by E. J. Mellow
With its disappearance, my arms droop, every connection severed, and my body does what it only can when I’m no longer able to hold it in flight.
It falls.
— 33 —
The office of the oldest elder is lit in a warm glow, the ornate candelabras patterned around the room flickering and sending dancing shadows across the high-ceilinged space. Elaborate woven tapestries cover the walls, scenes depicting an array of human activity from stories of ancient battles to more leisurely pastimes, such as families picnicking in a park, are woven in gilded threads. The chamber’s decorations give an air of high-maintenance regality, something that its master exudes in abundance.
With fingers steepled, Cato thrums the tips together while his elbows rest on the ornately carved armrests of his high-backed upholstered chair, his dark-green gaze unwaveringly pinned to me.
I shift slightly in my seat, which—like everything here—is designed for looks rather than comfort. My body winces from the meek movement, still sore from my fall three days ago. Cato’s already permanent scowl deepens, catching what I am trying to hide, and I turn my gaze away, to the other elder in the room.
Elena stands a step beyond Cato, beside a large roaring fireplace, her hands clasped behind her back as she stares into the blue-white flames. Her alabaster skin is bathed in the mixture of the contrasting warm-to-cold lighting, and her hair shifts from blonde to ash with the crackling fire.
“I’m told your injuries have healed well.” Cato’s steel-tipped voice finally fills the thick silence.
“Yes.” I instinctively roll my right ankle, amazed that it shows no signs of having been broken.
After falling the two stories at the Navitas generator, I suffered more than a fair share of injuries, the least of which was Dev’s and, as it appears now, the elders’ wrath. I’m more than lucky to be in a place with such advanced medicine and, given who I am, receiving the best treatment from the finest Terra doctors. In the end, I only suffered from pain for no more than an hour before my ankle was mended, two splintered ribs restored, and the severe bruising along one entire side of my body reduced to a fading yellow stain. The durability of my vest kept me from suffering any spinal injury, and the thick layers of my clothes took the majority of the impact when I hit the ground, saving my neck from snapping. Terra only knows how I didn’t crack my head open.
“I hope you remember that your body is completely here now and, despite what we were able to do for you this time, some injuries are rather permanent.” Watching Cato twist around the ring on his pinky, I’m more than aware that he means death. “That was a very risky thing you did.”
“We had no other options,” I say.
Cato watches me, his weathered face a valley of deep ravines under the candlelight. “How did you know it would work?” Despite the vagueness of his question, I understand exactly what he’s asking.
Gnawing on my lower lip, I give a small shrug. “I didn’t exactly, but since I’ve always been able to connect directly with the Navitas, as well as with an individual’s life energy, I thought it could work to do both at once. And when I was in it, I knew I could use myself as a pathway to focus the energy and overwhelm the Metus.”
“Hmm” is Cato’s only reply as he reaches for a glass of Traub resting on his side table. He takes a slow sip, his eyes studying the purple liquid before they rest back on me. “Well, despite the success of your efforts, it seems Terra is keen on disliking you at the moment.”
I remain still, having already heard such news from Hector. Dev would never want me to know such things.
“This, of course, is of no real surprise,” he goes on. “People always need something to blame when things go badly. Before they knew of you, it was the Council’s fault. Before that, humans and their weak minds.”
“But never the elders?”
“They know better than to go that far,” he says with a superior tilt to his chin.
A snort escapes me, and behind Cato I catch Elena fighting a grin.
“There are still those who support you, thank Terra,” he continues, ignoring my reaction. “And believe in what you are meant to do here, but there’s a greater number who have been swayed by the scene that occurred during Aaron’s trial.”
See, Hector, I think. It was a scene.
“With the Metus attacking more frequently, spirits are growing lower, and the last thing we need is a revolt on our hands. We need our world united on who the enemy is.”
“Well, they can’t possibly think I’m their enemy?”
“They see you as representing the start of this madness, despite the fact that you were brought here unwillingly. They also don’t completely understand what you are. The humans they have watched over the years appear very different. They don’t have powers to wield such as you. And besides, anger is often the result of people not understanding something.”
I let out an exhausted breath. Thoughts of my grandfather’s health, the threat constantly at Terra’s wall, and one psychotic man on the loose should be my main concerns—correction—are my main concerns. Yet it seems that’s not enough to shove onto my plate. I now need to somehow fix this too?
“So what should we do?”
Cato glances to Elena, as if to say your turn.
“We are going to stage a demonstration,” Elena says, walking over to gracefully lower herself onto a settee next to Cato. Her white dress wraps her calves as she crosses her ankles.
“But I’ve already done those,” I say. “And they apparently have done squat.”
“This will be different from the others,” Cato clarifies.
“How?”
“Leave that up to us.” He waves a dismissive hand. “For now we need you to rest and conserve as much of your energy as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll need all of it in two days’ time.” He casually takes a sip of his drink again.
“Two days—” I take in Elena’s impassive face. “Don’t you think I should know what you’re planning so I can prepare?”
“We’re still working out the specifics,” Cato says.
“Still—”
“Molly,” Cato cuts in. “When there’s more to tell you, we will.”
Well, I don’t believe that at all.
“Elena.” I address the elder specifically. She’s been way too quiet this entire meeting. “What about Aurora? What I saw.”
I was quick to fill her in on Aurora as soon as Elena visited me at the hospital after I was treated. She seemed shocked and appalled as I described the black threads woven along the Aurora’s life energy. After I finished, she left to, I assume, visit Aurora and see it for herself. Well, feel it at the very least, since her ability allows her to tap into an individual’s energy. Maybe that’s why she’s been so out of it since I walked in here. What she felt must have terrified her as much as it did me.
“We’ve discussed it.” Her blue eyes meet mine. “And we think we’ve found a way to treat it, or try to at least. Before we can though, she must stand trial for her actions with Aaron.”
My heartbeat quickens. “But if what I saw in her is like a disease? Then she can’t possibly be completely to blame for her actions. Her mind’s obviously not all there.”
Elena nods. “Yes, all things to consider.”
“What can I do to help?”
The two elders share a glance.
“What?” I sit up straighter. “If there’s something I can do, I want to know.”
“Two days, Molly,” Cato repeats while pressing a call button beside him. “Prepare yourself for the demonstration in two days. That’s what you can do.”
And with that, my Vigil guards enter the room. With a frustrated breath, I allow them to escort me out, but before I step through the door, I catch Elena watching Cato with a frown. Though I don’t know the reason behind it, a shiver dances through me. For I’ve only seen that expression on Elena a few times, and always when something wasn’t right.
<
br /> —∞—
Dev takes the order for me to get some mandatory R & R with extreme seriousness. In the following days he makes it his life’s mission to pamper me into exhaustion. Which, as I’ve recently found out, can happen. He gives back rubs, foot rubs, baths, and forces me to consume so much decadent food that I’m surprised I’m not a puddle of limp muscles and glazed-over eyes on the ground. I’m still not sure how he manages to get the cooks in the DCC to whip up these treats, but I’m not complaining. Especially not now when he and I lay tangled in the sheets in my apartment that’s located on one of the lower levels in the compound.
It was hardly a shock that I was moved here after Aaron’s escape, especially now with so much negative attention from the citizens. Although it’s been slightly maddening and a little weird to not be allowed outside for the past two days, it’s been more than convenient to keep residency here. My training sessions are easier to slip in and out of, and having Dev stay with me has actually given us a good deal of privacy that we’ve otherwise lacked when living with him.
“Do you think, when all this is done, we’d be able to get our own place?” I ask, tracing patterns in the light dusting of hair on his taught chest. One of his arms is securely wrapped around my waist, holding me to him.
“Are you asking me to move in with you?” The smile in his voice causes me to look up at him. His black short-cropped hair—that he’s let grow a little longer these days—is beautifully mussed, and his blue eyes twinkle as they take me in.
“What if I am?”
“Then I’d say that’s the best idea you’ve had in a long time.”
“Um, wasn’t it me that suggested our recent game of strip I Spy?”
“Ah yes, your poorly hidden attempt to get me in bed.”
“A.k.a one of my best ideas.”
He laughs deep and throaty, and the sound is beautiful and long overdue. As if we’ve both had the same thought, he pulls me closer, bringing my wrist to his lips. “I’ll need to thank Cato the next time I see him.”
I raise my brows questioningly.
“I can’t remember the last time we’ve had so much of this.” He glances to where we lay in my dimly lit bedroom, the main light source the blue glowing sconces on the walls. “Life almost feels…normal.”
“I know I should feel guilty not having been out there helping with the Metus these past few days, but…if I were being honest, I don’t. Does that make me horrible?”
“No.” Dev nudges my cheek so I look at him, his gaze intent. “That makes you normal. You’ve had nothing but demands, things to fix, and fight since you’ve assumed your role. No one can keep that up without a few reprieves.”
“I wish we had one more day of this,” I say with a gentle sigh. My upcoming demonstration—that I still don’t know the specifics of—is taking place later tonight.
“We still have a few more hours,” Dev points out. “And lucky for you”—his mouth curls into a wicked grin—“I know just how to fill them.”
Taking my face in his hands, he kisses me and doesn’t stop until I all too easily slip into another puddle of euphoria, where I stay, swimming and forgetting about everything but the two of us until eventually there’s a heavy knock on my door, forcing us back to a place where reality is all that’s left.
—∞—
The crowd is deafening as I peer out of our private balcony into the arena. The stadium must be filled with close to forty thousand people, their raucous roars rumbling through the bleacher.
When Cato said this demonstration would be more like a show, he wasn’t kidding. As we made our way to tonight’s location, a giant sports-like dome that sits on the west side of the city, Dev explained its main purpose was for gladiatorial-type contests and a popular Terra game called Pila, which sounds very close to American soccer, or football as most of Earth’s citizens refer to it.
Standing on the outer ledge of our balcony, I gaze out at the structure that stretches twenty floors high and is open to the night air. The stars streak the dark sky overhead in a layer of urgency. Rush, rush, rush, they zoom by as if to escape the wave of commotion directly below. While the materials of the building are sleekly modern, all steel and glass, the center of the pit is covered in tightly packed dirt and sand.
Taking a steadying breath, I turn back to the group that’s with me in the private tier. Tim, Aveline, Hector, Dev, half the Council representatives—including Alex—and the elders fill the space, while the wall behind them is lined with guards. Half of them (mainly the elder half) look more than relaxed standing in front of so many people, while the others look like they ate something that doesn’t agree with them. These are the people that I’m on the same page with. Despite being continuously shoved into the limelight, I have yet to feel at ease there. My stomach is a mess of nerves, and I never quite shake the feeling that I’ll need a bucket at any moment.
Glancing to Cato, the ringleader for all this, I ask, “And what exactly am I to do here?”
The elder has donned one of his better uniforms for tonight, its black material cutting and hugging in all the right places, giving him the appearance that he’s much taller and more built than he actually is.
“It will demonstrate a different use of your power,” he says. “One the citizens haven’t seen yet. We needed something bigger, something that properly demonstrates your invaluableness.”
“Okay…” I catch eyes with Dev. His brows have been in a permanent scowl since we got here. “And what’s that exactly?”
“Your ability to heal.”
My turn to frown. “What do you mean?”
“You have an incredible gift, Molly,” Cato explains. “One that no other Dreamer has been given before. It’s our game changer. People have only heard of what you did for Tim. But what if we showed them?”
All the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as alarm bells go off in my mind. “Cato,” I say slowly. “What exactly are you asking me to do?”
“I’ll show you” is his less-than-satisfying response before he nods to a nearby technician in the corner. The young Vigil, who stands in front of a hovering control board, presses a few buttons, lighting up a center section of the arena, and I watch as a hole opens in the middle, bits of loose sand falling into a black abyss right before an underground elevator brings forth a small form. The individual looks scared and weak standing alone in the giant space, her gray prison uniform bright and offensive under the harsh lighting, and her head whips back and forth in havoc. Gripping the balcony railing, I keep myself from collapsing in shock as all the blood drains from my body.
“Aurora,” I whisper and then turn to Cato. “What’s she doing here?”
“She’s going to help with tonight’s demonstration.”
“Help? How?” I glance between him and Elena. The female elder’s hands are clasped tightly together, her lips pressed into a firm line. She looks as if she’s fighting a multitude of emotions, and that alone is enough to send me into a panic.
“Tell me!” I demand.
But Cato merely gives another nod to the technician, and three more circles open up at the farthest sides of the arena, where angry orange-red glows begin to rise from their abyss. Seven-foot-tall Metus now stand in the pit, their churning lava skin spitting fire and dripping mucus onto the ground, the sand sizzling as it lands. Under the spotlights, their razor-sharp claws wink with their movements, and the crowd’s cries of surprise and horror shudder the very foundation of the structure.
“Oh my God.” I step closer, watching as Aurora, who’s a field’s length away, takes panicked steps back. Thankfully the three beasts have yet to realize she’s there, their attention still on the loud roar of the onlookers.
“Get her out of there!” I shout, spinning back to the elders. Dev has already taken steps toward Cato but is being held back by the guards.
“This is insanity!” he growls.
The rest of our companions look shocked stupid. Alex’s mouth opens and c
loses as if he’s fighting between his deep-rooted sense of duty to obey or putting a stop to this craziness. Tim appears tired, exhausted, as if he’s given up trying to understand the will of the elders. Aveline, well, she looks like a ghost, her lips rubbing together with worry as her eyes flicker from Dev to me to Cato and then finally back to Aurora’s small form in the distance. Hector’s expression is unreadable, and a terrified part of me wonders if he knew.
“Stop this!” I plead with the elders. “Please!”
“That is your task now,” Cato says. “She wronged you. Her actions with her brother directly affect you and your safety more than anyone else’s. The people of Terra know this.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?!” I yell, my mind tumbling down a hill of horror and dread as a bone-chilling wail from the beasts below fill the air. The crowd momentarily grows quiet, hushed, seemingly lost as to what to make of this scene. And it’s like I’m sitting right there with them, disbelieving, as I listen to the next thing uttered from Cato’s lips.
“This is to be her trial,” he explains. “And it is for you to decide her fate.”
— 34 —
The world is only darkness, hope momentarily wiped away by Cato’s words. They rattle around inside my brain like ice cubes in a glass, cooling everything they touch and rendering me frozen.