“I just want to go home and pretend that this nightmare never happened.” I sobbed and Gray pulled me into his shoulder and then into a tentative embrace. “Why are you still with me?”
“Because I want to be. I didn’t want you to wake up alone and afraid.”
I shook my head. “But you’re in the Lesser section. You hate Lessers. Especially here.”
He smiled crookedly. “Not everything is always as it appears on the surface.”
Sniffing, I asked, “What does that mean?” My eyes search his. His hands softly fell on either side of my face, pulling me close. At first I wondered if he intended to kiss me, but he held me still, his smile fading quickly away.
“Abigail.”
“What?”
“I never noticed before.”
“Never noticed what, Gray? You’re freaking me out.”
“You’re not a Lesser. Your eyes...the pupil is ringed in gold. It’s such a tiny ring, but it’s there.”
“I know. Crew showed me in a mirror on the train.” I told him about my parents, about how they couldn’t raise me and sent me to Lulu. Pouring my heart out to him, I explained how she raised me, about my childhood and of the village in which I grew up. We laughed and a look of wonder and amazement never left Gray’s face.
“Why did they send you here? You don’t belong with the Lessers. You are most definitely a Greater. I don’t understand.”
“I’ve never received the vaccinations. That’s why the ring isn’t very noticeable. The medicines didn’t make it spread.”
“This makes no sense. They said you were infertile.”
I shrugged. “Maybe it’s a natural occurrence.”
Shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, Gray said, “No. I think it was a ploy, a way to get you away from Crew. I wouldn’t put it past the President. He always gets his way.”
My stomach dropped and I tensed all over, making deep pain radiate through my abdomen. “He told Crew he could have me if I was fertile.”
“Maybe he lied.”
“Maybe.” I conceded. I knew he was trying to be sweet and supportive, but I wondered if I really were infertile. Barren.
“Thanks for being here for me. I know you don’t have to be.”
“I want to be. Besides, you need someone to be with you when Crew shows up. He’s... Gretchen said something to me the other day before your stroll around the palace grounds.” His eyes locked onto mine. “The President ordered that the cooks sprinkle a substance on Crew’s food. They’ve also put the mixture in the salt shakers that he uses. President Cole told them it was a vitamin mineral mixture to help promote virility, but Gretchen thinks it might explain his mood changes and aggression. She thinks it may be a steroidal drug.”
I must have looked lost. “It makes a person much more moody, hostile, and more violent. Men become quick-tempered and sometimes angered to the point of harming another.”
It made sense. That was exactly how Crew had acted. Perhaps he was being drugged. If that was the case, I was glad that Gray had chosen to stay with me.
“You don’t think Crew would hurt me, do you?”
“I don’t know.” He stood and paced the floor. “If Gretchen is right, he could be angry about your infertility—that you were taken from him. He could act out. I just want to be here when he comes–just in case.”
I spent the rest of the evening napping on and off. Gray brought me some sort of chicken broth and made-from-scratch bread. It was both salty and sweet, delicious.
TWO DAYS LATER AS I dressed in the stained dove gray dress begrudgingly borrowed from another Lesser, a ruckus began outside the small house at which I’d been staying. Gray’s voice and then Crew’s bounced back and forth outside the rickety front door. I opened it and peered outside at the two men, who were now nose to nose and boot to boot, spitting venom at one another like two coiled snakes, both ready to strike. Easing out onto the tiny porch, I tried to decide how to diffuse the situation. Better to dive in now and beg forgiveness later.
“Crew.”
He turned his attention to me. “Abby!” Running at me, he caught me by the waist and lifted me, spinning me in a half-circle. “I was so worried about you!” I cried out in pain. The soreness had worsened, not subsided. He must not have noticed, so I didn’t say anything.
“Worried?” The old Crew was back.
“Of course. I love you, Abby. Look, I know what my father said about you, but I don’t care. We don’t have to have kids. I just want us to be together.” His eyes darted back and forth searching my own, squeezing my hands with his.
“Crew, your dad will never let us happen. He sent me away. It’s more than clear that he doesn’t approve.”
“I don’t care. It’s my life. I’m sick of him telling me what to do,” He raged, and then began pacing, chest heaving.
“I want to go home. I want to go back to the village.”
“You don’t want to be with me.”
“I want to go home. Please, help me get home.”
Crew’s face contorted in rage. His golden eyes smoldered. “I can’t believe you, Abigail. After all I’ve done for you!”
“All you’ve done for me? What? Take me from my home? Claim me in front of everyone with this,” I motioned toward my neck, “ring! Lock me in a room? Have physicians run a battery of tests so horrible that I can still barely walk days after the procedure! What have you done for me, Crew?”
He ticked his head back. “What are you talking about? Is this more of your lies? Father said you would lie. He said you would want to avoid embarrassment of having been found wanting, infertile—no better than the other women who have been subject to this plague. He said you would say anything to get out of the Greater city. He told me that you’d threatened to expose the vaccination program to the citizens. He said that you chose your guard, over me!”
Crew glared at Gray, his nostrils flaring and face red with rage.
“Your father is a liar and I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He taught you well, huh, Crew? How dare you accuse me of lying when that’s all you’ve done since the first time we met! Does this look like I’m lying!” I pulled up my skirts and yanked down my undergarments so that he could see the purple, brown, black, and green that mingled together on my lower stomach. He took it in, his mouth dropping slowly open.
Gray’s warmth radiated from behind me. “Shh. It’s okay, Abby,” he said. “He sees it now.”
I looked to Crew. His eyes were wide and moist. “Abby. My God, I’m so sorry.”
I couldn’t even speak, so I just nodded and sniffed. “I’m not lying.”
His arms folded around me. “I know. I should have believed you. I’m so sorry, Abby Blue. I feel like I’m losing my mind. What the hell is wrong with me?”
I sobbed into his chest. “What did they do to me?”
“I don’t know,” he said into my temple. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Okay?” He pulled back and his eyes found mine. They were filled with determination, with resolve and an amount of well suppressed anger.
To Gray, he said, “You’ll go with her.”
I looked behind me. Gray nodded. “Go where?” I’m confused. Crew nudged my chin back toward him before placing a soft kiss on my lips. I was taken aback. His hand slid around my neck and into my hair. He kissed me again, pinching his eyes closed. His thumb moved down the back of my neck and brushed my collar, my ring. I could hear the moment the metal separated and a piece of my heart broke along with it. This was goodbye. He was letting me go.
GRAY USHERED CREW, THE GREATER prince of Olympus, into the dilapidated shack that we’d been calling home. We took turns explaining the events of late. Gray told Crew what Gretchen said about his food being tainted and that he’d since spoken with her. She had taken the containers and emptied them, replacing them with simple table salt. The effects might linger for a short time, but would not intensify and would ultimately fade away, along with his abnormal fe
elings of rage.
I was certain that a part of him would remain angry for a long time. Crew knew who his father was. He knew how he ran the country, how corrupt and dirty he was. He just hadn’t expected his own father to drug him, or for him to take what he had from me.
“I have to find out.”
“Find out what?” I asked him.
“I have to find out what they did to you, Abby. What they are going to do with the others. What my father is truly capable of.”
Gray cleared his throat. He was leaning against a small wooden dresser. “I think I have someone who can help us, at least with respect to the Lesser girls.”
“Who?” Crew and I said in unison. I smiled slightly, making eye contact with him, before turning my attention back to Gray.
“Gretchen.”
Crew looked taken aback. “Gretchen?”
“Yeah. She’s been checking on them at night. The guards love her. She already has an in. I can talk to her about everything.”
Crew nodded his head. “Do it. See what she can learn. Have her befriend Laney. She will help. Tell her Abby said for her to help. Is that okay, Abs?”
“Yes. Laney can tell Gretchen what is going on and Gretchen can report to you, Crew.”
Crew sat on the bed next to me, elbows on his knees, rubbing his temples. “This is so messed up.”
Gray and I agreed. It was.
“I’m going to have a friend hack into your medical records. I’ll find out what’s going on Abby. I promise. I’m so sorry to have dragged you into all this. And, I….” His voice broke. “I am so sorry for how I’ve acted. I hurt you. I swear I would never hurt you on purpose. I love you.”
I hugged him tight. “I know. It’s okay.”
“No. It’s not okay. But, I promise you, I will make it okay, even if it means taking down my own father. I will make this right.”
I clung tight to him and nodded into his neck.
He exhaled and said, “God, I’m going to miss you. Wait for me?”
I nodded again, a tear slipping down my face. “Of course. You’re my forever.”
He chuckled and wiped the tear away. “And you are mine.”
∞
GRAY AND I EACH CARRIED a small pack with one change of clothes, food and a couple of bottles of water that we managed to sneak away. Crew had arranged everything with Gray via messengers over the past few days. He didn’t trust the security of the communicators. We made our way, as instructed, toward the main train depot in the Lesser section of the Greater City of Olympus.
It was very early in the morning and a heavy fog cloaked our movements. Had he known this dense cover would descend? With the technology found here, anything was possible. The freight train sat empty on the tracks. We climbed into the ninth car from the rear and found the bag that had been promised, behind several stacks of empty wooden crates. Gray pulled from the bag two blankets, more water and food and a heavy white envelope. Scrawled in beautiful penned letters was ‘Abby Blue.”
Gray cleared his throat and stepped away giving me some space. I opened the large square and found a familiar circle. My ring stared back at me. Etched with the symbol of eternity. Infinity, Crew had called it. A letter was tucked in behind it. It read:
My Dearest Abby Blue,
I want to apologize to you with every fiber of my being, with all that I am. I lied to you about a great many things. I pretended to be someone I wasn’t. But you saw through my facade and found the real me. I forced you to become my intended, claimed you, tried to possess you. I was wrong. You’re like a thunderstorm, a wildflower. You cannot be possessed. You can’t be tamed, for if you were, you would wilt and wither. You would die. The light I see within you would dim and then fade away and I couldn’t live with myself if I were the one who had extinguished everything that is you.
You have every reason to doubt me, but do not doubt me when I say sincerely that I love you, Abby Blue. I’ve loved you since I first saw you. And for me, you will always be my forever.
Your Infinite,
Crew
Warm tears cooled against the skin on my cheek as I fingered the parchment and the ring that I once detested. I was jerked out of my reverie quickly as the train jerked forward, its great wheels squealing and groaning against their tracks. Gray and I settled behind the crates. Crew had mentioned that the freight trains took longer to travel. They weren’t as high tech as the Olympian passenger trains. For once, I was glad. I was content to enjoy the journey.
“What are you thinking?” Gray asked.
“I’m just enjoying the present. I’ve always been so focused on the past, or worried about the future, that I’ve never just been still and enjoyed what’s right now.”
He laughed heartily. “What?” I asked.
“The present doesn’t exist.”
“What do you mean?” I cocked my head to the side. His orange eyes glittered happily.
“Think about it. The present is a myth. It’s just what we try to call the split second that our past collides with our future.”
“Hmmm. I never thought about it that way.”
“The moment you were trying so hard to enjoy a second ago is already gone.” I looked at him. “What? It’s true.”
I laughed. “I guess I never figured you for a philosopher.”
Gray threw his arm around my shoulders. “Me either, Abs. Me either.” I snuggled into him and the stubble on his chin grazed my forehead lightly as we rocked to and fro over the land, toward Orchard village. Toward home.
∞
IT WAS NIGHT WHEN WE arrived in Orchard. On the depot’s platform, a few fiery torches were lit, but provided little resistance against the blackness that surrounded it. Gray pulled me to standing and we moved stealthily toward the heavy steel door, which he opened just enough for us to squeeze through.
Looking back and forth and declaring it clear and safe, he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. We ran quickly toward the shadows lurking in the tree line just beyond the small wooden building. I was focused on trying to be fast and trying not to fall. A hand grabbed me around the stomach and another clasped down on my mouth before more than a squeak of the scream I tried to let loose was uttered. “Shh. It’s me, Abs.”
My heart thundered in my chest. I could feel my entire body shaking. “Ky?”
“Yes.”
Gray pulled me away from Kyan. “Get off her, now,” he warned, with a cold concern that I’d never heard from him before. Kyan released me and stepped back. Looking from Gray to me and back.
“I got a comm that you would be on the train. I was coming to help you. I didn’t realize you weren’t coming alone.”
The two sized each other up. Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward and hugged Kyan with everything I had. “I missed you.”
“Missed you, too, Abby Blue.” His muffled words sounded into my hair.
“Ky, this is Gray. Gray, Kyan’s my best friend.” The two stayed rooted to the ground until I gave both a stern “be nice” look. Reluctantly, they shook hands quickly and then fixed their eyes back on me.
“Abs, I came to warn you, too. A lot’s changed since you’ve been gone. The Greater guards never left. More have come and things have gotten very difficult here in Orchard.” He swallowed thickly.
“Why?”
“They’re here to prevent rebellion. Everyone went sort of crazy after they rounded all of you up and took you away. They’re here to make sure we don’t step out of line. Punishments have been hard and frequent. There’s a curfew now. The Greaters have everyone working, even the elderly and children. It’s....well, it’s rough, Abs. I just wanted you to know so that you would keep your mouth shut.” He pinned me with a pleading, yet stern gaze and I nodded.
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll do. Norris had nothing on their punishments, Abs. It’s bad. Really bad.”
My heart sank. What had happened to Orchard? I was supposed to escape Olympus to return to my home, to my normal. But, it
seemed as if the Greaters had even taken that away from me.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We’ll figure it out, but until we do, please keep your head down and do as you’re told. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“You’re house is being used by guard members right now, so you two can stay with me.”
“Kyan, your parents don’t have room for us.”
He laughed heartily. “I don’t live with my parents anymore.”
“Oh, right. How is Paige?” I felt my entire body stiffen as her name spit from my mouth.
“Paige? I guess she’s okay. She’s married to Councilmen Stephens. The wedding took place the day after they took you away.”
“But Crew said...”
“What did he say?” Kyan asked, brows raised.
“He said you two had been married and that you were now on the Council, as was promised.”
He shrugged, “I declined their offer. They did make me supply coordinator, though. It’s how I knew you were coming.”
“You have Lulu’s job?” Tears flooded my eyes.
“Yeah. Sorry, Abs.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be. I’m happy for you.”
“Well, with the job came my own place, so I have plenty of room for you both. It looks like you might want to clean up and rest. Tomorrow is sure to be interesting.”
Kyan led us through the night, down the well-worn familiar path toward town before veering off onto an obviously new one. His cabin appeared in the distance. It looked like my old home—small, wooden, with a little porch attached to the front. Candles flickered happily in each of the windows and a sliver of smoke poured from the chimney. I covered my nose with my sleeve, trying to warm it as we drew near.
We had to make a plan, figure out how to rescue the girls that had been stolen away. I need to see if Lulu left any clue as to who my parents were and how I could find them. We needed to rid the village of the Greaters that now occupied and ruled over it with heavy hands our freedom, our future was worth fighting for and had now become my cause, my obsession.
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