Remember Me

by Stacey Nash

  “Do it.”

  Nik yanks Jax up by his bound hands and steps in front of him, shoving both his palms into Jax’s chest. Nik pushes him backward, shove by shove, until he stumbles into the now vacant chair. My breath catches at the sight of swelling and bruises all down the side of his handsome face. But Jax doesn’t look at me, his glare burns into his father.

  “Why did you betray me, son?”

  An image flashes into my mind, right here in this very room. The memory of Manvyke’s voice, Kill him. I dove at Jax, thinking of nothing but how much I cared for him and needed to protect him. The Tarlequin came to life, sheltering us both and leaving us crouched on the floor in a bubble-like dome with everyone else on the outside blown away as if in an explosion. I look over at Jax, and bitter sharpness eats me up.

  “Jax …”

  He turns his head and his intense eyes meet mine. My bottom lip snags between my teeth as I suck it in. A small smile touches his lips as if to say it will all be okay, but I know deep inside me it won’t. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and when he speaks his voice has a slight crack. “Mae, don’t you dare give him anything. I won’t forget.”

  “Young love,” Manvyke says. “Yes, that’s it, son, show her exactly what she’s losing. What you’re both losing, and next time—”

  BAM!

  A loud crash and the sound of shattering glass comes from outside. I try to spin around, but can’t bend far enough to see, because the binding cuts into my wrists.

  “Lock the door.” Manvyke’s voice is so urgent that a bud of hope nestles in my chest.

  Nik moves away and the door clicks as he follows out the order. Grunts and the scuffle of people fighting come muffled through the thick timber.

  “Like I was saying,” Manvyke says, “the council wouldn’t have believed your blackmail anyway. But no one gets away with doing that to me.” He flicks his focus between me and Jax.

  “Father …” Nik sounds worried.

  A screaming cry and a heavy thud make my hope grow.

  Manvyke continues to look at Jax, but his words are for Nik. “See. Let the guards deal with it.”

  It feels like the whole room shudders as something crashes against the door.

  “Father!”

  Manvyke finally gives Nik his full attention, his eyes now bright and darting. “Iretum?”

  Nik mumbles behind me and yanks me back against the chair, his arm around my neck.

  “Iretum!” Manvyke says.

  “I don’t have it,” Nik yells.

  “Then cover your brother,” Manvyke orders at the same time the crash sounds again.

  This time a thud accompanied by a sharp crack sends shards of wood flying. Nik lets me go and I kink my neck at the noise just in time to see the door explode inward. Long splinters of wood fling like javelin into the room. A fierce-looking man wielding an arm-length blade stands in the doorway. In a blink he barrels through, kicking the shattered door out of the way. He rushes right at Nik, who stumbles and almost falls as the man shoulder barges him. As soon as the man’s through the door, another large-framed guy fills the hole. His gaze slides over the room and lands right on me. “Mae.”

  It’s him.

  The one who kissed me.

  Surely he’ll help us. His strong legs carry him across the room, straight past Nik and the other man, his bright-blue eyes never breaking from mine. The sight of him makes me feel like a princess whose knight has come to her rescue. I’ve never been more confused or helpless.

  “Not now,” Manvyke yells. “Not storming into my house. Who do you think you are?” His focus glides over the room, taking in everyone. But they all ignore him. So he turns his back, no doubt about to port out and flee from the danger.

  He doesn’t. He reaches up to the decorative wall-hanging weapon and lifts it off. Surely he can’t use that …it’s just for show, isn’t it?

  Nik’s drawn his favorite blade from somewhere, and it clashes against the other man’s sword in screeching blows.

  When the resistance guy is only a step away, my burly guard moves out from behind me, blocking his way. The resistance guy swings a mace around and right at the guard, who meets the side of it with his raised blade.

  Jax is still bound in his chair, wriggling and pulling against his bonds with a scowl. He curses and grits his teeth as he flexes his arms and tries to pull them apart. But to no avail. Growling, he jumps to his feet taking the chair with him. He looks like a caged lion itching to get into the fight.

  A dark-haired, olive-skinned girl—the same one from my memory of the telcom—runs to him. Where the heck did she come from? He nods toward me and she glances in my direction, shaking her head. Jax yells then spins around, slamming his chair into his father, knocking Manvyke back. The strange double-ended weapon clatters to the floor.

  My guard and the resistance guy struggle against one another, pushing back and forth with heavy-handed blows.

  “Gosh, Mae.” The girl’s now at my side, tugging at my arm. “What have they bound you with?”

  Frowning, I drag my attention away from the fight in front of me. She called me Mae. “You know me?”

  She arches a perfectly manicured brow over her chocolate eye. “Yes.” She looks to my knight and yells, “From the left, Will!”

  The resistance guy spins around to his left and deftly blocks the guard’s blow.

  Will.

  She continues to tug at my binding. It won’t budge. If I had any doubts before, they’ve now faded to nothing; these people have definitely come for us. But if we don’t help them help us, it’ll all be over. If they know me, they must know Jax. “Free Jax. He’ll be more help.”

  She glances across the room at him thrashing about, kicking and hopping from foot to foot like it will somehow free his arms. Just as Manvyke’s getting to his feet with his weapon now in hand, Jax slams himself into his father again. The girl’s brown eyes meet mine. They’re soft and caring even in the middle of all this.

  “Lilly, go to Jax.”

  Lilly? I’m not sure where it came from, but she’s Lilly, I know her. She shoots me a broad smile and darts behind the fighting guys around the edge of the room straight to Jax. The other resistance guy still fights Nik and has the upper hand as each blow pushes Nik further back toward the corner. Manvyke works hard to get to them.

  Will.

  The muscles across his shoulders ripple through his T-shirt as he braces the mace lengthways against the guard’s blade. Sandy-blond hair plastered to his forehead in a sweaty lather, frames his round face. His familiar face.

  “Will!”

  Unmuted by the clashes of battle his words come back to me. I’m your best friend. Images flit through my mind, shared laughing, joking, talking, and crying. He really is. I love you, Mae. He, oh my, he—

  A voice deep, loud, and screaming cuts over the fighting sounds. Pulling my focus away from my refound friend, I see Jax jumping to his feet with a blade in his unrestrained hand. I can’t hear what he says but his lips move in a way that look like: “He’s mine.”

  The man fighting Nik risks a glance at Jax, gives a quick nod, and steps back out of the way. Jax brings his blade down—where did he get that?—and it grazes Nik’s shoulder.

  The man zones in on Manvyke, who’s up again and swinging that weapon in a wide arc. He twirls it around in his hand, wielding it with deadly efficiency, spinning it deftly between his hands. Its bladed ends whirl through the air.

  I’m torn, trying to look in too many places at once. Again. Jax and Will. Lilly darts back to my side and works at my wrists again. “Shoot.” She gives a sharp stinging tug. “I gave Jax the clarinium blade.”

  Cool metal slips between my wrist and the binding rope.

  A grunt darts my attention back to Will who’s almost on the ground under the burly guard. The guard’s blade rests across his mace which is pushed up against Will’s throat and barely blocking the blade’s path. His face is crimson his mouth’s open, gasping
for breath. I pull against my bonds. I have to help him. The flat edge of Lilly’s blade digs into my wrists.

  The fierce resistance guy kicks the guard holding Will down, making him tumble sideways. He glances toward my best friend. “Get your head back in the fight, mate. Mae’s okay.”

  Will takes advantage of the guard’s position, springs up off the ground and brings his mace down across the guard’s face with a meaty thud. The guard shrieks, clearly in pain. The resistance guy strides up to Manvyke, sword raised above his left shoulder. Without time for a second thought, he brings it down fast. Manvyke blocks the blow with the center of his scythed staff. The blade clinks as it glances off.

  “Almost got it,” Lilly says close to my ear.

  I flex my arms against their binding, digging both it and the knife into my flesh. Ouch. I suck air in through my clenched teeth. Across the room, Jax is struggling against Nik. They seem pretty evenly matched. Sweat glistens across Nik’s brow and Jax’s face is set in a scowl. The very picture of seasoned fighters.

  A guttural cry cuts through the room then gurgles to an end.

  My bonds break with a twang, sending me toppling off the chair and everything in the room comes to a sudden stop.

  “No. Garrett!” Lilly jumps to her feet and runs right at the fierce warrior.

  He topples from his knees to the floor with one end of Manvyke’s scythe embedded in the place where his shoulder and neck meet. A bright stream of blood gushes out. Lilly doesn’t reach him before Will grabs her by the arm. Not sure what happened to my guard, I glance back and he lays on the ground prone and seemingly unconscious. Will yanks on her arm while a mixture of shock and horror twist her face.

  The guard will wake up soon, they’ll all move. We have to run, right now. I jump to my feet and dart across the room toward Jax. “We’ve got to get out,” I say, sparing a glance at Manvyke trying to tear his weapon out of the man Lilly called Garrett.

  Jax takes advantage of Nik’s distracted pause to bring his blade up high and slice it through the air but Nik glimpses his plan just in time. He meets the blow with his own blade. Nik looks to his father and Jax lands a solid punch to his temple. Nik stumbles back, grasping his head, and Jax grabs my hand, towing me out the door.

  As we come into the entry foyer, I see Bia on the floor in a pool of blood. Suddenly remembering the order she was carrying out, I yell, “Mom!”

  Jax tugs on my hand pulling me toward the open front doors. “We have to run, now!”

  “I can’t leave her here.”

  His eyes plead with me. “We have to.”

  I glance toward Bia and everything plummets, he’s right, we don’t even know where to look. Will barrels through the office door with his arm around Lilly, almost dragging her out of the room. “Run.”

  Jax tugs on my hand. “I promise we’ll come back, but right now we have to get out.”

  Will rushes up behind us and Lilly’s barely moving, her eyes glassed over like she’s not really here. I’m pushed through the front door. We emerge outside into a disaster, two agents on the ground, dead. Jax drops my hand and Will scoops Lilly into his arms then takes the lead. “This way.”

  We dash down the street as fast as Will can move, heading toward the edge of the community. Running through, I’m surprised it’s completely empty. Will sprints with Lilly’s hair streaming out over his shoulder. They’re my friends. Something pangs inside of me. How could I forget them? Jax smiles at me weakly as he brings up the rear.

  We round the corner and school comes into view … but it’s not my school, even though they made me believe it was. My hands tighten into fists as the sound of lots of people pushes past the pounding of blood rushing through my ears. Will doesn’t slow. He’s so strong. He darts up the stairs and into the quadrangle, shooting a glance at me, over his shoulder. His cheek dimples with a heart-stopping smile: my Will.

  The quad is filled with people. Both fallen on the ground wounded and still fighting. Agents and others dressed in different clothes and fighting with different weapons like a rag-tag mini army. Will slows to jog, then stops and sets a slightly more composed Lilly on her feet. They exchange a few words and drop back to either side of me. Lilly’s tear streaked face is puffy, but her expression is now stoic. I peek back at Jax. It seems like they’re flanking me. Surely I’m not that important. I draw in a deep breath, but don’t slow my speed.

  The people fighting seem oblivious to our passage as we push to the other side of the courtyard, up the stairs, and across the walkway to emerge around the side of the building onto the training oval. Dirty smoke billows out of the weapons store. My heart hammers to its own beat. We’ve still got to make it out of here. We’re heading toward the hole in the fence and crap. It’s still guarded.

  A gigantic boom rattles through the ground and up my legs. Will flings an arm over me, pulling me to a crouch. My attention flits behind us and smoke now billows out of the school building too.

  “It’s done. Fall back,” someone hollers, and the words are taken up, repeated over and over.

  “Let’s go.” Will jumps to his feet, his strong hands pulling me up too. I feel another hand on my elbow and turn to see Jax, his face set. We dash across the oval, right at the guarded hole, our fast strides dodging fallen agents and discarded, broken weapons. As we draw closer, the figures standing on either side of it come into focus. Not agents at all but resistance fighters. A woman throws Will a huge smile and to me, says, “Welcome home.”

  I hold my breath as Will climbs through the hole but the barrier doesn’t catch him. He turns back and holds his hand out to me. Swallowing, I glance at Jax who gives me a noncommittal shrug. It can’t be true. Will can’t have Collective blood too.

  “I’ll come right behind you. I won’t let you get stuck,” Jax says.

  A half-chuckle comes from Will. “The barrier isn’t working.”

  “What?” Jax asks.

  “I killed it. Come on, climb through. It won’t stop you.”

  I take a deep breath and crouch over, stepping through the gap. Nothing happens. Will grins as I straighten up on the other side and pulls me into a hug. Jax and Lilly both climb through too.

  Through the hole I can see a stream of people running towards us, resistance and Collective alike. “Run. We’ve got to run.”

  Lilly dashes into the trees and I follow. The low branches whip against my arms and legs, leaving stinging cuts but I don’t care. We’re almost free. We emerge out the other side of the trees and onto a tarred road. Three pickups, two faded red, and two motorbikes sit on the side of the road with two older women standing beside them. The round dumpy woman’s face breaks into a huge smile and she rushes towards us, wrapping her arms around me. “Anamae.”

  She squeezes me tighter than Will did. Real tight.

  “It’s done. We’re out of here,” Lilly says.

  The woman lets go. Zeroing in on Jax, she squashes him in a hug too. “Jax,” she says in an almost whisper. “I’m so glad to have you home.”

  He pulls back and gives her a smirk. “Miss cooking for me, Martha?”

  She smiles, but it falls off her face the second she sees Lilly. Her arms engulf the thin girl and Lilly lets off a series of tiny sobs then pushes Martha away. “I can’t Mom, I just can’t. Later.”

  Martha nods, worry crinkling her brow and pulling her eyes tight. She watches Lilly move away then turns and jogs to the closest pickup, climbing into the driver’s seat.

  Will mounts one of the bikes and Jax grins from ear to ear looking at the other one. “Jump on, Mae,” Will bellows over the sound of revving engines.

  I glance at Jax climbing on the other bike then move to Will’s side and throw my leg over the road bike, climbing on behind him. Will’s been a part of my life for so long; right now I just need to hold onto him.

  Tears stream down Lilly’s face as she climbs on behind Jax, nestling her cheek against his Collective-uniformed back. Commotion erupts in a flood of people pouring
out of the trees and piling into the trucks.

  “Farm’s compromised. Follow me,” Will yells to Jax as he pulls his helmet on.

  The engine revs one last time and I wrap my arms around Will’s waist.

  We take off.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Mae

  I watch Jax as we sit here waiting for Beau and the other leaders to arrive. Jax looks somehow different since we got back, his shoulders hang lower and his body sags against the wall as if it’s holding him up. Ace sits right by him, his tail swishing back and forth, tongue lolling as Jax rubs his belly with an idle foot. His trademark cargos, white tee, and leather jacket make him look more like himself. He glances up from picking at a stud on his pants, and his eyes meet mine. His tongue runs over his bottom lip while he holds my stare. We’re home. And now that we’re here everything has come flooding back. It’s like remembering Will was a trigger that unlocked the rest of my memories. I’m home in more ways than just physically.

  A nudge in the side makes me turn to my left, and Will’s cheek dimples with his smile. The couch dips inward as he leans closer. “It’s so good to have you back.”

  I smile and fill with warmth followed by a confused fluttering as I remember the day in the science lab. Uncertain what it meant and how it makes me feel. I know now … Well, I remember Will and I were never a couple, but he said he loves me, and friends don’t kiss each other like that. Even best friends.

  Thank God, I’m saved by Beau entering the room laughing.

  “See you later,” someone calls from outside the door.

  Weird. I thought this was going to be a mass interrogation, maybe not. Beau makes a beeline for Jax and extends his hand. Jax grasps it and, eyes shining, Beau pulls him to his feet and into a hug, clapping him on the back. “Good to see you, son.”

  “It’s good to be seen,” Jax says.

  They release each other after a brisk embrace and Lilly shifts on my other side, the three of us crammed into the short couch. Beau turns to face me and Jax slouches back onto the wall.

  “Anamae.” Beau breaks into a grin, his lips bright against his dark skin. I stand and he rests both hands on my shoulders, leans in, and kisses my cheek. “We were all so worried.” He looks past me and raises his eyebrows. “Especially young Will.”