Token (Token Chronicles) (28 page)

BOOK: Token (Token Chronicles)

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My mother waited months before she made an offer on Kincaid. She spent time researching him. She found out where he was Hawked at, and the circumstances that followed after he was given up. She knew the soldiers’ assassinations were Rhetta’s work. It was then she came up with her plan. She could pose as Kincaid’s mother. She could get him to do anything she wanted placating to the mother son bond he wanted. I suppose I was no help to Kincaid. She made me tell her everything I knew about him. I was practically signing his death warrant. She wouldn’t let me see him the entire time he was in her base. I was kept locked in my room. She needed for him to believe I was in Silon. When she brought me back, he would do anything for her. All those plans changed when he disappeared for over a week. Kincaid’s original tracking chip was gone, yes, but my mother knew exactly where he was. The signals were deactivated, but new and more advance chips were implanted when all of the Tokens were unconscious after they received their initial shot on their way to Ridian. The chips allowed for Ridian to track all of its Tokens, have the capability to jolt if necessary, and still be able to hide them from Cromus. She was no fool. She knew Magnus Queen was hidden in his secret cave only miles away. She knew there could be no better person to train Kincaid. But when Cromus started sending out troops to the area to find our camp, she could waste no more time. She needed to make Kincaid angry. She needed him to become so irate at Cromus, he would destroy both Cromus and himself. She forced me to pretend to lose my memory and forget who he was. She thought he would become unbalanced and destructive. But she didn’t expect him to have such control over his powers.

When my mother started devising this plan years ago, she started recruiting Grodarian troops into her forces. She offered them the same thing the Elitists have now, extreme wealth and fortune if they pledged their allegiance to her and not Cromus. She knew, in order to convince Kincaid, she needed other Tokens as part of her forces as well. She started purchasing Tokens from other Islands over the years convincing them they would be fighting for freedom when all she really wanted to do was to just supplant Cromus and take the power and wealth for herself. All of the Grodarian troops may have abandoned Cromus, but they were just switching sides. My mother let the word spread what she was offering. The old group of Elitists would be eliminated. The soldiers would now become the Elite class of citizens enjoying all the wealth and prosperity of the country. Tokens would remain what they are as tools used to make a large profit. All those Tokens and soldiers sent back to the Islands was a ploy. They were all being sent back into traps to become enslaved Tokens yet again.

I love my mother and father, despite everything they have done, I still love them. I would do anything for them. I am about to do the worst thing for them. With Kincaid still alive posing too great a threat to my mother and her newly acquired crown, I have been sent to kill him. I am the one person he would never hurt. I am the only person who can kill him. I saw him sitting there in the library innocently reading. I love him so much. But I have a job to do. I raised my weapon, looking him dead in his cerulean blue eyes, and fired. I watched as his body crumbled to the floor. My weapon was one capable of completely erasing his memory. He will remember nothing of me. He will remember nothing of the Islands, of this war, of who he is. We can never have the future we imagined together. He is everything to me, but as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Kincaid Maddox is dead. I will do whatever it takes to protect him at all costs. My mother would never have allowed for him to live, and he never would have allowed for her to do what she is planning. He would have killed her and my father before he would let that happen. I have to protect my family. I have to protect him. I look down at his limp body on the floor, staring at his innocent face. I have spared his life. A final Token of my love.

The End

TOKEN

Published : 10th October 2013

About the Author

Ryan Gressett graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Logistics, Trade, and Transportation. He is a member of the Mississippi Air National Guard where he served as an intelligence analyst and is currently in training to become a USAF pilot.

Follow him on Twitter @RyanGressett22

Acknowledgments

I would like to, first and foremost, thank my family for being so supportive of me while writing this novel. Without their valuable input and feedback,
Token
never would have been anything more than just an idea I had running around in my head. I would also like to thank the group of test readers who were the first to read the very rough versions of my manuscript: Rita, Sydney, Chloe, Rachell, Mayo, Matt, Topher, and Callie. They were all instrumental in the long editing process; a process I feel will never be complete no matter how many times I flip through the pages. Finally, to all of the readers who took a chance on reading my novel and helped an aspiring author achieve his dream of bringing his work out for the world to see.

L&R