“Sorry,” I blushed. “I didn’t hear…”
“Councilman Liu told us about a holding facility located on the east coast where they are performing experiments on the supes they have detained.”
“What kind of experiments?” I asked Chei Yun, my brows furrowed.
“I don’t know everything that goes on there, but from what I do know, they are trying to make supernaturals stronger in all ways.”
“How is that a bad thing?” another person around the table asked.
Everyone was silent as we considered that question. Why would it be bad? Making supernaturals stronger, the idea of making anyone for that matter would be a good thing, right? But then I thought about who they were experimenting on. Prisoners. Supes, who in the Council’s eyes were wrong, were dangerous. Why would they use them rather than loyal supporters? Then it hit me.
“It wouldn’t be, if they weren’t trying to make super soldiers,” I filled in. “That is what they’re doing, right?”
Chei Yun nodded. “That is what I believe.”
Several gasps were heard from around the room as the idea sunk in. Matias, somehow, had the floorplan of the facility in his hands and was studying it intently while Xan sighed, his anger returning, but not at me this time. What the Council was doing… it would be devastating. If they succeeded, their control would be so much more than before. They could even take over the humans, if they chose to and rule over the entire world. No one would be safe.
“When did you learn of this facility?” Matias asked Xan’s father.
“I have known of it for quite some time, but I thought it was just a prison for those who had broken the laws. I did not know the extent of what they were doing there until five days ago.”
“So you just decided that you’d tell the rebellion about it? Try to stop it?” I gave him an incredulous look, not at all believing him. “Maybe to do something to get involved with your son again?”
“That’s enough, Emelia,” Amos growled at me. “Councilman Liu has come to us with this because he knows what we are trying to do. If you can’t control yourself, you are welcome to leave.”
I huffed a sardonic laugh and rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe they trusted him!
“You want to know what I think?” My eyes darted toward the vampire who addressed me earlier, then back to my grandfather. “I think it all seems too easy. We’ve been looking for something, anything for weeks! And then him, a Councilman of all people, brings us information about experiments being done on fellow supes with building specs,” I took the papers from in front of Matias and held them up, “about where they’re being held and we’re just going to trust that everything is on the up and up?” I slammed the papers down onto the table and cut my eyes back to Amos. “I know you think it’s my anger that’s clouding my judgement at the moment, but if you think about it, you’ll see what I see.”
I turned on my heels and stormed toward the door, but before I could get there, I teleported, landing onto a large boulder behind the mansion that overlooked the crashing waves of the ocean below.
“Oh shit! No, no, no, no!” I waved my arms and went up on my tippy toes, trying to keep my balance, eventually finding it and planting my feet firmly on the rock.
On shaky legs, I climbed off the boulder and slid all the way to the ground, lowering my head into my hands. I knew I wouldn’t have died if I fell, but the fear of falling was more than I could bear. I was coming down off of the adrenaline of my anger and then to be dropped on the edge of a cliff, literally…
I made myself take deep breaths in and out until I felt stable enough to stand. Then I took a few steps toward the back door of the mansion and when my legs felt strong again, I ran. I ran through the door, straight up two flights of stairs to Irna and Dev’s workspace and grabbed the vial of whatever they made for me, downing it in one quick gulp.
“Wait!” Dev yelled at me, but it was too late.
I lowered the empty vial and looked my uncle in the eye, waiting for something to happen. A weird feeling, anything, but I felt nothing. I didn’t feel any different.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his question full of concern.
“Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Dev.” I walked out of there, eyebrows furrowed, confused about what I thought I should be feeling, and I left. I started walking down the stairs and I heard my name being called as my mates were looking for me after my disappearing act.
I turned around and walked back up the stairs to the third floor, toward an empty room I found just days before. The room had a balcony that had easy handholds up to the roof of the mansion. I tried it out when I found it and knew I could easily climb up there again.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt the ones who loved me, but I needed to be alone. It was all just… so hard. The expectations… the ones others had for me and the ones I had for myself, the information Chei Yun brought to us, the fact Ronan could be dead or worse, all because he helped me. The more and more I thought about it, a lot of my anger came from the fact that we had no leads on him and Ainsley. Not a single one. He… I didn’t even want to think about it. I couldn’t if I were to keep a hold on the thin strand of sanity I had left.
“Do you know where she is?” Xan asked from the ground, just underneath me.
There was a beat of silence before Matias replied.
