Power Divided (The Evolutionaries Book 1)

by s. Behr

  I looked down at my left hand, still clasped in Leo’s. He lifted my wrist and turned it over as Siri wrapped my forearm.

  Hailey said, “Unclasp the bracelet and press it into the white square.”

  He obeyed, and the end of the bracelet seemed to melt into the square. “Okay, wrap it up.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Siri said. He sealed the wrap, and like the suit I had from the Ark, it felt weightless.

  “Finally, someone with manners,” Hailey said, as her projection manifested sitting next to Siri. She had changed her projection and displayed herself dressed in a tactical uniform that I realized everyone, except Leo and I were wearing.

  “Here is yours,” Lily said, tossing me a bag.

  Siri tossed one to Leo, and I went to the back of the hover and stepped behind a wall to change. I put everything on, including an armband that reminded me of Lance’s team uniform.

  “Be careful where you point that,” Kai teased, as I emerged, giving Leo his turn to change.

  I looked at my glove and saw this wasn’t Ark tech; this was Hg-1 tech. “Are these active?”

  “Of course, they are. Well, everything except the kill setting. We thought it would be safer to keep your group on stun.”

  “Who do you expect we would use these on?” Lily asked as she looked at her palm.

  “Hopefully, no one,” Lance replied. “But it can be used to knock down doors, or clear debris. The transports will get you about one hundred feet, but that’s total. If you have an Ico transporter nearby, I recommend hitching a ride with them before you use that. Once you use it, it will reset and recharge automatically, but that takes time. So, don’t count on it after the initial one hundred feet.”

  The other Yzer twin stood, holding out his forearm and pointing to the controls. “Flashlight, cutting torch, five minutes tops or you’ll burn out the entire circuitry. This zipper will pull up to one hundred feet of rope, two-ton test weight.” Then, with a flick of the wrist, he said, “Ancient school.” A blade about six inches long shot out. “Retract.” With another flick, the dagger slid back in its sheath. “It’s double-edged, so don’t cut yourself. Got it?” Kai asked, looking and sounding exactly like his brother.

  “You had these stored in the Ark?” I asked Lance.

  “We had to get back to the city in a hurry. Something about a soccer game.”

  “What did you do in the Armory?” I demanded not caring who heard or what protocols there were.

  “You’ll see.” He said sharply, and yelled “Hang on!” The hover took a sharp turn, and we all nearly fell out of our seats. Leo, however, still buttoning his cuff, did fall forward and stumbled over a pile of gear strapped to the floor, landing on the ground in between Lily and Kai.

  “Sorry.” Lance smirked.

  Kai pulled Leo up. “I expected you to be lighter on your feet.”

  He shook his head and grinned. “I am when it counts.”

  We all grinned, but the hints of laughter faded as we descended, and the cityscape of Hattan came into view. It was unrecognizable in the smoke and fire. Empire Tower was shrouded in a haze of blood, sweat, and flames. All the bridgeways to the tower were disconnected, many hanging in awkward angles.

  When we got close enough, we saw the Angelians spread out like a net, hovering in the air and surrounding the tower. Most were holding two other people who were either telekinetic, redirecting debris as it fell, or Shields, who were sending out invisible barriers over the people in the tree branches and putting out fires.

  “Open the hatch,” Siri commanded.

  Lance pressed a button on the control panel and unhinged a small opening on the ceiling as a ladder dropped down.

  “Are you crazy?” Lily yelled.

  “That’s what they say.” Siri grinned and climbed up and out the hatch.

  Lance slowed the hover, and with an effortless leap, Siri jumped onto a bridge still attached to Empire. Immediately, fires around him started going out.

  “He’s pulling all the oxygen out of the area,” Leo explained, as a deafening crack echoed high above in the canopy.

  An ancient bough broke away from the main trunk twice the size of the average tree. Siri’s face suddenly lost his usual lopsided grin of confidence, replaced with a mask of effort that seemed to use every ounce of his strength. People braced for the crash that never came as he caught the unknowable weight of that bough with just his mind. Throughout the trees, cheers rang out for the young prince as he lowered it safely to the ground.

  I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Leo glanced up, his eyes calculating, as the hover rose toward the palace levels.

  “Where are you going?” Lily shrieked as Lance pulled the hover away from the tower.

  “There’s something I have to do. Kai.” He nodded to his brother.

  “Care to keep it steady?” Lance stood, stepping away from the pilot seat, and Lily quickly took over with barely a wobble.

  “Everyone buckle up or hold onto something,” Lance ordered. The twins clipped to a strap, and opened the back hatch of the hover. The wind blew, and everything that wasn’t tied down blew around and away. The hover steadied as Kai opened a metal crate that spanned almost five feet and was strapped to the floor just before the disembarking ramp that would usually open only when the hover was landed.

  “What are they doing?” I yelled over the wind.

  We watched as Lance pressed a sequence of buttons, then as if the wind had pulled them out of the case, dozens and dozens of round metal orbs began to fly up and out of the hover.

  “What are those?” I screamed over the wind. As the last of them left the hover, Lance hit a button that began to close the ramp.

  “Lily back to the tower!” Lance ordered. Kai unclipped the bags of gear in the center of the hover. As Lily steered the hover back toward Empire, just then a series of explosions seemed to come from everywhere. My face pressed against the clear windows of the hover and my mouth fell open as I watched each of the flying orbs spread out and, in a chain reaction, began to explode.

  “What did you do?” I growled.

  “They aren’t dangerous,” Lance answered, watching with a grin.

  “They’re exploding!” I bellowed.

  But as I was about to scream at him for each and every explosion, I saw that when the orbs burst, a piece of it was cast further up into the atmosphere, while the vibration of energy between them seemed to connect with each other and created a net.

  “It’s a shield,” Kai explained.

  “And the other halves are trackers,” Lance added. “If anything else is headed our way it will be a week before it can penetrate those gems.”

  “Where did you get them?” I asked my eyes wide open.

  “Hailey, I mean Sunshine, had been producing them since the day we arrived at the Ark. With a tweak of some Hg-1 schematics, mixed with some pretty cool plans from our ancestors. The replicator wasn’t as fast as the ones we have at home, but I think we have enough,” he said, his expression calculating.

  “The Ark made these?” I asked, turning to Hailey. “How could you not tell me something like this was even possible?”

  Her hologram stood tall as she answered. “You still have a lot to learn. I had no clearance to give you that information even if I knew he had done it. That was Sunshine, not me.”

  That was Armory One, and I trembled at the thought of what else it had or how many levels of armories there were. But as the shrieks and smoke wafted into the hover through the hatch, I knew this was not the time.

  “This is where we get off,” Lance announced. “Most of the delegation is on these floors.” He and Kai stood.

  “See you on the other side. Be safe.” Kai picked up three bags, tapped his wrist, and vanished.

  “I hope to see you all in one piece soon, and if I don’t get the chance to say it, thank you for everything.” Lance’s face was resigned, but before I could say anything in reply, he winked, grinned, and in a blink,
he vanished.

  I looked out the window and saw Lance reappear on the balcony, three floors above his brother. Both of them ran into the flames without hesitation, and my chest tightened, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time we saw of either of them.

  “For humans, they’re pretty remarkable,” Lily said, piloting expertly upward dodging debris. A scream thundered above us as the body of a man fell too fast toward us. Leo raised his hand, and the man slowed. An Angelian flew over, plucking the relieved man out of the sky.

  “Roses and thorns,” Lily exclaimed on a long breath. “That was close.” But her relief was short-lived as we rose higher. “Green leaves. What could have done that?” Lily asked, grief threatening to break through her resolve.

  “This is where we get off,” Leo said gently, turning me away from the window before I could fully appreciate the size of the hole that was in the center of the tower.

  He lifted his fingers to my chin. “With the world literally falling apart around us, just stay with me. Okay?”

  “I’m here,” I answered.

  His intense blue eyes filled me with confidence, and with a small smile, he asked, “Ready?”

  Without a word, without a wall between us, I reached out and thought. “I am.”

  His eyes crinkled in a small smile, and he pulled me close, touching his forehead to mine. In my head and in my heart, I heard him clear as day, “Together.”

  “Be careful with her,” Lily commanded the prince, as he broke away and stood under the hole in the ceiling. She looked at me, her unflappable spirit shining in her eyes. “I will see you for dinner.”

  I nodded. “I will be sure to wear my boots.”

  Her face broke into a grin as a tear spilled over her cheek. I looked up as Leo boosted me through the hatch.

  Lily held the hover steady as I got my first real look at the tragedy unfolding before us. I swallowed hard. There were bodies everywhere, some in pieces charred beyond recognition, some in parts that still moaned. There were flashes of transporters appearing and disappearing, taking who they could. Many of them I recognized as guards from our palace.

  Then, I saw a flurry of pink hair. Like a whirlwind, her frenzied movements were difficult to track at first, but in seconds, I saw the pattern of a systematic grid emerge as she made her way around the outer hull of the tower. She appeared for a fraction of a second touching her next target, then disappeared faster than any transporter I had ever seen. She moved into the gash of the building, and that’s when I saw three figures that made my heart leap to my throat: King Lindstrom, Queen Leda, and my father.

  They appeared to be floating, but then I saw the twist of branches that made a rough bridge. At the center, fingers of bark seemed to stretch and tie themselves around each of the monarchs, suspending them in the center of the hole. King and Queen Asher were holding onto each other with one arm, and their other arms were outstretched in opposite directions as it appeared they were holding the entire breach of the tower in place, keeping the top of the tower and everyone in it from falling hundreds of feet to their destruction.

  They looked strained beyond time and age, but the high king and queen on either side of my father glared at the burnt-out skin of the tower as if they were using sheer will to keep it all intact.

  “Hurry Henry,” I heard Leo’s mother cry out.

  My father between them had his arms raised, and his eyes closed. My heart raced and ached as I watched him. He looked as if the very air around him vibrated with the energy he commanded.

  I didn’t even realize Leo was next to me as my attention was glued to the torn openings on either side of the tower that virtually shrank before my eyes. Branches burst from the walls of the tower and from all the edges, from inside and out. It was as if my father was sewing with branches and reinforcing the shredded walls. Soon, it became hard to make them out as more branches zigzagged across the space.

  I nearly forgot where I was, as Leo took my hand. He leaned close and said, “Our parents have it covered. We need to get to your mother.”

  My eyes still on my father, I nodded.

  I felt Leo’s arms wrap around me. “Hang on to me. Don’t let go.”

  Before I could answer, Leo jumped. My arms wrapped around his neck as the hover drifted away, hundreds of feet in the air, over smoke, fire, and hell.

  We floated like a feather caught in a spring breeze. Gently, we landed on a balcony outside the healing wings of the tower.

  Leo set me down as he waved to Lily, who nodded back before continuing up to help anywhere she could. We turned to the doors that were open and into chaos that made the horror of the marina look like a day at the beach.

  And without words, without fear, without hesitation, I followed Leo into the darkness.

  When we stepped through into the tower, it was if I had fallen from the heights of heaven straight into a living sculpture of Dante’s Seventh Circle.

  Turning left, turning right, it was all the same. Everything was broken. Hallways were shattered with planks of wood jutting out in all directions. Busted lighting hid bodies strewn everywhere.

  “Prince Regent Leo, security override!” Leo yelled. He stopped, and scanned the carnage. “Aspen, Clark. Can you hear me?” he spoke as his eyes closed.

  “Gotcha!” Princess Aspen said as she appeared. She hugged Leo. “I have been so worried. This is a nightmare. I’m glad you’re not hurt. When you didn’t answer, I wasn’t sure.”

  “Are you kidding?” her brother, Prince Clark said, as he showed up next to Leo clapping him on the back. “This is the Lion. I knew you were just busy. What’s the plan?”

  “We need to keep clearing floors. How many did we lose?” Leo asked as he finally opened his eyes.

  “Too many,” Aspen replied, her face grim. I noticed she was covered in more than ash and soot, and I had seen too much of it in the last month to not recognize blood when I saw it.

  Every reason people believed Leo should be a king became clear as he began to move. Following along, he told Aspen and Clark, “There are nine viable on this floor. Four above, sixteen below. I sent you their coordinates. We’re headed to Queen Eva.”

  “Violet, your mother?” Aspen asked. “Do you want me to transport you there?”

  “No,” Leo answered. “She’s in the isolation suites. We can’t risk anyone else going in that sector. There’s a perimeter in effect. Heed it. Keep me posted.” He dismissed them with a nod, and the Ico twins checked their coms, then vanished.

  Leo turned back to me as I spun around, trying to make sense of all this. As if he could feel my anguish, he lifted my chin so I could focus only on his face. “These people are beyond our help, Violet. We need to get to the people who can help them.” He urged me to keep going. It was like he was in my head. Then I realized, he always had been. My heart raced as I followed.

  “Genetic confirmation complete. Prince Leo Asher authorized,” Leo’s com announced.

  “Nice move, Prince,” Hailey said, materializing and illuminating our way as we ran through the halls. “Might I recommend that you let me in?”

  Leo looked at her for a moment. “You know her better than I do, it’s your call.”

  I nodded without hesitation.

  He pressed his bracelet to the one that housed Hailey. “It’s the best I can do.”

  Hailey winked. “Good enough.”

  “Let’s go,” he said, nodding. We ran through a hall until we came upon a section of floor broken in a long slant. Leo put his hands around my waist and tossed me before I could even slow down. I flew through the air, my hands stretched out in front of me, braced for a landing, but my feet touched gently to the floor. Leo appeared next to me, and we kept running. We turned a corner, then another.

  “Locate Queen Eva Amplifien,” Leo said and stopped suddenly. I crashed into him, and when I looked down, a little girl was crawling on the floor, who hadn’t been there a moment ago.

  “Where did you come from?” he asked, picking up
the little girl. He checked her for injuries. “I think she’s a transporter. I didn’t see her in my scan earlier; she must have come from two floors above or below.”

  Tears streamed down her face as she clutched a small doll in her hand. She couldn’t have been more than three. I felt lost. I couldn’t understand what any of this would accomplish. How could anyone think this was a way to solve a problem?

  Leo cradled the girl to his chest, reaching for my hand and pulling me along as my anger began to flame like the tower around me.

  “Level sixty-six isolation unit sixteen C,” the com finally said.

  “I have eyes on her,” Hailey announced. “She’s okay. She’s on her feet anyway.”

  I didn’t want to know what that meant. It only made me want to move faster. “We’re on level sixty-three,” Leo said as we reached the lobby.

  We slid into the foyer for the lifts, and I crashed into a barrier, feeling like I ran full force into a steel wall. It bounced me backward a dozen feet. Leo and the little girl protected in his arms floated backward a few feet like he’d bumped a cloud.

  The wind got knocked out of me for a second time when my knees hit the floor. I looked up and in the middle of the room on one knee, his arms raised as if he held an invisible boulder the size of the moon, was the Captain of the King’s Guard.

  “Rall,” I cried. I reached out and touched the edge of his shield.

  He looked at me and smiled. “Little Purple Flower.” His voice sounded tired, his breathing labored. I had never seen him like this. “You need to go home. This is no place for you.”

  Leo came to my side. He raised his head, and his eyes narrowed. With a grim look, he said, “His shield is holding the three floors above us together.”

  “My mother,” I gasped.

  Leo nodded. “Captain Rall, have you called for backup?”

  Rall shook his head. “There is no one. Everyone is working on evac. Don’t worry little Princeling. I could do this all day.”

  “Barton?” Leo called to his com. His eyes closed, remembering. “King William? Spring? Clark?” he tried again. A strained look came across his face when no one replied.