Akasha 4 - Earth (20 page)

"Are they getting enough food and
water?"

"More than the working parties do." He
crossed his arms.

"No physical abuse?"

He huffed part of his mustache away
from his mouth. "I am doing the best I can here, Kaitlyn. I've been
with One Less for almost two years now, sabotaging what I can,
passing info when I can. I haven't been caught yet." He handed the
papers back to me. "Now you need to go before you ruin all that.
I'll catch up with you at chow tonight."

"Fine. Tonight, then. And
I want to know
everything
."

"Fine."

I turned on my heel.

"You might want to
consider changing your name, at the very least.
Miss Spy
," he said from behind
me.

I glanced down at the
papers I held. Right where I scribbled it,
Kaitlyn Alder
stood out like a sore
thumb. My cheeks grew hot, and I was glad my back was to Clay. I
walked off, erasing the name as I went.

Chapter
28

Kaitlyn, Left Behind

"Lucy Evermore," I repeated the name
to the admin clerk set up just in front of the kitchens. She put a
checkmark next to the name I’d inserted to replace my own. I moved
forward in line, not bothering to hide the triumphant smile on my
face. The meal rations list was delivered to the kitchens daily.
Thankfully, it was always copied over from the previous day – the
admin clerk adding or subtracting names as necessary. Sometimes the
exact same list was resubmitted. My "name" would forever be on the
list. Unless I died.

I shivered as one of the servers
slopped unidentifiable stew on my plate.

"It ain't that bad," she
mumbled.

I moved on, finding space on the
crowded logs. Loud groups of people surrounded me, everyone buzzing
with excitement over the gala tonight. Already I saw condoms being
passed around. The women were hiking up their pant legs and rolling
up their sleeves, baring as much skin as possible.

I hunched over, with my plate balanced
on my knees, keeping my head down.

I'll eat and
leave
, I told myself.
If Clay isn't here by then, I'll catch up with him another
time.

Tonight was not a good night to be
waiting around. I needed to be hiding out in my tent. I scraped the
last bits of stew into my mouth with the crude, wooden spoon. I
moved to stand when a heavy hand clamped down on my shoulder,
stopping me cold.

"Have a partner yet for tonight, sweet
thing?"

I brushed the hand off my shoulder.
"Yes, as a matter of fact…"

I drifted off at the laughing, and
turned, craning my neck up. I didn't have to crane it that far.
Clay stood behind me, nearly spilling his plate of food his
shoulders shook so hard.

I held in my growl. "Careful, there
are no seconds."

He squeezed in beside me on the log.
"Sorry, couldn't resist. You looked so worried." He shoved a roll
in his mouth and his beard moved up and down with what I could only
assume was chewing. "You need to relax. Look at everyone around you
– happy, excited. Then there’s you, hunched over your plate, eating
like it’s your last meal."

He was right; I needed to
be better at this.
Starting now.
I took a deep breath, leaned back, and put a
smile on my face. "That better?"

He paused to look at me. "Getting
there." He went back to his food.

I rolled my eyes. "What's the matter,
not interested in the wares on display?" Both our eyes followed the
bared, glistening abdomen that passed in front of us.

He grunted. "Better things to do. What
about you?"

I smiled. "Didn't you hear? I'm in
Erika's camp."

He nodded. "That'll do. Maybe you're
not so bad at this."

I snorted. "Yeah – we'll see how long
I last." I watched him sop up the rest of the stew on his plate
with bits of roll.

Clay swallowed. "So, what's your
plan?"

I shrugged. "I don't have
one."

"Can't you just, you know, level the
place? Take your people back?"

I took a deep breath, forcing back the
lump rising in my throat. "I've lost my powers."

Clay started choking, spewing out
food. I patted his back. He recovered, and looked at me.

"I hit my head pretty hard a few days
back, and now I black out when I try to use them." I looked down,
concentrating on spreading dirt around with the toe of my boot.
"Hopefully it is just temporary."

Clay nodded. "Probably a concussion.
Happened to one of the Fires a while a back. Go see Sabrina; she is
the doc specializing in 'power' issues." He paused, burping. "And
the baby?"

"Safe," I said.

We leaned back, allowing room for a
couple glued to the hip and making out as they passed. I rolled my
eyes. "What's with all the sex?"

Clay set down his plate and wiped his
mouth with the tip of his beard. "Shawn encourages it. They are
briefed on expectations when they arrive and even rewarded for the
behavior."

A flying condom hit me in the
shoulder. At least it was still in its package. I kicked it away.
"Obviously not many babies are produced. What does Shawn get out of
it?"

Clay laughed. "Come on – I'll walk you
back to your tent."

We walked back, avoiding the larger
groups of people.

"Energy," Clay said.

"What?"

"Shawn gets energy out of
it."

I thought of the Great Rite, and how
it had worked for me. "How?" I stopped, looking around, eyes wide.
"Is he here now?"

Clay took my arm and propelled me
forward. "Remember what I said about relaxing? He hasn't been back
from the boats in days. Busy protecting his stash. But trust me,
when he is about to come back, the admin guys will be the first to
know – you positioned yourself well."

The tension left my shoulders. "So if
he is not here – how does he collect the energy? And what exactly
does it do for him?"

Clay shrugged. "No one really knows
the specifics. But he has increased his strength significantly
since the galas have started. Trust me, if I knew I would've found
some way to sabotage it by now. As it is, the most I've done in
that department is dispose of all the strawberries in
camp."

I laughed out loud.
"Strawberries?"

"They're an aphrodisiac, you
know."

"So they say."

We stopped at the perimeter of Erika's
tents. "Well, this is as far as I go," Clay said.

I bent down to hug him.

"What was that for?" he
asked.

"I'm glad to have you, is all." I
smiled. We had to untangle my hair from his beard before we could
part fully. "Why do you keep that thing?"

He ran his fingers through it.
"Warmth, mainly. And it makes a handy napkin."

I ran my fingers through my own
hair.

"Besides, if I ever need to ditch
camp, a quick shave – maybe some thicker shoes for height, and no
one here would probably recognize me."

I nodded. "Your hair is pretty
recognizable."

He raised his eyebrow at me. "As is
yours."

* * *

Before returning to my tent, I sought
out a pair of scissors.

Erika was able to produce them.
"You're not going to cause problems with these, are you?" She
twirled the scissors on her finger. I had a flashback of someone
flourishing a two-fingered salute. I shook my head, now wasn't the
time to explore forgotten memories.

"If you think I'm going to harm myself
– or someone else, no. I just want to change up my look." I held
out my hand.

She placed the scissors in it, handle
first. "I have some former hairstylists; probably can do it up
right."

I smiled but kept my gaze down at the
metal in my hands. Moonlight glinted off the sharp blades. "No
thanks, I need to do this on my own."

I turned, then stopped and asked over
my shoulder, "But do you know any tattoo artists?"

She nodded. "A few."

"Maybe send them my way
tomorrow?"

"I'll see if I can pull strings – get
one of them off their working parties."

I turned, facing her. "I'll need all
of them."

Once in my tent, I zipped up the door
behind me and fell to my knees. No need to delay the inevitable. I
snipped off a brown and gold curl toward the front.

That one always got in my
eyes anyway
, I told myself.

Outside, music started up at the gala.
Drums, strings, and even a flute gave their all to the party. I
snipped another piece.

And that one had some grey
in it. Good riddance.

Unexpected tears sprang to my eyes,
watering the growing pile of hair below me. Bee loved playing with
my hair. As a baby, she would wrap her fingers around and around my
strands while she fed. Once a little older, we would twist each
other's hair on top of our heads and pretend they were
crowns.

Forest
princesses
, her small voice echoed in my
head.

Would she even recognize
me now?

My hands moved quicker, cutting away
without hesitation. Try as I might to block them, the memories came
flooding back. Frozen locks breaking off in my hand after I saved
Alex from the Chakra's icy lake. Holding my hair back while Micah
clasped the butterfly necklace around my neck. Golden brown tresses
rising with static electricity when I forced lightning to destroy
the handfasting location Shawn desecrated.

Between sobs, I shouted
out loud, "Damn it!"
Why is this so hard?
It's just hair, for Christ's sake.
I moved
to the final few curls at the back.

One more memory came; Micah in bed
with me, smoothing back my hair and calling me 'mop
head'.

The scissors snipped my
finger, and I dropped them. Holding my bleeding hand, I still
cried. Blood, tears, and hair swirled together, making one messy
pile of Kaitlyn, left behind. I crawled into my sleeping bag,
cocooning myself off from the world and hiding from the building
energy within the camp.

* * *

"Easy there, princess."

My shoulders sank. I'd never had a
recurring dream that was so damn frustrating. I looked into Shawn's
cold, blue eyes. If my nightmares had done one thing for me, it had
made those eyes less intimidating. I leaned to the right. His eyes
followed. Then I leaned to the left, going a little further. He
watched to a point, but then his eyes drifted back to where I
should have been standing. I returned to my position.

"Where is the baby?"

"Safe," I responded. He had a gun in
his hand, pointed down this time. I stepped forward, counting until
I reached him. Five paces away. His gun now pointed at my
knees.

Why there?

I stepped back once, and mist swirled
around my ankles. Something was there, in front of him. The harder
I looked, trying to piece it together, the more it evaded
me.

"Kaitlyn, is the baby
mine?"

I blinked, now
that
was different. He
asked instead of declared who the baby's father was. Was that how
it actually went down? I couldn't even remember anymore. Akasha
burned bright behind me, trying to distract me. But the puzzle was
right in front of me. I just needed more time…

Chapter
29

Tainted

"What a waste," Shawn said.

"Sir?" David trailed Shawn, notebook
open, pencil at the ready.

"All that energy last night, left to
disperse on its own."

"Did you lose the Athame?" David
asked.

Shawn continued walking the old,
dilapidated power plant for the last time, checking to see if
anything else could be salvaged before their trip home.
"No."

"Then why did you order the gala last
night, if you weren't going to absorb the energy?" David tripped
over a piece of laminate, curling up from the floor.

"Last night was a test. The energies
in the area lately have felt off, and I needed to know why. If
anyone significantly strong was nearby, that energy would have
naturally gravitated toward them."

"So did it work?"

"We are clear." Shawn nudged at a
door. "Why won't this open?"

David flipped through his notebook, as
if the answer would be there.

Shawn rolled his eyes, took a step
back, and drove his shoulder into the door. It still didn't
budge.

"Oh, yes – I have it here." David held
up the notebook, pointing. "This door is locked."