They eyed her suspiciously, then glared at Rex and Jade. “Two refugees with a spy. An interesting combination,” one of them muttered.
The other man spoke to Alina. “You’ll come with us and do exactly what we say, or we’ll stun you as well.” He gestured to Jade. Alina stared at the men, puzzled.
They lifted Jade and carried her to the street. Alina picked up Rex and put him on her back. “Rex,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
He gave a low moan. “My leg.”
Alina looked at his leg and gasped. The wound from the dagger was green and frothy, and his leg was beginning to swell. She ran to catch up with the men.
“Please, my friend here is hurt. He needs help.”
“Of course he’s hurt! You ran through the black mist!” one of them exclaimed. “How did you come out okay?”
“What’s the black mist?”
The man studied her. “You must be fresh from Pria.”
She nodded. “We are.”
They reached the street and he opened the door to a small car. “Get in,” he commanded. Alina helped Rex inside, and they pulled Jade across their laps.
“Is she going to be okay?” Alina asked.
“Depends on why she’s here,” he said, slamming the door. The men slid into the two front seats.
Alina jumped when the vehicle moved, jerking them almost out of their seats. A low rattling noise grew louder as the car gained speed. It didn’t glide above ground like the sleek aircars of Pria. The men’s heavy silence didn’t welcome conversation, so Alina said nothing but looked at Rex. He rested his head against the window and breathed heavy with his eyes closed. Every few seconds he held his breath and tightened his muscles. “It hurts so bad,” he groaned. His leg had doubled in size, stretching the fabric of his uniform.
Alina took his hand. “Hang on, Rex. We’re in Stormport.”
He gave a soft but eager grunt.
Alina gaped out the window as they drove through the streets. Carthem wasn’t what she expected. Her school teachers claimed everyone had brown teeth and wild hair and lived in run-down shacks. But the homes were well kept and pleasing, though much smaller than those in Pria.
People were outside working in the yard and playing with animals, and groups of children climbed trees and threw balls to each other. A man and woman sat on a bench near the street, tickling a baby on the woman’s lap.
Alina elbowed Rex. “Look,” she whispered. “It’s a family.”
Rex opened his eyes. “Where?”
She pointed, and he stared until they passed. Then he let out a small sigh. “Are we really here?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes and licked his cracked lips. “Carthem is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”
Alina smiled. “But the sky isn’t bright blue. There are no perfect, six-petaled flowers. The homes are small, and the people—well, they’re nothing to look at.”
Rex gave a weak snort. “Don’t remind me of that accursed place. Mortality is a rough adjustment, no doubt,” he stiffened in pain, “but it’s paradise compared to my life in Pria.”
“Don’t talk, Rex, save your energy,” Alina said, but she reflected on his words. Pria, with all its pleasure and beauty, seemed the perfect paradise. But for Rex and many others, freedom made a paradise. Freedom to choose love, pain—even death.
Yet that same freedom brought chaos, suffering, illness, and heartache.
On the edge of the street, a child stumbled and fell on the gravel. As he started to cry, a woman helped him up and held him close, smoothing his hair with her hand. Alina remembered Jade, ten years earlier, doing the same for her. Tears came to her eyes. She’d choose the chaos any day if it created more of those memories.
The men parked the car next to a large building, then stepped out and opened the back doors. Jade was still unconscious.
“Please, let me carry her,” Alina begged. “She’s not well.”
“We will carry her,” one of them snapped. They picked her up and motioned for Alina to follow. She ran around the car and helped Rex out, then lifted him onto her back.
They walked through double glass doors into the building, where a woman stood up from behind a desk.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Call Baylor and Dr. Scott and send them to the debriefing room immediately,” one of the men said. The woman nodded and sat down.
Alina followed them down a hallway and into a small room, where three metal chairs surrounded a small table. “Stand against the wall,” they ordered.
Alina complied, still carrying Rex, who felt heavy and limp on her back. One of the men pulled a small square device from his pocket and scanned it an inch above Rex’s body. After a satisfied grunt, he turned to Alina and did the same. The device gave a loud, long beep. He scratched his head as he read something on the screen. “Interesting,” he murmured. He nodded to the man holding Jade and they started from the room, taking her with them.
“Wait—” Alina called out. They responded by slamming the door behind them.
Trembling, she placed Rex on a chair and propped his leg up, then knelt down next to him.
“How are you feeling?”
He made a face. “Not my best. My leg—”
A man interrupted them by barging into the room. Dressed in white with a circular tool dangling around his neck, he observed Rex for a moment, then set a leather bag on the table and rummaged through it.
He knelt on the floor next to Alina and cut Rex’s pants with scissors, then dripped a purple liquid onto his leg. Rex gave a soft moan, and the man began wrapping the leg with a bandage.
“I’m Dr. Scott,” he said. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine.”
Alina relaxed a little. “What did that black mist do?”
“It’s a lethal gas that infects any opening in the body. Usually it goes straight into the lungs. Most don’t survive. He was lucky it wasn’t worse.”
Alina went pale. “Our other friend—where have they taken her?”
“To the hospital wing.”
“Is she
