“Not a man?” I balked. “A woman did this to you?” I shook my head. “I can’t even fathom a woman strong enough to—” My mouth went dry as my heart dropped. I didn’t have to ask. Before I even finished that thought, I knew. “Your mother did this to you.”
“This isn’t worth discussing, Razz,” Prince Park said. Then he turned from me and started toward the door.
“Isn’t it though?” I said, grabbing his arm. I spun him back to face me again. His gaze finally met mine. There was something else in his expression now. Something deeper than even what I saw back in the surgical room.
He was angry, and he was determined.
I could use this. I could crack him wide open if I played this the right way.
“This isn’t right, Park,” I said.
“Prince Park,” he corrected.
“No,” I answered defiantly. “You don’t get to be called that, not today, not after what you let happen to you.”
His eyes went wide, and his face got red. “Have you gone mad? Do you have any idea who you’re speaking to?”
“I thought it was the prince of this entire sector. Turns out it was just some scared little boy this entire time.”
“She’s the damned regent, Razz,” he answered, his lips drawn together.
“I know who she is. It doesn’t make her the creator. She doesn’t get free rein.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Would you like to tell her that?”
“Just point me in the right direction.”
His serious expression turned even darker. “I’d rather not,” he said, his frown lines deepening beside his lips. “That wouldn’t be wise—not for you or your sister.”
There. Now we were getting somewhere. He was beginning to open up, but I needed to go slowly. Otherwise, he’d spook like a hopper back in the Dustland woods that had been run up on too quickly.
“Tell me what would be wise then,” I said. “So that my sister doesn’t end up like you.”
The spasm of hurt and shame that rolled across his face was evident. And it hurt me a little to know that I was the person who caused it. But it wasn’t close to the hurt that the poor people I watched die had gone through.
“That’s not what she wants with either of you,” he said.
“She wants the farm girl,” I said, echoing the old woman’s last words.
“And now she has her,” Prince Park said, looking at me and swallowing hard.
“My sister is not a toy to be played with,” I said. “She’s not some commodity that can be used and discarded. She’s not quantifiable, Park.”
“But you are?” he asked.
“Stop diverting. This isn’t about me. Gemma’s life is at stake. You have to help me. You have to tell me what’s going on.” I grabbed his hand. “You need to tell me what your mother wants with my sister.”
He stared at me for a long moment before swiftly pulling his hand away.
Damn it. He was spooked.
“I am helping you,” he said, closing his eyes. “Not telling you is helping you.” He shook his head hard. “And that’s not all I’ve been doing, okay? But you need to stop. Just do what I tell you, you stubborn woman! Be patient and be smart. That’s how this works.”
“Says the man who just got his face pummeled in by a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old woman,” I scoffed. “If that’s making this ‘work,’ then I don’t want any part of it.”
“That’s because you don’t know what the alternative is.” He rubbed his thumb into his opposite palm, as if massaging away a sore spot. “If you did, you’d be begging me to shut you up.”
He took a deep breath. After he turned for the door again, he paused before leaving. “The stubbornness must run in the family,” he said. “Regent knows your sister won’t touch her damn food, either.”
“Gemma!” I said. “You’ve seen her? Is she okay?”
He turned back to me, and I recognized the look in his eyes. It was the same look I’d just had. Now it was his turn to crack me wide open.
“If you want information about your sister, you have to earn it. Do as I say, eat your food, and don’t ask questions. Do that, and maybe I’ll tell you how Gemma is. Maybe you’ll even get to see her again.”
There was more pain in his voice than I had ever heard before.
“You girls.” He sighed, knocking on the door. “I can’t believe you make me do this.”
The door opened, and he marched back out.
That was the last time Prince Park ever delivered my food.
Chapter 13
The next few days were slow and painful. The diminutive women came back, bringing my food in lieu of Prince Park. Day after day, they sat the food down, sneered at me with twin gazes, and turned on their heels judgmentally.
I had given up on the idea of talking to anyone ever again.
I lay on my mattress, turned toward the far wall, wishing I at least had a window to stare out of. Behind me, the door whooshed open. But I didn’t turn. What was the point? It was just those blasted women again, and regent knows I didn’t want to see them.
So I pretended to be asleep, hoping they would leave without lingering too long.
When I heard his voice, it shook me to my core.
“Don’t tell me you’ve given up already,” he said, and I could sense the wry grin in his voice.
My entire body went rigid as his words sank in. It wasn’t those women. It wasn’t the regent herself. Hell, it wasn’t Prince Park.
I spun and met him—Henrick—standing before me. He was dressed in a proper guardsman uniform, helmet and all.
What was he doing here? How did he get here? And how in the sector did he manage to look so good in those clothes?
“You?” I gasped, quickly jumping to my feet. “Are you really here?”
It was embarrassing, but the idea that this might be an illusion, that my mind was tricking me into seeing something I wanted in order to either save my sanity or hurt me even more, puddled in my mind.
But why would I want to see Henrick?
“Of course I’m here, Razz,” he said quietly, looking back at the closed door. “And it wasn’t an easy feat. So I won’t disagree with you if you want to tell me how amazing I am. I will, however, ask that you save your adulation for a later date because, regardless of how well-earned it is, we just don’t have time for it right now.”
“Adulation?” I asked, my eyes widening. “Are you serious? Adulation?”
Rage pummeled through my veins. Maybe it was all the time I had spent here or maybe it was knowing that there was someone—even if it was just Henrick—out there thinking about me. Whatever the reason, that word pushed me right past my breaking point.
And it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
“You worthless son of a ravager. You’re the reason I’m here! You’re the reason my sister is here!”
He blanched. “Keep your voice down and chill the hell out,” he said, his jaw tightly set. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think I do,” I said, shaking my head. “You came over, talking about all that treason stuff, and next thing I know, my housing quarters get blasted with dancing fire and my sister and I get carted off to here.”
“Lower your voice,” Henrick hissed. “Do you want to get us caught?”
“Some of us are already caught,” I said, my hands clutching into fists at my sides.
“And some of us are here to undo that,” Henrick said.
My mouth went dry. “You’re here to save me?”
“Well, I didn’t break into this place and throw on this uniform because I was envious of the helmet hair,” he said, a low growl to his tone. “You might blame me for what’s happened to you and, who knows, you might even have a point about that. Frankly, I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t know if the things I told you played a part in it. And neither do you. But I do know that, regardless of the reason, I’m not going to let you remain a prisoner. Not if I c
an help it.”
I took a deep breath and tried to relax. Ridiculously, something about him taking responsibility for this made me feel better. It was like the instant he said it might be his fault was when I wanted to rush to him and assure him it wasn’t.
I must have been closer to full-blown insanity than I realized.
“What are you going to do then?” I asked.
“Me?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “I’m not going to do anything. But then, I’m not the only one involved in this.” His eyes drove into me. “You remember all those people in the room that day, Razz? The people you got so embarrassed in front of when they saw—”
“When they saw what they saw,” I said, willing the heat to leave my cheeks as the memory of my steamy dream with Henrick danced through my mind.
There was no need to relive that right now.
“I remember them,” I said, shaking my head ever so slightly.
“Well, some of them are here. The ones with more useful skillsets broke in with me. If I’m not mistaken, they’re going to be putting one of those skills to use in 3…2…”
The lights went out. No—not just the lights. Everything was out. Even the whirr of electricity stopped.
“Look at that,” Henrick whispered into the dark. “They were a little early.”
With a click and a whoosh, my cell door popped open. The sound echoed down the hall outside as all the other cell doors on the floor—and probably in the whole building—did the same. This was a prison. I remembered as much when they dragged me here. Thanks to the meddling of Henrick’s helpers, there was about to be a break in security. This help came too late for too many.
I bit back tears at the memory of those who would never make it out. “You should’ve come sooner,” I said quietly.
“A ‘thank you’ would suffice,” Henrick said.
I felt a tug on my arm as he grabbed me and pulled me out of my cell. My feet moved quickly down the dark hallway, but I was tired, barefoot, and malnourished. It wasn’t easy for me to keep up.
“Henrick!” I said as he basically yanked me around like a ragdoll through the dark halls. “I’m not leaving this place without my sister! We have to find her.”
He jerked to a stop, and I felt his hand searching for my other palm. He pressed something into it. It felt like a small, circular tube.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Swallow it,” he commanded.
“What is it?” I repeated.
“Something to help you see.”
“How is this going to—”
“Trust me, I didn’t go through all this trouble to do anything that would endanger you, but I hardly have time to explain everything. If you want to get yourself and your sister out of here, you need to follow my command. Now swallow it!”
I hesitated. I was already kidnapped, imprisoned, and now part of what had to be the hugest single act of treason to ever happen within the walls of the center.
What did I possibly have to lose?
I swallowed what I now realized was a pill. I nearly choked at first as it went down sideways, but I gritted my teeth until it righted itself and slowly went the rest of the way down.
“Now what?” I asked, listening to war break out around me.
“Follow me,” he said over the clatters and shouting of distant prisoners. “Everything will make sense soon.”
I let him pull me forward. Suddenly, my eyes started burning. I tried to stop, but he kept pulling me behind him.
“Henrick,” I said as the burning got more intense. “Henrick, something’s wrong.”
“It’s not,” he answered.
But the burning was even more severe now. My eyes were watering and seared with pain as though on fire.
“It is, damn it. Something is—”
I blinked hard, trying to blink away the burning. Instead, something else happened.
The entire world lit up. I could see. It was still dark, still pitch black. But somehow, I could see through all of that.
The world was a tint of green and glowed as if under chaotic light.
But I could see.
“This…this is what the pill was for,” I muttered.
“You said you wanted to find your sister,” Henrick answered. “This is the only way that you’re going to be able to do that.”
“Thank you,” I said, breathing heavy as I saw what was unfurling before me.
I was right to think that all the doors had opened up. Guardsmen flooded the hallway, but so had the prisoners. And they were fighting as much as they could, given the darkness.
But the fighting was so haphazard, so ill advised, that no one knew who they were at battle with. None of them could see, so they all brawled blind, throwing punches, kicks, and lightning sticks around at anyone they came into contact with.
“Listen to me,” Henrick said. He was looking me right in the eyes. “This won’t last long. My friends took care of the back-up generator, but that’s only going to buy us so much time. If we’re going to find your sister, we need to act quickly.”
“We?” I asked, suddenly moved by all he had done for me today.
“I’m not leaving some innocent farm girl to face the wrath of a royally pissed off Brula,” he said. “It’s just not happening. But, like I said, there’s no time. So, although I truly dislike this idea, I think we’re going to have to split up.”
I nodded firmly.
“I have no idea where she might be, and we’ll be able to cover more ground if we—”
“You don’t have to convince me,” I said, shaking my head. “Whatever it takes to find her. I’m not afraid of this, Henrick.”
He looked at me for a long moment. “You’re really not, are you?”
“Let’s just get it done. Meet you outside.”
“Five minutes,” he said. “No more. Gemma or not, I need your word that you will be out of this building in five minute’s time.”
“Five minutes,” I agreed, although I wondered if he knew that it was a lie. I’d stay here for five years if it took that to find my sister. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.
He nodded and darted off just as someone threw a guardsman past us.
The poor soul slammed against the metal wall, and a prisoner—a man with dark markings on his face that probably came from some center coven I had never heard of before—slammed his head hard against the floor.
Henrick was already out of sight, lost somewhere in the sea of hurt and violence. How many of these people, of those fighting right at this moment, had been locked away as unjustly as Gemma and I?
Perhaps all of them. Or perhaps some of them were dangerous to everyday people, and we’d just helped them escape. But my guess was many of them were the witches Brula targeted—people who had all been carted away for no other reason than just being who they were.
But that didn’t explain them taking Gemma. She had never shown any signs of being a witch. In fact, a witch living out in the Dustlands was an idea so rare that it made me an oddity.
It didn’t matter. None of it. I just wanted Gemma back.
So, with no idea of where she might be, I did the only thing I could think of. The thing I used to do when she’d disappear into the cornfield or dart into the barn unseen back home.
I yelled for her.
“Gemma!” I screamed as loudly as I could.
The noise around me was deafening. So much anger. So much screaming. Even I could barely hear my relatively light voice as it wafted past my lips.
There was no way my sister was going to hear me.
She was free, presumably, since it looked as if every door in this place had opened up. But, like all the others, she was blind right now.
She was very likely scared to death. It was entirely possible that she had fallen victim to some of the horrendous acts of violence that were—at this moment—being perpetrated by both sides.
My heart leapt into my throat with that thought. I needed to find her, and I
needed to do it quickly. But I’d have to use my head.
I knew my sister. I knew what she was like, and I knew what she’d likely do in a situation like this. She wouldn’t stay in her cage, not when the doors might swing back closed at any moment. She would take her chances on the outside. But as soon as she realized what was going on, she would try to find a safe place to wait it out until she could run—a corner to duck into or a hallway to hide in until she was sure no one would trample her.
And that was where I had to start looking.
As I stepped around another corner, a guardsman stabbed a prisoner clean through with a loose metal rod. Blood tinted green from my night vision spewed from the man’s mouth and nose.
Steeling myself as best I could, I ducked away, moving through the sea of craziness—through guardsmen mistaking their own for prisoners, prisoners running headfirst into walls they couldn’t see, and people crawling about the floor, injured and bleeding.
Thankfully, none of those people looked to be Gemma.
Taking a deep breath, I navigated through the crowd, inspecting every corner and tucked-away hall and finding that Gemma wasn’t the only person who held that specific mindset.
Every corner, every hole in the wall, seemed to be filled with some crying witch or warlock praying to whatever deity they believed in to get them out of here.
But none of them was my sister.
Down the hall from where I stood now was another tuck in the wall I hadn’t checked yet—a door that had been forced open by whatever pulse knocked the lights out. But this wasn’t like the other doors. It was smaller, had obviously been a secret passageway of some sort.
Gemma had to be in there. It was the only place left for her to go.
I squeezed myself in and found a crawlspace inside, then inched forward, curious about how much the noise from outside seemed to muffle the instant I entered it.
I took a breath, ready to yell Gemma’s name, but a chattering of voices froze the words in my throat.
“You had better be right about this, Conrad!” It was a woman’s voice, echoing throughout the darkened corridor I was in.
Under: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 5 (The Othala Witch Collection) Page 10