We began to plummet as it became extremely clear Karr wouldn’t be able to stay in the air with me in tow. Once again, his magic was only strong enough to slow us down… not enough to make us fly.
I hadn’t been sure that I would be able to get out of the lake and to safety before the Ramblers found me again, and now I had to worry about having Karr with me. Hadn’t he listened to anything I’d said?
“Let me go!” I commanded and started hitting his hand.
“No!” he yelled, holding me tightly. Then, more softly, added, “Never again.”
He turned downward and threw his body to the left. Looking in that direction, I saw why. He was pivoting us to toward a flowing river. If we landed there, instead of the lake, the Ramblers might not find us.
But it was too far away, and the space between the lake and the river was nothing but black stone. There was no way we could reach it in time.
“Let me go, Karr!” I said again, fruitlessly hitting his hand. “Just please! Save yourself!”
He pulled me closer, causing us to lose altitude even quicker. “Hey, Lara,” he said, breathing heavily. “For once, just shut up, okay?”
Then he pressed his lips into mine, and a spark ran through me. My entire body lit up. My heart slammed hard against my ribcage and the breath caught in my throat.
He pulled away, already smiling. “I wanted the last thing I did to be better than all the rest. Gotta go out on a high note, right?”
“Karr, what are you doing?” I asked, instantly panicking.
“Follow the river, he said. “Follow it to the mouth until it spills out over a cliff. They’ll find you there.”
And then, he pushed me away. Hard. Sending me the rest of the distance to the river.
Before I made it there, falling into the cool liquid, Karr hit hard against the ground, exploding in a mass of energy.
Chapter 20
I felt as though I was drowning. And not just because water was swirling up around me, invading my nose, my mouth, and my ears. But also because I’d just seen the man I love fall to his death.
And that was what it’d taken for me to realize how I really felt. That I did forgive him. That I did still love him.
As I drifted farther from the surface, still pushed by the force of Karr’s blast, I had a dark moment—one that was darker than the murky water ready to swallow me whole. A moment where I didn’t want to fight my way to the surface—where I just wanted to let the river take me to where Arbor and Karr were now.
The Box’s artificial lighting on the surface that had allowed me to see the surrounding land simply didn’t exist down here. As a result, when the force of Karr’s energy wore off, I was left floating in a silent darkness.
You didn’t come to the box for yourself, Lara.
My conscience was right. I’d come here to save the faction. I wasn’t sure yet how I could do that without giving Westman what he wanted, but I was sure letting myself die wasn’t the answer.
I kicked my feet, trying to change my direction against the momentum. But the strong current of the river actively worked against my efforts for upward mobility. On top of that, I was so turned around, so out of sorts, that I began to be uncertain about which way was even up.
I needed to act quickly. Not only was oxygen a necessity for this whole ‘staying alive’ thing, but I had other things to consider. Given the force of the current, the longer I stayed in here, the further I would be thrown down river. I couldn’t have that. Karr instructed me to follow this thing all the way to its mouth, which usually lead to either an ocean or a lake—which meant that was an endeavor better made on foot.
Karr.
My heart panged even more painfully than my lungs ached. I needed to get back to him. I couldn’t leave his body there, discarded like trash.
The current whipped me back, moving faster than anything but my thoughts. My head spun as I tried to think of a spell that might work here. My lungs burned as I scrolled through the limited list of things I knew.
Although I had trained myself, there were still things Orphans didn’t know, things that might come in handy now.
I needed to move quickly. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter how hard I fought.
Finally, I remembered something I had no business knowing in the first place.
When I was a kid, part of my upbringing involved serving others in a service setting. In short, orphans were cheap labor. Always had been. My stint at that labor came in the form of cleaning up after hours in a school for parented children. I never spoke to any of the students, of course—they never would have wasted their time on me—but they couldn’t help what I heard.
Post-lessons tutoring was a constant thing in the school where I worked. As such, I would sweep the floor and listen to all the knowledge the faction had seen fit to keep away from me. Part of that was faction history, part of it was atern studies, and part of it was science.
Water, a teacher told a student as I swept around them, was partly oxygen, partly the air we all breath. The spell she taught him afterwards—a spell I listened to with open ears and a ravenous appetite for information—would save my life now, though.
I twisted my hands, thinking hard about the phrases I still remembered from that day. It was a spell to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen in the water, and it worked like a charm.
The water around me mutated, changing to air. I twisted my hand again, pulling the oxygen toward me. It encircled my body, sweet relief rushing through me as I breathed in. My lungs cooled, but I wasn’t finished. Oxygen in this form didn’t belong down here. So I fixed that, sending it to the surface… with me in tow.
I flew up to the top of the river, my head popping out onto the surface and my eyes still bleary and vision blurred.
Looking in the direction I thought Karr’s body might be, I saw a soft glow of fire. The explosion and its effects now served as my stalwart, a beacon I could follow.
He’d hate me for it from wherever he was in the afterlife, but I wasn’t going to leave him here—not if I could help it.
I took a deep breath and cast another spell, giving myself the strength of five. Pushing toward the shore, I found the current to be much less of an issue than before.
Grabbing onto the shore, I pulled myself out of the river. Sopping wet, I collapsed to the ground, trying to catch my breath. This had all been too much; too much turmoil, too much running, too much pain.
I couldn’t let it get the better of me, though. The Ramblers were likely still out there, perhaps regrouping or flying overhead at this very moment.
Gathering as much strength as I could, I pushed myself off the ground. Watching the water fall off me in a near stream of liquid, I rushed toward the flames which indicated Karr’s landing spot.
My drenched and heavy clothes sent a chill through my body for the first time since I’d gotten here. This place was warm. Even the water was warmer than I’d expected. But now I was cold, and that made me feel like I was home again.
With my heart pounding like a hammer against the inside of my ribcage, I ran. My breaths came quick and shallow, but I couldn’t let that stop me.
As I ran—as I huffed harder and harder, rushing for the soft glow of fire in the distance—I realized I had been wrong before. I didn’t want to die. Sure, I might have wanted things to be easier, but who didn’t? I wanted to live. I wanted a chance to make things right, to be the person Arbor always thought I could be.
And, whether I completely agreed with myself for feeling this way or not, I wanted Karr to be alive, too. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat at that thought. I hadn’t dared hope it while I was trapped underwater, but now with his landing place in view, I had to admit that was why I really came back here. On the chance, however small, Karr might still be alive. That I could still save him.
And it wasn’t just so he could help me.
He’d told me he loved me before he let go. The truth was, I loved him, too. In this moment, unsure of whether h
e was even alive, I knew it as I knew my own name.
I loved him, and I was going to save him. I had to.
Of course, it turned out I’d have to deal with a few other issues first.
The Ramblers landed in front of me. Their net had been destroyed and, as such, they’d let go of the fragments completely.
The woman pulled off her face mask, revealing an oval shaped head that had been completely shaven, sharp cheeks bones, and markings that looked like daggers running along the side of her face and down her neck. Her red eyes bore into me.
“You should not have done that, Lara,” she hissed. “Especially not for this Blaster trash.”
The man similarly removed his mask. He had the same shaved head and the same dark ink dagger marks disappearing down his neck. His face was softer, a bit fuller and less intimidating, but his eyes were just as red and burning holes straight through me.
“You’re in no position to tell me what I should or should not be doing,” I said. “Seeing as how it was your actions that got you banished into this box in the first place.”
“It was my beliefs, not my actions!” she shot back. I had obviously hit a nerve, because the woman practically snarled at me. “I, like all those in this place, believed in what we were doing. Your people, the Elders, they don’t even see you as human. Yet what do you do? You play to their whims like a pack of dogs, as thirsty for affection as you are for water.” The woman nodded. “I would rather be a prisoner on the inside then one on the out. At least I have my principles this way.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” I spit back. “Is that what Westman believes, too? Are you both going to believe that after your negligence causes the deaths of innocent people?”
“War is war,” she snorted. “There are casualties on every side. Mistakes are made, and sometimes people have to die because of it. The Elders wouldn’t listen. So now, because of their mistake, they and all they hold dear will die. Unless, of course, you do as I say.”
“And what is it that you say?” I asked swallowing hard. In the back of my mind, I thought of Karr. He was lying there, perhaps dead, perhaps dying. Either way, I had to get to him and I had to do it quickly.
“You wish to know what Westman believes, yes? So… why don’t you ask him yourself?”
The woman stretched her arms out and dropped her head. A rush of energy wafted through her and, when she opened her eyes, they were different. They were bright blue and green. They glowed. They were…
They were like mine.
“What just happened?” I asked, tensing up.
“Don’t worry,” the man said. “It’s just a simple transference spell. It’s so he can see through her eyes, speak through her mouth, and move through her body.”
“What?” Something like that would be banned in the faction. It would be deemed dark and invasive. It would be deemed evil. “So who can do those things?”
The other man smiled. “Westman, of course.”
A shot of terror, as fresh as it was strong, ran through me. The woman smiled, her new eyes glowing as Westman said spoke from her mouth.
“Hello, Lara,” he said. “It’s so good to finally meet you.”
Chapter 21
My body tensed as I looked at the woman. It was her, the same face, same shaved head, same dagger markings. She was completely different, though. Her expression had relaxed, her eyes had gone the color of mine, and she moved with a fluidity that gave me chills.
She was Westman. She was the boogeyman the Elders had warned me about, the person who set all of this in motion by thrusting Karr back into my life and forcing him to murder Arbor. I still didn’t know why he’d done that, or why he wanted me.
Now seemed like as good a time as any to find out.
“You seem tense,” Westman said through the woman’s body, shaking her head and pursing her lips. “I hate the idea that I’ve caused you more worry than necessary.”
“More worry?” A tide of anger rose inside of me. This bastard had a lot of nerve. He had been responsible for the worst part of my entire life. He had been responsible for the most pain, physical and otherwise, I had ever been through, and now he had the audacity to pretend to care about whether I was worried? I had to physically fight back the urge to wrap my hands around the woman’s throat and squeeze until the light went out of her eyes. “You ruined my entire life.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Westman answered, moving just a hint closer to me. “Your life was ruined the moment you were born an orphan. You know as well as I do what that means on the outside. People like us, like you and I, are nothing to them. We’re cattle, prodded and forced to walk in straight lines. We’re used for our labor, for our time, for our talents. And when they’re through with us, they cast us aside and throw our bodies into unmarked graves. Lesser even in death.”
My mind flickered back to Arbor, to her laying there in the orphans’ section of the viewing room, and then to what happened to her body.
“At least I had the character necessary to do something about it,” Westman said, his gravelly voice coming from the woman’s lips. “It didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped—that much is true—but the game isn’t over yet. We’re not done and, thanks to you, we’re going to make all of this right.”
“Right?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’re going to kill innocent people. How is that right?”
“Yet you defend those who systematically kill innocents?” Westman scoffed. “You are here on the orders of the Elders, are you not? Like an obedient dog, you’ve jumped at their command. They kill as well, Lara. And worse than forcing someone to die in a way they don’t want, they force them to live in those ways.” The woman’s head shook hard. “But no, I don’t wish for anyone to die unnecessarily. That’s where we differ, the Elders you serve and me. I would never force them into a Box. I would never degrade them or make them lesser. All I want, all any of my people have ever wanted, is to be treated equally.”
Something about this struck a chord with me. Something about hearing someone expressing many of the things I’d felt, but hadn’t been able to put into words, tugged at my spirit.
Still, the biggest part of me knew better. The way orphans were treated in the faction was wrong. There was no denying that. But killing other people was even more wrong. They were born into the same system we were. The fact that they were privileged while we were orphans wasn’t their fault. And while their sins did lay in their neglect of us and the situation in which we lived, certainly they didn’t deserve to die for it.
Still, I could see why this man had a following. He was charismatic. He was charming. He was impassioned and held strongly to his beliefs. That alone made him an attractive leader.
Even without the magic, he’d have been dangerous.
“And how am I supposed to help you with that?” I asked, stepping backward as Westman moved forward ever so slowly. “As you’ve mentioned more than once now, I’m nothing but an orphan girl. I couldn’t help you do anything.”
He smiled, spreading the woman’s lips and showcasing blazingly white teeth. “You’d be surprised what you can do when you put your mind to it,” he chimed. “Even the least of us can be among the most powerful. I’ve certainly proven that to you by now.”
“What do you want?” I asked, still thinking of Karr, still hoping beyond logic that he was somehow still alive. Still wanting to run to him, to do… something.
“I want you to do what you were born to do,” Westman answered simply. “I want you to fulfill your destiny and to help me make all of this right.”
I sighed, thinking over all the man had just asked of me. “Let’s just say I was interested in helping you out.” The idea of it turned my stomach so much I could barely finish the sentence. Still, I needed more information. I needed to know exactly how I fit into this puzzle if I was going to be able to find my way out of it. “How exactly would I do that?”
Westman grinned even wider. Obviously, he thought I w
as softening to his proposal, the way so many others had before me. “It’s very simple, Lara. You just go with these people. They’ll take you to where I am now. We’ll discuss things further once you’re here.”
“You mean when I’m alone?” I asked, remembering what Karr had said about there being power in numbers. “You want to get me to your castle so that I’m vulnerable and by myself.”
“Are you not by yourself now?” Westman asked, his movements causing the woman’s brow to furrow. “Scanning through Tilda’s memory banks tell me your traveling companion has very likely seen his better days already. And, though this shouldn’t come as a surprise, you are in my arena, Lara. There is no place within the Box where you are not vulnerable to me. That boy might have fed you some story about the Blasters being able to keep you safe, but I assure you, it was nothing but bluster. Not that you need to worry. If I wished you dead, don’t you think it would have already come to pass? I didn’t bring you here for nothing, you know. I didn’t choose you randomly. You are the one—the only one—I need.”
“But—”
Westman, in control of the woman’s body, held up her finger. “Stop there. Look into my eyes. What do you see?”
It wasn’t that he was trying to hypnotize me. No, he was just reminding me of the first thing I’d noticed when he took over that woman’s body. When her eyes changed. When her eyes became his.
Became mine.
He didn’t need to say it aloud. I knew what he was alluding to—did I really think it was a coincidence that he and I had the same unique eye color?
Of course I didn’t. But what did he hope to accomplish by pointing that out.
“Yes, our eyes are the same,” I said, trying to downplay the one thing that made my core tremble. “So what?”
“I think you know,” he said evenly. “That we were meant to be together. From the moment you took your first breath. From the moment you were born onto this earth. And the elders taking me away from you—making you an orphan—nothing was ever going to change that.”
Harvest: Faction 1: (The Isa Fae Collection) Page 11