Power Divided (The Evolutionaries Book 1)

by s. Behr

  “Siri?” Leo called out, and his brother responded immediately, the sounds of a terrified crowd filled the room around us.

  “Kind of busy here, Lion, trying to keep the hover bay on the southern terrace together. A lot of people to get out of here.”

  “Going to need you to hurry and get down to level sixty-three and give Captain Rall a hand.” Leo and Rall exchanged curt nods.

  “Got it.”

  “ETA?” Leo asked.

  “We’re triple loading each hover, but we lost most of the transport hovers on the northern terrace. Without the bridges, we can’t get any other kind of transports in here. Lily’s been back twice already, but there are hundreds of people on the terrace and almost as many in the ballroom. Queen Helena is pulling double duty. The Lady Bird is split between here and the injuries only she can manage. We’re waiting for more transporters to arrive, but all our injured have been evacuated. We’ve slipped down the priority list. Think you can do anything about that?”

  “And have Queen Helena to answer to? She is all yours,” Leo answered.

  “Thanks for the support.”

  “I’m sure you have it all under control,” Leo said with a grim smile.

  “Have you made it to Queen Eva?” Siri asked.

  “Almost, just had to stop and check on the Captain.”

  “Be there as soon as I can,” Siri said just as a chorus of screams came across the com. “Don’t you just hate it when it’s raining fire?”

  “Be safe, Brother,” Leo said with a fierce look.

  “Back at you, Lion.” The hall faded to the quiet of a baby crying.

  I stared at my guardian. Sweat dripped down his face. “Is there anything we can do?” I asked him.

  “I have already told you what I want you to do, and as usual, you refuse to listen.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  He laughed. “Don’t worry, Princess. It will take more than a tower falling to take me out.” He winked. I hated that I couldn’t tell if he was joking. I had always imagined him to be that strong, but I had never actually wanted to find out. I felt a tear trickle over my skin, and his gaze focused on Leo.

  “Anything happens to her, I will find you, and it won’t matter that you’re the high king’s son,” Rall said, his grin sharp.

  “I will hold you to that,” Leo said. “This won’t help for long, but it might make a difference.” Leo closed his eyes, and after a few moments, Rall seemed to sit up a little straighter.

  “Thank you, Your Highness,” Rall said. “Princess, don’t give Ameli a reason to be mad at us both.”

  I shook my head as tears spilled over my cheeks. “I won’t. I will see you soon.” It tore my heart to leave him, but Leo took me by the hand, pulling me away.

  “Empire schematics floors sixty to sixty-six,” he said to his com.

  “Wait,” I said. “There is another set of stairs this way. In the corner,” I pointed. “Open this panel,” I directed Leo. He waved his hand over the panel, and it opened, just like it did for Lily.

  I took one last look at Rall.

  “Go,” he commanded, and I was forced to step away from one person I loved toward another.

  “Three flights up,” I said as we raced toward my mother and Penelope.

  “The little girl should not go into the quarantined area,” Hailey said, stopping Leo dead in his tracks.

  “Aspen. Clark. Pink?” he barked into his com.

  Princess Aspen responded. “We are all on seventy—it’s caving in. We have forty souls, only one shield, and a young one at that. It’s going to be a minute. I’m sorry, Leo. I will get there when I can.”

  He looked up in anguish as he said, “Locate closest stable floor.”

  Hailey answered faster than the com. “There is damage all the way down, but the closest level where there are people who can help her is level forty-eight or below.”

  Before he could speak, I said. “You have to go. Hailey’s right; she can’t go in there, and we can’t leave her alone.”

  “You take her,” Leo said, and I almost laughed through my tears at the sight of him with a screaming baby. As terrified as I was, I knew there was no other way.

  “You will be faster, and this is my mother.” I had no idea what my abilities truly were, or if they would help at all, and I didn’t know what I would be able to do without Leo there. But as the sound of the tower moaning and creaking echoed loudly in the stairwell, I knew if I had to drag her out with my bare hands, I would do whatever it took.

  “You know how to find me, and you don’t even need a com to do it.”

  He shook his head. “Wait for me to get back.”

  “There is no time for that. Too many people are suffering. You told me to trust you. I do. Now I need you to trust me.” I said, rubbing the little girl’s cheek and trying to soothe her fears as well as my own. “You will be back faster than you know.”

  “I will.” He squeezed his eyes shut, his face pained as if it took as much effort as his parents and his brother had used battling this disaster. Leo pulled away from me and jumped over the railing, floating down the center of the stairs.

  “He’s got good moves,” Hailey said, impressed.

  I watched him shrink away, and I swallowed hard. Everyone I knew was doing everything they could, but just as it had been the morning my father had been struck down, once again it felt like we were running out of time.

  My body trembled as the fear of not having Leo by my side to help me control myself, surfaced. But this was my story, and I refused to be swayed by fear. I faced the door, then punched the wall.

  “The door. He didn’t open it.”

  “He didn’t have to.” Hailey shrugged. “I looked through the emergency security protocols Leo gave me access to. I made the essential changes, and now you have access too.”

  “Why didn’t you say so before I punched the wall?” I snapped as I pulled the door open.

  “You didn’t give me the chance,” she said, but we both fell silent at the sight of the walls and floor straining to hold together.

  “Rall,” I breathed.

  “Quick steps, light feet,” I muttered to myself, and I charged straight to Penelope’s room.

  The drapes of the clear walls were pulled back, and I could see all three of them together. Queen Catalina, Penelope, and my mother.

  “Violet! What are you doing here?” My mother’s face twisted with fear and agony. “You can’t be here. Go now, Baby, please,” my mother cried as she slid the clear door shut between us. “Quarantine seal level ten ID Queen Eva Amplifien, initiate,” my mother said, her face lined with shadows, but through the glass, I couldn’t tell if they were from smoke or something far more sinister. She slipped down along the wall until she was resting on the floor.

  “Mama!” I screamed. “Hailey, get me in there.” I pulled on the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Are you sure?” Hailey started, but one look at my fierce expression and she said, “Working on it.”

  The glass door had thousands of tiny splinters from the strain of the collapsing ceiling, and when I kicked it, they grew into small cracks appearing where my foot connected with each blow. But still, the door refused to open.

  “Violet, stop!” my mother begged.

  “Hailey, hurry!” I yelled.

  “Baby, you can’t be here. Please. You have to go,” my mother pleaded her voice muffled coming through the doors splinters. “There is no stopping this. It has to stop here, and you can’t be here when it does.”

  Queen Catalina, glowing in her Ethereal Angelian form, stepped up behind my mother and placed her hands on my mother’s face and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said to us both.

  My mother nodded, and the Angel queen’s face was a mask of grief as we watched my mother scream.

  The smell of flesh burning was so strong it forced its way through the microscopic fractures in the door. I turned and threw up what was left of my breakfast.
Coughing, I wiped my chin and looked back to see the Queen of Angels sobbing. After ten terrifying seconds, she let go, and the shadows around my mother’s face floated off as she wiped her cheek.

  “No,” I cried, and I fell to my knees.

  “They lied,” she whispered in a daze.

  I turned to Hailey. “Lock us in.”

  She looked at me. “Leo has high access—”

  “You always claim you can do better. Well, now is the time. Be better than any of us. You have to keep him out of here. Please, Hailey, whatever it takes,” I cried.

  “Okay Princess, this door is open.” Determination on Hailey’s face emerged as she said, “I will make sure Leo can’t make it in here.”

  “Thank you.” I slid the door open, and my mother fell into my arms.

  “No,” she whimpered, but she had no energy left to fight me.

  I turned back to Queen Catalina, who was working on Penelope again.

  “Oh Pen,” I breathed. The little girl’s skin was shriveled, and the oily darkness was covering most of her body. Only the patches under Queen Catalina’s hands were remotely human.

  “We have tried everything. If I could just isolate them, we could exterminate them,” my mother said, dark tears spilling down her cheeks.

  I took her hand in mine, and I could see the shades of black under her fingernails. I knew that was not ash or soot. It was something else, something evil, sent by someone who was the devil himself.

  And at that moment my grief ignited into fury. I felt something I had never felt before—an overwhelming hatred for the people who did this. I squeezed my eyes shut, and I could feel the fire behind them. I opened my eyes, and I could see the room blazing with energy.

  All the sterilizing systems still working were snapping in shades of red and yellow. I was almost afraid to look at the Angelian Queen, but I gazed at her anyway. To my surprise her energy was almost soothing.

  I glanced down at my mother, and her body glowed with shades of deep blue, swirling with an angry red. Then I saw them. “Sprouts,” I whispered, reaching out to touch my mother’s belly. Under the fury of color that was my mother, I could see the two tiny little bodies glowing in white. Pure and innocent. Perfectly formed and almost ready to meet the world.

  But what kind of world would this be tomorrow?

  Queen Catalina came to my mother’s side. “I’m trying to keep them isolated to her extremities, to keep it away from the twins as long as I can.”

  She took my mother’s hands in hers, and I saw them. Millions of them. The nano tech I heard my mother speak about earlier. “Wait. I can see them,” I said, grasping my mother’s arm.

  “What?” Queen Catalina gasped.

  “My friend has a theory that I can see energy, and I don’t know if that’s true, but whatever is happening here, I can see them. All of them.”

  I felt my mother’s hand squeeze mine. For a tense moment, I waited for her to tell me what to do.

  “Oh, Violet.” Eyes wide, she breathed, “You are a miracle.”

  “I think she needs some water,” I said to the other queen as she felt my mother’s cheek.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” More tears dripped down my mother’s face, these darker. “It’s been there all this time, and I hid it from you, from the world. What kind of mother have I been?” she whispered.

  Terrified that I was losing her, all of them, I shook my head and said, “The best. Mama, please, just tell me what I need to do. I don’t know how I can help, but if you see a way, please tell me what to do,” I begged, afraid she was losing her mind from exhaustion or the disease, I didn’t know which.

  Her gaze locked onto me for a long moment, and she finally said, “It is going to hurt.”

  “I don’t care. I will do anything. Please, for the twins, for papa, please. Tell me what to do.”

  With a slight nod, she said, “Cat, take Violet’s hand. Violet, I just need you to see what you are seeing. Focus on the nanites, as many as you can. Isolate them. If you can hold them still, leave the rest to us.”

  My mother smiled. “I am so proud of you, my Love. Go on, you can do this.”

  I sat up on my knees so I could see Pen and my mother at the same time. I took a deep breath and did as she asked. I focused on all the nano invaders in both of them, and I felt anger descend as they came into view. I could see every single one in my mother and in Pen as well. Billions of them. I could feel them all.

  The fury I felt before resurfaced, and all my hate coated the nanites until they were all I could see. The rest of the room fell away. It was just me and them, and an unending well of hatred for what they stood for and the people that brought them here.

  Finally, I had them all in my grasp. Stop, I thought. For a split second, the world froze. The air, the nanites. I saw my mother smile. The very next moment, everything was blinding and went agonizingly white. It was like I had swallowed lightning. I thought I was going to melt from the inside out.

  In a fleeting moment of clarity, I saw everything: my family, my friends, my realm, the Ark, Hailey, everything I had ever cared about. Then, I heard him.

  “Together.”

  During the last month, I had felt every emotion, experienced the terrifying, the unbelievable, the amazing. But I realized I couldn’t let this hatred win. Because in the rush of life that pulled me into its torrid, churning waves, I’d found myself, friends, and acceptance. I had nothing left to fear.

  “I’m here.”

  “I love you,” he answered.

  In a snap, I felt as if I burst into flames and a quartet of screams sang me to sleep as everything went black.

  I thought I had died once this year already. This time was a little different. This time I was sure I had. But that was only because when my eyes cracked open, Hailey stood over me screaming, “She’s back. Oh, Princess Violet, if you die on me again, I will, I will…” And for once, my friend was speechless.

  I felt myself float into Leo’s arms. I tried to look around, but my entire body refused to obey. I barely saw the tuft of pink hair next to me.

  “Let’s go.” I heard Leo say.

  In a blink, the smell of smoke and ash vanished and was replaced by the smell of lavender. An angry yip made me smile, at least on the inside.

  I’m home.

  “Yes, you are.” Leo kissed my forehead.

  Time is a funny thing—an entire lifetime’s worth of love, misery, and adventure can happen in a day or a few extraordinary weeks. For me it started the day when I almost lost my father because of my misunderstood abilities. I survived the Wild Steel Mountains thanks to a clever fox, and a snarky A.I. Without them I didn’t know if I could have handled the truth of the tribunal. Through the day of the attack at Heart’s Cove followed by the devastation of the Empire Tower, I almost lost my city, myself, and my mother as well. But because of a little faith, and a lot of love, somehow, we hung on.

  The weeks that followed were…

  “Boring,” Hailey said, rejecting the third outfit I tried on in a row.

  “Yeah, I have to agree,” Lily said as she walked back into the endless closet, “that doesn’t work. I can’t believe all this has been here for thousands of years.” She was a little fashion drunk, staring up into the rows and rows of fabric I had climbed to escape from the Ark.

  “Nothing is going to work,” I said. My fingers wandered over my cheek as I stared at the wall.

  “Oh, blush and blooms, Violet. That is not what I meant.” Lily came out of the closet carrying another bag.

  “Well, it’s what I meant,” Hailey chimed in. “That shade just makes her injuries look worse. The bruising is practically the same color as the sleeves.” In response to Lily’s disapproving gasp, Hailey shrugged innocently. “If she refuses to listen to the healers, then she needs to hear it from someone.”

  “Thanks,” I snapped as I sat on the bed. Jane jumped up next to me and swatted her tail through Hailey in my defense.


  “You really should be spending the prescribed amount of time in the healing pod. It will make a huge difference,” Lily said, unzipping the bag.

  “I don’t care what I look like. There are still too many others that need them for more than vanity,” I insisted. My words brought memories flashing back into my thoughts that tore through my heart.

  “How are you?” I asked Colin the first day I was able to visit. “I’m sorry it has taken me so long to make it by to see you.” My voice cracked when I thought of all the families of Pelham Village. All those who had to be relocated when the second bomb that exploded in the marina caused the biosphere to collapse. The damage to Pelham was a sunken mirror of Heart’s Cove. Both halves of the Marina brought to its knees, one foot in Neyr, the other in Maie. Both crushed by the tragedy of that day.

  “We were lucky, Your Highness.” Colin smiled and squeezed my hand. “It could have been worse.”

  I looked at the man who had lost so much: his home, his shop, and nearly his family. I thought if he could find a way to smile, I owed it to everyone to try as well.

  “How is Raya adjusting?” I asked.

  “Raya’s grandparents spoil her, but she misses the cove terribly. I think she misses the chance to see you; she talks about you all the time. The princess this, the princess that.” He laughed. “I am sure she will be seafoam green with envy when I tell her you stopped by.”

  I shook my head. “I will make it up to her. Oh, I almost forgot!” I turned to Leo, and he presented Colin with a box.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” Colin said to Leo.

  “It’s still Your Highness, but you can call me Leo if you want.”

  Colin beamed. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

  “I know it’s not Sparkles, but just in case she decides to stop looking,” I said hopefully.

  Colin opened the box and found a catfish barely bigger than a minnow. “She’ll love it. It’s kind of you to think of her, especially at a time like this. You are too good to us, and we are not even your citizens.”

  “Well, you always have a home here should you choose. Everything we could find of the shop we had boxed up for you. It’s waiting for your return should you choose to come back to Heart’s Cove. If you don’t, we will have it sent wherever you end up.”