“What?” And then Corin jumps up, pulls me up, and I nearly fall over with the momentum.
“The drones must’ve detected one of us! They’re coming out here…the Enhanced got to the copse we were in!” I picture the trees, start to feel sick.
The branches are like jagged knives, cutting the sky. Cutting lives.
And everyone falls down dead.
Destroyed.
I startle, don’t know where that thought came from. I touch my head.
“Do they know you’re alive?” Corin asks.
I try to remember the dream. “I don’t know.” I don’t see how the Enhanced can realistically know it’s me. I mean, they can’t…unless they interrogated my mother, if she knew? Or Esther? “But they know there’s at least one person out here. They have to know that.”
“Which way do we go?” Corin asks.
“Away from the compound.” I frown; my eyes feel old, tired. I pull the compass out my pocket. “We still need to get to where some spirits are—they could help us…” I turn and point. “That way! And we’ve got to be quick.”
Corin stares at me. “Where the hell did you get that?”
“What?”
“The compass.”
“It was in the car. The one you were sheltering under.” I shake my head. “Come on, we’ve got to go…uh, that way.”
I snatch his hand, and then we’re both running. My terrier bounds next to me, on my other side. My heart hammers and pain forks around my body. White light flashes into my left eye a couple of times, and I wince.
Oh Gods. It really was a Seeing dream.
I’m back—un-exiled. Forgiven? Access granted. I heard those words, didn’t I? The Gods and Goddesses realize now that I didn’t choose to bind myself to the Enhanced? They must do. I’ve got access to the Dream Land again.
I’m a proper Untamed Seer again.
A smile breaks across my face, and—
A figure. A figure’s running toward us, in the distance. My eyes narrow, and the land behind the person shimmers. But it’s definitely a person. I tense, look around for a weapon, but can’t see one. But I’ve got my powers. My stomach twists; using the white light on a person again will make me like Raleigh, and I don’t want to kill anyone, but—oh Gods, the figure’s coming straight for us.
“Shit!” Corin yells, then he pulls me into a run fast, and we’re going back the way we came—I think.
No. New rocks rise up. I look around, confused, try to remain calm as I run. There are trees far, far ahead, but they’re the small, thin, wiggly kind. The kind that won’t give us cover. And the land between them and us is flat—suddenly so flat—and we’re too out in the open, exposed. But where’s the copse, the copse we were in? Do we go there?
Oh Gods.
My heart pounds as I run, and the dog’s speeding ahead. Sand sprays around us; for a moment, I think there are spirits about—invisible ones in the air, sending the sand up and—
My foot catches something, and I trip, start to fall. Corin yanks me up but the movement sends a spasm of pain through my ribs. I gasp, eyes watering. And he’s pulling me along, trying to look behind us too.
I flick my head around again, need to know how long we’ve got. The person’s nearer now. So much nearer. Gaining on us too quickly. Shit.
We scramble forward again.
“There’s only one of them.” My breathing’s irregular, my words sound strange. “There were loads in the Dream Land warning.”
Corin pants, and I see the wild look in his eyes. “But details can be wrong.”
He trips a little, but recovers. The wind races around us.
“No, there’ve got to be more,” I shout. They work in packs. Always. We know that.
Corin’s hand tightens around mine and he’s trying to pull me along faster—shit, I’m slowing. Didn’t realize it.
The dog barks, and I look up, try to see him and—
A streak of dark fur races past me. Going behind me, back the way we’ve come and—no!
I turn, crying out, and Corin yells something but the wind carries his words away, and—
“Sev!” Corin yells, and then he’s turning and—
I see her. The person pursuing us. See her eyes, the lack of mirrors. She stops as my dog reaches her, and the terrier’s yapping and jumping up at her, wagging his tail.
My mouth dries. The wind howls.
No. No. No.
It can’t be.
Corin’s hand in mine slackens. He looks at me, his eyes spacy.
“It’s not her!” I yell at him, but the wind’s so loud, and it steals my words, and it’s laughing, because it knows, and it wants us to lose. “Corin! It’s not her!”
But Corin takes a step toward the woman. His eyes narrow a little. “Esther?”
And then he’s trying to move nearer to her, like he’s compelled, not in control, and I grab his hand harder, grab it with both of mine, try to haul him back, but he pulls free, and then he’s running toward her.
The muscles in my legs tighten. No. No. No.
“It’s a trap!” I shout, my heart pounding. Oh Gods. “Corin! It’s not her! Her hip—she can’t be running!”
And it can’t be her. It just can’t. She can’t be Untamed and have a fixed hip.
“Corin!”
But he’s nearing her. My gut clenches. No. I’m going to lose him. Can’t lose him and—
Body-share. Take control.
I freeze. But Corin—
The woman grabs him. I scream as her arms wrap around him, hugging him, and—
And she looks at me, thirty feet away. My breath catches in my throat. I flex my fingers, heart pounding, as I look at the relief in her Untamed eyes as she hugs Corin.
The door opens effortlessly and I enter her mind, her body. I feel Corin’s arms around her, around me. No pain at all. And the shock of it throws me out, back into my own body and—
How?
How? She was…her door before…it…she was Enhanced and…? Wasn’t she?
I stumble backward, and the ground feels too soft. My knees start to bend, and I throw my arms out, wobble and the dusty ground meets me. I land awkwardly, pain everywhere. So much pain. Grit gets in my eyes, and I rub them, look up and—
They’re coming toward me.
Esther and Corin. And the dog.
And it is her.
I shake my head, again and again, tiny, tiny movements. And then they’re in front of me. Corin pulls me up and—
I frown. Try to see her hip. But it’s—it’s healed? I didn’t feel it, in her body, did I?
Esther’s smiling. Looking happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen her. Radiant. She grins widely, and then she’s fussing over the terrier, and he’s happy too. And Corin’s happy and everyone’s happy.
Then Esther looks at me. Her face changes.
The wind gets colder.
“Seven, listen,” she says, but the way she says the words, it’s as if they’re daggers. Daggers that dig into me. I start to wobble, and I wait, feel strange.
“It’s—it’s Three,” she says.
I feel a weight fall on me. I start to move my lips, but no sound comes out. I clear my throat, try again, and, at last, I make a sound—but it’s no word. Nothing sensical. My heart pounds too fast, but too light. Dread fills me, weighs me down.
And it’s like before…like when she….
“Three—we got caught.” Her face is flushed. “I couldn’t get him out too. I’m sorry. Raleigh was….”
And I don’t know why I feel like I do. Because my brother’s the enemy. When an Untamed is converted—fully converted—they’re lost to us. You can’t save them.
I shake my head firmly, force myself to say something. “He’s Enhanced anyway, he’s gone. Not the same person.”
Somewhere deep inside me, a chasm rips open.
Esther wobbles as she looks at me. “No. Seven, he—he… I saw Katya. She told me she was making him resist…like projecting to
him or something? I don’t understand it, but she was giving him instructions at times, trying to get him to help us. We—Seven, he’s still in there. He stopped them from converting me—and that was his decision. Not Katya’s.”
I stare at her. She wobbles. Corin looks at me, a hard stare in his eyes.
“And then Katya came for me, and she was a mess,” Esther says. “Thought she was too late to save them from getting me, and she was so proud when I told her Three had saved me. She said maybe the Enhanced could resist if a Seer was helping? Ah, I can’t remember! But—but Three had already gone back to his quarters, only a minute before. And Katya told me to get him out while she distracted Raleigh—but I couldn’t do it. Raleigh turned up and—and I ran. I’m sorry.” She gulps. “Raleigh was angry, and I left Three with him. And Katya was there and…and she said I had to get out.”
I stare at her. At first, I can’t take it in.
My mother was helping him? Three was… My head pounds. He gave me my pendant back, and I remember the words he said: something about my mother saying it had to stay in our line. He only gave it back to me because she made him? And when he stopped me escaping, that was really him. The Enhanced him: Tomas.
But then Three helped Esther. His first truly Untamed action?
“How did you get out? And how’d you find us?” Corin asks.
Esther exhales. “It was the weirdest thing—Katya just…she said I had to get out, and then…then it was like she threw me here, and I saw you in the distance. Seer powers.” She shakes her head in bewilderment.
“What about your hip?” I ask, and I know I’m partly trying to distract myself, trying not to think about Three—because it’s too complicated.
Esther touches it. “Katya fixed it.”
Seer powers? Could I have done that? Healed her?
Corin grunts.
I breathe out hard. “Right, well, we still need to be moving.” I tell Esther about the Seeing dream and how we need to find a place with high spirit activity.
“But what about Three?” she whispers. “Seven—he’s on our side! He’s been resisting the whole time!”
I shake my head. It was my mother’s doing, wasn’t it? It was down to her. My mother helping a desire that was already there? Or creating it?
Does it matter which it is?
But what about now? And there’s a voice inside me screaming. Three saved Esther. His own decision. Not my mother’s.
I press my lips into a thin line.
“We can’t go back there,” I say at last, and the bison’s warning rings in my ears: Run. Do not let them catch you. I breathe out, fast. “My mother’s still there, right? Then…then she’ll get him out.”
It can’t all be down to me.
We set off. The air feels strange. Like something’s physically not right with it. Or maybe it’s just me with this news about my brother… Three—resisting, because of our mother?
I sniff loudly. But the air doesn’t get any better. It’s—there’s something wrong. Something big.
It’s…it’s something huge.
Something I can’t put my finger on.
“There’s some cover over there,” Corin says, pointing to some vegetation that looks about four feet high. “I think we should go over. We’re too out in the open here. And we don’t know which way the Enhanced will come.”
I nod and—
And—and my mother appears in front of us.
Shock plasters her face, and then she’s reaching out and touching me. Actually touching me, like she’s really here and—
“Run!” she screams, and her hand is cold on my face. But she presses harder, presses her fingers into my cheek—checking I’m real, that I’m here? “Oh, my baby!” Her voice hiccups. “But run! Raleigh knows you’re alive—he’s found you! Run!”
He’s found you.
Raleigh will always be able to find you.
I go cold.
My mother’s hair whips around in front of her face, obscures her eyes. “Run!” she yells again. “Just run and find somewhere, and hide! Wait for me! I’m coming for you—on my way now! Together, we’re stronger—but he’s going to reach you first. Run!”
Corin swears and grabs my hand. The dog jumps up, hackles rising.
My mother’s hand drops to my shoulder. My good one. “Seven, if he has you again, he’ll use you to end the war. He’ll control you—find a way to make you do it—and it will all happen. So run and hide!”
And then—then she’s gone and—
And we see them.
The Enhanced. Rising out of the land like ghosts.
A deadly army, far to our right—not the right place? Doesn’t match with what the Dream Land showed me. My breath catches in my throat.
“Run!” my mother screams, and I turn and look at her—as she disappears. Her mirror eyes go first, and then the rest of her and—
They’re here already.
Oh Gods.
“Come on!” I shout.
I yank Corin to the left, and we’re running. My feet skid on the sand, and the dog crashes into me. I stumble, but Corin grabs me. His eyes are wild.
“Which way now?” he yells, and, behind him, Esther looks scared. She reaches out, clasps his other arm.
But there’s only one way we can go. Away from them.
I drag more air into my lungs, feel dizziness enter my body again.
Keep breathing. Got to keep breathing. But I’m breathing all wrong.
“Stop!” a voice yells.
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. Sweat breaks out across my forehead.
Lesson one: You can never outrun the Enhanced Ones. They are better, faster, and stronger than you.
I grit my teeth, grip Corin’s hand tighter. The terrier streaks ahead. He’s fast, very fast. I look around; where’s Esther gone? She was right here a moment ago.
“Shit,” Corin gasps. “They’re—”
I turn, I look, and—
Guns. The metal of the guns, flashing under the bright light. The flashes scar my vision, leave murky streaks behind, and—
It’s happening too quickly. It’s just like the Seeing dream.
Run. Do not let them catch you.
My lungs burn and burn, they’re going to burst. I can’t get enough air. Not quickly enough. My Seer pendant slams into my chest with every step, harder and harder.
“Surrender at once, Untamed Ones!”
The voice is loud, so close and—
Hot breath on the back of my neck.
I turn.
Face to face with—with Raleigh. Super Enhanced and smiling. And so quick.
A jolt runs through me, and then Corin’s hand’s gone from mine. My hand…empty and—
Do not let them catch you.
A hot hand lands on me and—and it’s Raleigh’s.
Of course it’s him.
“So, it’s true. You tricked me.” His voice is slow. “You broke my command on your soul. You died. But you came back.”
I fight him, kick out, land a foot against his shin, but he shakes me, doesn’t seem to feel it at all. Somewhere behind me, my terrier yaps—high-pitched and scared. I try to turn; has an Enhanced got him? But Raleigh’s grip on my arm tightens.
I turn back and see his eyes narrow.
“You tricked me.” He spits the words at me. “And you thought you could get away with this. You thought you could beat me. Do you want to know what happens to people who think they can beat me at my own game? Who think they can play me?”
Sudden pain sears through my head.
“You want to know, yes? I think you should know.” His words drip darkness into me, and then the darkness changes. Shapes emerge. A man appears, in my head, and—
Three screams a guttural scream that comes from every ounce of his being. A scream of pain and fear. Proper fear.
I scream. “No!” And I’m trying to see Three, but the room he’s in is dark. So dark, and I can just make him out—his body, as he w
rithes in pain.
Three turns and tries to move, but two Enhanced men unfold from the darkness and grab him. They hold him upright, between them, and my brother kicks out and screams, but he doesn’t get away.
Bright light floods the room. Three’s eyes fill with terror, terror that pushes the mirrors away.
I gasp, and I try to look away. But I can’t.
“You need to see this.” Raleigh’s voice crawls over me like a thousand hairy insects. “You need to know what happens to those who trick me.”
No. No. No.
Sweat pours in huge rivers from Three; his screams get louder. He turns and the metal on his face flashes under the brightness and—
One of the Enhanced grabs his head, holds him still.
“No! No! No!” Three bellows, kicking out, screaming, crying. “I didn’t mean—”
The second Enhanced man steps up to him. His fingers go to the metal plate in Three’s face, his metal cheek. The Enhanced One’s fingers slide over the plate, down to Three’s jaw. Then he sticks his nails into Three’s flesh—the edge of the flesh, by the edge of the plate.
Three screeches.
The Enhanced gouges deeper. Blood spurts. Three writhes, but the other Enhanced holds him still—superhuman strength.
I scream as I watch the Enhanced rip the metal plate from my brother’s face.
Raleigh chuckles.
“You don’t play me and win.” Raleigh’s voice, low, dangerous, creeping over Three. “You never play me and win.”
White light shoots toward Three. It hits him in the chest, square. And—
Three doesn’t scream.
He just falls.
Raleigh’s laughter fills the air, blocks out the sounds of Three’s last breaths.
His last breaths….
My body jolts.
And I wait for more. Wait to see the image of Three getting up. But it doesn’t come.
I stare at Raleigh, my eyes wide, fear pulsing through me. My breathing’s too noisy, and there’s something crackling in my ears. I shake my head.
“You killed him? You—” I clutch at my chest, feel sick, wrong, bad. And I feel it. He’s dead. My brother’s dead. My eyes water. “Why? He wasn’t playing you, he was…” And I don’t even know what I’m saying. Because he was playing him, wasn’t he? He was becoming Untamed. He helped Esther get away.
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