The Cage

by Megan Shepherd

  But Lucky was wrong when he thought being here could be a fresh start. There were no fresh starts for caged birds. There was only as much freedom as their captors wished to give them.

  His eyes found hers beneath the stars.

  “Lucky.” Her breath fogged in the air. “We’re getting out of here. Come with us.”

  He didn’t answer. He didn’t seem surprised at all.

  “I know about you and the Caretaker,” he said.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  52

  Cora

  FEAR THREADED THROUGH CORA’S veins. “Did Leon tell you?”

  “The Caretaker told me himself.” Lucky took a step forward, his face unreadable. “He came to visit me last night. He said you were asleep in his bed. He didn’t say anything outright, just that I could have whatever I wanted if I left you alone. To tell him the type of girl I wanted and he’d give her to me.” He looked toward the sea, because it must have been easier than looking at her. “I told him the girl I wanted was you.”

  “Lucky, I didn’t know—”

  “I didn’t believe him. I thought he was tricking me, but he wasn’t, was he?”

  She swallowed. “No.”

  “Jesus. Why?”

  “You loved me because I was a victim. But I never was, Lucky. I was the one who came up with the idea to take the fall for my dad.” A month ago, if she’d met Lucky, she’d have fallen like a comet for him. She clasped her necklace as if she could hold on to that girl she’d been before, but then she released it. “Cassian knew that. He sees me as someone who can save herself.”

  Lucky touched the place on the side of his head where she had hit him. Cora had expected he would be furious at her. Crazed. She hadn’t expected such heartbreaking hurt in his eyes.

  He shook his head. “Just go. You never needed someone to protect you, I can see that now.”

  He turned toward the boardwalk, but Cora grabbed his arm. “You always wanted to be a hero, Lucky, but you don’t need a victim for that. Be your own hero. Come with us.”

  Mali glanced over her shoulder, and Cora felt nervous too. Had Rolf kept Nok from sounding the alarm? Did the Warden know? Not even Cassian could help them then.

  “Please, Lucky. We can go back. Earth is there, I know it.”

  His head tilted toward the stars that shone over a red desert, snow-covered mountains, a town where they might have been amused, but never truly happy. Would the Kindred take Nok and Rolf and Leon away? Without humans, this place would be meaningless.

  Lucky turned away from the shops and habitats that had made up their artificial world, facing the ocean instead.

  “Let’s go home.”

  THE THREE OF THEM stood in the sand, letting the surf whisper to their toes. “You have to swim without stopping,” Cora said. “There will be a pressure lens. You have to push past.”

  Lucky and Mali listened intently, then waded fearlessly past the breakers. But Cora hung back. She hadn’t been in water over her head since the accident. The rush of pure cold pouring in the car windows, up through the gearshifts. These crashing waves were mild and warm, but they still drenched her with fear. She waded deeper, crunching the sand with her toes, and didn’t panic until the moment when a wave lifted her up and her toes didn’t touch the ocean floor when she bobbed back down.

  She treaded water with quick, jerky movements. Breathe. Count backward from ten.

  Ten. Nine. Eight . . .

  Lucky was a good swimmer. Mali’s strokes were jerkier, less practiced, but she was strong where the others weren’t: she knew the Kindred’s mind games. Even if she’d never faced a puzzle like this before, she could handle the psychological pressure.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” Lucky asked.

  Cora took a deep breath. Seven . . .

  “I’m sure.” As soon as Cora answered, she hit a cold patch in the ocean. It chilled her certainty. She recalled Cassian’s kiss and his whispered words. “Leave them to me.” He wouldn’t lie to her, would he? Lying would mean death for them—and she’d looked into his storm-cloud eyes. She’d seen raw emotions there. The last thing he wanted was their deaths.

  Six. Five . . .

  That was what kept her going. She wasn’t paddling toward death. She was paddling toward life.

  Four . . .

  Toward home.

  “On the count of three,” she said. “Count backward.” The stars overhead shone brightly. A strange nostalgia crept over her. From here, the diner lights were still flashing, the jukebox music still playing.

  “Three,” Lucky said.

  Cora thought about Nok, and Rolf, and Leon, and what would happen to them. Yasmine’s ghost would haunt this same water. When death had come to her, Cora hoped it had been quick.

  “Two,” Lucky said.

  Cora’s lungs started to close up. She wondered if she would ever see Cassian again.

  “One.”

  Their heads disappeared, just as Cora filled her lungs. A second before she dived below, a figure appeared on the beach. There was no mistaking his hulking shape as he came tearing into the water.

  Leon. He’d changed his mind.

  But Cora was already underwater. There was no going back up. Water stung her nose. Her hair floated away. She felt like a ghost herself, like Yasmine was down there, calling to her, wanting to pull Cora down too.

  Cora followed her ghost. Yasmine’s death, Cora’s life. With each stroke the pressure grew. The water grew colder, unnaturally so. Salt water filled her eyes, or maybe it was tears. The others were nowhere. Her chest was imploding, insisting it was time to go back for air.

  She pushed past her instincts. There was no going back. The darkness was complete, a universe with no stars. And cold. The ocean really did go on forever. She imagined she was back in her father’s car with river water rushing in. What if he’d never broken the windshield? Time confused itself, and she was back there, trapped in the car. She thrashed against the seat belt and the dashboard and the floor. She stroked, and stroked, and bubbles burst around her as her lungs squeezed out the last breath of air. She screamed into the silent water.

  She couldn’t swim anymore. Her arms burned. Her lungs demanded oxygen that wasn’t there. Only water. And water. And water. No pressure lens.

  Cassian wouldn’t lie to me.

  Her arms threatened to give out. She had nothing left in her, no heart, no soul. She saved her last thought for her mother, and father, and brother. She remembered a hike they had taken up Blood Mountain, when Sadie had been a puppy, when her father had just been a lawyer from Roanoke and her mother an aspiring actress and it was the four of them against the world. She wanted to go back to that time. And Charlie. She wanted to be in the airplane on Charlie’s first flight as a pilot and be there on Sadie’s last day. Most of all, she wanted to tell them that she loved them.

  A calmness overtook her. The ache in her arms slowly abated. The pain through her body dissipated. If this was dying, it was quieter than she would have thought. It was black curling in at the edges of her mind, and then it was nothing.

  And then, strangely, she breathed.

  Air.

  Cold seeped through her back, water choking her lungs; wet hair streaked her face. She blinked her eyes open and saw her own hand resting on a cold metal floor the pattern of woodgrain. Light the color of the stars bled through gaps in the walls. Her middle finger twitched.

  She coughed up water, and sucked in a lungful of air.

  She was alive.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  53

  Rolf

  THE TOWN SQUARE FELT too empty without the others. Rolf had watched them disappear into the night, leaving only him and Nok, who had sobbed for ten min
utes before her anger bubbled up in one last surge, and she started struggling again. Weeks ago, he’d never have had the strength to keep her from running to the house to summon Serassi. But hiking up the mountain to sled had given him stamina, and throwing apples in the farm puzzle had built muscles in his thin arms. Nok tried to claw at the ground, but he pinned her wrist.

  “Not yet. I’m sorry.”

  “This is how you treat someone you love? Who’s going to be the mother of your child?”

  Hot fury flashed behind Rolf’s eyes, pulsing in time with his aching head. She was trying to manipulate him again. It was so obvious now. As he looked around at the perfectly still trees and buildings of the cage, he felt a strangeness that unsettled him. Over the past few weeks he’d gotten used to the paths that looped them back to their starting place; he’d even stopped thinking it strange that such a beautiful girl had fallen for him. Now, anger built in him until he wanted to squeeze Nok’s wrists so hard she’d cry out.

  He’d done everything for her, and it still wasn’t enough.

  “You said you loved me too.” He didn’t recognize the hard edge in his voice. “You lied.”

  “Hell yes, I lied! I would never love you . . . you twitchy . . . stupid . . . boy!” Tears mixed with her insults. “Did you think I’d love you because you were kind to me? Because you were patient with me? Because for the first time in my life someone looked at more than my legs? I hate you. I do. I swear. I . . . I . . .”

  She broke down into sobs. She stopped struggling and curled into herself instead, trying to hug her knees close. He let go of her hesitantly, ready to tackle her again if she tried to run, but she only sobbed harder, rocking back and forth like she had the first day. The pink streak in her hair was caught in her eyelashes, damp with her tears. She suddenly shoved it back angrily.

  “I do love you, you idiot! Of course I do!”

  His anger melted away with hers. He watched her rocking and crying, and started to touch her knee but stopped his hand. He loved her, but could he trust her?

  “Then why did you cheat on me? Lucky was my friend. And Leon’s a complete ass.”

  “It wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about sex at all. It was about creating a stable world for our baby. Not just getting the boys loyal to us, but Mali and Cora too. The boys were just easier to work with, because boys only want one thing. My talent manager in London, Delphine . . . I spent years watching how she made men fall in love with her. She built an empire out of manipulating men. Their money. Their connections. The stability she got from that. I learned from her, even if I didn’t want to. I was afraid you and I wouldn’t be enough. Not so far from home. Not in a place where anything could happen. I needed all of us together on this—and I tried to do it the only way I know how.”

  Rolf stared at her. Part of him still wanted to hurt her back, hurl insults just like she had. Call her a cheater. Call her manipulative. But then he surprised even himself.

  He started laughing.

  It was filled with pain and bitterness. He doubled over, supporting himself in the grass, his stomach cramped with angry laughter mixed with tears. It wasn’t until he had wrung himself out like a sponge that she pushed the pink streak out of her face.

  “What’s so funny, then?” she asked sharply.

  “You. And me. This place. We’ve both become the one thing that tormented us most back on Earth. I became Karl Crenshaw, my old bully, and you became Delphine. Cora was right about this place. It isn’t paradise. And the Kindred . . .” His fingers curled in the hard earth. “Maybe they aren’t what we thought they were.” His fingers started twitching, tap tap tap, all his old fears and old bad habits coming back in full force. He pushed at the bridge of his nose where his glasses used to rest.

  Some genius.

  “I should have seen it. I’m an idiot—”

  Nok grabbed his hand, holding his fingers still. “No. Don’t ever say that. You’re brilliant and that’s why I love you. But you’re not perfect, and neither am I. It doesn’t matter.” Her jaw was set with determination.

  The feeling came back into Rolf’s arms. He dared to look at her and saw sincerity in the lines of her face. He pulled her into his arms, breathing in the scent of her smooth hair, feeling her heartbeat against his. His skin tingled like it was on fire. It wasn’t until the hair started rising on his arms that he realized pressure was building.

  Nok went rigid in his arms. “Behind you,” she whispered in a frightened voice.

  He whirled, holding Nok tightly, expecting to see the Caretaker. Cora had said he would help the escape; maybe he’d come to make sure Nok and Rolf posed no further threat to her.

  But the Kindred that materialized wasn’t the Caretaker. It was a woman, and as her body took shape, he recognized the painfully tight bun, the high cheekbones.

  The medical officer. Serassi.

  His head spun to Nok, but she shook her head emphatically. “I didn’t summon her. I promise. You’ve been with me the entire time.”

  “But if you didn’t, why is she here? The Caretaker was supposed to—”

  His words were cut off as Serassi approached. Behind her, another figure began to materialize. Tessala, the substitute Caretaker. Yet another figure materialized behind her. A male Kindred who Rolf had never seen, big as the Caretaker, with a long row of knots down the side of his uniform and a permanent scowl that formed heavy wrinkles between his eyes. Two more Kindred men materialized behind him.

  Rolf pulled Nok closer as the team of Kindred approached.

  “Rolf . . .” There was fear in her voice. He held her tightly. He would never let them be separated.

  “This enclosure is being temporarily shut down,” Serassi said in her mechanical voice. “This cohort has failed. I have instructions to take you to a holding cell in the medical chambers until the Warden determines what is to be done with you.”

  “The Warden?” Rolf clutched Nok tighter. Cora had told them about the Warden, the ruthless Kindred who had tried to strangle her their very first day, whose forehead was knotted with angry wrinkles.

  Rolf’s eyes went to the Kindred man with the hardened face. The way he looked at them so intently formed a deep vertical wrinkle between his eyes. Wasn’t that the man Cora had described? Could there be more than one Kindred with the same description? Usually Rolf was good at thinking things through, but none of this made any sense. “Where’s the Caretaker? Where’s Cassian? We need to see him, right now.”

  The Kindred all stopped. Serassi cocked her head, as though for once her impassive mask might drop to reveal some true emotion; but then she straightened, and the mask instantly returned. Behind her, one of the Kindred took out an apparatus that looked like a weapon.

  “Cassian is the one who gave the order for us to come. He notified us of your exact position.” Serassi removed two sets of shackles from her pocket. “Cassian is the Warden.”

  Nok let out a small cry, and Rolf held her tighter. His head ached, and so did his heart. He cast a look in the direction of the ocean, where the others had disappeared, and wondered if they knew they were walking directly into a trap.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  54

  Cora

  THE CHAMBER WHERE CORA had awakened was filled with machinery that hummed a hundred times louder than the black windows. Cassian had called it an equipment chamber, but she didn’t see any vents or buttons or moving parts, only cubes upon cubes, the ones Rolf had said were amplifiers, arranged in what looked like a haphazard order—but nothing about the Kindred was haphazard.

  Lying on her back, she could see the ocean stretched out overhead, a beautiful, dancing dome of water. It reminded her of an aquarium her father had taken her to, where sharks swam overhead. Only there was no glass now. If she had been tall enough, she could have touched water, come away with the smell of salt. Once or twi
ce she though she saw a star on the other side.

  We made it.

  She was alive—and so were Lucky and Mali, collapsed on either side of her, stunned but breathing steadily.

  Mali jerked awake and coughed up water. Her body was hunched, as though she’d bruised every muscle when she fell. Cora’s own body ached in every joint. The pain made her feel wonderfully alive.

  Lucky rolled onto his side, breathing hard, coughing. Their eyes met beneath the shimmering ocean dome. Despite everything, he smiled.

  “Jesus,” he said. “I thought that ocean would never end.”

  The thrill of victory was in their smiles, in the lightness of Cora’s heart. They weren’t out of the woods yet, but they were past the hardest part.

  “We shouldn’t stay here long,” Cora said.

  Mali wrung the water from her hair. “The traders are located in the lowest level. We must be cautious.”

  Cora nodded. They had just done the impossible, so she felt ready for anything.

  “Someone came with us,” Lucky said in surprise.

  Cora followed his gaze to a wet patch a few yards away from them, with big wet footsteps leading to the open doorway.

  “It was Leon,” Cora said. “I saw him running toward us at the last minute.”

  Mali sniffed the puddle. “The water mostly evaporates already. He must wake long before us.”

  “He left us,” Lucky said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  Cora studied Leon’s evaporating footsteps, knowing it was true, but the fact that he had left the cage was strong evidence that he had regained his sanity. “He’s still rebelling against the Kindred, which means he’s on our side, whether he left us or not.”

  They wrung the water out of their clothes so the Kindred wouldn’t be able to follow the seawater trail. Every drip made Cora feel stronger. The door was propped open—Cassian had been true to his word. The only shadow in her heart was the certainty that she would never see him again. After that one glimpse of his real self, uncloaked, she wanted more. She wanted to see him smile, and laugh, and sleep at night. She rubbed her neck where the Warden had strangled her. She prayed Cassian hadn’t been caught. What would the Warden do to someone on his own team who had betrayed him?