Whispers in Autumn (The Last Year, #1)

by Trisha Leigh

  Exhausted, I unzip my bag, pull out one of the blankets, and wrap it around me. Snuggled inside, aching and raw from both the cold and grief, worry tramples my tenuous hope. My blood carries it from my head to my heart and down to my stomach until my entire body trembles from holding it all in.

  Thoughts of Lucas, of what the Others might already have done to him, make me feel ill. I hope the Healer fixed his leg, but if I ever see Lucas again, I am going to punch him right in the face for not telling me how bad it had gotten.

  ***

  Night falls on the forest. Deshi is free of our makeshift imprisonment. Three Wardens opened the gate and rescued him several hours ago. They passed within twenty yards of me, never guessing, never looking.

  It’s too late to turn back. Alarms have been raised. I didn’t go home or to Cell, and the Wardens return and sweep the park. It’s after curfew now and they call my name, loud enough for me to hear from this side of the boundary. The fence rattles and I stop breathing.

  A laughing, melodious Other voice shatters the still night. “What are you doing, idiot? He said not to bother checking out there.”

  “I know, but she’s not human. How do Chief and the Prime know what she’ll do?”

  The first one snorts. “She was raised human, though, right? If Chief says she’ll walk right into our hands, then she will.”

  Heavy feet thud into the earth. The second voice, deeper but no less pleasant, sounds sheepish. “I’m not questioning the Prime or the Chief. Just wanted an excuse to get out of this town.”

  They walk away and my lungs release a shaky breath.

  Weeks ago, back when only my life depended on me, I would have given up. Now Lucas’s life is in my hands. He’s made life tolerable, been my friend and confidant. I can’t let him go. Besides, he would do the same for me. There’s not a doubt in my mind.

  The moon rises as the sun scoots into tomorrow, casting a haunting, silvery glow over the trees and underbrush. The peculiar silence full of sounds that only exists in the Wilds drapes the night. Stars twinkle all around and for a moment I ponder Cadi’s stories. I wish I could see Sprita from here; Deasupra was light years away, when it still existed.

  Sounds materialize, hoots and scratches that bring back the memories of our mishaps with the animals. A howl echoes in the distance, haunting and free. It sends shivers along my spine and up my neck. The serenity this freedom offers is a lifeline; I clutch it and hang on. I’m free now, like the animals. If I get Lucas out, I’m never going back in there again.

  A rustling comes closer and a scraping sounds above me. My muscles don’t even twitch, trusting the natural world to behave as it should. Lucas might laugh at my calmness after what happened to his leg. My smile fades as I wonder if I’ll ever hear his playful voice again.

  I keep waiting, knowing that the longer I hold out, the fewer possibilities there will be for disaster to strike. The humans need to be tucked safe in their homes before I march into town and stir up trouble. I sense someone—something—watching me. It could be an animal, or perhaps Deshi is out here searching for me after all. Like a small child afraid of the dark spaces under my bed, I draw the blanket up around me and bury my face. If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.

  When it’s time to go, the moon is high in the sky. Dark, wispy clouds pass in front of it, not dense enough to staunch the light. I tear my eyes away from the void and make my way cautiously back to the fence.

  Shadows hide me on the way into town. My heart whispers one last wish for help. If Cadi is listening, maybe she’ll throw a bit of luck our way. I’d feel better just knowing she lives.

  Four Wardens loiter on the sidewalk, talking. I jerk farther back into the shadows and slip behind a tree trunk large enough to obscure me. I’m afraid they’ll hear my gasping breath from where they stand, even though their conversation is far away, barely audible over the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.

  “This is dumb. Why didn’t we bring them in weeks ago, when Chief found the fish?”

  “The Prime wanted to find out who was helping them. Plus, you know how they like to play with the humans.”

  “He better be right about her taking the bait at the Cell. The Prime isn’t going to be happy if he loses the girl.”

  The Wardens split up and wander down the block, voices fading as they head toward the park. Disgust heats my face and hands. The reminder that Deshi and the Prime Other have known about us for weeks feels cold and slimy inside my mind, an unwelcome invasion. A hot flash of anger follows, spurring me forward with new determination. I know now the idea to keep Lucas at Cell is a trap set for me, but if Deshi thinks they’re getting Lucas or me without a fight, he’s got another think coming.

  I’d worried before about the front doors of the Cell being locked, but now that I know Deshi is counting on my stupidity—or loyalty, depending on how you look at it—I feel sure they’ll be open. He wouldn’t want to lock me out of his baited snare.

  The door pulls open easily in my left hand, confirming the trap. My right palm stretches toward the camera watching my every move. Wild, thrashing emotion travels down my arm into my hand. When my palm feels as though it will explode from the heat bubbling under the skin, I push the heat out of me. It hits the camera, melting it in an instant. An acrid smell hangs in the air as the charred, gooey lump falls off its mount.

  Maybe that was a bit much.

  Ignoring the dead camera, I head into the building and straight to the Administrator’s office. No point in trying to be sneaky. Deshi is expecting me; I don’t want to keep him waiting. Chances are, as soon as that camera melted someone alerted him and the Wardens to my presence. Dread pulses and burrows, but the prolonged adrenaline rush deadens the sensation.

  The hallways are dark and strangely eerie with the lack of voices and banging lockers. The cameras I pass along the way melt with a flick of my wrist now. A sense of strong, heady power buzzes in my fingertips. Along the way I experiment with pressure, and by the time I pass through the last doorway just the lens melts, the rest of the camera staying mounted on the wall.

  When a Warden steps around the corner we both startle.

  I avoid his gaze, having no desire to experience the pain of their brain invasion, and scramble backward. My own feet trip me and I land in a heap.

  Panic tingles through my limbs and mixes with adrenaline. Massive knots of tension wind tight inside my every muscle. Instinct I didn’t even know existed until this moment takes over when he bends and grabs me. Before he gets a good grip I plant both feet into his chest and push with all my might.

  He flies backward into a row of lockers, taking strands of my hair with him. He hits hard but stays conscious. I shoot to my feet and take three steps over to where he lies.

  His arm lashes out at me. I grab his wrist and the world goes black. I see Lucas. His face is bloody and lumpy. His eyes are purple and closed. I can’t tell if he’s breathing. Someone laughs. It sounds like Deshi.

  The Warden jerks his arm out of my grasp and the world comes back.

  There’s no time to think about what just happened. Surprise colors the Warden’s face; he must have noticed my little foray into his mind. Or into all the Others’ minds, their tunnels. Before he recovers I pick up one foot and smash it into his face.

  His head snaps back, cracks against the white linoleum. The crunch of bone and flesh tear through my stomach as he goes still. I should tie him up so he doesn’t come after me, but there’s nothing to bind him with or to.

  A kind of trance befalls me, and staring at the flecks of blood and mucus on my dirty tennis shoe fascinates me for several seconds. I shake it off and move again toward the center of the Cell.

  No Wardens hang around the outside of the office. They must at least be watching. After all, there’s only one way into that office and it’s through the front door.

  This must be the part where I get caught.

  CHAPTER 28.

  I run the back of my sleeve across
my forehead and it comes away soaked through with sweat. Outward calm masks nothing but foreboding. Pure and powerful, it courses through me but doesn’t slow me down as I draw up to the doors.

  The cameras on either side of the entrance melt in tandem and I confront the problem of the locks. The door won’t open unless someone inside hits a button. My chemistry book confirmed that glass melts, but only at an extremely hot temperature. I’m afraid to try and push that much heat out through my hands, so I press my entire body against the crack between the doors. With every emotion simmering so close to my surface, it’s never been easier to summon the blinding heat. Fiery warmth oozes out from under my clothes. At first nothing happens.

  Then the glass starts to give.

  I pull my face away from the superheated doors, afraid they’ll burn me. They don’t. The fact that the heat is generated within me somehow protects my skin and keeps it from melting.

  The glass in front of me bends and begins to liquefy. It gives the rest of the way under a firm kick delivered by my bloody shoe. No one appears to stop me when I step through the hole I made, and Lucas is nowhere to be seen. The clear path should relieve me, but instead it has the opposite effect, turning the entire office into an elaborate ambush. Once I go into the back office, there’s only one way out.

  The knob on the Administrator’s door is cool underneath my trembling palm and doesn’t resist. Inside, Lucas lies faceup on the purple carpet—the sight of him nearly breaks all my resolve. Blood cakes his forehead and left cheek; his eyes sit closed. They are purple and swollen, exactly the way he looked when I touched the Warden. Lucas is still wearing shorts, and the wound in his leg has been dressed. The white wrap smells like decay, and bile rises into my mouth as I fling myself to the floor, gathering his head into my lap.

  I run my fingertips over the gash on his forehead, resisting the urge to yell when he flinches away from my touch. I bend and press my lips to his, sobbing when his eyes fly open in surprise. They fill with confusion and pain before they focus on me.

  “What are you crying about, you big baby? Does this mean you care?”

  I can’t stop gasping long enough to conjure a smart remark. It doesn’t look like he can see much out of his left eye.

  Suspicion rolls over me, trumping relief. “Why are you alone?”

  He shakes his head and winces. “Some Wardens and Deshi smacked me around a while ago but they left to take care of something. A Healer’s supposed to come work on my leg some more. Apparently Deshi thought the pain would make me talk, but he doesn’t want me to die. Yet.”

  His words set off alarms in my head. “So no one’s guarding you?”

  As though I invite intrusion with my words, the door to the Administrator’s office flies open. I shoot to my feet, ready to fight, but stop at the sight of the Healer.

  And Leah.

  The Healer stares at us, openmouthed, and works at producing a sentence. The false smile drops from Leah’s mouth when she sees Lucas’s damaged body. The blood drains out of her face as a disconcerting array of emotions march across it. Confusion. Anger. Sorrow. Fear. Her eyes flick from Lucas, to me, to the Healer and don’t stop. I rip my eyes away from her when the Healer gets words out.

  “Who are you? Why are you here? Excuse me, I’ll have to report this.”

  “Wait.” I cross the room before he can leave. My heart begs me to reconsider. Every cell in my body screams against what I’m planning to do.

  Lucas is barely able to sit up. He can’t do this; I have to.

  The Healer’s eyes are wary and slightly panicked at my approach. His gaze flutters to Lucas and indecision registers. Healers don’t deal much—or deal at all—with people getting the sense beat out of them. His gaze pulls back to mine and I push away the self-loathing threatening to interrupt, shoving thoughts toward the Healer instead.

  You don’t want to tell the Others anything. Look at us. We’re just kids, nothing suspicious. Help us.

  A fascinating change takes place on his lumpy, old-man features. His eyes, emerald and hard, start to focus on my face instead of looking through me. Fear slides in and mixes with confusion. “What am I doing here? Who are you?” He glances around, his fear growing. “Where are we?”

  “Calm down. You came because you’re a Healer and Lucas needs help.” My words don’t sink in and his agitation grows. His eyes widen and flash back and forth, reminding me of the night I Broke Mrs. Morgan.

  Lucas’s urgent voice rasps through my growing dread. “Use your mind to calm him down, Althea. I don’t think it works when you talk.”

  I try it and the Healer calms down. He crosses the room to Lucas, opens his medical bag, and pulls out gauze, a bottle of liquid, and a syringe of fluid. He cleans and bandages the cuts on Lucas’s face, then studies the gaping wound on his leg. “The pills I gave you earlier broke the fever, but the infection is bad. You need a shot directly into the wound.”

  Lucas’s face contorts as the Healer cleans the gash, then injects the syringe into his leg.

  “Will he be able to walk?” I need to know he’ll get some strength back soon. We’re going to have to run.

  The Healer nods, his back still to me as he tends his patient. “Yes. This antibiotic is potent. He should improve in less than ten minutes.”

  I want to go to Lucas’s side but leaving Leah alone seems like a bad idea, given everything she’s been through. She’s a loose cannon, an unknown entity. Lucas busted her sanity, and the deranged look in her eyes declares she’s capable of anything.

  The Healer straightens up, handing Lucas a cold pack for his eye. It’s been a little less than five minutes, and we can’t wait any longer. Five minutes is five minutes too many.

  Lucas lurches to his feet, wincing and clutching his midsection. He puts minimal weight on his left leg.

  “Can you walk?”

  “Don’t worry about me. Let’s go.” He jerks his thumb at the Healer and Leah. “They can’t come with us.”

  “We can’t leave him here like this. The Others will Break them.” Guilt twists in my stomach. This is why our powers are worthless. They hurt people.

  “Well, try to put the veil back up then. Just hurry.”

  The situation calls for decisive action and fast choices, and I wish Lucas would do it. He’s at least tried fixing a veil before.

  There’s no time to argue, so I turn to the Healer and look into his eyes. I force the voice in my head to sound soothing and calm. You never saw us. You came to heal Lucas, like they ordered, but he was gone. Everything is fine.

  His eyes glaze back over, staring through me.

  Lucas grabs my hand and gives me a tight smile. “You did it. Let’s go.”

  “Wait.”

  Leah’s trembling voice stops us dead. We both turn to look at her, and the desperate tears in her eyes slice me open. Her pleading expression stops me, even though we don’t have time to deal with her. “What are you even doing here?”

  Her gaze slides toward Lucas, then to the floor. “I saw him earlier, while I was working in the office. I made up an excuse about forgetting my backpack and came to check on him, but the Healer was already here.” She takes my free hand. “Please. Please don’t leave me like this, half in, half out.”

  It sounds like she’s talking nonsense, but she’s not. Not really. Lucas puts a hand on her shoulder, flinching when he puts weight on his bad leg. “Which way do you want to go?”

  “Take it out. Them. Take them out.”

  His eyes meet mine, begging permission. Conflicting voices battle in my mind. “Lucas, I think it would be better to put the veil back up, if we can.”

  A visible shudder rolls through Leah. “No. No, please. I can’t go back. I’ll pretend.” She drops my hand and steps into Lucas, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Like you. I’ll pretend.”

  Our eyes meet over her jet-black curls, silent conversation ending in a decision.

  I nod. “Leah, look at me.”

  She obeys, tur
ning away from Lucas.

  You’re Leah Olsen. The Others keep humans in line by controlling their minds. You’re different than everyone else now, but you must act the same. You must.

  The crazed, cloudy anxiety in her gray eyes evaporates like fog on a warm spring morning. Her gaze is clear and determined. Scared, but a healthy amount. She gasps. “You have to go. Deshi and the Prime mean to take you away.”

  Lucas squeezes her hand once before letting go.

  She wraps me in a fierce, quick hug on our way out of the inner office. “Thank you, Althea.”

  Our feet trade the silent thick carpet for hard, tiled floor. Lucas stops at the hole in the door, reaching out to touch the edges of the melted glass. He turns to me, eyes wide. “You did this?”

  “Yes. Who else do you think did it?”

  The amazement in his eyes irks me, like my stupid talent is something to be proud of, when all it’s good for is destruction. His eyes grow serious and I get the feeling he knows what I’m thinking.

  “Just where do the two of you think you’re going, exactly?”

  Lucas and I lock eyes, afraid to turn and confront the smooth, honeyed speaker. The clipped tone tells me it’s a Warden.

  The question is, how many of them are here?

  CHAPTER 29.

  “Very interesting, what happened in this Cell tonight. Don’t you think, Rahaj?”

  Lucas and I whirl together, joined at the hand. Mine is slick with sweat, and turn clammy upon contact with his icy one. Two Wardens stand outside the ruined door, smirking at us. One is tall, taller than anyone I’ve ever seen.

  He speaks again. “Guess the stories are true. Chief is going to be upset he missed this.”