“I think so.”
I glanced at Rod and Pax. “We should check it out—see for ourselves, then come up with a game plan.”
Both men nodded.
“We don’t know what she’s capable of,” Victoria said. “She killed the Queen without a second thought. You should have seen what was left of the Mackenzie estate. The others are probably under the same type of control.”
I held both her arms and urged her to look me in the eyes. “We’ll be careful. But it would be helpful to know exactly what we’re dealing with before the palace awakes. Then I can go back to Dr. Crane. He’s no longer under the Queen’s protection.”
“Neither are we,” Victoria said.
“But my guards control a majority of the palace.”
Victoria still looked unsure, but didn’t protest further.
“Why don’t you wait in your room. Get dressed. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.”
“No way,” she exclaimed. “I’m coming with you. We’re all sticking together.”
Again I glanced at Rod and Pax, who both shrugged. “Together it is, then.”
The four of us went down one floor so Victoria could stop in her room and quickly change into more appropriate clothes. I waited inside the room as she dressed in the closet and the guards waited just outside the door.
Victoria emerged from the closet in jeans, a black sweatshirt, low-heeled boots, and a thick ponytail. She marched toward me with the determination of a warrior, not at all slowed by her injured foot. I couldn’t help but smile at the girl who could seemingly take over the world. She was stronger than I was; I had no doubt about that.
We stalked through the dimly lit palace in the dead of night. On the first floor, we only passed a few nightshift staff members. Each looked up at the sight of our armed group. Victoria was the only one not carrying a weapon.
By the time we reached Sub-level Three, my heart was pounding, partly from all the stairs, but mostly from what we’d find behind that massive door. I still wanted to believe Victoria was somehow mistaken, but I feared we’d find exactly what she’d described.
Rod held out a small flashlight while I entered the code. The screen flashed green as the internal latches released. The three of us pulled at the door, causing me to appreciate Victoria being able to close it on her own.
The light inside poured into the corridor, washing over us in a warm orange glow. Everything was silent, and I didn’t immediately see anyone. But I did see cut bathrobe sashes and splatters of blood on the white tile floor—and what looked like footprints—and my thoughts immediately returned to Victoria. I made sure she stayed behind us as we entered.
Then Bethany walked out of one of the bedrooms—at least she looked like Bethany, wearing a navy blue pinstriped pants suit and dressy heels. She looked at our group huddled by the doorway and shook her head.
“What’s going on here?” I asked. “Are you Bethany?”
“Perhaps,” she said with a wry smile.
“Or perhaps I am,” said a second Bethany, exiting the same bedroom. This one was dressed in more casual black slacks and a collared blouse. On her feet were black flats. And this Bethany had a handgun pointed in our direction.
“Let’s all stay calm,” I said, holding my hands up, my gun skyward.
Rod and Pax had their guns aimed at the two Bethanys before us. I had been in a similar situation to this all too recently, with an outcome I so did not want to repeat tonight. It didn’t help that I was also out of nanobots.
“She was the one at the Mackenzie estate,” Victoria said, pointing to the Bethany in the pants suit.
“And you killed two of my men,” she retorted.
“They were going to kill my friend.”
“And you took Constance.”
“I helped her get to safety,” Victoria said, meeting pants-suit Bethany’s stare with equal intensity.
A third girl interrupted the death-stare match, this one coming out of a neighboring bedroom—and I recognized her immediately as Princess Amelia, but she was no longer confined to a wheel chair. She was up and moving as well as any of the other girls. There was blood in her short hair, dark splashes on her cotton nightgown.
I blinked my eyes hard, still unable to accept what I was seeing was real. “Bethany?”
“Yes, Prince Byron,” she said, looking more serious than her sisters. “I suppose Victoria told you all about what happened.”
“Bethany, is that really you?” Victoria whimpered.
“Real enough,” she answered.
“And you’re Eleanor. Am I right?”
The girl in the pants suit nodded with a smirk.
“Then who are you?”
The girl pointing the gun at us glanced at the others for guidance before answering. “Jane.”
“So that just leaves Danielle,” I said. “Where is she?”
Bethany clicked her tongue at us. “We all have our parts to play. She shan’t be interrupted until her part has been completed.”
“Let us see the Queen,” Victoria asked.
“Be my guest,” Bethany said.
Jane stepped away from the bedroom door, keeping her handgun carefully trained on us. She inched around the room. By the time my attention came back to the other girls still in their places, Eleanor had a gun on us. The situation was getting worse by the second.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said, very aware of how the girls had spread out around the room. “If we move away from the door, we may not be able to leave.”
“You don’t trust us?” Eleanor asked, sweetly. “We are the birth of a new kingdom, one you can be a part of. How about it, Victoria? You can join us and rule. The Queen wanted to kill all but one of us. One was special, the rest expendable. Now we can all be equals—like true sisters. You shouldn’t have run off, but you can come back.”
“This isn’t you—any of you,” Victoria cried. “Bethany, I know you’re in there! Fight! Fight whatever voice you’re hearing!”
“Close the door,” Eleanor said, gesturing toward it with her gun.
“No,” I said. I stepped closer to Victoria, coming between her and Eleanor—though she was still vulnerable from Jane’s position. “I don’t think we’ll be able to come to any reasonable agreement, so we’ll just leave.”
“No one is leaving,” Bethany commanded, and it was so strange seeing such a naturally commanding presence from such a convincing replica of Princess Amelia.
“We can all be shot or all part ways,” I said. “What will it be?” I lowered my weapon to Bethany, my finger shaky on the trigger. How do I keep getting myself into these situations? Why couldn’t I just have listened to Victoria?
And as I hoped for some divine intervention to get us out of this mess, Victoria spoke up.
“I’ll stay,” Victoria said. “Sisters, right?”
24
Victoria
Amidst the guns pointed in all directions, I noticed a glint from under an ottoman across the room. My mind became suddenly clear.
“I’ll stay,” I said, turning my attention to Bethany. There was something about the way she was standing between the other two girls, the way they kept looking to her, the way she confidently stood despite looking like Princess Amelia, that told me she was in charge. They weren’t all equals as Eleanor had claimed. “Sisters, right?”
“Of the closest bond,” she said, though her expression was skeptical.
I didn’t let that stop me.
“Victoria, what are you doing?” Prince Byron sounded exceptionally concerned.
But I couldn’t let that stop me either. The deadlock we were in was only going to lead to more casualties—more bloodshed—and I saw a possible way around that grim fate. It was worth a try. The worse thing that could happen was people getting shot anyway.
I hobbled across the room, toward Bethany—limping exaggeratedly so. “I think there might still be some glass in my foot. It kills to walk.”
“We can take a look at it once the others are secure,” Bethany said.
“Please let them go,” I said. “I am staying. That’s what’s important.”
“Hand over your weapons,” Eleanor said.
None of the men moved, still unsure of what to do next—what my leaving their side really meant.
“I need to sit down,” I said weakly and continued toward the ottoman, then collapsed before it. I caught myself on my hands and leaned forward, groaning in mock pain.
“Let me help you up,” Bethany said, now beside me.
With a quick arm sweep, I snatched the scalpel from under the ottoman. Bethany grabbed my left arm and hauled me to my feet. She was about to guide me down to sit on the ottoman when I spun her around and jabbed the tip of the scalpel to the side of her throat.
“Oh, Victoria…” Bethany sighed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting us out of here, and if you value your life, you’ll do exactly as I say.” I dug the tip of the scalpel into her skin until it drew blood. Maybe I wouldn’t be preventing bloodshed after all.
Bethany winced and swallowed hard, but didn’t fight.
Now, two guns were trained on me, both girls furious and wild-eyed. I hid behind my clone shield.
“I know you’re in there somewhere, Bethany. And if you can hear me, I’m sorry,” I whispered into her ear. Then I spoke up. “Tell your girls to drop their weapons and allow us to leave. Otherwise, you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.”
A long silence hung in the air. Bethany grimaced as I needled her neck for a little extra incentive.
“Do as she says,” Bethany finally said. “Hand over your guns and stand down.”
Both girls flipped the guns over in their hands, so they were now holding the barrels. Prince Byron confiscated one and Rod took the other.
I pushed Bethany forward, helping her slowly march toward the door. Eleanor and Jane gave us a wide berth, but stalked around behind us to where I couldn’t see them any longer.
“Stay back,” I warned.
I looked at Prince Byron, who could act as my rearview mirror, and he nodded. Once I was surrounded by allies, I spun around with Bethany so I could see the girls and backed the rest of the way out of the bunker.
“Don’t follow us,” I said. “If I hear you behind us, I’m pushing her down the stairs.”
“This isn’t over. You won’t get far,” Eleanor said. “We’ll find you.”
“We’ll be waiting,” I said as the men collectively pushed the large metal door closed, which automatically locked upon impact.
Rod used his cellphone light to dispel the total darkness.
“We don’t have much time,” I breathed frantically. “Someone please knock her out.”
“What?” Bethany seemed genuinely surprised as I removed the blade from her throat.
Without a word, Pax stepped forward and cracked her on the head with the butt of a gun. Bethany went down fast, but Prince Byron caught her and eased her limp body to the floor.
“Let’s move,” Rod said as the door to the bunker unlocked.
“How’s your foot?” Prince Byron asked.
“I’ll live,” I said, heading for the stairs. I looked up at the black void, the stone stairs disappearing into oblivion.
Rod ran by me to lead the way, the beam of his cellphone light bouncing off the walls.
I didn’t know the best way to escape the palace, but as we’d traveled through the lower levels, I knew what we needed to do before leaving.
“Which way to the servant hall?” I asked.
“On the far side of the palace. Why?” Prince Byron asked.
“One of my sisters is here—my real sister.” It felt weird to say it like that, but I had to differentiate my sisters from my life before from the clones. “I can’t leave her.”
“Johanna,” he said, and I was shocked he remembered.
“We need to keep moving,” Rod warned.
“Let’s get your sister,” Prince Byron said with a weary smile and sprinted down the hall.
He slowed when he realized I couldn’t keep up, but we continued through the sleeping palace at my top speed. Then we were headed downstairs again, but the Prince reassured me the other girls would be going up while we went back down and there was no way we’d be crossing paths. I hoped he was right and they wouldn’t anticipate our direction.
When we reached a narrow hallway of female staff member bedrooms, I quickly realized we had no idea what room she’d be in. Every door in the hallway was closed and there were no distinguishing marks on any of them.
“We’ll each take a room,” Prince Byron said.
So I opened the nearest door and peered inside the dark room. “Johanna? Are you in here?”
“Hello? What’s going on?” came a sluggish voice from the bed, covers coming down to get a look at who was disturbing her.
I knew at once the voice was not Johanna’s, apologized, and moved on to the next room.
The men were performing the same tasks and getting the same confused responses. But when I reached the third room, the voice from the bed was instantly recognizable.
“Is something the matter?” she asked softly.
“Kimera? Is that you?”
“Miss Victoria?”
“Yes; it’s me. Do you know where Johanna Ramsey’s room is?” I was speaking so fast all the words were jumbled together.
“I believe she’s in the next wing. Why? What’s the matter? Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah; you can help me find her.”
Kimera didn’t probe and waste any time. She leapt out of bed and threw on a bathrobe, but I stopped her just before she reached me at the door. If I was going to leave with Johanna, I wasn’t about to leave Kimera behind.
“Wait,” I told her. “I’ll keep looking. Get dressed, then come find me in the next wing. First, point me in the right direction.”
I called to the guys that we needed to go to the next hallway, and soon we were knocking on and opening doors again. Within a minute, Prince Byron called me over to the doorway he was standing in.
Johanna was sitting up in bed with an expression of pure bewilderment painted across her face.
“Victoria?” she asked.
I pushed past the Prince. “Johanna, get up. We’re taking you home.”
“Home?” Her confusion quickly morphing into skepticism.
“We have no time to waste. Get up, get dressed, and come with us. You’re going home. I’ll explain more on the way.” When she didn’t immediately jump out of bed from fear this might be some cruel joke, I clapped loudly to grab her attention. “If you want to come with us, then you need to get ready now. In two minutes, we’re gone.”
This snapped her out of her paralysis. Johanna threw off the covers and dropped her bare feet to the floor. She spastically moved about the room like she didn’t know where anything was, then finally snatched some clothes from the small closet.
I stepped into the hallway and closed the door to give her some privacy. Other girls were now coming out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was about. Prince Byron assured them everything was fine and they could all go back to sleep. I felt guilty we weren’t giving them all the option to come with us, but more people would only slow us down. And besides, most of the palace staff shouldn’t be in any danger.
While the rest of the crowd began shuffling back into their rooms, Kimera came running around the corner. She looked more casual than I had ever seen her, in jeans and a hoodie, her hair neatly braided.
“How did you have time to braid your hair?” I asked enviously.
“Lots of practice,” she answered with a guilty smile.
A few moments later, Johanna exited her room. Her dress and flats were relatively casual, but they were still a dress and dress shoes. For her, I supposed that was comfortable.
“Is this everyone?” Prince Byron asked.
I nodded. “What’s the best
way to get out of here unseen?”
“We’ve been extensively searching the lower levels recently,” Rod said. “We can take one of the tunnels to the forest, then sneak out past the grounds. The biggest problem will be transport after that.”
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” Prince Byron said. “First, let’s focus on getting off the palace grounds.”
“Are we leaving for good?” Kimera asked. “What about my parents?”
I hadn’t thought of that. I only knew I didn’t want to leave her behind. “Are they able to be gathered quickly?”
“I can get them here in five minutes,” she assured me. “But what should I tell them is the reason for this emergency?”
I glanced at Prince Byron, who was pleading with his eyes that we needed to go. I swallowed hard, then answered. “It’ll probably be safe and fine for you and your family, but it no longer is for us. The Queen has been murdered. I can’t get into all that now, but things are changing.”
Time seemed to stop from the words I’d just spoken, which was the exact opposite of what needed to happen. Johanna and Kimera gaped at me, each frozen in place.
“I know it’s a lot to take in right now, but we need to move. Kimera, if you’re gonna get your parents, then you need to do it now and return here within five minutes… or we’re leaving.” I didn’t want to finish the ultimatum, but had to instill in her the severity of the situation.
“I’ll bring them,” she said and took off down the hallway.
“We don’t have time for this,” Prince Byron said. “You came back for your sister. We’ve got her. We should go.”
“I told her we’d wait five minutes,” I insisted.
“You came specifically for me?” Johanna asked.
“Your family misses you. I couldn’t leave you here,” I said.
“But you don’t.”
“Umm… you never gave me much to miss.”
Johanna seemed to consider this, looking sheepish. “I suppose that’s true. Well, thanks for coming for me despite all that.”
“She was helping me find you,” Prince Byron said, stepping closer to us.
“Is that so?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Johanna.
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