“I need your help,” I said, hoping she wasn’t as hardhearted as she pretended to be. My child’s life was in her hands. I needed her to be on my side.
“And what makes you so sure I’ll help you, Elyse?” A smile pulled at her lips that could be every bit as dangerous as it was curious. I couldn’t trust her, but she was the only one who had the answers I needed.
“You helped us escape,” I said. “I don’t think you’re as bad as you make yourself out to be.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she answered.
“We need to know where the mind-wipers are. We can’t let Christoph get to them.”
She laughed. “So you really do have faith in the human race?” I didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I answered.
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re naïve.” She shook her head. “Do you think generations before us haven’t tried integration?” My throat felt dry as I swallowed, realizing she knew more about our plan than she should. “It doesn’t work, and the consequences cost even more lives than keeping us a secret.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“It’s history.”
“Is it? Or has Christoph manipulated you like he has everyone else? Into thinking he’s the only one who knows what’s best for our race.” I stood taller. “He’s wrong. You’re wrong.”
“Don’t test me, Elyse.”
“You’re better than him . . . I just . . .” I could see her expression hardening. Apparently their relationship was a delicate subject. “Will you help us or not?”
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t,” she answered. “Christoph has who he wants. You’re too late.”
That wasn’t the answer I needed. This had to work. I’d seen it. “I don’t believe you.”
She walked toward me, and I tried to resist the urge to back away. Her presence was threatening. I didn’t know what would happen if she got too close. She wheeled around behind me, but I kept my gaze forward, though I felt her hand settle onto the top of my shoulder.
“You realize,” she whispered, “if I really thought you could even come close to us, I wouldn’t have set you free. I’m sorry, Elyse. I just don’t think you have it in you.”
I didn’t know if it was the tone in her voice or the feeling of her breath on my neck that reminded me she wasn’t a friend, but I knew I needed to get out while I still could. William was right. There was a fine line between bravery and foolishness. I was a fool for coming here.
I turned to face her. “You’re wrong.”
As I walked past her, toward the door, I clenched my jaw willing her to let me leave. How could I have put myself and my child in such danger for nothing?
“Elyse,” Adrianna said, stopping me with my hand on the doorknob. I waited, knowing at any moment she could choose to betray me. I turned to look at her. “This time there will be no going back.” Her expression softened, and for a moment I thought I saw sympathy.
I didn’t fully relax until Alex had me back in the caves. Back to William.
“Thank you,” I said as we appeared in the crevice, but he was gone before he heard me.
William sat alone as he waited. He looked out of place in his tux, his elegant apparel clashing against the rustic backdrop of earth and stone. His heavy eyes lit up when he saw me, letting go of their worry.
“I shouldn’t have gone,” I said as I approached.
“I’m just glad you’re back,” he answered, wrapping his arms around me. “You’re alive.”
I buried my face into his shoulder. “I shouldn’t be.”
He held me closer. “I’ve learned that I have to trust you—”
“Don’t trust me,” I interrupted. “I’m crazy. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
He pulled back and looked at me. “Trust me, don’t trust me. What, are you pregnant or something?”
I smiled at his attempt to make me feel better, but it was the fact that I was pregnant that made me so mad at myself for what I’d done.
“It was all for nothing, William,” I said with remorse. “I was wrong. I’m surprised she didn’t kill me on the spot or hand me over to Christoph.”
“Well at least you were right about that,” he said, pulling me closer. “We’ll find the mind-wipers some other way.”
“I was just so sure. I saw her face in a vision. We found her.”
“Her?”
I rested my head against his shoulder, still baffled. “There’s a girl. A mind-wiper. She’s the one he needs.”
“If you saw her, then we’ll find her.”
I shook my head. “It’s too late. She said Christoph already had who he wanted. He has her. Who knows where?”
At first he didn’t say anything. Then he kissed my forehead. “It’ll be fine,” he whispered, but I knew he didn’t believe it. “If it’s okay with you, from now on I’m just going to let you be mad at me instead of letting you go.”
My body shook as I laughed into his chest. “Fine,” I said. “We should get back. I’m sure everyone is asking where we are.”
“What should we tell them?” I asked.
“We’re newlyweds,” he answered with a grin. “We’ll just tell them to use their imaginations.”
I was still a little shaky when we rejoined the party, but
William kept close, with a warm, firm grip on my hand.
“Where the heck have you been?” Chloe asked, finally ripping me away from him. “Why’d you change out of your dress?” She had a whine to her voice that made me think she had either been sneaking sips of moonshine or Sam had done her a favor.
“It was uncomfortable,” I said. “This is more me.”
“Come dance with me,” she slurred as she pulled me into a crowd of smiling, happy people. Her black hair was damp with sweat, and she tossed it over her shoulder.
“I like Peter,” she blurted out, but the music was too loud. “Who?”
“Peter,” she yelled, pointing to a young boy dancing with a toddler. I didn’t recognize him, but I was happy. I wanted her to be accepted, to be a part of this.
I smiled and twirled her under my arm. “He’s cute,” I said. “Where’s your mom?”
Her eyes gave them away, and I followed her gaze to Anna and Mac dancing so closely nobody could pull them apart. Her head snapped back with laughter, and he swung her delicate body back and forth with ease. I watched them for a second, loving Mac for giving her something she’d lost.
“I’ll be right back, okay?” Chloe said before she bounded off toward her crush. I knew she wouldn’t be, so I left the dance floor and found my friends lounging against a stone pillar in the distance.
“And so the queen finally decides to grace us with her presence,” Sam bellowed as I walked toward them.
I bowed and curtsied. “Hello, minions,” I said with feigned arrogance.
“So how did it go with Adrianna?” Nics asked. I immediately glared at Alex. “You told them?”
“Oops,” he said with a shrug.
I shook my head, annoyed with him, and sat across from Nics. “It didn’t go well.”
“Um, I’d say it did,” Rachel huffed. “You’re still alive. What were you thinking going by yourself?”
Paul kept quiet, but I could feel his disapproving eyes on me after what had happened with his girlfriend.
“You’re right. It was stupid,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about it.” I glared at her, half joking, half serious.
Rachel smiled at me. “Only because it’s your wedding day.” Her voice spiked with girly excitement. “Where’s your husband anyway?”
“Husband.” I twisted the gold band of braided olive leaves around my ring finger. “I’m going to have to get used to that. It sounds funny.” I looked around, scanning the crowd, but he was nowhere. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Probably hiding,” Alex said. “It’s game over now. No more making girls fall in love with him. He’s stuck with you. One woman . . . for the next 400 ye
ars . . . forever.”
“Shut up,” Rachel scoffed, giving him the look of death. “Besides, they were always stuck with each other. They’re meant to be.”
As my eyes continued to search through the chaos, I finally found him and Kara off to the side of the dance floor. She looked sad, but he smiled at her and tousled a hand through her hair. She shoved him back playfully, but her face still showed the hurt she felt. He hugged her, letting her bury her face into his chest.
“I don’t think she’s taking it well,” Rachel whispered to me.
Everyone stayed up far later than normal. Mac was distracted and failed to announce “lights out” until half of the camp was already passed out in their tents. Even after the music stopped, voices and laughter carried through The Cavern.
That night William and I claimed the bathing pool.
“I had Christine mimic what we had at Lenaia,” he said, proud of his surprise.
Willow branches draped over the edges of the pool, and the surface was covered with petals that rained on us from a massive cherry tree in the center of the water.
I smiled wide, anxious to dip my toes in. “It’s amazing.” William slipped his shirt over his head. “You want to get in?”
I nodded and did the same, stripping down to my underwear. As I unbuttoned my pants, something fell from the pocket. A note. It had been folded over and over into the smallest square it could make. My fingers pulled open each tightly bent crease until it bloomed into a full page.
“Come on,” William yelled from the water.
“I’ll be right there,” I said glancing at the signature along the bottom of the letter. It was a message from the oracle.
My Dearest Elyse,
You’ve done well. I know you don’t understand my choices. They have been difficult to make. One day you will realize that there was always a purpose behind my actions, and though at times the price of those actions was high, they were necessary. It was I who betrayed your location at your parents’. Far more lives would have been lost in a different battle had I not led them to you that day.
Understand that it is in your child’s nature to protect you. The visions she shares will be meant to guide you. To help you know the future that should be, not only the future that will be. You need to believe in what you see, to believe in her. My choice to betray you and William to Christoph is what gave you a daughter, and make no mistake you will need her to win this war. Trust her. She’s the only gift I have to give you. Let her show you where to go from here.
Christoph has made a mistake. He has indeed captured descendants of Mnemosyne, but he has the wrong pair. You still have time to find the girl, but you must act now. Kara has seen the house. She’s been there, but the memory has been taken from her. Have Alex look into her mind, and he’ll know where to go.
As for me, my time is coming to a close, and though Christoph has my body in captivity, he will never have control of my mind. Be strong for the both of us, Elyse. Challenging times are ahead. The legacy of the oracle is in your hands. She will not lead you astray.
Florence
I clutched the letter in my hand, my heart beating out of my chest. It hadn’t been a waste. I smiled at Adrianna’s two-tongued ways. She’d planned to help me all along.
21.
“WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?” William asked the next morning.
“Adrianna must have slipped it into my pocket when I was there,” I answered, pulling my shirt over my head.
“This is something, Ellie,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, we could really stop him from doing whatever it is he’s up to.”
“I know.” I smiled, ready to go share the news. “Are you going to get ready or what?”
He lay there in our tangled blankets, his sculpted chest exposed.
“Does it have to be over?” he asked, pulling me back down. His hand rested on my stomach, and he looked at it with warm eyes. “Not very big.”
“Not yet. I’m hoping she’ll stay that way for a while.”
“She? You mean he, right?” he teased.
“She,” I clarified.
“All right, she must be happy,” he continued, his warm palm sending heat across my belly. “You didn’t get sick this morning.”
The word sick was enough to make my mouth taste sour. “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
I scrambled for the zipper on the tent door and opened it just in time.
***
“Well hello, married lady,” Rachel teased as I sat down next to her at breakfast.
I laughed. “Hi.” She lifted a backpack to her lap that was full to the brim with supplies and stuffed some bread rolls in the side pocket. “Where are you going?”
“Another recon mission,” Sam said sitting beside me. “We think the Hunters have information, but Dr. Nickel is taking us this time. Me, Nics, Rachel, and Paul.”
“Are you ready for that?” I asked Rachel.
“Not really,” she said without looking at me, “but being ready doesn’t make much of a difference.” She shrugged. “It’s what we’re here to do.”
I pulled the letter out of my pocket. “I guess you’re right.” Once the rest of my inner circle had joined us, including Dr. Nickel and Mac, I read it aloud. When I looked up they all stared back at me.
“I think that settles it,” Dr. Nickel said. “We’ll postpone our recon mission and team up with you—”
“Not a good idea,” Mac interrupted. “Small groups have been working. You won’t know what to expect there. It could be a trap. Large groups are harder to manage.” He tipped his head at me. “It’s up to you, Elyse, but my advice is to take no more than three.”
The letter had decided two of them for me already. “All right. I definitely need Kara and Alex,” I said, thinking aloud.
William stared at me intently, willing me to see his point of view after what happened last night. I was carrying his child.
“Sorry,” he spoke up. “I’m not letting you go without me again. You can be mad if you want, but I’m coming.”
“All right,” I agreed. “We leave tonight.”
Dr. Nickel left with our friends on their recon mission not long after that. If anyone had information on what Christoph was planning it would be the Hunters. I didn’t disagree with their plan, but it still had me worried for them. It was hard to see things as a leader when my friends were the ones risking their lives for this war. Hunters weren’t merciful.
“You okay?” William asked.
“Huh?” I was still lost in thought, my mind on our friends. He nodded to the gun in my hand as I flicked the safety on and off for the tenth time. “Oh. Yeah,” I answered, handing him the weapon. “Give this one to Alex.”
In front of me, atop our planning table, was an array of weapons glinting under the lantern light. Knives, guns, and a mound of freshly carved darts I’d been making to keep myself busy until nightfall. We’d get the best coverage at night, but the waiting was torture.
“Let’s go then,” Kara answered my thought. “It should be dark enough.” She stood and tucked a bigger knife into her boot.
“I still need to see where we’re going,” Alex said, leaning on the back two legs of his chair.
Kara pretended not to hear him at first and busied herself with her already tied bootlaces.
“You might not find anything,” she said without looking up. For some reason she was resisting this part. “I guess you can try . . .”
Alex let the chair fall back on all four legs and jumped to his feet. When he placed his palms gently against either side of her forehead, I could tell his closeness made her tense. Something had changed since the last time he’d looked into her mind. Their eyes connected for a moment before Kara closed her lids and let him in. Maybe they felt more for each other than either was letting on. The two of them stood still and quiet as William and I waited.
“Get out,” Kara said suddenly, shoving Alex in the chest. He stumbled backward. “Those thoughts
are private.”
He stared at her, guilty and defensive. “Like you’re not in my head all the time. You know how I feel.”
Her lips tightened, and she shook her head at a loss for words.
“I have a right to know if you feel the same,” he continued. “No you don’t,” she yelled back at him. “Not if I don’t want you to.”
William and I stayed quiet, but I couldn’t keep from watching them. From the look in their eyes, they were either going to make out or kill each other.
Kara pressed her fingers to her forehead, like the conversation was giving her a headache. “Let’s just focus on the mission, okay?”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Alex said, trying to recover. He reached out his hand, but she caught it before he could touch her, twisting his arm until he was on his knees.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that, Alex?”
He didn’t struggle or try to disappear. Instead he looked up at her, grimacing a bit as she put pressure on his shoulder. “So are you. Maybe that’s why you like me.”
She let go and turned back to me and William. “Can we leave?” she asked with an edge to her voice.
William dared a glance at Alex. “Any chance you found out where we’re supposed to be going during all that?”
“Yes,” he answered, still on his knees.
When Alex transported us, it was to a place somewhere outside, and the glow of the moon was the only thing that helped me make out our surroundings. The silver light glinted in William’s eyes as we made our way up a dirt path surrounded by pine trees and boulders. Kara and Alex were close behind, both of them silent, or perhaps taking part in a silent conversation. I walked faster than normal, the muscles in my legs burning as the path led us uphill. I was anxious to feel right about my choices. Some part of me believed that after we foiled Christoph’s plans I’d feel better about the fire, maybe I’d be able to let it go.
When we got closer to the house, Alex disappeared. “The place is empty,” he said after appearing in front of me. He shrugged. “You’re sure she’s here?”
“Yeah, she’s probably just hiding,” I said. “Do you hear her, Kara?”
She shook her head. “We need to get closer.”
Uprising (Children of the Gods) Page 20