and if I had any siblings.
I told her everything. Everything about my older brother, and meeting Vi, and joining Jag, and when I defected, and how sometimes I ached to see my parents again.
She felt safe to me. Saffediene had become someone I could tell anything to, and she wouldn’t judge or question me. She accepted who I was at that moment, and empathized with who I’d been in the past.
I’d never met anyone like her. When the night swallowed the last of the day, I realized why I felt so secure with Saffediene.
She had no agenda. She simply
I envied her. I lived my entire life according to an agenda, mine or someone else’s. I couldn’t tell them apart anymore.
And maybe that was my real problem.
Jag
15.
Vi and I stayed in her room for a few heartbeats, both of us staring at one another.
Thane, awake.
The rocks seemed to shout the question running through my head:
“Only one way to find out,” Vi said. She laced her fingers through mine, pressing our palms together. Every muscle in my body protested as she helped me stand.
“I need meds,” I complained, limping into the hall. Gunn had gone ahead, too agitated to wait. I should’ve asked him if Raine had woken up yet.
“She’s with Gunner,” Vi said. “And we can stop by the hospital alcove for meds on the way to Thane’s room.”
“Perfect,” I said.
“Pace,” Vi said, leaning into the hospital alcove. “Jag needs meds.” She turned away as Pace fed the drugs into my system. Immediately, the ache in my head receded; the throbbing in my leg slowed.
“Thanks,” I said. “How often can I have that?” The cuts along my back still pulled, radiating pain through my body.
“Come back before bed,” Pace said, smiling. It was his big-brother smile. The one that told me he was in control, that I could confide in him.
“Where’s Raine?” I asked, noting two empty beds in the hospital alcove. I’d need to get a report from her too.
“Everyone is in Thane’s room,” Pace answered. “Same hall as my room. Better hurry, or you won’t get front-row seats.” His words were filled with bitterness. I understood how he felt. All this time, Thane had been working against us.
For us too, but definitely against us. He’d killed Ty. He’d taken Vi and brainwashed her. Forced her to live in Freedom for eight months without any memory of her real life.
Who does that to their daughter? To anyone?
The thought came unbidden, but it rang with truth. Zenn had done the same thing. Could I trust him?
I didn’t know.
Could I trust Thane?
Maybe, with time.
I could only wish/hope/pray that Zenn and Thane were on my side. I needed them badly.
Vi and I moved slowly down the hall. A nervous energy buzzed from Vi, but she stepped patiently with me as I dragged my hurt leg. We passed through the empty war room and continued down another narrow hallway.
A crowd had gathered at the end of it, and excited voices filtered back to us. My nerves felt spent. The thought of facing Thane exhausted me.
But I pasted on my leader-of-the-Resistance face and said, “Excuse me.” The people in front of me stepped to the side, leaving me and Vi a path to the room ahead.
Indy grabbed and held my gaze. I couldn’t feel her message with the whole team gathered around. Whatever it was, her look didn’t broadcast anything good. Maybe she was still angry about the not-kissing we’d done earlier. I had left her without an explanation—again—when I’d hobbled after Vi.
A pretty girl with long white hair stood next to Gunn. The last time I’d properly seen Raine Hightower, she’d had her hand suctioned to mine. Gunn held her hand and whispered in her ear. Besides sporting skin whiter than the snow I used to shovel, she looked healthy. “Hey,” she said when I stepped next to her. “I’m Arena—I mean, Raine.”
She shot a fast look at Gunner, and his face said it all. Raine would need rehabilitation to recover the memories she’d lost.
“Hey,” Vi and I answered at the same time, in the same sad/surprised voice. I wanted to kiss Vi again. I settled for squeezing her hand.
In the bedroom Thane sat on a cot, staring at me. His bare chest revealed the wounds Gunn had given him in the Centrals. The skin surrounding the mostly healed holes shone new and pink.
He definitely could’ve looked worse. His eyes flickered with fire, just as they always had.
“Thane,” I said, trying to school my voice into friendliness. It didn’t quite work.
“Jag,” he replied in the same almost-neutral manner.
We were nothing if not committed to maintaining our we-don’t-like-each-other vibe.
“Well?” he asked.
Oh, hell no. If he was here to try to make me look like a fool, that so wasn’t going to work.
“Report. Tell me everything.” And without taking my eyes off Thane, I said, “Gunn, be sure to record this.”
I sensed his nod of understanding and waved my free hand at Thane to start.
His gaze lingered on my fingers entwined with Vi’s, and I felt a ping of satisfaction at the anger twitching in his jaw.
“Report,” I said again, just because I could.
Thane’s report wasn’t anything I didn’t already know—at least the information he was willing to share in front of twenty people. I knew there was more; I could sense it. I briefly wondered if it had anything to do with the cloning experiment Gunn, Pace, and I had witnessed on Starr’s microchip. I’d need to ask him as soon as possible.
Five minutes into his report, I wanted to sit down with a tall glass of water. I actually did just that, citing my injuries as the reason I couldn’t stand.
Thane didn’t stand either, and his report was bogus. When he finished, Pace grounded him from all Resistance activity for the next several days and ordered him back to bed.
“You too,” Pace said as we shuffled down the hall to my room. “No flying, nothing physically stressing for at least three days, okay?” He stopped outside the infirmary and selected a needle from our very limited supplies.
“Not okay,” I said. “There’re five million things that need to be done.” We had secured Thane, but he had no new information. We needed to proceed. Get more traveling teams out to the cities, get more Directors on board, plan the attack on Freedom. Maybe there were five million and one things to do. All I knew was I couldn’t take a three-day break.
Pace administered the meds with a disapproving frown. “Gunn and Indy can take over for a few days. Zenn will be back tonight too.”
