Sylvia leans forward in her chair, expectantly.
“I just need to get Bella on board, which I know she won’t want to.” I give Sylvia a long look and she stares right back at me.
“You want to threaten her.”
I shake my head. “Not her. Prince.”
Sylvia’s eyebrows pinch together. “Prince?”
“She cares about him. A lot. And Bella is the only one Prince cares about as well. She knows I won’t hurt her, but she also knows how much I hate Prince.”
“So you’re going to threaten to hurt him?” Sylvia guesses.
I nod. “And my threats aren’t empty this time.”
Sylvia considers this for a moment. “But how? What do you have that could possibly hurt him?”
“Well that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I was going over all the weapons we have. But the guns are too obvious and Bella could easily warn Prince about it.”
“Well what, then?”
“We have grenades in the storage unit. The ones we’ve used for tearing apart the ships we salvage,” I say. “She won’t know when I’d hide it, when it would go off, or where I’d put it. I’d just tell her I have one and if she doesn’t cooperate, Prince will be at the receiving end of one.”
Sylvia cocks her head and then smiles. “You know, she might buy it.”
I nod. “I’m counting on it.”
* * * *
Bella squirms under my gaze as I explain to her our situation. That she either does what I say, or Prince will suffer the consequences. I get the feeling she doesn’t think I’d succeed with the bomb, but she doesn’t look like she wants to take the chance, anyway.
“Alright,” she mutters, staring at the floor. “You want to know where your crew is?”
I nod, keeping my expression straight when I feel like jumping up and down.
She swallows, still staring down at her feet. “You know where the camp is situated? It’s in a valley, surrounded by hills. Your crew is being held about two miles east of where that is. He has another...minicamp. There’s a hut, it’s situated on one of the cliffs overlooking the camp—that’s where the boys are.”
“Is there a path?”
She shrugs. “Kind of...” she trails off and glances up at me.
“Keep going,” I prod.
“If you take the path we were on when...” she stops for a moment and I know she doesn’t remember exactly how she got here.
“When I was taking you here,” I say.
She nods. “If you’re heading on that path back to Prince’s camp, right about where we were when your friends jumped out, there’s a tiny worn path off to the left. If you follow that and make sure you’re on the left side of the valley the whole way, following the edge, you’ll eventually wind up there.”
I take a moment of silence to mentally organize all the directions in my head, committing it to memory.
“Are we good now?” Bella asks, a little desperately.
“There’s one more thing,” I say.
Her eyes narrow.
I hesitate for a moment, realizing that this is a risky plan, but that it’s also the only one we have. “While I’m getting my crew back, you’re going to go back to Prince’s camp,” I tell her. Her eyes widen. “You’re not going to let Prince know what’s happening, and you’re not going to send someone off to tell him, either, or you know what I’ll do. You are going to let all the children know that there’s a way off the planet.”
Bella opens her mouth, but I hold up my hand. “Don’t tell them anything about the plan, or the ship, or me, just tell them they can leave the planet if they want to. And I expect you to tell them all the truth, too.”
“The truth?” Bella echoes.
“You know it. How long they’ve really been here,” I say harshly. “Give them a chance at a life—a real one. And let them know how long they’ve spent waiting for it.”
“But Prince—he won’t want them to leave.”
“I don’t care what Prince wants, I care about what they want. And remember, if you do anything that deviates from the plan, Prince will suffer for it.”
She sits still for a moment and then nods.
“Thank you,” I say before turning to the door to head out.
“You won’t hurt him?” Bella pleads from behind me.
“No more than he’s already hurt me,” I reply before leaving the room.
* * * *
Andrew wakes up the next day. It’s the only thing clouding my mind as I practically jog down the hallway after Sylvia after she’d told me the news. I’m not sure what this means. If Andrew is getting better, if he’s going to be okay, if we can get off the planet in time for him to live.
I enter the room running but then stop short when our eyes meet. He’s sitting on the cot, his legs swung over the side, his feet planted firmly on the ground. I’m not sure what to do. I’m not sure what we are. Again, I’m plagued by the confusion of us, of whether he’s a friend, or not a friend. I walk forward slowly.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I say quietly.
His eyes remain glued to mine and he nods. “I knew it would happen,” he tells me. “I was going to tell you when...” He laughs a little. “If I don’t get off the planet, I’ll die.”
I don’t really find it funny. He could have died. He still might. “I know,” I answer. “Bella told me.” Andrew stands up and instead of looking down at him, I’m suddenly looking up. And before I can stop myself, my arms are around his neck and I’m hugging him like I’m never going to get him back. Because for a moment there, I thought I never would. I don’t care that Sylvia is in the room, and I can only imagine her expression and what she’s thinking, but I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care. Whatever Andrew is to me, he’s okay, and I’m overjoyed that he’s okay. Andrew hugs me back and for a moment, I feel at peace—like nothing in the world is wrong.
But then my brain prods me with a stick, reminding me of all the things I have yet to do—all the obstacles I have to overcome in order to save my crew, the children, myself, Andrew.
I pull away and Andrew and I step away from each other. I’m trying not to glance in Sylvia’s direction although I can feel her eyes burning holes into my skull. I chew on the inside of my lip.
“Has Sylvia told you about any of our plans?” I ask Andrew. He shakes his head so I quickly fill him in. The whole time he’s silent and I’m taking it as a good sign – he has no criticisms. Or maybe the whole idea is just so ridiculous, he’s speechless.
“It sounds a little dangerous,” he finally says, and I can’t help but roll my eyes.
“We’re in a dangerous situation,” I retort.
“Let me go with Bella,” he says all of a sudden and I’m startled to silence for a few seconds.
“With Bella?” I echo.
Andrew nods. “You said she’s not all that trustworthy, I’ll make sure she stays in line. And besides, if the kids see me, remember me, and know what Prince did, it will give them a better idea of what’s going on. And I won’t let Prince see me. If he’s in the camp, I’ll stay away.”
I’m quiet for a moment, considering this. It’s actually a good idea, but before I admit that, I trade glances with Sylvia. Her shock about me and Andrew’s behavior seems to have evaporated and she simply raises her eyebrows at me in question to Andrew’s proposal. “It would be good...” I tell him. “But you can’t let Prince know you’re there, and...are you going to be okay?” To tell the truth, I’m a little worried about him passing out again. Although he looks fine now, it took him seconds to switch between this and a collapsed puddle on the floor only days ago. I look to Sylvia again.
She shrugs. “According to all the instruments and my knowledge, he seems fine...” she trails off a frown on her face, like she’d rather not give the go ahead, but knows she has to give the facts.
I nod, praying that it will work and Andrew will be fine. “You can go, if you truly believe you’ll be okay.”
/> “I’m not one of your crew, Jude.” Andrew smirks at me.
I throw him a mock glare. “Shut up.”
We set off about an hour later. At the point in the path where Bella points me off onto a smaller path, she, Andrew, and I part ways. I watch as they disappear down the trail before heading on mine. The brush is thicker and the path is narrower, even losing itself completely a few times, being swallowed up by the greenery around it. But I make my way along the cliff edge as Bella had instructed, hoping that I’ll run into the hut sometime soon.
After a while, I can actually see Prince’s camp in the valley below. Children mill about, though I don’t see Prince anywhere. He’s always so elusive. I continue to stumble through the brush, making sure I stay a safe enough distance away from the edge of the precipice. It’s making me nervous and I can only pray that I’m close to wherever the crew is hidden.
And that Bella didn’t lie and send me on a wild goose chase. Or right into a trap. I clamp down on that thought and keep walking.
And suddenly, there it is. I blink. It’s almost as if I hadn’t been looking hard enough, I might have missed it. The hut is barely a shelter, the canopy top drooping in the center, and the whole area is overgrown with green and brown. I make my way cautiously toward the structure.
“Hello?” I call warily. I hear no sound. I’m suddenly worried, but try to remain calm. Maybe the guys are fine. Maybe Bella just sent me here to lead me off track.
But then I hear it. A muffled groan. I yank away the tarp covering the entrance and nearly fall to my knees in relief when I see three people sitting inside. Holden, Jackson, and Gregory.
I don’t make a noise as I slide down to their level and begin untying the ropes that bind their arms and legs, and the gags wound around their mouths. Anger bubbles up within me to think of them spending all this time out here, gagged and bound. I guess Prince was worried they’d either run away or make enough noise to alert our attention. I’m furious.
“Wait,” Holden gasps when I yank the gag from his mouth and then turn to the others to untie them as well. “Captain!” he shouts and before I realize what he’s talking about, I feel something snag on my hair and then a hand around my arm and I’m being dragged out of the hut and into the sunlight, only a few feet from the edge of the cliff. I scramble for a good hold on whoever has me, when I hear a voice growl in my ear, “You’re so predictable.” And then he shoves me to the ground and takes a few steps back. I jump to my feet, brushing the dirt off my arms as I glare at Prince.
“I gave you a chance to live,” Prince says, but not menacingly—just matter-of-factly—like he’s stating that I’ve lost a game. “And you gave it up for them,” he points to the hut where I can hear hushed talking from within. And then suddenly I see it. The glimmer in his eyes—the way he glances from me and then back to the shelter—the boys.
Hurt.
He’s not only angry, had his pride broken, but he’s hurt as well. He wanted me to choose to stay here. He wanted me to stay here on my will. And the gears spin in my head.
“I was never going to leave,” I blurt out desperately, forcing the glower from my face and replacing it with pleading. “I only wanted to be sure they were okay. I only wanted to tell them about everything on this planet—that you were only treating them that way because you felt you had to.”
Prince is silent, watching me.
“I couldn’t stand the idea of them not being able to live at the camp. With the other children, and Bella, and you. I wanted that for them.”
I can see his mind whirring around inside his head, switching from conclusion to conclusion, picking and choosing what to believe.
“You were right,” I add.
“What did you say?” he asks, his head cocking but his expression remaining the same.
“You were right?”
He nods and smiles, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly. “You like it here?” he asks, his dark eyes boring holes into mine.
I nod. “I missed it. I never really knew it until now, but I did. Living here, growing up, the children...being a child forever.”
Prince’s expression stays exactly the same for such a long time that I’m beginning to think he’s seeing right through me. That he’s about to scream at me, or lunge for me, or throw something—that I’m so transparent he’ll kill me for it. But then I see the corners of his mouth twitch and his eyes light up like glowing stars in the night, and I know that the years of watching Dad, the years of play acting with Sylvia, imitating the ways he’d “pirate” his way out of any situation, getting what he wanted by whatever means, have paid off.
I smile back at him.
“You want them to live at the camp?” he repeats back to me. “Because you enjoy living there?”
I nod.
“I suppose that could be possible.” His smile is gone, replaced by a calculating hardness, but I know I’ve still got him dangling by a hook spun by my lies. He believes me. And it might save our lives.
I see the boys out of the corner of my eye appearing in the entrance to the tent, watching Prince and me. Prince glances at them and then walks past me toward the path back to his camp. I turn to watch him, ready to motion for the guys and then follow him, but then all of a sudden he spins back around. His dark eyes pierce mine and flit from me to each of the guys still standing by the hut.
“The only problem is...” he trails off, cocking his head and staring off in mock contemplation, “That I don’t think I believe you.” His eyes turn ice cold in a fraction of a second and my heart goes still—frozen by his glare. “Captain.”
I hear one of the guys shout as Prince lunges forward and I barely have time to brace myself as he crashes into me, sending both of us to the ground. The air is knocked out of me as my back hits the hard dirt beneath me and I gasp for a few seconds before I regain my composure. Prince is sitting on top of me, pinning me to the ground, and fumbling for something in his pocket. Knife, is the first thing that pops into my head and before I give him the chance to play out whatever it is he was going to do, I reach back and punch him in the face, my metal fist colliding with his jaw. He makes a sound halfway between a growl and a scream and jerks away from me, his upper body and head hitting the ground as I scramble out from underneath him.
“Go!” I’m shouting at the guys, before I realize that they have no idea how to get back to the ship. Why would they? They were brought here in the dark and don’t have the direction that I did when coming here. My attention is wrenched back to Prince when I feel his hand grasped around my arm and I’m dragged a few feet backwards toward him. I cry out through gritted teeth, clawing at him with the one hand I have free—my real one, with only flesh and blood and nails, and it’s not helping at all.
Prince is on top of me again and I can feel his hands sliding around my throat, shockingly cold, like ice seeping through my neck and reminding me that this is what I’ll feel like if Prince succeeds in killing me. My hand is still pinned, only this time it’s by his leg and he shoves me farther away from the hut, his hands still clasped around my neck.
I gasp as suddenly the ground beneath my head, my neck, my shoulders, is gone and as my head jerks back and I crane my neck, I see miles below me, the edge of the cliff, the trees—so small and so, so far away.
Some small noise escapes me and my muscles are alive with fire, taut and straining to get me away, far away, anywhere away from this cliff.
“The only thing I wanted was to not be alone,” Prince growls in my ear. “The only thing. Is that too much to ask?” His hands tighten with every word. “You make me out to be a monster when I’m exactly like you.”
I’m scrambling underneath him, trying to get a hold on anything that will help me get away. Anything at all.
“So, you see...the only way you’re leaving this planet,” Prince snarls down at me, his face inches from mine. “Is dead.”
His fingers tighten around my throat and I can barely scream—it comes out a
s a guttural cry. I’m fighting to get my hand free from underneath him as my lungs scream at me, burning and writhing within my chest as they slowly wilt and begin to die. And then all of a sudden Prince’s attention is directed elsewhere and I can see Holden out of the corner of my eye, just over Prince’s shoulder. I don’t know what he’s doing, what he’s saying, but I take the opportunity and my hand comes free and before Prince has time to turn back around I’m reaching up with black, matte, metal and squeezing it around the wrist that binds my neck.
Prince’s head whips back around and his eyes widen just in time for my metal hand to clamp together and crush his fingers beneath my grasp. He shouts and scrambles off of me, pulling me with him because my hand hasn’t let go. I jump to my feet and shout at the guys, before racing off down the path, leaving Prince coddling his broken fingers against his chest. I don’t wait to see if he watches me leave, glares, or even follows me. I check to see that Holden, Jackson, and Gregory are with me, before we dart off into the trees.
As we run, barely slowing down the whole way, I pray that we’ll reach the ship in time, that everyone is there, that Bella and Andrew completed what they set out to, that Sylvia and Angelica are ready...
But mostly I think about the expression on Prince’s face. How he jumped away, how he didn’t even try to stop me. Fitting, it seems, that what Prince took away from me all those years ago, the grudge I’d held my entire life, his stolen token, was what would beat him in the end.
Chapter Fourteen
We arrive at the ship in record time and I fumble at the keypad to type in the correct entrance code. My fingers are shaking but I manage to punch it in and seconds later the ramp is lowering. We’re inside the ship in heartbeats and then I hear footsteps and shouts and there’s a frenzy of talking and hugging—I see Holden and Angelica out of the corner of my eye as she wraps her arms around him.
“Where are Andrew and Bella?” I ask Sylvia over the commotion. She makes her way past everyone else to stand by me.
“Andrew is here,” she says. “He’s in the medical lab resting. He says Bella is bringing the children.”
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