We stand and begin to make our way towards the front of the church. When I reach the door I stop and turn around, and Sebastian nearly runs into me. ‘Whoa,’ he says, as he steadies himself by holding onto my shoulders.
‘I nearly forgot to say thank you.’ I reach up on my tiptoes and gently kiss the corner of his mouth. He doesn’t move; he doesn’t so much as breathe. ‘Thank you,’ I whisper. k'12
I take a step back, pushing against the door behind me. ‘Same time tomorrow night?’
He nods, failing to find his voice for a few moments. ‘Same time tomorrow night,’ he agrees, his voice rough as he responds.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I open my eyes to find Kelsey shaking me. Her eyes are streaming with tears and her lower lip is trembling. ‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, sitting up in bed, immediately alert.
‘She’s dead,’ Kelsey says.
‘Who?’
‘Sleeping Beauty.’
My stomach drops and I feel my face drain of colour. ‘Jane is dead?’
She nods her head.
I jump out of bed, throwing a jumper over my head. I take Kelsey by the hand and hurry into the carriage next to ours. April and Sebastian are both still sleeping, but April’s eyes flicker open to the sound of the squeaking door hinges. ‘Can you watch Kelsey?’ I ask her.
She slowly sits up in bed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I have to go to the clinic. Can you watch her?’
April nods. She looks like she wants to ask me more, but I leave before she gets the chance. I don’t know if what Kelsey has seen has happened, but if it’s a premonition I need to warn Aiden as quickly as possible.
The clinic is oddly dark when I arrive. There’s an uninviting chill to the air and I feel strangely repelled by the place that always feels so welcoming. Even in the middle of the night there are usually soft lights seeping out from Henry and Aiden’s workroom. The place is immersed in shadows though, which almost seem to reach out and run their icy fingers along my spine.
My feet pad softly against the wooden floorboards, and I wrap my arms tightly across my chest as I walk down the corridor towards Jane’s room. Each step I take becomes smaller and slower as I approach. I can almost feel death’s presence in the air around me and I worry that Kelsey’s warning has come too late.
The door to Jane’s room is open and even before I look inside, I already sense what I’m going to find. The room is dark, like the rest of the clinic, and Aiden sits by Jane’s bedside. His head is bowed down over her hand, which he holds so tightly to his chest.
‘Aiden?’ I ask, my voice soft and barely louder than a whisper.
He looks up at me. His eyes are filled with unshed tears and his lips are downturned in an agonising grimace. My heart grows cold and plummets down into the depths of my stomach. His one look tells me everything. She’s gone.
Aiden turns back to Jane and a hand touches my shoulder. I tear my eyes away from Aiden and find Henry standing behind me. He nods his head away from Jane’s room and I follow him from the door as he guides me further down the corridor to one of the larger rooms at the back of the building.
‘She’s gone,’ I say.
‘Yes.’
I nod, my own eyes becoming wet with tears. I had known it the minute I entered the building. I look back over my shoulder, towards Jane’s room.
‘Aiden…’
Henry shakes his head. ‘He needs time alone right now. Time to grieve.’
I sigh sadly and look down into my hands.
‘She’d been getting worse and worse for some time,’ Henry adds.
I brush my palm against my cheek, rubbing a stray tear away, and look back up at Henry. ‘Can I wait here for him?’
‘Yes, that’s fine,’ Henry says, giving me a sad smile. He goes back down the corridor to his office while I make myself comfortable on one of the patient beds.
I never knew Jane, but I cared about her because Aiden did. I wanted her to recover because she had been in the hospital just like me. She’d been subjected to Joseph’s horrible tests and now they have killed her. Her death is painful to process when we had held out so much hope that she would recover. She didn’t deserve to die, and my heart is filled with sorrow that she is gone. Another innocent life that Joseph has taken from us.
The sun is just starting to rise when Aiden emerges. I jump off the bed and walk down the corridor towards him when I hear his footsteps leaving her room. His eyes are glazed over, and his face is so haggard it’s almost grey in colour.
‘I’m sorry about Jane.’ I reach out and lightly touch his arm. He flinches away from me.
‘Can I get you anything?’ I ask.
He shakes his head and his gaze flits up and down the corridor as though he’s searching it for something.
Henry emerges from his office at the sound of my voice. His eyes are sad as he takes in Aiden’s dishevelled appearance. He approaches Aiden cautiously and puts an arm around his shoulders. Again, Aiden flinches away.
‘Come on, let’s get you to a bed,’ he says, refusing to take no for an answer. He guides Aiden to another room and when he returns he’s rubbing the ridge of his nose between his eyes, tiredly.
‘You should go get some rest yourself Elle,’ Henry says. ‘There’s not much you can do to help him right now.’
I nod and move to leave, but then pause. ‘Is he going to be okay?’
Henry shakes his head. ‘I don’t know Elle. I really don’t know.’
As I near the entrance to the station, April comes striding out the front of it with Copper at her heels. I’m slowly coming to terms with Jane’s death and anger is pulsing through my veins as I approach her. Joseph killed Will and now another person has died because of him. I thought I couldn’t hate that man any more than I already did, but I was wrong.
‘Is everything okay?’ she asks.
I shake my head. ‘Jane is dead.’
April’s face pales and her eyes become large. ‘How’s Aiden?’
‘Not good,’ I whisper.
She reaches out and touches my arm. ‘We have to go get Hunter this morning. You can stay and rest if you’re not up to it.’
‘No. I want to come. I need the distraction.’
April nods.
‘Are we going for him now?’ I ask.
‘Yes, if you’re happy to. Kels is already with Mia and we just have to wake Sebastian.’
I lift my eyes to sky. That should go down well. I glance down at the dog. ‘I want you to stay with Kelsey while we’re gone. Okay?’
The dog’s eyes light with understanding and he quickly turns and begins trotting back down the stairs into the station.
April’s eyes are wide. ‘You really think he understood that?’ she asks.
‘I think so. He seems to understand quite a bit actually. The more time I spend with him, the more I start to think he’ll just open his mouth and talk one day. He’s very clever.’
We follow Copper down the stairs and into the station.
‘It seems like he’s more than just clever,’ April says. ‘Do you think he could be talented?’
‘Talented? Do you think that’s even possible?’
She shrugs. ‘Who knows what is and isn’t possible anymore.’
When we get to the carriage Sebastian is sleeping, as expected. April lightly knocks on the door and opens it slowly. ‘Seb, you decent?’ she asks, pushing the door wide.
He groans and sits up in his bed. He is completely shirtless—totally not decent. I try to avoid looking directly at him, but my eyes keep wandering back to his bare chest.
‘What time is it?’ he moans, glancing at his cuff. ‘It’s not even seven in the morning yet? You crazy April?’ His eyes slide past hers to mine. ‘And I definitely thought you had more sense than this Elle.’ He looks at me in such a disapproving way that if I weren’t so miserable I’d be tempted to laugh. He really does hate early mornings.
April ignores his comp
laints and throws a shirt at him from a pile on the floor. He catches it just before it hits his face. ‘Put some clothes on before you give poor Elle a heart attack.’
My cheeks warm as he looks at me and grins, winking before he pulls his top over his head. ‘Why such an early start?’ he asks, his voice muffled by his top, which is over his face.
‘M agrees that Hunter is telling the truth. He wants us to bring him in so they can talk. We’re going to get him now,’ she answers.
Sebastian grumbles, but throws his shirt on and follows us back through the train tunnel and up onto the street.
I’m silent as we walk. My chest feels heavy today and I can’t stop thinking about how Aiden is doing. He loves Jane and has put so much into finding a way to fix her, I worry he won’t recover easily from her death.
We arrive at the house Hunter has been staying in and April walks straight to the front door, knocking loudly against the wood. ‘Hunter?’ she calls out.
I close my eyes and extend my senses out, focusing on the sounds I can hear from within the house. Beyond the door there’s the deep and constant sound of breathing, so my eyes flutter open and I tap April on the shoulder.
‘He’s in there, but I think he’s asleep.’
April tries the door. She eases it open carefully and calls out to Hunter as she enters. He doesn’t respond. We follow April into the foyer and Sebastian shines the light from his cuff around the front room, where we’d sat with Hunter yesterday.
‘Where do you think he is?’ Sebastian asks.
I close my eyes and focus in on the sound of Hunter’s breathing. ‘He’s upstairs,’ I respond.
‘You’re getting pretty good at that,’ Sebastian says, making me swell with pride. Using my senses has always come more naturally than my other talents, and I’ve found I’m getting quicker at drawing on them over the past few weeks. Some days I’ll be using my extended hearing or sight without even realising I’m doing it. I just hope I’ll become this good with my other talents soon.
We move towards the staircase at the far end of the foyer. The polished wood has lost some of its shine with age, but it doesn’t detract from how extravagant the staircase is. The wide steps and curling bannister elegantly sweep up to the floor above.
The sound of Hunter’s breathing becomes louder with each step I take up the stairs and I follow the sound to a door on the first floor.
‘I’ll let you handle this one,’ April says, turning to me.
‘You want me to wake him up?’ I ask. ‘How is that fair.’
She shrugs. ‘I’ve already had one foul-mouthed boy swearing at me for waking him this morning. I’m not quite ready for round two.’
‘Fine,’ I grumble, as I go to ease the door open. Hunter is already stirring, stretching his arms over his head as he slowly sits up. He’s still wearing the same clothes he’d been in the night he escaped Headquarters and he looks weary.
‘You guys really need to keep your thoughts a little quieter,’ he says, yawning. ‘I think I heard your boyfriend’s thoughts from out on the street.’
‘He’s not…’ I cross my arms over my chest, refusing to let Hunter get a rise out of me. ‘Look, you need to get ready. We’re bringing you back to our camp.’
Surprise flashes on Hunter’s face. I guess he hadn’t read that in our thoughts.
‘We’re bringing you back and, I swear Hunter, if you so much as think of screwing us over, I will never forgive you. I’m getting better at using my talents and if you think being frozen by me was bad that’s nothing compared to what I will do to you if you betray us.’
He frowns in response. ‘I don’t want to hurt you Winters, or anyone else in The Movement. I just want to help take down my father.’ His eyes are large and filled with sincerity, but I ignore him. He’s fooled me with looks like that before.
‘I’ll see you downstairs.’ I turn and walk back to the door. ‘He’s awake,’ I tell April, moving past her to head back to the foyer. Sebastian follows me at a distance.
When I get downstairs I lean up against one of the walls in the foyer and stare at the chandelier that hangs overhead. It’s haunting in the darkness; a thing of such beauty that’s been abandoned and left to deteriorate with the rest of this part of the city.
Sebastian leans up against the wall beside me, watching me. ‘Why do you let him upset you so much?’ he asks.
I continue to stare at the chandelier as I respond. ‘I thought he was my friend. I honestly thought he wanted to help me. Instead, all these bad things happened to me because of him. I know he says he was being controlled, but it doesn’t change the fact that what happened to me was because of him.’
‘Do you like him?’ he asks.
‘What?’ My eyes dart to Sebastian’s. There’s pain behind his stare that I’ve never seen before.
‘I heard you in there talking to him. You avoided saying I’m your boyfriend…’
My eyes soften as I look at him. How could he even think for a second I like Hunter? He’s always flirted with me and once upon a time we were friends, but when I look at him my heart doesn’t flutter the way it does when I’m with Sebastian. He doesn’t believe in me the way Sebastian does and he doesn’t bring out the best in me. I should tell him how I feel, but I know I can’t. I won’t.
I reach out and lightly touch his arm. ‘I don’t like Hunter that way,’ I respond firmly.
He slowly allows a smile to crack at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes brighten at my words. Footsteps creak on the stairs and I drop my hand from Sebastian’s arm but, before it gets too far away from him, Sebastian takes my hand in his and holds it tightly.
‘You guys ready?’ April asks, as she walks down the stairs with Hunter a step behind her.
‘Yeah, we’re ready,’ Sebastian says in response.
Daylight is beginning to dawn as we step outside the house. There are dark clouds overhead and the wind has stirred since we were last out here. It blows at my hair, pulling the loose strands across my face.
The others look uncomfortable, pulling their jackets in close to their chests and covering their heads with their hoods. I don’t share their discomfort though. The wind’s keen whip lashes against my skin, but in no way does it chill me.
Sebastian wraps one arm around me, pulling me in close. ‘Suddenly the ARC doesn’t look quite so bad,’ he says. I glance up at him to see him deep in thought. His eyes search the horizon as though seeking to see the ARC itself.
‘Do you think we’ll ever go back there?’ I ask.
He sighs sadly and shakes his head. ‘Even if we could, we wouldn’t be welcome. They still don’t know about the surface. How could we tell them where we’ve been when they can’t come here themselves?’ He looks like he’s thought about this before, but he doesn’t have all the information. If Aiden and Henry’s cure works, then they would have that option. They would be able to return to the surface.
I want so badly to tell Sebastian what I know, but I keep my mouth closed and nod. I glance over at Hunter and April who walk side-by-side. She keeps flicking uneasy looks at him and I wonder how much she actually trusts him. She eyes him like he’s about to unleash hell on us. I wish I could decide what to believe. Is he the damaged son of our ruthless leader or is he a spy sent to bring us down?
Hunter turns to look at me, seeking my eyes with his own. As he catches them, I see a question burning within them. In this moment I feel certain he’s read my thoughts, as though they’ve been shouted across the distance between us.
I feel a light touch against my mind, like a soft feather that has briefly fluttered against it. Do you really have so little trust in me? Hunter’s voice sounds in my head.
I break eye contact with him and look away. My action is answer enough. I trust him, but only to disappoint me, like he has so many times before.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When we reach the station, we find M waiting in the security office. He still appears to be recovering after his captu
re. His cheekbones jut harshly from his gaunt face and his clothes hang loose from his lean body. If anything, the tired bags under his eyes are more pronounced than when he first returned. His capture has clearly weakened him, but his stare is still discerning and intelligent.
‘Hunter,’ he says, eyeing his nephew as we enter.
‘Michael,’ Hunter responds, nodding his head. There’s a stiff formality to the way they greet each other. I look between the two of them trying to see any sort of familial bond, but they approach each other like acquaintances rather than family.
M looks to April and his face softens slightly. ‘Thank you for bringing him in. You can leave us.’ His eyes wander to Sebastian’s and then mine, dismissing us with one glance.
The three of us leave without saying a word. We walk down the corridor, but Sebastian pauses when we reach the door that leads from the staff only area.
‘Can you hear what they’re discussing?’ he asks me, under his breath.
I raise one eyebrow at him. ‘Maybe,’ I wonder. I glance at April who has stopped just inside the doorway. Her eyes flick from Sebastian to me and I wait for her to sound her disapproval, but she stays silent. We all need to know what’s being said. We’re already suspicious enough of Hunter.
I close my eyes and proceed to extend my senses out towards the security office down the corridor. When I tune in to M and Hunter’s voices it’s like they’re talking right next to me rather than through a door at the end of the hallway.
‘I know all about the things Joseph did to you,’ M says softly. ‘No father should treat his son that way, and I know you want revenge, but that’s not what The Movement is about.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Hunter asks.
‘You know I want to depose him, but we will do it smartly. I won’t have innocent people killed.’
Hunter lets out a laugh of disbelief. ‘He’s willing to kill each and every member of your merry little gang to maintain control of this city. He’s willing to put innocent children through endless experiments to gain power. The sooner you start fighting fire with fire, the sooner we can all be free of him.’
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