“Come on. We’ll have to be careful. Make sure no one sees us. But I’ll take you to Eriksen now.”
Three leads me down two levels, until we’re far underground, and my heart beats frantically. Corin’s here. He’s actually here. He didn’t get away far enough after all. Didn’t escape….
And he’s going to end up Enhanced too.
No.
No one is. I’m going to stop it. I don’t know how—or what I’ll do when Raleigh produces suitable augmenters—but I’ll do something. Sort something. Contact those other Seers, and we can work together. Find a way. And I’m sure I can do that now—find the other Seers. Body-share.
Or maybe I won’t even be in here. If Corin and I are together, our chances of escape are better.
And he’s here. We can get everyone out, all the Untamed. We can all just go.
I feel sick as we walk; jittery, weak, like my legs aren’t strong enough. Several times, I want to lean on Three as we walk, but I don’t. Don’t want to show that I need support, that I’m weak…even if he is my brother…even if he is on our side. And he is. Has to be. He’s reuniting me with Corin.
Three keeps looking around, behind us, constantly checking. Enhanced Ones aren’t supposed to feel nervous, but the emotion is radiating off Three in waves, blowing his cover, and I wonder if I should tell him.
But I don’t make a move to, not with each step that takes me closer…closer to Corin. My lips tingle; the pent-up energy inside me fights for an escape.
Three stops outside a door, and I look at him.
“Is this where he is?” I survey the door quickly. It looks old, made of wood, and my eyes are drawn to the huge cast-iron hinges.
“Yes.” Three takes out a key from his pocket. His hands shake, and he pauses for a moment. “I’m going to wait out here. Give you time to…” He swallows hard, and his throat makes a strange gulping noise. “I’ll keep watch. And nothing more than talking, Seven—I’m still your brother, and I still don’t like him that much. Understand?”
I nod, but I would’ve nodded to anything. “Just open the door.” My breathing speeds up.
Three does. It seems to take him an age to turn the key, for whatever mechanism inside the door to click several times, and then—
And then the door opens.
And I see him.
He’s here.
Corin really is here.
Corin sits on a bench at the back of the small room, lit up by a flickering bulb on the ceiling. His feet are shoulder-width apart, and his head is in his hands, propped up with his elbows on his knees. A moment after the door opens, Corin looks up.
The instant our eyes catch each other’s—our Untamed eyes—a thousand fireworks go off in my body.
“Sev?” Corin stands up, looks uncertain. He looks from me to Three, takes a step toward us.
Then he says my name again, and the sound of my name on his lips physically pulls me to him, and then I’m in his arms, breathing in his scent. Musk and sweat and—
No cigarette smoke.
But there wouldn’t be. Not here. The Enhanced wouldn’t give him cigarettes…they want us to all be perfect…and cigarettes are bad.
Yet they have packs of them in their shops…that’s where Corin gets them, on raids…still, they’re getting harder to find.
I shake my head slightly, moving against Corin’s chest. He shakes as he holds me, and his shirt rustles. He’s not wearing the blue overalls. So all the Untamed are allowed actual clothes again?
“It’s really you?” His voice sounds different. Weaker. Like he’s got a cold. “Really you, Sev?”
“Ten minutes,” Three says from behind us. “And nothing more than talking.” And then the door closes with a soft thud, and a click follows.
My pulse quickens until I feel giddy, like my soul is dancing far, far away, and I can’t catch up.
“It’s really me.” My words are breathy.
I pull back, look up at Corin, study his face. The left side is more sunburnt than the right, and there are fine pinpricks of red over the burns. Looks painful. A fair amount of stubble covers his chin and jaw, and his eyes are…there’s something so true about them that it physically hurts me, makes my sides ache, makes me never want to leave him. And I’m engulfed by it all, this feeling, this feeling of being with Corin. Of knowing that he is okay, that he’s with me, that we’re together. That there’s hope after all.
Corin moves his arm abruptly, and then his hand is against the side of my face. Warmth floods me. He exerts a little pressure with his fingertips, against my temple.
“Gods. Oh Gods…” he whispers, and his voice is so full of emotion, full of fear and relief. “You’re… You’re okay? Gods. Sev, what’s going on? What’s been happening?” His thumb brushes over my bottom lip, exerts the slightest bit of pressure. “Are you okay?”
I nod, keep my eyes on his. They’re so beautiful, they drink me in. And then I’m drinking in the whole of his face, losing myself in him, and I feel silly—like I’m one of those girls Five was always talking about, and longing to be: a girl in love.
But the feeling’s real.
This is real.
“Why haven’t they converted me? Or you? They haven’t even tried with me.” Corin’s words are a whisper, and his thumb rests against my chin as he holds my face, tilted slightly, so I can’t look away from him.
“A problem with the augmenters.” And I don’t try to break our eye contact, don’t want to be empty, don’t want to lose anything.
“A problem?”
“We reacted to them—you must be the same…or they think you might be, don’t want to take a chance yet.”
His eyes narrow. “Did you cause the problem?”
“What?”
“Your Seer powers?”
I shake my head. “No.”
Corin nods, then cups my face in both of his hands. He breathes deeply, shuts his eyes for a moment, and his whole being trembles. When he opens his eyes, his gaze is on me. For a moment, we stand like that, then he moves his hands away from my face and presses one against the small of my back. A deep noise sounds from the depths of his throat. His arms wrap around me, tighter though, more protective than before, and I press myself to him, overcome by the need to be as close to him as possible. Our bodies touch everywhere. His hand moves back up to my head, and he holds me against him firmly. Like he never wants to let go. Hotness and sparks. My breath hitches in my throat, and I lift my head up, look at his lips. Memories of before—in the Zharat’s Fire Mountain, when I was desperate to be with him—burn through me, and I stare at his lips.
He looks down at me, as he holds me there, and I keep looking at him. A circle we can never break.
And I still want him….
“Remarkable,” he murmurs.
“What?” I whisper.
“I never thought I’d see you again.” His voice breaks as he speaks and the vulnerability in it—the rawness of his emotion—makes my throat constrict.
His emotions are getting to me, digging into my soul. But being surrounded for so long by the Enhanced, with their artificial emotions, was bound to do this—make Corin’s realness stronger. He’s true.
“It’s… This makes being caught almost worth it,” Corin says. “Just to see you again. Gods, I love you, Seven—and when I was out there…us being separated…it was… I didn’t even know if you were…” His eyes glaze over with tears, and he quickly wipes them away.
“I missed you,” I say, and then the words pour out, and I can’t stop them. “Oh Gods. Corin, you’ve got no idea how much I’ve missed you, wanted you here, but didn’t want you to be here, to be caught too.”
“It’s okay,” he says, and he takes hold of my hands, lifts them up slightly, makes the gap between our bodies slightly bigger as he steps back. “It’s okay.”
I shake my head, concentrate on the way my hands feel, encased by his. “It’s not—Corin, it’s not okay. Raleigh can control me. He’s made
me kill a girl with my powers already and…and he’s going to force me to wipe us all out. I can’t stop him.”
“But…but you’re a Seer, Sev. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
Yes, it does.
I think of my body-sharing powers, and—
And Jed appears behind Corin’s shoulder.
I cry out, jerk back. Corin lets go of me, turns, and—and Jed points at him. At Corin.
“No!” Jed says.
I freeze.
“Seven?” Corin’s voice is full of alarm.
“You cannot be with him, S’ven. What are you doing? Get away from him.”
My breaths come in tiny, pointy fragments, and my throat feels like it’s getting thicker, swelling up with abrasions.
“What is it?” Corin says. And he looks at Jed, but I know he’s not seeing him, and he’s not hearing him either—I just know. I point at Jed, but Corin shakes his head. “There’s nothing there. There’s nothing in the room with us.”
No. There is. Jed is there. Jed is very much there. But he can’t be—he can’t be real—he’s… And I’m screaming those words, screaming them inside, but I can’t get them out; they tangle on each other—the words are getting stuck, ensnared in me, caught, trapped.
Jed steps closer. There’s a sense of darkness around him, darkness that builds into waves, waves that thrash about, thrash over me, try to drag me toward him.
“S’ven,” he hisses. “Get away from him. Come to me. Come to me, now.”
“Jed.” I point again, but my hand’s shaking, and my finger wobbles, and I can’t hold it still. Jed’s glaring at me, and the darkness is growing. “It’s him… He’s right…right there.”
“Jed? Jed’s dead, Seven. He’s not here—there’s nothing, no one here.”
“S’ven. Get away from him. I will not ask you again.”
I stare at Jed, and his words play over in my mind. He’s here…but he’s…a ghost?
He’s trapped.
Jed’s trapped and he’s still after me, still won’t let me be with Corin.
Corin steps toward Jed, and Jed makes a growling sound.
I grab Corin’s arm, yank him back. He turns and looks at me, his eyes narrowing. Concern whirls within them.
“Are…are you seeing Jed a lot?” he asks, but now’s not the time to talk—doesn’t he realize that?
I keep my eyes on Jed, don’t answer Corin—can’t concentrate on him. Not when Jed’s here…and I don’t know what he really is, what he’s capable of in this form.
“Seven?” Corin takes my hands, and I jump at the touch and—
“Get away from him,” Jed snarls, runs at me. His body hits mine, makes contact and—
I scream, stumble back. He’s solid, solid like before. And he’s in here with Corin, and Corin can’t see him, and Jed hates Corin and—
“Don’t hurt him,” I shriek. “Please! You can’t hurt him!”
Something clicks somewhere, but I can’t concentrate.
“Seven! It’s okay, it’s…” Corin’s shouting, but I tune him out—got to focus on Jed, especially when Corin can’t see him, can’t see the danger he’s in, can’t—
Jed disappears.
Gone.
Just like that.
I stare at the place where he was. Then I turn around—look all around me. He can’t have just gone.
But he has.
Like before.
Disappeared.
Vanished.
As if he was never here.
“Sev?”
Corin’s looking at me strangely when I turn back to him. And then, behind him, the door opens.
Three appears, and he looks between us. Worry crosses over his face when he sees me, how I’m shaking.
“What’s going on?” He turns and looks toward Corin—suspicious. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Corin says.
“Seven?” Three prompts.
I shake my head. “Corin didn’t.” And, still, I’m staring at the space where Jed was.
“I think it’s time to go now,” Three says.
My chest tightens. No. Can’t be—not when….
“You’ll let me see her again?” Corin asks, his voice hard. There’s a strange look in his eyes—a desperate look. “You have to.”
After a moment, Three nods. “If I can.”
“You will,” Corin says, and it sounds like he’s instructing Three. “You have to let me see her again, like this.”
And then everything’s happening so quickly, and it’s only later when my brother drops me off back at my room that I realize I didn’t tell Corin about my body-sharing power. Because Jed stopped me. Stopped me from telling Corin the little hope I have.
I curse Jed—petty, even in his afterlife.
But Three will let me see Corin again, won’t he?
I nod.
He has to.
And then we can concentrate on the important thing: escape.
Escape and winning. Winning the war. Uniting the Untamed.
And escaping is the first step.
I need to tell Esther. She needs to be ready, ready for when it happens.
I lie on my bed. The mountain of energy in me is moving still, but it fills me, fills my body, fits me perfectly. The earth is mine, the trees are mine, the shrubs are mine.
I turn my mind over, breathing shallowly. I reach out for my Seer powers, for the body-sharing, and I see doors and locks. Faces swirl toward me. I step toward one door, in my mind, and I think of Esther.
I think of her, so I become her.
And it’s so easy. It’s part of me, and the strength of it fills me.
Snap.
Darkness. The hum of a machine.
My chest hitches. I lie silently within Esther, stretched out, horizontal. I can feel how wide her eyes are, how she’s shaking. She clears her throat and then clenches her fists.
And I marvel at just how amazing this power is. I’m so connected to her body that it feels like she is me, and I know I could control her movements easily, just like I did with Viktoriya.
The humming gets louder.
Esther’s in a machine—I’m in a machine, with her. In her.
She’s in a machine in the middle of the night?
Then I feel the pain. The torment she is in. Her left hip, how it’s throbbing. And her fear. How she thinks the walls are going to get closer and closer and squeeze her into nothingness.
“Stay still,” a voice—an Enhanced voice—says, but the words are loud, so loud, and there’s something over Esther’s ears, over my ears, that makes them louder…but different too.
The humming softens, but then a moment later, turns into a more cacophonous sound. Louder this time. I flinch, make Esther flinch. Or maybe she does that on her own. She takes a deep breath, filling her lungs up.
Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Think of calm water. Her thoughts are loud—she’s saying them to herself, in the same way that Viktoriya and I said things to each other.
Esther blinks several times. I feel the movement of her lashes as they lap against the skin under her eyes. A muscle in her foot twitches, and she inhales sharply as the movement jolts her hip. I feel the pain it causes, and her heart beats irregularly, feels light, fluttery. Her nausea makes me feel sick. Nausea—because she’s pregnant? How far gone is she? I try to think, but I don’t know.
Esther! I reach out to her, send my voice to her, inside her. Esther, it’s okay.
Her body jolts around me. Her fists shake.
Esther, it’s okay. It’s me. Seven. I’m using my Seer powers…to check on you, to—
“Get me out of here.” Her voice is small, but it doesn’t matter. I feel every part of her fear, every part of—
“Five more minutes, then this scan will be complete.”
Tears slide over her eyes. Hot tears. Saliva pools in her mouth, seeps under her tongue, and she moves her head sideways.
“Help me, Seven,” she whisp
ers. “Help me.”
Esther. Just stay calm. It’s okay. We’re going to escape. We’re going to find a way. We’re going to get out of here.
My own heart pounds—in my body, my own body? Or Esther’s? I’m not sure, just feel it, my own reactions—I think they’re my own. Jumpiness, nervousness.
Esther, what’s happening?
The humming drops in pitch, lower. Unease fills me.
“Get me out of here,” she says again, so quietly.
“We will take you out when the scan is complete,” the woman’s voice says again. Headphones, Esther’s wearing headphones. “Now stay still, else we will have to restart it.”
Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. She shudders.
Esther, just talk to me, but don’t say the words. Just think them. I can hear your thoughts.
Telepathy? She sounds confused.
Yes, I can hear you. What’s happened?
She swallows hard, and a bead of saliva trickles down her throat. Her chest swells as she coughs, and I gasp at the pain it sends through her hip. The woman’s voice starts again, but Esther’s coughing is too loud, too labored, and it fills me up—all the sensations—and I can’t hear the woman’s words.
At last, the coughing subsides. I think, back in my own body, my eyes are watering. I’m vaguely aware of my own body this time.
Esther, are you okay?
She nods, the slightest of movements.
“Keep still. We have to restart the last scan.”
Quick breaths. Her heart pounds faster, faster, faster. So fast, we’re both dizzy.
Seven?
I’m still here. I feel like I’m holding my breath, like I’m going to burst.
I hurt my hip, badly. They said they need to scan me again…that I might need emergency surgery…proper surgery, no augmenters yet. They scanned me before and…and said they’d wait until the augmenters were okay and…but it’s got worse.
I frown. Surgery? Shit. Esther, is it broken?
I don’t know. She sucks in a shaky breath.
How did you do it?
When they caught me. They… I was running. Fell, fell on a rock.
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