Betrayals in Spring (30 page)

Feeling rested for the first time in weeks, I dump the cooked rabbit in front of her on the coffee table. After it cools, Wolf tugs his portion free and trots to the door, looking back at me expectantly until I open it for him. When I return to the couch, Brittany has at least touched a piece of meat. Her nose wrinkles as she sniffs it, but her grumbling belly gives her away.

All of my irritation sloughs off at her tentative movements. It wasn’t so long ago that I was sure consuming any non-Other products would kill me on the spot, or that Wolf would eat me in my sleep. It took weeks to adjust to the changed world I had entered, and Brittany had everything dumped on her in a couple of days. She had a few weeks with Leah, but knowing the truth while still living in a warm house with three meals a day is a bit different than leaving that all behind.

A little compassion could go a long way. Brittany’s difficult personality might be born of fear more than anything. “It’s not so bad, really. It tastes a lot like chicken, and we’ve been eating the food Wolf brings home for weeks. We’re fine.”

“But you’re not human, are you.” It’s not a question, but it’s not intended to be rude.

“No. But we have human blood, too, Brittany, and we are on your side. You have to eat, to keep your strength up. To be ready for whatever comes next.” I get up, my knees stiff from squatting in front of her. “And look, I have something for you that will help pass the time.”

Even though it’s hard to let go, I pass her my copy of
Anne of Green Gables
. I’m not sure Brittany and I will have the same taste in books, but it’s worth a try. “There are more in the back room, the one that looks like a den. Most of those are pretty dry, but they might have useful information.”

She runs her fingers over the cover, then flips the volume over and reads the back. “What is it?”

“A made-up story. You read it for fun, not like in Cell. You might like it.” I shrug, waiting a little more expectantly than I’d like for her verdict. If life were normal on Earth, I suspect Brittany is the kind of girl that everyone waits for approval from. So maybe things wouldn’t be all that different, after all.

“Do you have any more?” Her shy grin catches me off guard, and I think again how pretty she is.

“Sure.” I dig
A Wrinkle in Time
and
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
out of one of the backpacks. I leave
A Separate Peace
because it isn’t mine to share. “Here.”

I want to thank her again for doing this, but recall her stiff reaction in Danbury and still my tongue. Instead I nod. “It’s fun to discuss the books, once you’re done. We’ll have to do that when…when we come back.”

Her mouth dips into a frown at my hesitation, and she scoots to the edge of the sofa, setting the book to the side. “You have to come back, Althea. You and your boyfriend, and the hot guy. Plus Deshi. All of you.”

I swallow hard, hit again with the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. Our shoulders. It started out only me, then I added Lucas and then Pax. Deshi, by default. Cadi and Ko, Greer and Griffin…even Nat. Not to mention Leah and the other kids who had been taken, and the ones we’ve unveiled these past few days.

I’ve spent my whole life wishing I didn’t have to be alone all the time, and now I’m not. I have friends. Sort of. If you count Greer and Leah, and maybe Brittany. I have a boy who loves me, and two more who are something more than friends. Kindred.

Even though the fact fills me with so much love it’s hard to breathe, it presses weight across my skin, as though the air has suddenly grown heavy. They’re all counting on me. I’m fighting for so much more than my own selfish survival. I swallow hard.

“We’re going to do our best, Brittany. I promise.”

“Good. When you get back you can tell me what kissing is like.” She shoots me a wicked grin.

After I recover my wits at being teased about Lucas, I give her a genuine smile. “Deal.”

Pax and Lucas come in, their steps hesitant. I roll my eyes, but Brittany beats me to the punch. “It’s okay, guys. Girl things tucked neatly away.”

They exchange a glance that says they can’t think of the right way to respond. Instead, the room stays quiet until Brittany gives a rather unladylike snort and I grin.

“Well, shall we go meet our doom?”

“Don’t talk like that, Summer. Instead, try,
Shall we go saunter into a real-life Other hive and walk out with Deshi, no biggie
? Seriously. Try it.”

“How about we just do it instead?” Lucas isn’t upset, in fact, the expression on his face says he’s amused.

“Yes. Let’s do that.” I’m with Lucas. Standing around here any longer is only going to wind my nerves so tight it’ll be hard to walk the fifteen hours to Mount Rushmore.

The way I see it, the Others know we’re coming. Keeping Deshi there is probably a trap, one they know we’re going to walk straight into sooner or later. It’s the only explanation I can come up with for them leaving us alone for this long. They’re too smart not to be able to figure out a way to find us, if they put their resources to it. Even if Griffin and Greer say the cabin is protected somehow, we haven’t been here the whole time. I suspect they’re aware, at least marginally, of our movements.

They have Deshi, though—the one thing we can’t move forward without—so they’re conserving energy. Even if they spotted us on the cameras in the Sanctioned Cities, why waste resources? They know we’re coming to them sooner or later.

The day warms around us, the sound of running water joining us on our trek. Streams are breaking free of their beddings of ice, snow dribbles off of trees and down cliffs, and the day smells fresh and wet. It would be pleasant, if we were out for a simple hike.

We spot wildlife along the way, and even a big cat like the one that attacked Wolf crouches in a huge tree. Last winter it froze Pax and I in our tracks, a response that almost cost Wolf his life, but today none of us even pause.

It’s yet another indication of how much things have changed in only a few months. Nothing out here can threaten us. If that cat jumped, we’d have it charred, encased in ice, and swirled away in a tornado before it hit the ground.

Which might be overkill, but the point remains.

Maybe nothing out here can frighten me, but the Prime Other and his children are a different story. Especially Kendaja.

Her soft singsong voice and the way her kiss dumped Ko’s brains out of his ears speed up my heart until I press a hand against my chest. Lucas casts a glance my way but I shake my head. He doesn’t need to worry so much about me, and the sooner he accepts that, the better.

We’re going to take care of one another. All three of us. They’re not going to get killed trying to soften blows for me.

Night falls around us as we draw near to the old monument. Rustles and hoots imbue the air, sounds that are part of the fabric of the darkness as much as the stars or moon belong in the sky. I light a small flame in each hand and point them forward like flashlights, allowing us to keep our pace. Even Lucas is sweating now; we’ve been walking with only a couple of breaks since morning.

When the mountain with its unflinching faces stares down at us, all three of us slow to a stop. The lights extinguish as soon as I quit focusing on them, and a moment later Lucas slides a hand into mine. Shivers zip up my arm but I ignore them, holding on tighter. “This is it, then.”

“Yeah. This is it.” Pax stares ahead for a couple more minutes, then gives a curt nod. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 25.

We’ve decided over the last several days that we’re going to use the element of surprise as far as it takes us, going on the offensive as soon as we get inside. While Pax and I throw everything we’ve got at the Wardens, Lucas will run up to free Deshi. We’re hoping most of the attack will be on the ground, where the majority of Wardens were centered when Lucas checked things out.

Pax and I just have to keep them there while Lucas gets to Deshi. He should be able to handle a couple of guards, if that’s still all that’s between us and our fourth.

I’m hoping Deshi will give Lucas some help once he realizes what we’re attempting. Although, given he’s been stuck with the Others since the beginning, he might not even know what he’s capable of, and we don’t have the time to explain it. I hope he’s a fast learner.

Once the four of us are together, it should tip the scales in our favor. Cadi said more than once that our parents, when linked together, are more powerful than the rest of the Others combined. I’m assuming that applies to us in at least half strength, so getting out shouldn’t be a worry.

If we can get to Deshi. If he’s able to help us. If he’s alive.

Behind the trash pile, I push the ifs out of my mind as the three of us take a few minutes to collect ourselves. It’s like we should say something, but the right words don’t exist. Or if they do, I’m not wise enough to pull them from my mind for what might be one of our last coherent moments together.

All I can think is that I’ve hidden too much from them, when it comes to what the Others—particularly Kendaja—are capable of. I thought it best not to frighten them or make them feel worse about the torture I survived, but now that they’re facing it, too, maybe it would have been better if they were prepared.

There is no real way to prepare for such a thing, though, and the hope still remains that we’ll make it out of the Underground Core safely. The three of us hold a power with so much strength and depth it sometimes scares me, and with Deshi on our side it will be even stronger.

Our parents, we’ve agreed, are the problem. They’re stronger than we are, and unpredictable, like the Old Maid. They’re shuffled in a deck of cards and we have no way of knowing when or if they’re going to pop up. Or whether they’re going to be with us or against us.

We can’t know until we step through that door and follow Lucas into the dark. I would follow him anywhere, and Pax, too. I know they feel the same way about me.

And so we go.

The three of us step single file through two heavy metal doors and into a pitch-black tunnel. The smell of wet stone, which has permeated our day, grows stronger until it clings to my skin, making it clammy and too cool. It’s too quiet, with nothing but the sound of trickling water and the crunch of our footsteps across dirt and gravel to make me believe we’re not in a tomb.

Not that I want to be greeted with cake and a butt kicking, but this is almost as bad. Definitely creepier. Then the winding, dense tunnel opens up into a huge cavern. The room we’re standing in isn’t very wide across, but it stretches what looks like miles to the right. To the left is an arched cutout in the mossy rock, and through it is the room Lucas described, with two long tables flanked by benches. They’re full of Wardens in familiar tan-and-black uniforms, playing cards with those colored, round pieces of plastic—chips, Pax called them—piled in the middle of the games.

The ceiling hovers an eternity away, dripping stalagmites toward the floor like suspended knives, and in front of us, along the opposite wall, rises the most rickety staircase in the history of stairs. At each landing a cage that’s made out of a slick, hard substance is tacked off to one side. It’s hard to tell at this distance, but it looks as though the cages are made from the same material the Others use in their Observatory Pod—the one that was totally resistant to my fire. Some sort of marble, I remember thinking at the time. They’re small, maybe only four feet deep by five wide, and eight feet tall. There are no visible doors, as Lucas said, only six-inch-thick bars wrapping the whole structure, maybe room for an arm to squeeze between them but nothing more.

The stairs twist haphazardly at each turn, drifting toward the center of the room, then back toward the wall, then to the left with no apparent reasoning behind the shifts. The last cage that’s visible from the floor is at least thirty stories up, and pretty much in the center of the room. Cables run up from above the last landing into the darkness that must end at the top of the cave at some point.

“Holy waste buckets,” Pax whispers. He glances at Lucas. “You didn’t quite describe it well enough, Winter.”

“I was distracted. Deshi’s up there.” Lucas points straight up. “In the last one.”

We take a final step out of the shadows at the same moment as the forty or so Wardens rise from the tables and take deliberate steps in our direction. Whether we tripped some sort of alarm system is a mystery, but our arrival definitely hasn’t shocked them.

“So much for the element of surprise,” I mutter through clenched teeth.

The three of us move with deliberate steps across the room, turning around to keep the group of advancing Wardens at our front. They’re coming fast, though, and we end up walking backward so quickly it’s hard not to trip and fall.

The pieces of gleaming black metal in their hands are foreign to me, but some kind of instinct throws me flat on the ground when they point them at us. Pax and Lucas hit the deck beside me, not a second before black gooey globs fly from the end of the weapons and splatter with wet whaps on the staircase and stone wall behind us.