasn’t so silent anymore. Some were yelling, but I was too enraged to make out their words. Ryker’s arms loosened enough for me to breathe again. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m keeping a promise,” he growled back. “He told me to protect you if he couldn’t.”
I would have barked a crazed laugh if I wasn’t so angry. “But I’m trying to protect him!”
“Proceed with the whipping,” I heard Renold say above the rising chaos. “Ten extra lashes for my daughter’s insubordination.”
That did it.
He was doing this to destroy my weakness. He thought Bren was my weakness.
But I suddenly knew without a shred of doubt that the complete opposite was true. Brendan Bearon was going to make me stronger than I’d ever been before.
It was like turning a handle. Simple. So simple. And then the raw fury poured free. It swept aside my fear and helplessness, drowning the weaker emotions until my vision bled red. I embraced the wild wave crashing through me, letting it fill and consume me. I remembered feeling this once before. On a rooftop when all I wanted to do was stop a madman from shooting an innocent girl.
And here it was again, energy rushing to my aid, answering my unspoken cry for help. But I wasn’t helpless. No, there was something in me, something powerful and dangerous that wanted to be unleashed. It was a part of me, begging to be used.
To be wielded like a weapon.
I could stop this and save Bren. I simply had to believe that I could.
Energy shot through me like pure adrenaline, pulling me under, yet granting me power to rise. With Ryker’s arms anchoring me to earth, I finally let go. I let myself lose control completely, giving it all to the ability raging through me. I was floating, wrapped in a watery bubble of protection.
I was invincibility. Power.
Not a girl. Or an elite. Or even a Visionary.
I was something else entirely in this moment. A being unlike any other.
I didn’t recognize my voice when I spoke next. It was like hearing myself from inside a pocket of water. My body, along with everyone else’s, was on the outside. But my subconscious was here, controlling what I said and did. I could see everything, though. I saw the irate guard pick up the whip again, his desire for vengeance clear. He was planning to take it out on Bren.
But I wouldn’t let him.
“Stop,” I said. The single word was neither a shout nor a whisper. But commanding. I gave him no choice but to listen. My order was absolute.
The whip paused midair. The guard froze. Didn’t so much as blink. But I knew that once I let him go, he’d resume tearing up Bren’s back. Hurting the man I loved. My soulmate. So I formed a tether with his mind. Dove into his consciousness.
And tore him apart from the inside.
He screamed, the only thing he was able to do. Blood trickled from his nose and ears.
It was the color. The color red—sliding down his chin and neck—that made me blink. Made me realize.
I was killing someone.
Stop, stop, stop!
I pounded against the bubble separating me from my body.
But even as I threw myself against the mental shield, I could see that it was too late.
The man’s eyes fogged—that dull, glassy look I couldn’t seem to escape—before he tipped over, landing on the ground with a great thud.
The noise jerked me back to myself. The reuniting of mind and body was like smacking into rock. Short, strangled gasps left me while my heart raced a million miles a minute. I was crashing. An adrenaline junkie coming down hard from a high. My knees gave out, but arms kept me from falling.
And then . . .
Everything returned.
The sound of screaming. Renold yelling, “Arrest her!”
The smell of fear. I could sense it everywhere, in and around me.
Did they know?
Were they fleeing because they knew that I’d killed someone. With my mind?
My body was jostled, lifted up. Hands grasped at my clothes. Guards. Pulling my arms, restraining my wrists. But Ryker held on. More frenzied shouts. More faces. Not guards this time. Villagers. They swarmed around us, blocking the light and my last glimpse of Bren. They grappled to reach me, shoving the guards aside. Blue electricity lit up the chaos and a villager fell. Two more took his place.
They tore me from Ryker. Sidestepped the lunging guards. I didn’t resist as they dragged me away. Didn’t care what the nameless faces planned to do with me. I deserved their punishment after what I had just done.
I was slipping, slipping away from the havoc I had wreaked.
The last thought I had before darkness pulled me under was that I’d truly become the one thing I’d fought so hard not to become. What I feared more than anything else.
A monster.
Fog swirled around a dark form. One I could never see but knew all the same.
“Hello, Catanna.”
“Hello, Princess.” A pause. “It’s been awhile. What’s on your mind?”
“I . . . I killed someone. On purpose this time.”
Silence.
A dark chuckle. “Was the price you had to pay too high?”
Another pause. Then a whispered, “I don’t know.”
I was so close to the surface. So close to waking. But the voices followed me there. Elites and villagers, friends and enemies. They banded together against me, knowing that I was the greatest threat of all.
“Murderer,” one jeered.
“Monster,” another hissed.
“Berserker.”
Wait. No. Not that. A murderer and monster, yes, but insane? I didn’t allow my ability to control me. Did I?
“Berserker!”
“No. No, please. I swear I’m not!”
Something brushed aside strands of my hair, coaxing me from my nightmare.
“It’s okay, little bird. You’re safe.”
My eyes snapped open. I immediately winced as a headache throbbed at my temples.
When my searching gaze found Bren’s face inches from mine, I gasped and rolled over, scrambling to create distance.
“Stay back,” I said hoarsely, throwing out a hand when he slowly sat up. �
��It’s not safe. I’m not—”
A flickering candle on a scuffed table, the room’s sole piece of furniture, caught my attention. Nausea swept through me. “The bunker. They took us to the—” I started to shake with fear. “The beasts. Where are they? Where—?”
Fingers touched my cheek.
“Bren!” Shocked to discover him so close, I pulled away again, backing into the wall. He continued to pursue me on his hands and knees in nothing but a pair of dark pants. I froze, struggling to put together the missing pieces. It was the pain tightening his eyes that jogged my memory. “Oh stars, Bren. You were whipped.”
He shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“No. None of this is okay.” I swallowed my rising panic, darting a look around the room. Seeking escape.
“Lune, we’re not in the bunker. Several villagers took a stand and distracted the guards so we could get away. Asher and a few others smuggled us into an old wine cellar during all the chaos. Please, look at me.”
He was close enough to touch now. I scooted sideways along the wall. “You shouldn’t have come. I wanted you to be safe.”
“That’s my line.”
“Well, it’s my line now too!”
His hands captured my face. I grabbed his wrists, but even in his weakened condition, he wasn’t letting go. “Look at me, little bird.” I couldn’t deny the quiet command. When I met his eyes, tears immediately threatened to spill over. The familiar sweep of his thumbs across my cheeks jerked the tears free.
“I understand why you left me behind,” he said softly, catching each tear that fell. “And I tried to accept it, but I couldn’t. Every second you were in here without me was a waking nightmare. I could barely breathe, let alone think. And even if turning myself in was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, I had to come for you, no matter the cost.”
“Yeah, and you almost got whipped to death, you big idiot.” He flashed a sheepish grin. I should have been mad at him for his reckless behavior, but only felt relieved that he was alive and speaking to me. I raised tentative fingers to his face. When he turned his cheek into my palm, I blew out a shaky breath. “So you . . . you don’t hate me for what I did?”
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