by Anna Argent
“Do you remember anything from when you were young?”
She shook her head.
“It’s pretty in its own way. Like Earth, different parts of Loriah look different. We have forests and deserts and oceans. Lots and lots of oceans.”
“Are the people there nice?”
“Some of them are. Some are assholes, like Warden Trathen.”
“So that’s the same too.”
“It is.”
“What’s different?”
“The war. There is no peace there. The whole world is consumed by war with very few places left untouched by it.”
“How do people stand it?” she asked.
“They have no choice. Everyone has to fight and do their part.”
“Even prisoners?” she asked, even though she promised herself she wouldn’t.
“Do you want to know the truth, or do you want to keep guessing?” he asked.
“How will I ever be able to believe you now when you hid something so big from me?”
“When was I supposed to tell you that I was a prisoner? When we first met? I needed your trust, Ava. I knew I was going to ask you to believe some pretty wild stories.”
“Okay, fine. Maybe I wouldn’t have expected you to say ‘Hi, I’m Radek, a convict,’ but sometime before you fucked me would have been nice.”
He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was tight with controlled anger. “I see now. I was good enough to save your life, I’m good enough to help you save your family, but not good enough to make you come.”
Her first reaction was to say yes, but there was more to it than that. “It wasn’t the sex, Radek. It was all the feelings that go along with it.”
He ignored the road long enough to look at her. “What feelings?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. At this point, none of it matters.”
“Don’t you even want to know what I did to deserve a prison sentence?” he asked.
She did, but she worried that the truth would be worse than anything she could imagine. “Only if you don’t lie. I don’t want to hear that you’re innocent.”
He gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Well, I am. My greatest crime was being born to a man who was a waste of bone and blood.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“The Soric justice system is very different from the American one. There are no cushy beds or cable TV in prison. No air conditioning, and very little food. And if you’re bad enough to get sent there, you go for life. Weak men can’t stand it, so they take the only way out they can.”
“They kill themselves,” she guessed.
He nodded. “A few generations ago, the wardens got tired of men slipping out of the claws of justice, so they decided to pass a law stating that any man who killed himself would be punished.”
“How do you punish a dead man?”
“You don’t. You punish his family. My father was too weak and selfish to finish his sentence, so instead, he killed himself and left that obligation to me. Mom had already died fighting the war, so I was next in line to spend the rest of my life in prison.”
That was so fucked up she couldn’t even wrap her head around it. “You’re telling me that you were incarcerated because your father broke the law and then killed himself?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
He shrugged. “I’ve never been a fan of the law, but I understand it.”
“Understand it? There is no understanding crazy.”
“Soricans are proud. We take providing for and protecting our families very seriously. The men who end up in prison have no means of doing the things they’re born to do. We can’t fight. We can’t protect. We can’t provide. For a proud Sorican man, this is a fate worse than death. So, the council decided to give them a reason to live. Prisoners refused to take the easy path in order to protect those they love.”
“But your dad didn’t.”
“My father didn’t know how to love anyone. Not even himself. He knew that I would be forced to serve out the rest of his sentence, and he simply didn’t care.”
“Is that how you got this job? They knew you weren’t a bad guy and wanted to give you work release?”
“If the warden had known how much I loved being outside of those walls, he never would have let me come here. I wasn’t the most docile of prisoners. This assignment was his way of punishing me. It was the job no one else wanted.”
“How did they know you wouldn’t just run off and make Earth your home?”
He glanced at her. The sunrise caught his bronze eyes, making them sparkle. “Does this mean you believe me?”
“No one could make up a story that crazy. Putting children in prison to punish the parents? Completely insane.”
He covered her hands with his. “I should have told you sooner.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain. At least I’m not worried about you lying.”
“Why not?”
“Because no one could make up something that deranged.”
“So you’re not still mad at me?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good. That’s not the way I want to spend what’s left of our time together.”
The idea of never seeing him again bothered her more than she cared to admit. Inmate or not, Radek was growing on her. Fast.
“How do you want to spend our time?” she asked.
“I think we should rescue your family, kill Dimas, save Earth and have you back home on Loriah in time to save the day there too.”
“And then?” she asked, hating herself for being that girl. She wasn’t clingy or needy. She was cool. He could do what he wanted, assuming he even had a choice in what that was.
Before he could answer, Ava’s phone rang. It was Mom.
Ava’s fingers shook as she answered the call. “Mom? Are you okay?”
Mom had been through a lot. Sickness, pain, frustration, despair. She was as tough as they came, but when Mom spoke, there were tears in her voice. “It’s Emily. He’s hurting her, Ava. He won’t stop until you come.”
Fear froze Ava’s heart solid. It sat like a stone in her chest, refusing to beat. “Who’s hurting her? Where are you?”
In the background, Emily let out a hoarse scream. Mom sobbed. “I didn’t want to call you. You’re both my baby girls. But she can’t take much more of this. Please come.”
Ava gripped the phone harder and fought off her own tears. “Just tell me where.”
Mom whispered. “He’s going to kill you, Ava.”
“No, he’s not. I’m stronger than that. Just tell me where you are.”
There was a scratching sound, then a voice that sounded like a young boy’s came on the line. “I am Dimas, Head of House Dimas.”
“And I’m the woman you’re looking for. Let my family go, or I’ll kill you.”
“Such fire. I was worried that you might not be the Soricalia I was seeking, but you’re changing my mind.”
“What do you want with me?”
“Does it matter?” asked Dimas. “You’re going to come no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“I am. You hurt my sister, my mother. I’m definitely coming for you.”
“Excellent. We’ll have a lovely little family reunion, then. I’ll send you a map so you won’t get lost.”
“If you hurt them again, I’ll—”
“What? Kill me? Cut off my fingers one at a time?” He scoffed. “Please. Stronger, faster, smarter, more talented warriors have tried and failed. You will be no different. This little blue world you’ve made your home will fall the same as all of the others. And the screamer you call a sister will take her place within my war machine.”
Like hell. “What about my mother?”
“Sadly, she’s fading. Not much life left in her. All that nasty cancer eating her up from the inside. It’s a pity, really. She had some fire in her too, once, didn’t she?
You’d have been proud of the way she fought for your sister.”
Ava barely bit back a sob as the truth slapped her in the face. Dimas wasn’t lying. Mom was fading. And the stress of this whole ordeal—watching her daughter be tortured—wasn’t helping. “Don’t you fucking touch them.”
“Too late for that. And I’m going to keep touching them if you don’t do exactly as I say.”
“Tell me,” she growled.
“You’re going to tell me where you are. I will send my troops to escort you here. You will surrender yourself to them, along with your Sorican friend who’s been toying with my Dregorgs. You’re going to come unarmed, obedient, and then I’m going to crawl into your skull so I can see how a Soricalia’s mind works.”
The idea sickened her, but she kept her voice steady. “What are you going to do with Radek?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She knew he was lying, but chose not to point it out. “And what about me? Will I survive this examination?”
“If I say no, does that change anything?”
“No.”
“Good then. We have an agreement. Where are you, Avalia?”
She didn’t even twitch as she lied. “Denton, Texas. I heard you were in the South.”
“You heard wrong. Stay where you are. I’ll have troops there by sunset tomorrow. When you see them coming, you will surrender yourself to them.”
“Promise me you won’t hurt my family.”
“I promise.”
He hung up, leaving silence behind. She stared down at her phone, seeing Mom’s smiling face on her screen.
A bleak numbness set in as the truth hit her. “He’s going to kill them, isn’t he?”
Radek didn’t respond.
“Answer me, damn it! Am I wrong?”
“No.”
“Is there any way to save my family?”
“No. If we go, we’ll walk right into his trap. I heard what he said to you through the phone. If you survive long enough to see your family again, if they’re still alive when you get there, they won’t stay that way for long.”
She’d been faced with Mom’s mortality for a long time, and she still hadn’t been able to accept that one day Mom would be gone. How in the world was Ava ever going to accept the idea of her sister’s death?
“I won’t let them die. I can’t. That’s why I lied.”
Radek pulled over to the side of the highway. There were hardly any cars out—nearly everyone was hiding at home, terrified to leave. The road was empty, making her feel even more alone and afraid. If not for Radek’s presence, she didn’t know what she’d do.
“We can be in Denton before dawn. Set up our own trap.”
She shook her head. “We don’t have enough manpower or weapons.”
He took her hands in his. “Then we get that weapon prototype from Zoe and kill him first.”
“How? The weapon needs DNA. We have none.”
“Orac said that Dimas brought his son. We find him. Use his DNA.”
It was a good idea—one she never would have been able to come up with as frantic with worry as she was right now.
“How do we find him?’ she asked.
“The window in Iowa will open soon. Zoe will send through her presents. I say we go after them and see what kind of advantage they give us. You’ve inherited the mind of two of the best strategic thinkers of all time. If you have all the options laid out in front of you, I bet you come up with something brilliant.”
“I’m not my parents. I don’t even think I believe in this whole genetic memory thing.”
“You don’t have to believe in it for it to work.”
She laid her head back on the seat as worry and stress washed over her. “I don’t have any better ideas. Let’s go to Iowa.”
He nodded and pulled back onto the road, heading north.
Ava’s stomach churned with anxiety. If she was wrong about this plan, it was her family who was going to pay the price. And if that happened and she was the cause of their deaths, she knew her own wouldn’t be far behind. She would make sure of it.
*****
They made good time on the empty roads.
Radek kept careful tabs on Ava as they traveled north, glancing at her every few seconds to make sure she was hanging in there.
He knew he’d put pressure on her, but he’d had no choice. She was stronger than she knew, and before he sent her back home to a war zone, he needed to be sure she could tap into that strength.
Things were bad on Loriah. With her parentage, she’d be tossed right into an advisory position serving Command. And while there were fewer safer places for her within their army, she wouldn’t be allowed to stay in a position of power for long if she didn’t perform. If that happened, she’d be put on the front lines, fighting the Raide war machine.
As tough as she might be, she wasn’t equipped for that. She’d die fast and bloody.
If he could help her tap into her innate strategic abilities, she’d know how to access them. They would grow and strengthen. She’d be as safe as possible during a time of war. But until she learned to access that genetic knowledge, the risk that she’d die was dangerously high.
Command wasn’t known for its forgiveness, or for giving second chances. She’d need to show her skills early and often if she was to stay safe.
As much as Radek wished otherwise, he couldn’t be there for her on Loriah. All he could do was make sure she was prepared for what would await her at home.
And that meant pressuring her—forcing her to tap into her birthright.
Radek brought them to a stop outside of a shopping mall. He checked again to be sure this was the right place, and when he saw that this was where the next window opened, he groaned.
Ava lifted her blond brows at him. “In the mood for a little shopping?” she asked.
The mall loomed large in front of them. The parking lot was completely empty, even though it was the middle of the day.
Like everywhere else in the country, people were at home, hiding with their families. No one had bothered to show up to work, which explained the locked doors and the prominent CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE signs.
“The next window will open inside in less than two hours,” he explained.
“Really? It couldn’t be someplace a little less conspicuous? There are security cameras inside. Alarms. Maybe even a guard.”
“I can deal with all of that.” He hoped.
“It’s the middle of the day. Someone is going to see us.”
“Then they do. I can’t let Zoe’s weapon fall into the wrong hands. The locations of the windows aren’t secret.”
“So Dimas knows we’re here.”
“Probably. There are another two windows opening within minutes of this one in other parts of the country. He can guess that we might be here, but there’s no way for him to know for sure.”
“What’s to stop him from sending troops to all three locations?”
“Nothing,” said Radek. “We’re just going to have to be prepared.”
Ava nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s start with problem number one. How do we get in without setting off the alarms and bringing in a SWAT team?”
“First, I imagine that law enforcement has other, bigger issues at hand right now than a B&E at the mall. Second, we’re going to walk in right through the back door.”
“You’re going to bust it down?”
“No,” he said. “We’re going to use a little more skill than that.”
“We?”
He parked the truck in a slot meant for deliveries. “Yes, we. It’s about time you start using all those talents your parents gave you.”
“If you’re talking about strategy, then I hate to break it to you, but I’ve got nothing.”
“Not that. Remember when you burned that man with your hands?”
She shuddered. “I’ll never forget it.”
“We’re going to do that again, only this time we’re going to d
o it to a door.”
She seemed to perk up in her seat. “That should smell way less nasty than it did the last time.”
“Come on.”
They got out of the truck and went to the walk-in door near the unloading dock. It was made from heavy steel with a glass panel in the top half. Strands of metal ran through the glass to reinforce it.
A security camera pointed right at them, but he didn’t care. There were no cars in the lot—no one here to watch the video feed. By the time anyone got around to viewing the footage, both he and Ava would be long gone.
Just for kicks, he checked the door. It didn’t budge.
“Locked.”
“Yeah, we don’t get that lucky. Sorry,” she said.
He took her by the wrists to guide her. “Put your hands here on the glass. It melts at a lower temperature than the steel. All we need to do is melt a hole big enough so we can reach inside and open the door.”
“And the alarm will go off.”
“Then it does. We have to get inside.”
She nodded and followed his instructions, placing her hands low on the glass.
“You heat the glass. Once it’s dripped away, I’ll take care of the metal woven inside. Deal?”
“I’ll do what I can.” She closed her eyes in concentration. Little frown lines formed between her eyebrows. Her lips tensed, giving him the strongest need to kiss them until they relaxed again.
He could feel her body’s heat against his bare chest, but there was no movement in it. She wasn’t making any progress.
In a gentle tone he asked, “Do you remember what it felt like before?”
She shook her head, making her curls bob. “I remember my hands getting hot, the smell of burning hair, skin and sweat. I remember his screams of pain.”
“Your body knows how to move the heat from your surroundings to your hands. All you have to do is get out of its way.” He stepped closer, putting his hands on the backs of hers. “Feel the energy glide through you. Collect it. Channel it into the tips of your fingers.”
He could feel her vibrating with effort, but nothing was happening.
She shoved out a frustrated breath and let her hands fall. “It’s not working. Can’t you do it?”
“This is a skill all Sorican children learn. You can’t go back and face Command without such a basic ability. It would be like a grown woman who didn’t know how to tie her own shoes. No one would take you seriously.”