Divided

by Madeline Dyer

  The footsteps get closer. Closer. Heavy footsteps—heavy enough to be a man. To be Raleigh, to be—

  The man who walks through the door—walks straight through the closed door—is not Raleigh.

  I freeze, then jolt back. Ice fills my body, my soul. My throat constricts, gets tighter, tighter, until I can’t breathe…can’t….

  The man stops a foot away from me, watches me.

  And I stare at him—at him. At the tattoos and the….

  No… My breaths quicken, my heart pounds.

  It can’t be. Just can’t….

  But it…it is.

  It’s him.

  It’s Jed.

  “Wha—” I start to say, lifting my arms up, but my voice is breathy, and my head feels light. I take a step back, try to swallow, but my throat’s blocked, too thick. “Stay back! Get away from me!”

  I hold my hands up, but all I see are the gold flashes on me.

  I shake my head.

  Jed takes a step toward me.

  “Stay away from me!” I yell.

  The look in his eyes—his Untamed eyes—changes. Gets deeper somehow, tries to draw me in…into the darkness inside them.

  “S’ven.”

  He says my name. But there’s something different about his tone. It’s more of a hiss.

  I flinch, twist my head, look around. Half expect him to be behind me as well—two of him. But he’s not. He’s just in front of me. One of him.

  What the hell?

  I stare at Jed. He’s dead. Dead. I saw him die. I saw his body.

  Yet he’s here.

  Like he was in the quarantine cell….

  My heart speeds up. I’m panting. Delirious again? No. I can’t be—can I?

  And he looks real. So real as he inclines his head slightly, as he strides toward me.

  “Stay back!” I yell, and it’s all I can say.

  He stops, freezes. “S’ven, I am sorry.”

  I flinch at his words. If you can call them words. He’s—he’s not real…can’t be real. I clench my hands together. A hallucination. Has to be…he’s….

  “You’re dead.” And I don’t know why I say the words out loud, as if he’s here to hear them, because he can’t be here. It’s just my mind…I’m talking to myself.

  Unless he’s traveled from the New World, like Five did… No. That’s…somehow, this feels different.

  “Please.” Jed steps closer, and I throw myself backward. “You are not safe here.”

  “You think?” And I don’t know why I’m still speaking. Why I’m interacting…because he’s not here. Can’t be here. Can he? And he doesn’t care…not about me….

  Madness. I’m going mad. I really am…and…and what if I never body-shared? What if it was me making stuff up, making me feel better, allowing me to escape temporarily?

  Oh Gods.

  My heart pounds. The muscles in my legs tense. And it’s too hot in here. Far too hot.

  And now Jed is standing in front of me. I shake my head, try to quiet my pounding heart. He can’t be real, he can’t be, can’t—

  Jed walked through the door. No, didn’t walk—glided. Glided straight through it. He can’t be real. Yet he’s speaking to me. We’re having a conversation.

  “S’ven, listen,” Jed says, and his voice does that weird thing again, where the words are more like a hiss, like a release of air being expelled quickly. “I cannot stay in this place long.”

  Stay in this place? Then I freeze.

  He’s on his way to the New World? He has to be…but…but—but he died nearly a week ago—or was it longer? My sense of time’s mixed up. Still, it doesn’t take that long…does it, to reach the New World? Not after the Spirit Releasing Words are said.

  I flinch.

  The Spirit Releasing Words weren’t said….

  They weren’t said.

  He won’t get there.

  And it’s been….

  Too late. The words flash into my mind.

  My eyes widen.

  Shit. He’s…he’s trapped? The biggest fear of the Untamed—after the Enhanced—is to be trapped between worlds and—

  And he’s…alive? No. He can’t be….

  Jed moves closer. There’s a vicious look in his eyes. “I need you to know that I am sorry, S’ven.”

  “Sorry?” I bite the word out.

  “Shania?”

  I jump, turn, find Three stepping into the room. I nearly scream with relief, feel my heart slam into my chest. And I know I shouldn’t feel relief—he’s just an Enhanced, not my brother. Except he is, he is my brother. I can’t think of him as Tomas.

  Not when he’s Three. And he’s here. My brother. And I’m scared. And so many times when I was younger and scared, he reassured me.

  “Who are you talking to?” Three tilts his head slightly.

  I turn back. Jed’s gone.

  Like he was never here.

  Except he was.

  Wasn’t he?

  That was Jed. Trapped?

  That happened.

  Didn’t it?

  Late next morning, Raleigh collects me. I stayed up most of the night, scared. Waiting for Jed to come back, and trying to body-share, without success. I can’t tell whether my powers have returned properly yet—but maybe I can’t feel that? Or maybe I’m too scared, distracted—because of Jed.

  Because he was here.

  Or maybe he wasn’t.

  Maybe I imagined it.

  Maybe I really did imagine everything with Taras….

  “Today, we’re going to see what powers you have.” Raleigh holds open the door to a new room, and I want to ask him about Jed’s body. Whether it’s still in that underground place. Whether he’s seen him. Because, if Jed was here, wouldn’t he want to hurt Raleigh—or speak with him at the very least? Haunt him? His own father murdered him.

  But Raleigh doesn’t give me a chance to ask anything, he just encourages me to walk into the room.

  I step in first and stop short when I see what’s in the center. “What’s that?”

  I point at the machine. It looks like a highly glorified chair, yet there are loads and loads of wires around it. So many. And little stickers on the end, and metal things. Three would love to examine a chair like this.

  Raleigh beams. “My team have just finished calibrating it to your DNA and the results from your previous brain scans. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Beautiful is not a word I’d use. I watch it dubiously. It’s the only thing in the room—right in the center—except for a cabinet on the far side, by the opposite wall.

  Raleigh crosses over to the cabinet and pulls the top drawer open. I watch as he fishes inside, then picks out a heavy volume bound in red leather.

  “I have a vast list here,” Raleigh says, and he opens the book to what appears to be a random page.

  He shows it to me, walking back toward me, and my eyes scan over it once the book is near enough. The pages are split into columns. Several are filled with numbers, others have words. Raleigh moves the book out of my line of vision before I can read the words.

  “A repertoire of all recorded Seer powers and their energy frequencies.” He beams, then points at the machine behind him. There’s a small monitor, sticking up from a rod on the headrest, and it flashes twice, illuminating the display in a sickly blue light. Raleigh clears his throat. “This one will pick up your brain waves and record the frequencies exhibited as I probe through your powers. We’ll see which frequencies show up—even in the tiniest traces—and cross-reference them to the numbers recorded in this book. Any similarities—reoccurring patterns—in any of your readings that match any parts in these lists could indicate something about your abilities. Code A4124 shows up a lot in Seers who had some sort of psychic voice. See, Mr. Arnold Winters.” He points at a line near the bottom of the right-hand page. “He could send words straight to another Seer, and when he used that power his energy reading was 8242A4124C. And A4124 shows up within the codes o
f others who also have levels of psychic voice. Make sense? Good. Sit down.”

  I try not to, but he makes me. My legs take me to the chair, the strange contraption. The moment I sit in it, the wires snap around my stomach, trapping my arms to my sides.

  I cry out, try to twist, and—

  Pain circles my core.

  “None of that, Shania,” Raleigh says, and he picks up a remote and types something in. The machine starts humming. “What I’m really hoping is that codes GS352 and GS342 show up on your energy readings. They’re related to compulsion and radar. If you can find and persuade the Untamed to join us so easily, it would be perfect. If you can do it through a psychic voice, even better. You could save everyone from the comfort of a compound as soon as you’ve learned how to use the powers. You could bring everyone to us, no bloodshed. Perfect. Now, just relax.”

  He makes me lower my shoulders and rest my head against the headrest and—

  The machine grabs my head, stretches my neck up. I cry out.

  Needles drive into my scalp.

  Or, at least, that’s what it feels like.

  “Don’t move,” Raleigh whispers, his voice tense.

  I can’t see him now, can only see the top section of the wall on the far side of the room because of the way the machine has grabbed my head. But, a moment later, Raleigh moves back into my line of vision. I get the feeling he’s looking into my eyes, into my soul.

  And I think of Elia.

  Murderer. Murderer. Murderer.

  I stiffen.

  “Relax.” His voice is a croon, reminds me of a panther cub.

  He lifts his hands up, and his fingers get nearer and nearer to my face.

  I grimace, make the mistake of moving my head slightly to the left—to avoid his fingers—and the needles drive deeper.

  I gasp, shudder, feel something building up in my chest.

  “Stay still.”

  Raleigh’s fingers flex in a way that reminds me of claws, and he presses an arched hand over each of my temples, so only his fingertips and the edges of his nails touch my skin. Ten searing hot points. His palms are too close, and I can’t focus on them; trying makes my eyes go funny.

  “Now, open the way into your mind, Shania.” He moves one hand away, and I see him glance above me—at the screen?—before returning his gaze to me. “Are you ready?”

  I don’t say anything. Don’t know why he’s even asking me. As if he thinks we’re working together.

  And then the pain starts.

  The same as before.

  Always this painful when he’s….

  “Don’t fight me, Shania. It’s only painful if you fight me…if you don’t give yourself freely. Come on, you know what to do.” His breathing is labored. “Let me find them….”

  I wince, try to keep breathing. Something moves in my head, as if a sheet of metal’s being scraped over another and then wrenched back with force.

  A creaking, grating sound pulls through me.

  The humming of the machine builds, gets louder, pulses through me.

  “I can’t reach them, Shania—don’t resist me.”

  Click. Click. Click.

  “Come on, Shania. Let me find them—don’t try and block me. Let me feed your energy into the machine. Let me—what the hell?”

  The needles jerk out of my head, and I fall, my top half collapsing forward over the wires that hold my lower torso up. Something hits me in the lower back, and I grunt, try to move my head, try to turn, but my muscles won’t work—no energy…or Raleigh?

  My breath bursts from me, and I’m shaking, shaking so hard, and I can feel sweat plastering me. Nausea lashes through me. I try to move my arms, but the wires are still so strong.

  “Shania.” Raleigh’s voice is like a coiled snake above me.

  My gaze jerks up, and my vision wavers.

  “Look at that.” Raleigh points above my head, at the screen.

  He makes me twist around, turning my head too far, and I’m sure it’s going to snap away from my neck for a moment. Pain worms its way behind my right ear, and I see the screen. It flashes blue, illuminates words, then alternates between a black screen and flashing words.

  But I see the words.

  No Seer Energies Detected.

  No Seer energies?

  I stare at it, waiting for the words to change—but they don’t. They stay the same. My stomach flutters, and my interior feels too warm, too hot, like I’m burning up. The sweat against my skin is too sticky and—

  Raleigh slaps me.

  I cry out, the side of my head hits the headrest, and heaviness slams into my chest. My eyes smart.

  “You’re blocking them,” Raleigh says. “I don’t know how, but you are. You shouldn’t be able to. But it won’t be tolerated. Do you understand me?”

  I shake my head. “I—I’m not. Not blocking them!”

  Raleigh’s eyes seem to darken. “All I can feel in you is a weak residual energy—the shadow of your powers left behind, and it’s getting weaker, disappearing. Now, it can’t be exhaustion, as I thought before, as this machine would detect active Seer energies in the residue, and your powers would be regenerating. Yet you have no active energy now, and the shadow is diminishing. And I know that’s not true. You’re the one the augury speaks of. So, tell me how you’ve done it. Because, according to this, you’re no longer a Seer.”

  I’m no longer a Seer?

  For a long moment—one that stretches on and on—Raleigh and I stare at each other. The chair’s torso wires unclick, freeing me.

  I stand up slowly, feeling like I need to. My chest tightens.

  You’re no longer a Seer.

  No. I shake my head. That can’t be right. I’m the Seer the augury speaks off. I’m the important Seer.

  Of course I’m still a Seer. I have to be!

  “You’re obviously still a Seer.” Raleigh advances toward me. “So, how dare you block your powers. I own your soul, your body, your powers.”

  “No. You don’t own any part of me.” I tense, glare at him—and he lets me. It feels like an achievement.

  “I command you. You can’t beat me at this, Shania. You can’t hide your powers from me forever.”

  Raleigh grabs my arm, pulls me to him in one swift motion. I freeze, try to ignore the way he’s breathing over me, how hot his breaths are.

  I swallow hard. “If you command it all, then you should know I’m not blocking my powers. Whatever has happened, I haven’t done anything.” My muscles tighten even further, and I look down at his hand, still on my arm. His grip reminds me of a vulture. “Maybe you just can’t find my powers—maybe you’re not as strong as you think you are. Maybe you’re not strong enough to control me—not after you unlocked my Seer powers and made me more powerful. Maybe I’m too strong for you.”

  But…but I couldn’t body-share when I tried. Earlier. I couldn’t. Oh Gods. My powers…what if they’ve… My eyebrows furrow. No, I must still be a Seer…if I wasn’t, Raleigh wouldn’t need a machine to tell him—he’d feel it…wouldn’t he?

  Except Seers can’t always sense other Seers… I didn’t realize Jed was a Seer until the fight for me. Or was that because he was inactive until then? But then I didn’t sense Taras either…

  I frown. Am I inactive? Is this what being inactive means? No active powers? I try to remember what Jed said about being inactive, but my head’s getting fuzzy and—

  Jed.

  My mind races. I saw Jed. And he said he was sorry. Because he gave me to his father and didn’t realize how important I was?

  And now he’s taken my powers? As a way of fixing things?

  “Don’t underestimate me,” Raleigh growls.

  I yank my arm back from him, take a step back.

  Raleigh smiles, and—

  And then—then I step up to him, undo what I’ve just done, and I’m closer than before.

  No.

  My body presses against him. I feel every part of him. So close.

>   I try to pull away, but I can’t.

  No.

  No.

  No.

  Raleigh stretches up—the muscles in his torso move against mine. One of his hands goes to the small of my back. I try to pull away, but he exerts his control harder. The smell of liquor engulfs me, gets stronger. Tingles radiates through my chest, and my stomach rolls. Pain seeps into my neck as I try again to move.

  Then Raleigh presses his lips against my forehead.

  Everything inside me curls up.

  I try to hold my breath, to not breathe him in, his smell—the liquor, the sweat, the faint fragrance that clings to him. I try not to feel anything—but I can feel him, his warm lips against my skin. I swallow, but the muscles in my throat feel too big.

  “Yes,” Raleigh whispers against my forehead. “I still control you. Remember that. And whatever you’ve done with your Seer powers, I’ll find them.”

  “I haven’t done anything.” I move my head a fraction, and my lips are close to his ear. “Maybe I really am no longer a Seer. Maybe the Gods and Goddesses have taken my powers away so they can’t be used against us.”

  Or Jed has.

  I sound a lot more confident than I feel.

  And it has to be Jed—doesn’t it? It would explain why Raleigh didn’t detect the absence of powers before…as then they really were just needing to regenerate. But now they’ve gone.

  “Nonsense,” Raleigh mutters.

  I feel his body react against mine. Nausea wells up inside me.

  My eyes narrow. “Maybe I’m no use to you now. Maybe the augury has changed.”

  “Auguries don’t change.”

  “Then where are my Seer powers, Raleigh? Where are they?” I manage to pull my head back from his, but it takes every ounce of energy I have, and pain reverberates through me. “Because I can assure you I haven’t done anything. This isn’t my doing. And I can assure you I’m not lying because lying is bad, isn’t it?” My words are loaded.

  Raleigh purses his lips as his mirrors absorb me. “Not your doing?” He tilts his head to one side, and I can’t tell whether he believes me or not. “They’ll still be in you, Shania. Buried deeply, sealed away, hidden.” His voice smolders. “And I’ll find them. I don’t believe you’re not a Seer anymore.”