by AJ Eversley
“We’ve got sum’ good healers here, Miss. He’ll be back to good ‘n no time.” Lankey tried to smile. I didn’t return it. “We’ll be meetin’ in ‘bout an hour. You should get washed up.” Lankey placed a hand on my shoulder.
“No, I’ll wait here.”
“He’s in good hands. You can trust them.” Lankey pushed me forward. “Go, get cleaned up. You’ll feel better after a good washin’.”
I wanted to refuse; I couldn’t leave him. But when I looked down at my hands, all I saw was his blood and Chevy’s blood. The violent image replayed over and over again as I looked to the dry, crusted blood all over me. Chevy’s body hitting the stone with a lifeless thud, Max’s screams of pain echoing in my ears, deep within my soul. I shuddered.
Finally, I moved and left the healers. My feet dragged the whole way with the weight of this night heavy on my shoulders. I reached my room, and as the hot water hit my body, I let go, dropping to my knees as the water spilled over my head and covered my tear-streaked cheeks. This night has taken something out of me, something I hadn’t even know was still there.
~
We gathered in Lena’s study, a large room off the main entrance that was covered wall-to-wall with books. Oversized chairs circled the large round table that we all sat around. Anthony stayed close by Lena’s side, and Captain Lankey stretched his feet out while twirling his thumbs in his lap. I took the seat closest to the door, ready at a moment’s notice and armed, just in case Kenzie returned.
My seat also gave me a slight view into the dining room where Max lay pale and still.
“Sawyer, ya’ knew the man who attacked, aye?” Lankey drew my attention back to the room. They all turned their gaze on me.
“Yes, I knew him. His name is Kenzie.”
“And he’s a Carbon?” Anthony asked.
“No, he is part man and part Bot.” It made me uncomfortable talking about him, but it was necessary. That didn’t stop me from fidgeting with my knife under the table. “His left arm is robotic. That’s where his abilities come from.”
“The blasts?” Anthony asked.
I nodded, flinching at the memory. I remembered Kenzie’s cold, dark eyes staring at me.
“But he didn’t seem ta remember ya’, Lena said?” Lankey said.
“No, he didn’t seem to.” I sighed. The weight of my body sank into the oversized chair. My chin dropped to my chest.
“Then, maybe he is a Carbon now?” Anthony said. Lankey nodded in agreement.
“He can’t be a Carbon. His arm makes that impossible. It was him.”
“His powers are strong, and he’s working with Coleman.” Lena glanced to Anthony with concern. “It’s only a matter of time, but they will be back.”
I was absently nodding when it hit me—the reason Kenzie had come in the first place.
“Wait. Why was he after you?” I leaned into the table, clenching the knife in my hand. “He asked for you—only you. Why?” My voice rose as I locked my jaw.
“It’s…complicated.” Lena shifted in her seat.
I snarled. “I’m an expert in complicated. The man I loved, who I thought was dead, just tried to kill me. And he killed Chevy with no remorse and may well have taken Max’s life. On top of that, he doesn’t even remember me. What could be more complicated than that?”
Lena and Anthony exchanged a look.
“Don’t look to him for answers,” I said. “I think I deserve to know the truth about what’s going on here.”
Lena sighed. “Okay, I will tell you,” she said with a glance in Captain Lankey’s direction.
“I’m gonna check on the boy. I’ll leave ya’ be,” said Lankey. Anthony followed him, leaving Lena and I alone.
She fidgeted with her fingers and looked down at her hands. My heart pounded against my chest as I waited for her to speak.
“My mother had a very difficult pregnancy. She died during childbirth. The doctors said it was unlikely I’d live more than a few days having been born two months earlier than planned. There was nothing they could do—I was dying. My father had already lost the love of his life, and he couldn’t bear the thought of losing me as well,” Lena explained. “He was desperate, so he did the only thing he thought would save me. He made me into what I am now. I was the first Carbon to be made.”
I stopped breathing. My mind struggled to catch up with what Lena had just said, but I noticed what she wasn’t flat out saying. “He made you?” My eyes widened as I leaned into the table. “You’re father is…Coleman?”
“Yes,” Lena nodded.
I refused to believe it; my head shook back and forth. No. She couldn’t be his daughter. There was no way. How could she possibly be any part of him?
She paused with a deep breath, allowing me to take it all in. “For years, I grew up like a regular child, just as my human host body did, but that body was not really alive, only being kept alive by the pod. My father became obsessed with finding a way to stop people from dying, to prevent what had happened to my mother. He thought that if we were all Carbons, then we could avoid something like that ever happening. His intentions were good at first, but when others opposed him, finding holes in his theories or questioning his ethics, he rebelled. Others thought it wasn’t right for man to play God and that this would be the end of the human race. They feared it opened the door for a new species to take over—the Carbons. My father’s obsession consumed him. He wouldn’t let me out of his sight. He still felt he had to protect me and study me so he could create more Carbons like me. His many experiments failed because he had yet to see the connection between a host body and the Carbon. Eventually, his very fear became reality. He had spent the majority of his adult life trying to find a way to avoid death and save others from the same pain he felt when he lost my mother. He hadn’t even thought to consider his own mortality and what his human body was still susceptible to – death.” Lena paused again, shuddering at the memory.
“The doctors gave him only months to live. A rapid spreading cancer had taken up residence in his liver, stomach, and lungs. So he did the one thing he thought would save him. He became a Carbon. He took a chance that the procedure would work on him as it had on me—and it did.” Lena looked up at me. Her eyes went cold and distant as she spoke, “The process changed him. It turned him into a different person. He started to play God and felt he was the arbiter of who was worthy to live forever and who deserved to die. I had to leave. I couldn’t be a part of it—a part of him. As you know, I tried but failed to take my life. My human body was gone, but my ability, my shield, prevented me from ever truly dying. I cannot be killed, though I’ve tried.”
“Like Coleman,” I whispered.
“Yes, like my father. We both carry a bit of this shield, though he does not have the same abilities as I do. His are only contained inside of himself,” Lena explained.
I nodded on the edge of my seat, trying to put it all together. “So why does he want you back? Why has he waited so long when he could’ve tracked you down a long time ago?”
“I’m not sure.” Her eyebrows drew together. “But I know my father is a calculated man. If he is looking for me now, then it’s for a reason, and not one I want to be a part of.”
“We can’t let that happen,” I said, recalling the warning my mom gave me in the vision.
“Sawyer, I am sorry I didn’t tell you this sooner.” Lena reached for my hand, but I pulled it away. Her hand dropped in the empty space where mine once lay. “My father, he was not always like this. His intentions were not always evil.”
My heart clenched with the lingering hurt, but I understood. She didn’t ask for this, none of us did. “His intentions are evil now, and that’s all that matters. It makes no difference if he is your father or not. He’ll kill every last one of us, including you.”
The chair squeaked behind me when I stood, and it glided smoothly across the floor. I brushed past Anthony who stood like a stone outside of Lena’s study. He’d been listening in on
every word we said. I shuffled once again into the dining room where Max rested peacefully. Sitting down beside him, I held onto his hand.
Good intentions or not, Coleman was evil. He was going to pay for what he’d done.
Chapter 25
A warm breeze tickled my wet cheeks. I stood outside of the castle before a small mound of dirt piled under the tree Chevy used to lie beneath. A gaping hole through the tree’s strong trunk mimicked the hole left in my heart. I kneeled down and did my best not to cry.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the small collar that used to fit snugly around Chevy’s neck. I placed it over a small headstone that a servant had made. In that final moment, I failed to hold back the tears while I read the words carved across stone.
Here lies Chevy the Brave,
Beloved friend to all, and a hero to many.
“If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.”
May he rest safely among the stars.
~
The medication caused Max to go in and out of consciousness. They’d done all they could for him. We had to wait and pray he’d keep fighting to live.
“I know you’re stubborn, almost as bad as me, so I expect you to hold on and keep fighting.” I whispered and pushed a piece of hair from his forehead.
It’d been over twenty-four hours, and I’d yet to sleep or eat. My body ached with exhaustion, but I couldn’t move from his side. I couldn’t get myself to do anything but count his breaths and watch his chest rise and fall.
The wound on my leg had already healed itself. No lingering pain radiated from it—only in my heart.
Lena and Anthony hovered over me. They checked in on his progress hourly and were a constant shadow behind me but neither said a word.
I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. Even if I knew I couldn’t blame her for not telling me the truth about Coleman sooner, I was still mad. Mostly, I was angry that she was a part of him. This little bit of knowledge made him more human somehow, and I hated her for it.
Max stirred and groaned from the pain. I grabbed his hand and called for a healer.
“Sawyer?” he mumbled.
“Yes? I’m right here.” I leaned in closer to hear him, his voice nearly inaudible.
“Water.”
“Right.” I jumped up, nearly knocking over the side table. Kicking my chair out of the way, I grabbed a glass from the table behind me and filled it with shaky hands. Carefully, I helped him sip the water, tilting his head up enough to reach the rim.
Before I returned from putting the glass down, he was already asleep again. I sighed and took my place beside him.
“I can watch him for a bit,” Anthony said from behind me.
“I’m fine.”
“He will need your strength to help him recover. You do him a better service by taking care of yourself first,” he said, stepping into the room. He pulled up a chair beside me.
He was right. Though I wanted to argue, I stood up. I squeezed Max’s hand and placed a light kiss on his brow. I turned to Anthony with a nod of acceptance and left the room, brushing past Lena without a word.
My feet shuffled down the hallway, knowing sleep wasn’t going to come quickly. I busied myself reloading my guns and fitting the belt around my waist.
Kenzie would return that I was sure of, but this time I was going to be ready for him. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I wasn’t going to allow any more people to get hurt.
In the heat, my long dark hair stuck to the back of my neck. I pulled it into a ponytail as I stepped out of the room and down the stairs of the castle.
Once I reached the front gate, I took a deep breath and steadied myself into a comfortable jogging pace. It started slowly, winding through the city streets. The citizens of the United Isles stared, but I didn’t mind.
I centered myself into a calming focus, allowing that current of energy to seep through my chest and down to my legs. Allowing my Carbon body to take over, I felt my speed increase. With ease, I leapt over a stone wall separating two houses and scaled the side of the building until I was on top of a stone roof. I pushed myself harder as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop. My body thrilled at the free feeling, my energy coursing through me. I moved fast toward the far-east side of the village, grabbing onto the ledge of the next building. Almost not making it, I flipped myself over the ledge and landed softly on the roof before I took off again.
My pace didn’t slow until I reached the edge of the island where the cliffs met the roaring ocean. Shaking out my hands, I dropped down onto the rock and sprawled across it.
Energy pulsed through me as I felt every fiber in my body shouting for freedom and some sort of relief. I was on the verge of screaming, wanting nothing more than to curse every last star in the sky for dealing me this fate, but I clamped my mouth shut. I wouldn’t let Coleman have the satisfaction of knowing how hard he had hit me or how deep the wound went.
My fists clenched hard, and I slammed my eyes shut. The rock beneath me felt as if it were vibrating. Tremors ran through me and into the rock itself as the tightness in my chest threatened to consume me. Everything had gone so horribly wrong, so incredibly fast, that it made my head spin. I had no idea how to beat Coleman, let alone Kenzie.
I didn’t even know if I could. If the moment came and it was him or me, I wasn’t sure which I’d choose. And it killed me that I might have to choose. What I wouldn’t give to go back to a time when the weight of the world wasn’t on my shoulders. When it was just Kenzie, Chevy, and I. I wish I could’ve run away with Kenzie and never looked back.
But if I had, so many more people would’ve died. Coleman still would’ve had all those humans locked up in those pods, waiting to be used as tools. I would have been one of them … my human body had been trapped just as so many others under his control. I don’t think there was any way I could’ve lived in peace, knowing I put my happiness before so many others’ lives.
I wouldn’t have met Max. And maybe that’d be a good thing for him. Maybe that would’ve saved him from the pain he felt. But maybe, just maybe, this had all happened for a reason. And just as Lena once said, the stars had put both men in my life for some reason beyond my understanding.
This didn’t help; it frustrated me more. Why was I the one who had to save everyone? Why couldn’t someone else do it?
I knew why—because I couldn’t. I wouldn’t allow myself to do that even though the idea was so tempting and real.
The ground vibrated beneath me as I opened my eyes. It was only then that I realized the rock actually was moving. Tiny pebbles that lay atop the smooth cliff rock bounced on the spot.
Looking around, I saw this was the only place it was happening—only the tiny rocks around me moved. I jumped to my feet, gun in hand ready to fight whatever was causing this, but as soon as I stood, the rocks stilled. I surveyed the area around me, but I was alone. The crashing waves below were the only sound I heard and the only energy I felt.
Trying to calm my mind, I shook out my hands and released a long breath. As I went to sit back down, I suddenly felt that same tightness in my chest, and the pebbles at my feet bounced again.
The large rock I stood on groaned and creaked under my feet. I felt the shift of gravity only moments before the cliff cracked. The base I stood on separated from the rest. My Carbon body felt the release a moment before my mind caught up, and I jumped out of the way before the rock detached completely from the cliff. I expected the rock to drop with gravity, taking it to the ocean floor, but it didn’t. The rock hovered in front of me, suspended in mid-air by an unseen force, though I felt its energy deep inside of me.
I pulled out my gun, releasing my hands from their tight fists. Instantly, the rock dropped with a thunderous crash into the ocean below.
Shaking out my hands, I look to them. It couldn’t be. As I clenched and released my fists in front of me, I watched those tiny pebbles jump at my feet, and I realized…I was the one who had moved the rock.
>
Chapter 26
Kenzie
It was nighttime when Kenzie finally sought out his answers. He didn’t want to see her and wasn’t even sure what to expect, but he needed an explanation for what he’d seen and what he’d felt when he was face-to-face with Sawyer.
The permanent glare on his face caused any guards still stationed to quiver with fear as Coleman’s second-in-command stormed by. Kenzie left her a message to meet him in Sector 7 where they wouldn’t be seen. Getting there though could raise suspicion so he took a roundabout way to the large room in the far reaches of the station.
She was waiting in the shadows when he arrived. As he opened the doors to Sector 7, she slipped in behind him without being seen by the guards down the hall.
“You received my message. You know why I have called you here?” He turned to Russo.
She nodded her reply. “Yes, sir.”
“You will tell me everything you know about her. Right now,” he demanded.
“I am sorry, but I can’t, sir.” She wrung her hands together but didn’t waiver in her stance.
“What do you mean you can’t? That was an order. You must obey my commands.” He stepped closer to her and invaded her space. Again, she didn’t even flinch.
“I can’t. I won’t.” She shook her head.
“You are a Carbon, and I command you to obey me. Now!” His powers built up inside of him as his anger boiled.
Her face was stoic, but she didn’t balk at his tone. “Kenzie,” she said softly, “I will not betray her.”
He was taken back. This Carbon had disobeyed a direct order. She was helping a known enemy fighting against them. “How is this possible? How can you refuse?”
“I am of my own mind. I am not controlled by you or Coleman,” she responded, shrugging her narrow shoulders that brushed against her dark, blunt-cut hair.