From the Earth (Ember Society Book 2)

by AR Colbert

The car stopped in front of a large building adjacent to City Hall. It was only five or six blocks away from Felix’s house, and I felt a bit ridiculous having his driver bring us here instead of walking. But I supposed that’s how things were done in the Center. I was going to have to get used to it.

  A man waiting at the curb opened my door, then stepped around to open Felix’s door.

  “Good morning, James.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Walsh.” James turned toward me and nodded. “Ms. Greenwood.” He closed Felix’s door and gestured toward the large building standing before us. “Everyone is already inside. Please let me know if there is anything else you need, sir.”

  “Thank you. Will do.”

  Felix took my hand and gave it a small reassuring squeeze. “Ready?” he asked me.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  I allowed him to lead me through a set of double doors and down a short hall into a large conference room. A long table sat in the center, with five other adults seated around the perimeter. A small gasp escaped my lips when I recognized two of the faces staring back at me.

  Emmaline smiled. Chief Justice Hines grimaced.

  Yep. This was definitely a trap.

  I stood frozen in my spot in the doorway, Felix’s warm hand the only thing keeping me grounded. Seeing Justice Hines face to face twisted my stomach all over again. The last time I’d seen her was just moments after she’d killed my brother. I had to fake my approval of her actions then, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it again.

  Felix gave my hand another squeeze, but I quickly yanked it loose. There was no way I could trust him after bringing me into this snake pit without warning. I never would have come if I had known who else was in this “inner circle” of his. And if he considered Martha Hines a trusted advisor, I was out. Obviously we had different goals in mind.

  Emmaline stood and reached out an arm to shake my hand. “Good to see you again, Ms. Greenwood,” she said quietly.

  The instant our palms touched I felt a familiar sense of calm wash over me, and I hated it. It was far too easy for Emmaline to manipulate my emotions with her ability to project feelings into me. Her handshake was firm, and her projections blotted out my own feelings like a wet towel on a flame.

  My hatred for Justice Hines washed away and I was able to think clearly. I’d become mentally weak during my stay with Felix, out of practice with hiding my true emotions, or blocking my affect as the other Empaths called it. So I begrudgingly allowed Emmaline to help me. She and Justice Hines would both be able to feel exactly what I was feeling, and now didn’t seem like an appropriate time for me to unleash my wrath on the judge.

  A hint of understanding glimmered from the corner of Emmaline’s eye, but her outward demeanor never changed. Hopefully she got to me before Justice Hines—or any other Empaths that may be in the room—were able to sense how I really felt. Of course, I didn’t know if Emmaline could be trusted either, but she definitely seemed like the lesser of two evils. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to repay the favor anytime soon. After watching her pull a gun on a roomful of innocent people at one of Frank’s meetings a couple of weeks earlier, I hated to think of what she might be capable of doing next.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Claren Greenwood.” Emmaline released my hand but stayed near as Felix began his introduction. “She has graciously agreed to complete our circle as my Director of Outside Relations. I think you all know how important this position is in our current situation, so I hope you will help get her up to speed quickly.”

  Outside Relations? What relations? The Leadership viewed living in the Outside as a death sentence. My lip started to curl up in objection, but I remembered who was in the room and quickly regained control of my face. I had no desire to be a part of this meeting, but I couldn’t let them see how incapable or confused about all of this I really was. I took a breath instead and forced a smile.

  Felix turned toward me slightly as he gestured to a man on our left. “Claren, you’ll be working very closely with Dimitri Rodin, my Director of Defense.”

  A thin man with slick black hair smiled and inclined his head. “I look forward to working with you Ms. Greenwood.”

  I nodded in his direction. He looked friendly enough, but the more I learned about this inner circle, the more questions I had. And I certainly didn’t plan on assisting in any attacks on the people Outside, so I hoped “Director of Defense” was a really poor title for a completely different job description.

  “Tyrel Heales heads our Department of Economics, and you know Chief Justice Martha Hines, my legal counsel.” Mr. Heales flashed me a warm smile, but Justice Hines had a face of stone. Cold and unmoving. Did the woman have a soul at all? I tried to get a read on how she was feeling, but she had sufficiently blocked me out.

  “Next we have Cormack Bell, my Director of Health and Welfare. And of course you know Emmaline Frasier, my Director of Strategic Implementation.”

  I turned back to face Emmaline. “Strategic Implementation, huh? That’s quite a promotion from Career Development. Sounds like congratulations are in order for you, too.”

  Justice Hines scoffed on the other side of the table, shaking her head slowly and not even attempting to hide her disgust. It was definitely clear she was who her daughter had inherited her sneer from. In fact, Georgia Hines was probably making that same face back at the Peacemaker Training Center, especially if she’d heard I was selected to join Felix’s inner circle.

  Perhaps that was why Justice Hines seemed to be in a particularly bad mood. She was upset that I had outshone her precious Georgia in our training. The thought gave me a sick sense of satisfaction, and my forced smile finally became a little more genuine.

  I swept my gaze across each set of eyes surrounding the table, exuding as much confidence and sincerity as I could muster. Thankfully, faking diplomacy came easily for me. I just had to play the part for now. Hopefully I could get some truth out of Felix later.

  “It’s so nice to meet each of you. It looks like I’m in good company and Mr. Walsh will be surrounded by the most capable advisors Classen City has to offer.”

  Justice Hines actually had the gall to roll her eyes, and I’d never had the urge to inflict physical harm on anyone as much as I did her. I didn’t even hate Georgia as much as her mother. I supposed watching a person murder someone you love would do that to you.

  Emmaline was watching me from the side of her eyes, and she was quick to speak up before my dark thoughts carried me any further.

  “Yes, well we’re happy to have you join us, as well.” She turned toward the others. “Claren was certainly a star student in the Peacemaker training program. With her assistance, we were able to convict Phil Gadson, the rebel leader Frank Dalton, and even her brother. I can’t think of anyone better suited for the role.” She smiled widely, and her approval was reciprocated by four of the other five faces in the room.

  She sounded sincere, but this was Emmaline Frasier speaking. I’d been fooled into trusting her once before. I wouldn’t be fooled again. We could play friends, but I knew better than to let her in. I also knew better than to get on her bad side.

  “Thank you, Ms. Frasier. I agree,” Felix said. “Now I’ve given Ms. Greenwood a basic rundown of how her new role will play out, but she’ll need to be caught up on the current events we are dealing with.”

  Liar. I knew nothing before coming into this meeting. Felix turned toward me with an apologetic look in his eye. Too bad that wasn’t going to be enough to win my forgiveness for this.

  “As you know, this group of advisors will be assisting me in the transition into my father’s role over the upcoming months. And while I won’t publicly be assuming my position until later, much of the decision-making is already being placed into my hands now as my father is needed elsewhere. As my Director of Outside Relations, I’ll need you to actively work with Dimitri, Emmaline, and Justice Hines on preventing any further loss of our people.”

 
“What do you mean?” I asked. “How are we losing people?”

  It was Dimitri’s turn to speak. “Over the last couple of weeks, we have had citizens go missing from all sides of Classen City in record numbers. Of course there have been reports of people missing here and there for years, but never on this scale. We’ve been losing between three and five citizens every day this week.”

  Missing people? “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I had no idea.”

  “We’ve been trying to keep it quiet,” Cormack said. His deep voice caught me off guard. I didn’t expect the thin red-haired man to have such a booming sound. It was commanding, but soft around the edges. His eyes twinkled with concern as he continued. “Our Protectors take the reports in each borough, but we will not allow any news coverage. We don’t want to create a sense of hysteria among our people until we are certain we know what is going on.”

  “We already know what’s going on!” Justice Hines yelled. Her sudden outburst startled me, but the others looked less surprised and more weary. “They’re being murdered by the criminals Outside!”

  Rage burned within me— probably a mix of Martha Hines’ toward the Outsiders and mine toward her.

  “I’ve been saying for years that we need to get our public ID system in place so that we can recognize these Outsiders on sight,” she continued. “No government-issued ID badge, no escaping. We can easily correct this problem by removing the source. I am happy to conduct weapons training with the Protectors myself.”

  “Calm down, Martha. It’s far too early for you to be so worked up.” Emmaline’s voice was firm, and I found myself wanting to cheer her on for speaking out against Justice Hines. “You know that wouldn’t work for all the reasons we’ve gone over before. But now that we have Claren here, I think we’ll be able to really get to work with Triple-T.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Justice Hines stood. Her eyes were bulging, and she’d lost all control of her affect. It was clear that she wanted to be in that meeting less than I did. “Our people are dying out there. It’s time to take action, not play around with your science experiments. And you—” She pointed a pale finger sharply toward my face. “—have no idea what you’re doing here. I’ve got news for you, sweetie. You’re swimming with sharks. And I won’t be around to help when you get bit!”

  She roughly shoved her chair out of the way and stormed out of the room. Tyrel stared after her with wide eyes and Dimitri rubbed his temples with his eyes closed. But the others all seemed completely unfazed. I wondered if this was a stunt she pulled often. Knowing her daughter, it wouldn’t have surprised me.

  “Well it looks like we’ll stop there for today,” Felix sighed. “Ms. Frasier, will you be in tomorrow morning to introduce Claren to Triple-T?”

  “I’m afraid not,” she replied. “But Emilio will be here. He will be able to explain everything better than I could anyway.” She placed her hand on my shoulder and stared again with that look of sincerity. I wanted to trust her. Really I did. It took everything I had to remember to keep my distance.

  “And Claren,” she added. “I meant it when I said I’m happy to have you working with us. You are exactly what we need.”

  CHAPTER 3

  “There is no way I’m coming back here tomorrow.” I laid into Felix the moment our car door closed behind us. “Government IDs? Triple-T? I don’t know what any of it means, but I know that I am not going to work with those people on any secret projects. And I’m definitely not working to take down the Outsiders.”

  “Not now, Claren. We’ll talk more at home.” Felix glanced nervously toward the driver climbing back into his seat.

  “No need. There’s nothing more to say.” I crossed my arms and stared out my window at the gray Center buildings slowly gliding past my window as we made the short drive back to Felix’s house.

  I didn’t wait for him after we rolled to a stop in front of his enormous home. The door slammed behind me as I took the stairs two at a time up to my room. I never wanted to be here to begin with. Yes, I messed up before by turning Frank in to Emmaline, but that definitely didn’t put me on the same side as her. I was not born to be a Leader. I didn’t want to be a Leader. And I didn’t want to take down the Outsiders.

  Upstairs, I dug through my dresser drawers, shuffling through stacks of clothes that never really belonged to me until I finally found my old pair of jeans and a sweater. The sweater wasn’t mine before moving to Felix’s house either, but at least I wouldn’t look quite as out of place wearing it in Morton borough as I would in the getup I had on for the meeting. I needed to get home as quickly as possible.

  If what they said was true, that our people were disappearing, I had to get back and find out what was going on. If I could just locate Raf, I was certain he’d know something about the missing people. Surely the Outsiders couldn’t be responsible for any of it. Not the Outsiders I knew, anyway.

  The memory of my mom’s blood on the floor of our home fluttered in the back of my mind and I pushed it quickly away. That was a long time ago. Whoever the Outsiders were that took her life were long gone by now. Frank and Raf and the others would never do a thing like that.

  A chill crawled down my spine despite the heavy wool sweater I had just pulled over my head. I didn’t have time to dwell on the past. I had to figure out what was happening now. Smoothing the static with my hands, I pulled my long honey-colored hair into a messy ponytail at the nape of my neck and took one final look at my room.

  There wasn’t much for me to gather other than the backpack I brought from home. My gaze lingered for a moment on the small painting again, and I considered stuffing it into my backpack as well. There was just something about it that comforted me in a way. It was the only good thing I’d experienced in my stay with Felix. Well, that and the grilled cheese sandwich.

  But the painting had to stay. I didn’t have a house to keep it in anymore, anyway. That might be a problem later too, but shelter was a secondary thought for me. The only thing that mattered in that moment was getting out of the Center and back to Morton in time to warn Raf and the Outsiders that the Leadership was planning something against them. Then we could get to the bottom of the missing people situation together.

  Lost in thought, I hastily exited my room, ready to make my escape. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough. I pulled open the door and ran straight into the hard chest of Felix Walsh.

  “Whoa,” he said, casually wrapping his arm behind my back. I ducked under it and pushed him away, determined not to let him prevent me from leaving.

  “Claren, stop.” He moved his oversized frame directly in front of me, practically dancing as I moved from side to side in an attempt to get around him. “Where are you going?”

  “Move! I told you, I’m going home.”

  “You are home.” He grabbed my backpack and gently pulled it off of my shoulders. “Please. Let’s not go through this again. I was just coming to see if you might join me for some tea in the study downstairs. I’d like to chat about some things.”

  “Tea in the study? Really? What kind of life is this? No, I won’t join you for tea in the study. There are people going missing, and I have work to do. Maybe you should try to actually work sometime too, instead of riding in the back of cars to meetings where a bunch of people who are smarter than you make all of your decisions!”

  I tried once more to push past him, but Felix stood firm. Again, his eyes glittered with the confidence of a Leader, but when I met them I felt his hurt shooting through me like a bolt of lightning. I’d said too much. Instantly I regretted my words. I didn’t mean to hurt Felix. He didn’t know any better. He was raised here. This was his normal.

  “Fine.” I sighed. “We can talk. I need a little more information before I go anyway. But Felix? I am going home. I have to.”

  He nodded, handing me my backpack and gesturing for me to go ahead of him. “If you insist. Ladies first.”

  “Thank you,” I said, looking up and down the hall. �
��But I don’t actually know where the study is.”

  Felix showed a hint of a smile, and I couldn’t help but return it. Thankfully I hadn’t upset him too much. I hated to see him hurt. I hated to see anyone hurt, but Felix especially didn’t deserve my outburst, even if he hadn’t given me as much information before that meeting as he should have.

  He extended a bent elbow for me to take with my arm, and broke into a full grin when I obliged. “I’d be happy to lead you there.” I set my bag inside the doorway of my room and followed Felix down the stairs and to the left to a large study.

  The room’s decor was more masculine than the rest of the house, but it felt cozy despite its tall ceilings and expansive floor space. The walls were lined with wooden bookshelves, and the three windows facing the front of the home were each framed by a set of forest green velvety drapes. A fire was burning in a central fireplace, and around it sat four leather armchairs. A cart with a teapot and three cups and saucers sat near the chairs.

  I looked around, admiring the collection of books. There were more in Felix’s study than there were in my old high school library, and some of the shelves were filled with old hardbacks, several missing their dust jackets, worn from years of use. I wondered if access to books from before the Great War was another perk of being a Leader. Some of these looked like they’d been around longer than Felix’s house. And if so, what kind of stories would I be able to find hidden on the shelves in that room?

  None, I supposed. Because I wasn’t staying.

  I glanced around once more before taking a seat across from Felix. It was just the two of us again. And whatever it was that I found so charming and cozy about this room, he must have felt it too. He was definitely more relaxed as he threw one ankle across his knee and leaned back into the smooth brown chair across from me.

  He rolled the cart closer and poured me a cup of tea before making one for himself. It wasn’t like him to serve himself, but it was a nice change. Perhaps his attendants had the day off since he was supposed to be in Leadership meetings all morning.