Shadowmarked, p.22
ShadowMarked, page 22
My father stood and took a few steps forward. Next to Governor Grayson, I could see the resemblance. They had the same dusty blond hair, though Grayson’s had streaks of rose gold in hers. They had the same nose, same chin—same scowl on their face.
“Gunner.” My father gave a slight nod.
“Now that you’ve seen with your own eyes that I’ve kept him in good health, I expect you to uphold your end of the bargain, brother.” Grayson crossed her arms and turned to Simon.
He still hadn’t looked away from me. His gaze swept over my body, lingering on the black marks covering my exposed forearms. We had the same hair, we both wore it long and tied back, and I had the sudden urge to take a razor and shave mine all off. His eyes were bright blue, the only thing different between us, because I had my mother’s eyes. I remembered them every time I saw them in my nightmares, watching me from a distance before she gave up her own life to save mine.
“How do I know you won’t turn on us the second you have what you want?” Simon asked, his eyes still fixed on mine while he spoke to Grayson.
“I gave my word, is that not enough?”
“No.”
I let out a snort. “It seems I come from a long line of traitors and scum. Why am I not surprised? I wouldn’t trust either of you. You’re both liars, deceivers, and the worst kind of shit people I’ve ever met… and I’ve met a lot of shit people.”
Simon swallowed hard. He looked as though he wanted to say something, wanted to apologize or explain himself, but I didn’t want to hear it. And he clearly didn’t want to speak it.
“You and your son will be on the train back to Cytos tonight. No one will stop you, and no one will bother you ever again,” Grayson said. “I swear it on our brother’s life.”
Simon shot a glare at Grayson. “The brother you had killed?”
Grayson swallowed.
“You gave me my memories back, or did you forget?” Simon asked. “That includes the ones you didn’t know I had.”
“He got himself killed, with your help it would seem. My men were ordered not to kill him, but your rogue Carbons don’t listen to rules.” She stepped forward. “Don’t think they didn’t pay for that mistake. But our brother sold our secrets and betrayed us… he made his own choice, just as you and I have.” Grayson shrugged, as though her own brother’s death meant nothing.
“My men had nothing to do with that,” Simon argued.
Grayson took another step closer to Simon. “How do you think I knew your Commander Reyes was heading to Eres? Who do you think told me she was planning on meeting him and what information he had?”
Simon set his jaw but he didn’t reply.
“I’m afraid that doesn’t bode well for you, now does it, Simon? Sister dear will likely kill you, too. It seems like a family trait… betrayal.” I smirked.
Simon stared at me for a moment, his mouth opened to say something before he closed it and turned back to Grayson. “We leave in an hour.”
“Sure,” she said. “We’ll have the train ready to go.”
Simon let out a shaky breath. “There’s someone here who’s planning an attack, planning to rescue the genetic kids.”
“There it is. Good old Dad, always willing to throw someone else to the wolves to save your own skin.” I took a step forward, feeling my father tense under my glare. I was aware what he was doing was no different than what I’d done. Maybe we were more alike than I knew. “How many others have you betrayed?” Another step forward. “I wasn’t likely the first, was I? But who would care about a genetic freak of a kid when you could have so much more. Power, wealth, status? Which one did you gain when you locked me in the DEZ?”
“This isn’t the time—” Simon began.
“Isn’t the time?” I cackled, throwing my head back. “You think any of us have time? What, are you planning some big reunion where we’ll sit down and you can explain to me why you did all this? Why you betrayed my mother? She died right before my own eyes, did you know that? I watched as the life drained from her body, and she was so scared of what she would do to me that she didn’t even tell me who she was.” I nodded to Grayson. “Your sister, our beloved Governor… did she fill your wallet each time you betrayed someone? Or did you enjoy it so much you did it for free?”
“I loved your mother,” Simon said through clenched teeth.
“You had a funny way of showing it.”
“That’s enough.” Grayson nodded to the guards flanking me, and they grabbed my arms, pulling me back to where I once stood. “Who is this person trying to attack us, Simon? Tell me and you and your son will be kept safe”
“Safe?” I cut in again, unable to keep my mouth shut. “Do you even know what the word means?”
They both glared my way, and the guard pulled me farther back.
Simon let out a long breath and rubbed a hand to the back of his neck. “Jayla. She’s here, she’s after you, and she’s going to get those kids out.”
“You bastard!” I screamed. “You traitor.”
He ignored me, his jaw tight, and his eyes locked on Grayson. “She’ll take you down from the inside, so I suggest you find her before it’s too late.”
Grayson considered his words for a moment before she turned to the two remaining guards by the door. “Bring every guard here immediately. No one leaves this place until we find her.”
The guards swiftly left, and Simon followed them with his eyes, his gaze somewhat somber, as if he actually cared he’d just given up someone who I thought was supposed to be his ally.
“You’ll want to keep her alive,” Simon said.
“And why would I do that?” Grayson turned her back to us, moving to the desk at the back of this long room where her black-eyed monster stood stoic and waiting. She leaned against the desk.
“She has information that you’ve been searching for,” Simon said. Grayson tilted her head. “Reyes gave it to her. She didn’t destroy what our brother gave her.”
Grayson froze. “You’re certain?”
“I am.”
Grayson looked to her hand, turning it over twice before I noticed what she was really staring at, the silver cuff sticking out just past her sleeve, shimmering in the artificial lights.
“No,” I whispered. “No, you can’t.”
Simon’s brow rose.
“She died to keep that information secret. She died so they would never find out.” I was shaking, filled with rage. It was the reason my mother had taken her own life. She knew if they used me against her, she couldn’t keep what she knew a secret, a secret she’d kept for a long time. She knew how to remove the cuffs from a Carbon. That would make them unstoppable. Grayson would take over the entire country, and there would be nothing anyone could do to stop her.
Simon shook his head. “Reyes didn’t understand the information she held was important, that it could be used to save us.”
“How?” I cried. “If that were true, she would have given it up. Please, don’t do this.”
The break in my voice seemed to crack something in Simon. His face fell, his brows crossed, and he couldn’t look at me.
“Please,” I begged.
“I’m sorry, son,” Simon said, his voice shaky. “Everything I’ve done, everything I am doing, is to keep you safe—to keep you alive.”
I shook my head. “That’s a coward’s answer.”
Before I had a chance to say any more, the double doors opened and guards began filling the room. I searched each one until I caught sight of Caspian, his gaze fixed on Simon. I didn’t see Jayla, didn’t even know who she was, outside of being an ally to Caspian, which meant she was on our side. I knew she was here somewhere, and they were walking right into a trap. But worse than that was the realization I was just like him, just like my father, and I had done the same thing to the people I called friends.
JAYLA
“Has Simon responded?” I asked Em as we made our way to the small lab at the end of the abandoned hallway.
“No.”
“What has Gustov said?” I asked.
“He said they’ll be ready for us, but that he hasn’t found Simon or heard from him either.” Em pushed open the door to the empty room and we slipped in.
“Do you think he’s been caught?” I asked.
Em shrugged. “Simon’s a smart man. He’s evaded Grayson and her lackeys for some time now. I don’t see how he’d get caught at a time like this. Why would he even risk leaving the base?”
I let out a long breath. We were set to put our plans in motion when Gustov had informed Em he didn’t know where Simon was. In the end, it didn’t really matter, we could do this without his help, but not knowing where he was and why he was missing had me rattled. It didn’t feel right.
“There’s something else,” Em said as she began opening up the secure channel she had hacked into and pulling up a coded message. “Leanna intercepted a message from Grayson to the King of Kuros requesting some sort of alliance in exchange for his son—Theo.”
“What’d he say?”
“Nothing.” Em smirked. “He didn’t get the message… our little spy seems to be doing her job well. But if we can’t help them soon, they might be going to Grayson for help despite our intervention.”
My brow creased. “Why?”
Em was still limping on her sore leg as she moved to another screen. “The King of Kuros has requested the help of the Sweepers of Eres. Kuros is getting destroyed, and they can’t hold the Palace for much longer. They’ve evacuated everyone they can, but there’s only so many places they can take them.”
“Will the Council of Eres help?”
“Take a guess.” Em rolled her eyes.
“They said no,” I said. The Council would claim they needed the Sweepers in Eres in case the threat turned on them. “Have they taken in any of the people from Kuros?”
“Yes, a few. Women and children only. No Carbons.”
I let out a frustrated sigh.
“But there is good news.” Em grinned. “It seems our friend Jacob is a man of his word. He’s already sent his men, as many as he can, to Eres. Logan flew them in yesterday, and they’re holding the Palace wall for now.”
I smiled. It didn’t surprise me Jacob would do his own thing; we were more alike than he knew, but I worried what this would mean for him and his position in Eres.
“We have to help them, get back to the fight, and bring as many people as we can before they’re forced to make a deal with the devil.”
Em nodded. “But first, we have to get out of here.”
“I assume that’s why you brought me here?” I said. Em had passed on a coded message through the coms each guard wore, letting me know she needed to see me today. We were planning to leave tomorrow, and I hoped whatever news Em had it was good.
“I can turn off the power manually from here, but the genetic kids’ quarters aren’t on the same system. They need to be manually overridden from there.”
“Caspian’s confident Sienna has a way,” I said.
“She’d better because there’s more. The minute we shut down the power we essentially lock ourselves in here,” Em said. “There will be no way to make it out of here with a couple thousand kids in tow before they get everything back up and running, not to mention our planned way out will also be locked and likely secured by every guard in this place.”
“Is there good news somewhere?”
“Not exactly.” Em pulled up a blueprint of Black Prison. “There’s only one exterior wall in this entire place, and the chances that we blow ourselves up in the process of trying to take the wall out is pretty damn high.”
“Do we have any other options?”
“No.”
I sighed. “What’s outside that wall? We still need to get everyone to a safe enough distance for Gustov and his men to pick us up.”
“See, that’s the thing.” Em’s lips pursed. “We’ll still be hundreds of feet up—there’s no way we can get anyone out that way. We’re going to need them to come get us here. The one train they have here is inside the prison and will be locked down with us. Not to mention it’s not nearly big enough to hold us all.”
“Does Gustov have enough men?”
Em shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“Shit.”
“I’ve sent a message to Logan to request whoever he has access to in Eres or Kuros to help, but I’m not sure how many they have, and we don’t have time to wait for confirmation.”
“So our choices are to stay here and live, while half of you turn into lab experiments, or try and escape but potentially kill us all in the process?”
“Pretty much.” Em shrugged.
“Sounds like we don’t have much of a choice.” I swallowed back the bit of fear trying to crawl up. A reminder of the explosion when Caspian helped Em and I escape the Void flashed through my mind. The heat singeing the side of my face. Breath, just breath. I gulped down a big breath of air.
“I’ve almost hacked into their security system,” Em said, pulling up another screen where her decoding virus was working its way through all the possible passcodes into the system. “When I have that, we can shut off the power.”
“How much longer?”
The screen blinked and changed from red to yellow.
“None. We’re in.” Em smirked.
She moved to click on something when the screen blinked and went black before an image popped up on the screen. It was Em’s sister.
“Hello sister,” she said. Their voices were similar, but Em’s sister had a softer tone. “I’m sure this is a bit of a surprise, seeing me. You probably thought I was dead… if you even knew I existed.”
Em shifted, moving closer to the screen and placing her hand across her sister’s face.
“I thought I was dead, too, but it turns out they kept me alive somehow—the doctors.” She shrugged. Her gazed looked up to the screen, and I noticed in this video they were still gold like Em’s, but they had dark swirls in them. “I only found out about you recently, but from what I’ve been told, you might be one of the few capable of stopping all this, so with some help I took a chance setting up this message before it was too late for me.”
“When was this made?” I asked.
Em clicked on the screen. It was dated a year ago.
“I’m not sure when or if you will even see this. I’m not even sure if I can trust you… It might be too late already, but I’m hoping it’s not,” Em’s sister said, glancing down to her hands. Behind her I noted the same grey walls we were in. This had been filmed right here. “They can only fully control us with the orb. If they’ve found it, then it’s too late and we’re already gone, but if you can find it first… they’ve been searching for years for it. It’s somewhere in the Void, that’s as much as I know, but I have no idea where.”
I swallowed. They already had the orb. I remembered seeing it in the video with the boy being controlled.
“Some can transition without the Orb, like me. If you give into the demon inside, it’s possible to control it, but you give up something in the process, and I’m certain I won’t be myself for much longer.” I now understood the black eyes, and how she followed commands without the orb in sight. “But it’s the only way they’ll keep me alive, the only way I might have a chance of fighting back.”
Em’s fingers curled, and I noted the slight tremble in her shoulders.
“Find the orb first, that’s the only way to stop all of this, to prevent more from dying,” Em’s sister said. “There’s someone on the inside helping us, a doctor. I don’t know his name, only that you can trust him—he knows who you are. He’s expecting you to come.”
I had a feeling I knew exactly who that doctor was, and why we’d been sent to this room.
“I hope we get a chance to meet one day, sister. I hope you live.”
The screen went blank.
Em tried to bring it back, but only the security system she’d just hacked into showed up on the screen.
“We’re too late,” Em whispered.
“No, we still have time,” I said. “We know where the orb is, and they haven’t used it yet. We get the kids out and destroy the orb. That’s our only option now.”
Em stared blankly at the screen as if she could still see her sister.
An alarm suddenly sounded through the small comm attached to the collar of my jacket. I put the earpiece in.
“All guards are to report to room 1A immediately,” a voice sounded on the other side. It repeated three more times before the com went silent.
Em had a frown on her face, and I knew she would tell me not to go, but I’d left Caspian with the other guards in case anyone went wandering too close to where we were headed.
“Stay here, monitor things on the security feed if you can, and get things ready just in case.”
I turned to leave, but Em grabbed my wrist. “Be safe,” she said.
“Always am.” I winked.
I rounded three corners before the sound of boots marching down the hallway quickly filled the usual silence. I managed to slip into the crowd unseen as we moved towards room 1A. I knew where they were taking us… Grayson’s office. My eyes scanned the crowd for Caspian, but we were too tightly packed, and everyone wore the same black outfit of the Watchers.
We reached a large room with double doors at the end. It was already crowded with people, and I kept to the back corner with my head down and the hood of my jacket covering my face. Still, I searched for Caspian, but I couldn’t find him.
When the sound of footsteps finally silenced, a familiar voice cut through the air.
“Thank you all for coming here,” Governor Grayson said, her voice sweet and sick like spoiled honey. “I know many of you have been here for some time with me, and others have only just arrived, but each and every one of you is integral to our success in defeating the enemy.”
There was a shift through the crowd, and I knew what many were thinking. Who was the enemy? Most had no idea what was really going on here, and some had never even heard of the Reeks or what the Marked kids from the DEZ had been used for. It was a simple form of deception: tell each person only as much as they needed to know, and make it clear the bit they were given was to be kept a secret. The constant rotations and long shifts in isolation left little time for people to talk.
