I forgo the nap and sit on the floor under the lone window in her room instead. I close my eyes and concentrate on what’s transpired the last several days. I need to sort it all out, so I start making a checklist in my head.
My parents are alive. My father was once the leader of Tarsus, but only for a short time. Why? Where are my parents? What did Leader Fallon do with them if she didn’t kill them like everyone thinks she did? Why was I placed in the orphanage?
Leader Fallon is somehow responsible for the damage done to my hands. She’s modified me. Given me the ability to handle any competitor’s weapon, both inside The Litarian Battles and out. She says I owe her, but for what? Should I even trust anything she says? She lies easily to her people, why not to me?
The Patrician. Who and what are they? How do they control society through Leader Fallon? What is their purpose? Why did they loop me into their headquarters, or wherever that was?
The Dracken. I know Frey and Addie belong to this group since they both have a dragon tattoo. Leader Fallon said they’re trying to conduct a realignment. But how and why?
Who do I trust? Frey’s drugged me, yet I do really like him and feel safe around him. Brink has reverted back to his previous atrocious behavior, but it’s escalated. What he tried to do to me at Troy’s house, he never would’ve done at the orphanage. Why the sudden changes in him? And why did he tell Garrett that I was promised to him, and by who? Garrett, with Lok’s help, found me wandering down the beach. They told me about the cinnamon and what it does. Lok even programmed the maps on my bracelet. I feel like I can trust them, at least, but who knows if they also have some motive I don’t know about.
My mind races with this information to the point where I feel like it’ll explode. I cradle my head between my knees and cover my ears with my hands. I’m willing myself back to the Outer Limits. Trying to push my body through space and time. My eyes catch a green glow from my bracelet. I raise my head and hit it on something hard. Looking up, I’m no longer in Addie’s room, but under my workbench in the grove.
I’ve looped again? This can’t be possible. I have to be imagining this.
Cold air whips around me, causing my skin to breakout into bumps. I notice a small bolt lying a few inches away, so I reach for it, grabbing it in my hands. The metal is hard and rough. I close my eyes and think of Addie’s room, the softness of the carpet and the warmth of the surroundings. When I open my eyes, I’m sitting under the window like before. I uncurl my hand, the bolt still cradled in my palm.
What the hell did they do to me? How can I loop outside battles? Garrett was right, they did more to me than just mutilate my hands. But why?
I throw the bolt under the bed, stand up, and brush small pieces of debris from my pants before exiting back out into the common room. I stop in the bathroom quickly, washing my face and hands. I look at myself hard in the mirror, trying to fathom my new ability and its possible purpose.
“Max, you in there?” Addie calls to me, knocking on the bathroom door.
“Yes. I’ll be out in a minute.” I dry myself, adjust my hair into a ponytail using two bands I locate under the sink, and step into the hallway.
“It’s time to go,” Frey says, turning off the monitor.
Addie wraps her arm around mine and escorts me outside, with Frey following. The air is slightly chilled, but not enough to make me cold. We have to walk to the Arcade since Addie can’t afford to call a carriage. It works out well for Frey since he didn’t want anyone to know we were now at Addie’s to begin with.
The walk is long and tiring. We reach the outskirts of the main city, then head south for a couple of blocks. We stop, blocked by people milling about the street. As I look more carefully, I notice they’re actually in a line waiting to enter a three-story high structure. Music is pumping out of wide openings on each floor where windows should be. The doors along the street and neighboring alley are being pushed open to allow the crowd inside. Bright lights flash, illuminating the night in neon green, pink, and yellow. There isn’t any external signage for the Arcade, it’s all inside.
Each wall is plastered with either a screen playing a music video or an ad in annoying, audacious colors. The first level is covered in game modules. They line the walls and create aisles throughout the main floor. Where there are openings, scantily clad women stand giving out thin tubes of liquid. Their cotton candy-style hair sweeps down their bare backs. What little clothes they do have on remind me of the outfits we have to wear when going to the selection floor. Young men and women are almost jumping over each other to get at the tubes, which sit cradled in carriers around the women’s necks.
Frey points towards a staircase over in the far wall. Addie nudges people out of our way as we head towards it. The second floor isn’t as crowded. Couches fill in the center of the room, surrounding a bar. Dartboards, pool tables, and beanbag games take up most of the space. Frey has us grab a spot near one of the openings, then disappears into the growing crowd. Addie points to the people below in the street, many already drunk and stumbling about. She laughs at
