Resistance (The Institute Series Book 2) (13 page)

Shilah scoffs. “Right,” he says sarcastically.

“What?”

“It’s a two way street, Allira. Tell me, where have you
really
been staying? Why are you not over the moon about getting the highest and most sought after job they could possibly offer you? Why do you cringe every time Cyrus says your name? Why does Belle hate you? Shall I go on? You expect me to spill everything to you, but you haven’t once confided in me since we got here. No, actually, since we were living at the Institute.”

I breathe in deep.
I want to answer your questions. Every single one of them. But I can’t.
“I—”

“Don’t. You don’t have to. I’m just saying, I know I can confide in you. Just like you know you can confide in me. But both of us choose not to because, why?”

I shake my head, “I don’t know. I want to. I really do…”

“But?”

I don’t answer him. The truth is, I don’t know why I haven’t told him my secret. At the Institute I was too worried he would tell – it took a long while, almost two months of being there for him to realise how evil the place was. I guess I just haven’t got that trust in him that I once had, and that makes me feel horrible on the inside. I have absolutely no reason not to trust Shilah. In fact out of everyone, he should be the person I can trust the most. Everyone else has lied to me, he’s the only one who hasn’t.

“Good talk,” he says sarcastically before climbing out the window again.

***

“I’m contemplating telling them,” I say as Chad and I get into the car to drive back. He arrived to pick me up right after Shilah went out.

“Telling who, what?” he asks confused.

“Everyone. About me. Shilah knows something’s going on. It’s only a matter of time before everyone finds out. Why not just tell them and get it over with?”

Chad looks at the steering wheel in front of him. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” He puts the keys in the ignition and we pull away.

“I can’t keep lying to Shilah. I don’t want to, and I think Mum should know. I—”

“Can you at least wait until Paxton comes back? See what he thinks? It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t want the rest of the council to know or he would’ve told them already.”

“We don’t even know when that will be. Aunt Kenna said it could be weeks or even months before they can risk coming back.”

“Just think about it? Please?”

“Okay,” I say. He reaches for my hand, bringing it to his lips without taking his eyes off the road. I can’t help but smile. “So, want to go to a party tonight?”

“A party?” he asks.

“A gathering … I don’t exactly know what that means. Shilah is going. Apparently it’s on the hill somewhere? For the recruiters? He was very vague about it – said you would know about it, seeing as you used to be one of them.”

“I guess we can go if you want, but it’s usually just a hangout for hook ups.” He raises his eyebrows at me. “We can just go home for that.” He smiles and I smile back, but not before rolling my eyes. “Okay fine, we’ll stop by before things get messy.” He does a U-turn and starts heading back the way we came.

“Messy?”

“Yeah. They usually sneak alcohol up there.”

“Where do they even get that? I can’t get coffee but they have access to alcohol? That’s pretty screwed up.”

Chad laughs. “There’s always a way. Whenever we do a trading run for things we need but can’t grow or make ourselves, they usually bring some sort of alcohol back with them. But they all mainly drink wine from our vineyard.”

“There’s a vineyard too?”

“Sort of. It’s a pretty poor one, but it’s also a necessity to keep most people sane around here.” He laughs like he is joking, but I’m wondering if there is some truth to it.

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I say.

“We’ll go. It’ll be good for you to meet your students.” He smirks.

“Students,” I shudder. “That just feels weird. And I still don’t know how they’re meant to learn from me. Most of them are probably more experienced than I am.”

“You have to stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Thinking you’re not good enough.”

“It’s not that. I know I can do it. I just think they have ulterior motives for giving it to me.”

“Cyrus?”

“Yeah, Cyrus. I know he’s Mr. Popularity and everyone loves him, everyone is his brother and blah, blah, blah. I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s up to something. I keep telling myself it’s the double ability thing, that he suspects. But then I think about his wives, his kids, and wonder …” I stop my train of thought. I shouldn’t be expressing my paranoia.

“Wonder what?”

“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “Maybe my brain is just creating drama. I don’t think I truly believe this is real. That I’m finally here and that I’m free. It’s too good to be true. I’m just looking for faults so I know it’s real … Does that make sense?”

“It does. But we’re not perfect here. We’re far from it. We keep recruiting yet we’re running out of room to put people. There’s enough food for now, but we’ll need to start new crops if we keep gaining numbers, that could take years. The council don’t seem to have any future plans of getting us back into the real world; none that they’ve spoken to us about anyway. There’s plenty to worry about other than Cyrus preferring the company of three different women.”

“Oh well, great. Thanks for adding that to my thoughts.”

Chad laughs. “You’re welcome. We’re here.”

We get out of the car and make our way down a pathway that has clearly been made from feet constantly walking back and forth over a long period of time. The smell of smoking wood and the sound of insects envelopes me, reminding me how far out in the woods we really are. We come to a clearing on the edge of the mountain and make our way through the gathering of people. Chad leads me to the rough-hewn bench seats made out of rock that surround a campfire.  We’re high enough on the mountain to see the lights of the city, hours away. It’s hard to believe that everything is going on as normal down there. As if we never existed. I can almost hear the bustling sound of the city – the cars, the people. I know it’s only my imagination, but it seems so real.

There’s fifteen or so others here, and I spot Shilah standing with three others. Shilah sees me and raises his cup, an offering. ‘Drink?’ Just as he does this, two cups are placed in front of us. Cyrus stands above me, a smile on his lips.

“Glad you two could make it,” he says. I don’t really want to drink but maybe if I do, I won’t find every word out of Cyrus’s mouth creepy and sleazy. Grabbing the cup, I drink half of it in one gulp. “Impressive,” Cyrus says.

Looks like I’m going to need a lot more if I have to spend the rest of the night near Cyrus. I down the rest of my drink in the hopes it fades him out.

“Thirsty?” Chad asks.

“I guess I was, yeah,” I reply with a smile, grabbing Chad’s drink and drinking that too.

Cyrus sits next to me, no, practically
on
me. I take the opportunity to inch closer to Chad and put my hand on his leg. Chad wraps his arm around me and I feel bulletproof … well, Cyrus-proof. Although, technically I would be bulletproof sitting here with Chad – if I were to borrow his ability anyway. Hmm, is his ability bulletproof? I don’t think I’ve ever asked to what extent he’s protected. Is his force field made of Kevlar? I laugh at my funny thoughts.

If I’m beginning to ramble in my head, I’d hate to see what is about to come out of my mouth. Maybe the drinks are working … and maybe it wasn’t the best idea that I drank them.

“I might go say hi to Shilah,” I say as politely as possible before getting up and walking over to him. When I get over there, three fresh faces of boys I haven’t met stare me down.

“So this is the new boss lady?” one of them asks.

“Boss lady?” I ask confused.

“Your Cyrus’s right-hand man now, right?” another asks, with a tone of annoyance.

“Uh … I guess … sort of?”

“This is my sister, Allira.” Shilah adds. The three of them just continue to stare.

“No, no, don’t use my real name. I’m liking this ‘Boss Lady’ title,” I joke, hoping to break the tension lingering in the group. “I may get everyone to start calling me that.” The three boys smile, their stances relaxing a little.

“Well as long as you’re as cool as Cyrus, we’ll get along,” the third one states. “I’m Hayden, by the way, and this is Loccie and Arlo.” I shake each of their hands.

“So Cyrus is a pretty good trainer? Good to work for?” I ask.

“Well he pretty much lets us do whatever we want,” Arlo says, gesturing to our surroundings. I don’t know if that really answers my question, but I won’t push my limits with the guys who are obviously asking the same question I am – why did Cyrus choose
me
over everyone else?

I feel a presence appear beside me. Turning around, I find Licia inching her way closer and closer to the group.

“Licia!” I exclaim. “This is Arlo, Loccie, and Hayden … did I get that right?” I ask. Hayden nods. “This is Licia.” I pull her into our circle as she shyly says hi to each of the boys.

“Another newbie,” Loccie says.

“And a girl this time,” Arlo says. You can see his excitement as he widens his eyes, staring at Licia’s… assets.

I suddenly feel an over protectiveness towards Licia. The looks on the boys’ faces lets me know that they haven’t been introduced to many new girls and I can see them staring her down like she was a piece of meat.

“My eyes are up here,” she sasses Arlo, while pointing to her face.

Maybe I don’t have to worry about her after all.

Hayden shakes his head at the other two who are practically drooling over Licia. “Ignore them, Licia,” he says. “Want a drink?”  Ah. It’s pretty clear who the smooth one of those three is. Licia nods and walks with Hayden to go get a drink. Arms wrap around me from behind and lips find my shoulder.

“Ready to get out of here?” Chad asks.

“Sure.” I didn’t exactly get to meet a lot of people, but if I’m met with the same kind of reaction that the three boys gave me, I don’t want to spend my night trying to prove myself. I’m sure there will be plenty of time for that at training.

I lean in to Shilah before leaving. “Can you just keep an eye on Licia for me? Make sure she doesn’t drink too much, or make a mistake?” I say nodding my head towards the boys. He agrees but he doesn’t look too impressed with my request.  “Nice to meet you,” I say to the boys as Chad grabs my hand and drags me away.

“Is there a reason why you wanted to leave so early?” I ask as we get into car, and he starts driving us home.

Chad shrugs. “Just did.” I can’t tell what his tone means.

“You’re not telling me something,” I say.

“Not telling you what?”

I think for a moment. “I don’t know what it is, but I know it has something to do with recruiting.” He doesn’t respond. “Why did you choose to not go back?”

He sighs and shifts in his seat. “I wanted to stay here, with you.”

Lie.
“As romantic as that is, I’m calling bullshit.”

He scoffs. “Really? And why is that?” his tone reaches a whole new level of annoyed.

“You didn’t know where I was going to be placed. As everyone has already pointed out – especially in my placement meeting – I would’ve been suited to recruiting, meaning I probably would’ve been placed in recruiting with you. You chose to leave recruiting.”
I don’t think I have said the word ‘recruiting’ more in one sentence before,
I think to myself before shaking off my thoughts and telling myself to listen to Chad’s answer.

“I just felt like I was done. I did it for close to eighteen months. I was done. Does it really matter why I don’t want to be part of that world anymore?”

“I guess not. I just wanted to know why. You don’t even want to hang around the others who you used to work with. You –”

“I only ever worked with Tate. I only ever saw those guys during training, which I didn’t even have much of. Mine and Tate’s abilities complimented each other so well, we didn’t need it …
thought
we didn’t need it.”

It’s perfectly clear why he wants nothing to do with recruiting. I’ve just been too wrapped up in myself to see it. “It’s not your fault,” I say. Chad doesn’t respond. “Chad, it’s
not
your fault. None of it. It’s not your fault he was arrested and it’s not your fault you couldn’t get him out. He chose to stay there.”

“Just stop,” he asks quietly. There is something about his tone that makes me stop talking. I want to get through to him, but I know it’s not going to happen and I’m not going to waste my breath.

We arrive back home after a long silence in the car. We park the car in its designated bay in between two others and put the keys in a box that sits on the fence line. Cars are a shared commodity here and are only to be used when needed. Having Mum and Dad living on the other side of the compound, we’re entitled to use them for social purposes, so long as they aren’t being used for work means. There’s usually always at least one car available but if we all started using them just because we can’t be bothered to walk somewhere, there would never be any available. That’s what Mum told me anyway when I asked why everyone walks everywhere.