by S. J. West
I held up my hands and was about to throw my gun off to the side when rapid machine gun gunfire ripped through the five Harvesters, knocking them to the ground. Ian and Michael ran down the steps in front of the building with swords drawn, quickly decapitating the Harvesters before they had a chance to regenerate.
“Better late than never,” I quipped to them.
“Sorry, princess,” Ian said with his usual snarky attitude as he wiped the edge of his bloody sword against the side of his thigh. “We’ve been a little busy.”
“Where’s Jace?” Michael asked, sheathing his own sword, not bothering to wipe the blood off.
“He took Lawrence to Jackson.”
“Oh, so he did find you,” Ian said with a smirk on his face. “Guess you were right to build that cage then. Surprised he didn’t walk through a wall and snap your neck before you knew he was even there.”
“I’m sure he wanted to, but he had a message to deliver to me from his beloved Queen.”
“Why don’t we take this conversation inside,” Michael suggested as another round of gunfire could be heard going off just a street over.
We all walked into the building and went to Michael’s office on the third floor. Once I had Rose and Simon settled comfortably on the couch there, I told Michael and Ian the message the Queen had sent Lawrence to give me.
“It’s probably a trap,” Michael said. “She knows you’ll try to save your father.”
“Even if it is, I have to go,” I told them.
“No, you don’t,” Ian said. “I’ll go. She isn’t going to want to get near me.” He wiggled his fingers at me. “Still infectious with the Cain virus you know.”
“I’m sure she has enough of my blood stockpiled to cure herself anytime she needs to,” I said. “She isn’t stupid. Plus, if she has my father, I’m the only one she’ll trade him for.”
“Jace will never let you do that,” Michael told me with certainty.
“He doesn’t have to know.”
“And how exactly are you going to work that little miracle?” Ian asked.
I looked to Michael. “You need to take him to the new camp. I’ll tell him that I need to go south to find my father, and he needs to take the kids to the camp. They’ll be safe there, and so will he.”
“Well, you can’t go south alone,” Ian said. “I’ll go with you.”
“I don’t want to take a lot of people,” I told them. “The fewer people who go the fewer I have to worry about keeping alive. All I need is a helicopter and a pilot. Hopefully, we can be in and out before the Queen even knows we were there.”
“My son isn’t going to like this idea. You know that, right?”
“He’ll do what’s best for the kids. Plus, he knows I won’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Are you only bringing your father back?” Michael asked.
“Him and a few others. Don’t worry. I’ll only have so much room in the helicopter. Do you know where the second facility is located down there? I never made it that far.”
Michael nodded. “Yes, I know where it is. I’ll show the pilot where to take you.”
Jace walked into the office.
“Looks like most of Lucena’s men are dead,” he informed us.
“Good,” Michael replied before returning his gaze to me. “I guess the two of you need to talk some things over. Come on, Ian. We can get the helicopter ready to go.”
Jace looked over at me, his brow furrowed in confusion.
“Talk about what exactly?” he asked me.
“You heard what Lawrence told me,” I said. “The Queen is going after my father. I need to get to him before she does. I have to go south.”
“I figured that,” Jace replied. “We’ll go get him and bring him back.”
I shook my head. “No, I will go get him and bring him back. You need to take Rose and Simon to the new camp. It’s the safest place for them right now. The Queen doesn’t know where it is.”
“Ian can take the kids. They’ll be perfectly fine with him.”
“But they would be safer with you,” I insisted.
How could I make Jace understand that I needed him somewhere safe too? I couldn’t take him anywhere near the Queen. If she got her hands on him, she would have me right where she wanted me. And if it came down to me having to turn myself over to her to save my father’s life, I knew Jace would never let that happen without a fight.
Jace walked over to me and took my hands into his. He looked into my eyes, making sure I didn’t look away as he said his next words.
“I thought we were partners in this, Skye? Why are you trying to leave me behind?”
“Please,” I almost begged, “I need to know the children are in the safest place they can be with the one person I trust most in this world. I trust Ian, but not like I trust you. I know you would lay down your life for them if it came to that. You’re their father, not Ian. They need one of us to stay with them. We can’’t both abandon them at the same time.”
“Then I’ll go south and get your father,” Jace said. “You stay here with the kids.”
“My father doesn’t know you,” I said, shaking my head. “No, I have to be the one to go. He’ll listen to me. He’ll come back with me.”
“I don’t like it.” Jace squeezed my hands tightly to make his point. “I don’t like the idea of us splitting up.”
“I don’t either, but we can’t exactly take the kids south. We have to keep them away from that woman at all costs. You know I’m right.”
Jace sighed in acceptance, and I sighed in relief. I knew then he would do as I asked. I wouldn’t have to worry about him falling into the hands of the Queen.
“Did Jackson have any problem electrifying the cage?” I asked.
“No, it worked like you thought it would. The batteries seem to be keeping their charge too.”
“Now that we have him, I’m not sure what we should do with him,” I admitted.
“I don’t see why we don’t just kill him.”
I smiled at Jace’s bluntness.
“And I thought I was the one in this relationship who was supposed to think like a Harvester?”
“He’s crazy, Skye! Anyone who’s that fanatical about the Queen is past saving.”
“I know you’re probably right. But we should at least try to save him from himself.”
“Even before she put that chip in his head he was her number one fan. I don’t think the virus is going to change him the way you hope it will. He’s like a rabid dog that just needs to be put down. It’s for his own good, as well as ours.”
“I won’t be like her,” I said firmly. “I won’t treat life like it’s expendable. If he remains a threat, then yes, we’ll dispose of him. But we need to at least try to save him, Jace. Don’t think of it as doing something for him. Think of it as doing something for me.”
Jace sighed heavily. “That’s the only reason I didn’t rip his fool head off back at the house. I knew you wanted to save him when you built that crazy cage of yours.”
“I’ve got enough blood on my hands,” I reminded Jace. “I don’t need any more than necessary.”
“You have to forgive yourself for their deaths at some point, Skye,” Jace said. “You weren’t yourself then.”
“No, I was me, just the worst part of me.”
I could still remember the little girl whose family I destroyed just because she went outside before curfew was over in the Roanoke camp to get her little teddy bear, an incident which cost not only her family but twenty other innocent bystanders’ lives and countless others in the riot that followed. I had the blood of the innocent on my hands and no amount of washing would ever completely clean them. But in order to find redemption, I knew I would have to stain my hands one more time with the Queen’s blood. With her death, I knew I could breathe life back into the world. I had already seen the future, and I vowed to do whatever it took to make it come true.
CHAPTER THREE
Jace and I went to make sure Lawrence was safely trapped inside his cage before I made my way southward. We found Jackson standing by the armored vehicle, which had been outfitted by us with a metal cage built in the back big enough to hold Lawrence comfortably.
When I first met Lawrence at the Queen’s castle, she told me then that only an electric field could disable his ability to walk through solid matter. The metal cage we built was electrified by batteries Jackson was able to charge with his gift. When we escaped the Roanoke camp, Jackson absorbed a great deal of energy from the electrified fence we had to go through. Ever since then, he seemed to have an unending supply of electricity at his fingertips.
I looked into the cage and saw that Lawrence was now wide awake and drinking from one of the water bottles we had stocked inside it for his consumption. His eyes became filled with unadulterated hatred when I came into his line of sight.
“Come to gloat?” he asked me, eyeing me warily as he lowered the water bottle from his lips.
I shook my head as I looked at him. “No, I’m hoping we can save you, Lawrence. You don’t have to be her lap dog, you know. You can become your own person if you want to.”
“The Queen loves me for what I am.”
“She loves you so much she sent you on a suicide mission,” I told him, trying to make him see reason. “You understand that, don’t you?”
“She had faith in me to do my job and return to her side. I’m only sorry I’ll have to disappoint her.”
“You can try to delude yourself all you want,” I said. “But the truth of the matter is she cares about you as much as she does a bug on the ground. You’re expendable, just like everyone else around her.”
“Except you for some strange reason,” Lawrence spat out. “She still wants you, even after all you’ve done to destroy what she’s worked so hard to build. How is that fair? I would die for her and you probably want to kill her. Yet, she still wants you by her side.”
“You would have to ask her why she still wants me. I’m not a mind reader.”
Lawrence let his eyes shift from me to the cage he was sitting in.
“What exactly do you plan to do with me now that you have me pinned in here like an animal?”
“I have hope the Cain virus will change you back to the way you were before you became a Harvester.”
Lawrence’s eyes opened wide. “Why not just kill me? It would be the same thing.”
“No, the virus might help you start thinking straight.”
“And if it doesn’t?” he asked. “You know it works differently on everyone.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“Why do you care what happens to me anyway? Didn’t you just tell me you wished you had killed me back in Roanoke? Why the sudden change of heart?”
“That’s really none of your business. Just feel lucky I’m not chopping your head off.”
“So how exactly do you plan on giving me the virus?”
“I’ve already given it to you.”
Apparently, Lawrence wasn’t as stupid as he looked. His eyes fell to the water bottle in his hands. He shook his head and smiled sadly.
“I can’t believe I fell for the oldest trick in the book,” he said.
“Don’t feel too bad. I’ve fallen for it twice now.”
I turned away from Lawrence to face Jackson.
“You’ll need to stay with him to make sure the electric field holds. We’re moving everything to the new camp today.”
Jackson smiled. “Cool, means I get to see Ava again. Been missing my girl.”
“I hear they’ve kept her pretty busy,” I said. “The crops she’s been able to grow over there have been enough to feed the whole camp.”
“Just imagine what she could do if she had some sunlight to help her out.”
I grinned at Jackson’s not so subtle hint. “Working on it.”
I heard Lawrence cough. I turned to look at him and noticed he was wiping his mouth like he had just taken a swig of water. Harvesters didn’t normally cough, but maybe the water simply went down the wrong pipe.
We left Jackson in charge of moving Lawrence. Jace drove me over to the tarmac where my helicopter was waiting for me. Michael was speaking to the pilot whose name I vaguely remembered as being Sam while Ian packed some supplies into the back. I tried to keep my distance from as many people as I could in the camp. I felt like I didn’t need to get personally involved in the lives of individuals who might not survive this war.
Before I could get out of the Humvee, Jace grabbed one of my hands making me look at him.
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” he told me. “Get down there, get your dad and friends, and get out. You can’t save everyone, so don’t even try. Understand?”
“Yes,” I told him, even though I felt like he was giving me orders. I knew his concern simply stemmed from his love for me. “I won’t take any unnecessary chances. I promise.”
“Just come back to us, ok?”
Rose and Simon made mewling noises in their baby carriers in the backseat as if to emphasize Jace’s request.
I leaned into Jace and kissed him deeply, making sure he knew I wasn’t taking his appeal lightly and that I would do whatever it took to make it back to him.
“I love you,” I told him, as I pulled away slightly. “And I will come back to you.”
Jace pulled me in for another kiss, and I didn’t complain.
I wasn’t completely sure how long we would be separated from one another. If things went perfectly, I hoped to be back in his arms sometime within the next twenty-four hours. But in the world we lived in, nothing ever worked out perfectly. If the worst case scenario happened and I ended up trading myself to Lucena for my father, our separation might end up being much longer than anticipated.
With this thought foremost in my mind, I turned into Jace, wrapping my arms around his neck, soaking in as much of him as I could. Finally, I let him go and began to pull away. Jace didn’t let me go far before cupping my face in his hands and making me look him straight in the eyes.
“Why did that just feel like a good-bye kiss, Skye? Is there something about this mission you aren’t telling me?”
“You never know what might happen,” I said vaguely.
“Now you listen to me,” Jace replied with fierce determination and a stubborn set to his jaw. “We’ve both seen glimpses into our future. Whatever happens, you keep those images in your mind. We will watch Rose and Simon grow up. We will see the sun again. And I will see you run in that field of wheat laughing and chasing after them.”
I nodded. “I know. We will have that future.”
I simply didn’t know what the cost of that future would end up being.
There was a knock on the window on my side of the vehicle.
I looked over and saw Ian.
“Time to go, princess,” he said, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb toward the helicopter.
I nodded and turned back to Jace.
“I won’t be long,” I promised him. “I’ll be back with you guys before you even have a chance to miss me.”
I kissed him one more time and got out of the vehicle before I could change my mind.
“Did you tell him?” Ian asked me as we walked to the helicopter.
“No. He didn’t need to know. He worries enough about me.”
“So I get to be the bearer of bad news if you end up trading yourself over to Lucena for your dad? Thanks, princess.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Ian noticed and stopped to look back at me, obviously wondering why I was no longer moving.
“I swear to god, Ian. If you call me princess one more time, I will kill you.”
Ian grinned, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “Wondered how long it would take for you to finally say something about it.”
“Have you purposely been trying to provoke me all these months? Why?”
“Just wanted to see you get your spunk back. It’s like ev
er since you returned, you’ve been trying to pretend you’re the kind, sweet Skye you used to be.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“It’s not who you are anymore.”
“And how do you know who I am?”
It was something even I didn’t know.
“I don’t, but neither do you. Just because you regained your humanity, doesn’t mean you completely lost the Harvester part of you. That chip is still smack dab in the middle of your brain. It will always affect the way you think and act. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
“I’m not completely sure why it partially switched off in the first place,” I told him. It was something I hadn’t even admitted to Jace. “Michael says it has something to do with the love we feel for people, but even he doesn’t exactly understand it.”
“I don’t know either,” Ian admitted. “Too bad Wilford killed himself after you told him about the Queen killing his granddaughter. I guess the guilt over betraying us for nothing was too much for him to handle. But maybe if Doc Riley comes back with us, she can run some tests and figure it out for you.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think about that. If anyone can find the answer for me, it’s her.”
“Come on,” Ian said tilting his head toward the helicopter. “Let’s go get your dad and our friends.”
We continued to walk toward the helicopter.
“Now, don’t stay any longer than you have to,” Michael told us as we got into the helicopter to take our seats. “Sam knows where to go. It’ll probably take you about three hours to get there.”
“Once we’re there, how do we get inside the facility?” I asked.
“Odds are they’ll find you pretty quick,” Michael said. “Just hang tight until they come for you.”
I knew he was probably right. The first time we went through the barrier we were rescued right after we all passed out and were taken into the first Southern Kingdom. The protocol was probably similar for the new place. There would be people watching for trespassers.