Darkness Fades (Darkness Falls Series, Book 3) (14 page)

“Aren’t you glad to see me?” he asks.

I manage a fake smile, deciding that I’ll
play along until I figure out what’s going on. “Of course I am,
but… what happened to you? Sylas and I tried to find you after we
were separated.”

“I managed to escape the abominations,” he
says. “I went back to the cave and waited, but when you didn’t show
up, I decided that maybe I missed you and you’d come back here.” He
gestures at the town that surrounds us. “So I came back, too.”

I’m not buying it at all, though at the same
time, maybe that’s what he thinks really happened. Especially after
what I heard Monarch say to Gabrielle in the street about him
telling the truth against his own free will.

Aiden assesses Sylas with his brows dipped
together. “I thought you changed into an abomination?”

“Apparently, their bite doesn’t change Day
Takers like we thought,” Sylas lies. I’m glad he does. “All that
happened was that I got sick... Kayla found me hidden inside one of
the buildings.”

He looks skeptical as sunlight bathes over
him, reminding me what he is. “Well, it’s good to know that you’re
both safe… and alive.”

He’s not lying, which isn’t what I
expected.

Mathew clears his throat behind us. “I don’t
mean to break up this little reunion, but I really need to get to
work on the cure if we want to have any hope of deciphering
it.”

He doesn’t wait for an answer from any of
us; he simply turns and walks across the path towards a two-story
brick building that has two more guards by the door.

Sighing, Sylas and I follow him while Aiden
stays behind us, making me uneasy and on high alert. I’m not sure
what’s going on; if he’s good, bad—what the hell he is at the
moment, since he’s always all over the place.

The guards look at us from the corners of
their eyes as we walk by, but do not bother us. Mathew leads us
inside of the building where we walk down a narrow hallway and into
a room at the end, a few guards following at our heels. Everything
inside the room is white, and there are glass shelves with bottles
of some liquid on them. It reminds me of the room Monarch worked
in; the one where I received all of my injections. I tense when I
realize this.

There’s a table in the center of the room,
shiny and made of metal, which Mathew walks over to. “Can I see the
papers?”

I glance at Sylas, wondering what we should
do. He wavers, looking at Aiden and then at Mathew, knowing we
don’t have much time. I can tell Aiden and this room is making him
nervous. Still, he takes the papers out of his pocket and puts them
down on the table.

Mathew picks up the stack of papers and
thumbs through them. He shakes his head as he begins to place them
into separate stacks. As he continues to place the papers into
various piles, Aiden looks around the room, seeming bored, while
Sylas watches Aiden with a look that says if he makes one move,
Sylas will hurt Aiden badly. The problem is, I’m not so sure Sylas
is stronger than Aiden anymore.

“There, that should do it,” Mathew says. He
quickly picks up the stack of papers and starts reading them over.
“I’m going to need a bit of time to go through them.” He has an
intense look on his face as he reads whatever’s on them. “You might
want to go check on Maci, too, Kayla. She was asking for you.” He
sets one of the pieces of papers down. “She’s in the next building
over.”

I’m hesitant, yet I head to exit the room,
knowing I should go check up on Maci and Greyson. Aiden and Sylas
both continue to hover near Mathew, each refusing to leave, then at
the same time, they both turn towards me. Sylas follows me out,
however Aiden continues to hang back, his eyes focused on the
papers that are spread out upon the table. Even though I’m hesitant
to leave Mathew with the papers, I’d feel better if Aiden wasn’t
around him.

“Aiden, are you coming with us?” I ask in
the fakest polite tone I can muster up because there’s no way I’m
leaving him here with Mathew.

Aiden glances over at me, eyes cold, but
walks after us. Suddenly, I can breathe freer.

That is, until he stops and says, “I’m just
going to wait here until Mathew is done... I’m not sure if we can
trust him anymore.”

“Or is it because you want the papers?” I
ask. “After all that stuff you were saying back at Cell 7, I’m not
so sure I can trust you.”

“You can trust me,” he says. I can’t tell if
he’s lying or not. “But I have to say that I’m sort of hurt that
you don’t seem happy that I made it back here okay.”

“I am,” I lie. “How did you make it back,
though? How did you escape the abominations so easily?” I want to
say something that will allow me to see if he’s lying, whether he’s
really bad or if deep down he’s still good, yet under the control
of Monarch.

Aiden gives me a dry smile, like he can see
right through my bullshit. “I ran.” He’s telling the truth.

“And you didn’t run into any problems along
the way?” I ask.

He shakes his head, seeming confused. “No…
well, other than those abominations. It was a pain in the ass to
escape them.”

I shake my head, frustrated, because
everything he’s saying is true. I move to head to the door, but
Sylas doesn’t follow, so I stop and turn back around.

He keeps his eyes on Aiden. “You know what;
I think I’ll keep my brother company.”

Aiden shrugs. “Okay, if you want to.”

Sylas casts a glance at me then slides down
onto the hallway floor, leaning back against the brick wall, giving
me a look that lets me know he’ll keep an eye on things before
returning his attention to his brother. “I haven’t seen you since I
was captured. We have a lot of catching up to do, don’t you
think?”

Aiden nods and then sits down across from
him. I reluctantly leave them and hurry out the exit door at the
end, wanting to check up on things quickly so I can get back,
wanting to be near the papers so I’ll know they’re okay. Two guards
standing there with knives in their hands watch me as I hurry past
them and out onto the path. I pause as I stare at the few buildings
in the area; I can’t tell which one Maci’s supposed to be in.

I glance back at the guards. “Can you tell
me where Maci and Greyson are by chance?”

The guards gape at me blankly. “What are you
talking about?” The taller, more slender one with brown hair
says.

“The little girl that came here with me… she
fell off a cliff and was hurt,” I say, unsure if they know what I’m
talking about.

A flash of recognition crosses the slender
one’s face. “Is that what happened to her?” he sneers. “Or was it
something you Day Takers did to her?”

I’m not in the mood for this shit anymore. I
take a slow, measured step closer to him with my arms to my sides,
my shoulders square. He cowers back against the wall—they both do.
“If you know what a Day Taker is, then you know what I can do,” I
say in a firm tone. “So shut up and point the way to where I can
find Maci and Greyson.”

His finger shakes as he points it to a small
stucco building across the path, nestled beside another building
and some trees. I turn away and make my way over to the building,
resisting the urge to go back and punch him in the face. I can’t
help noticing the people I pass by. Most of them are either staring
at me or whispering to each other, feelings of hate and fear
radiating from them as they quickly jump out of my way, clearing a
path for me. I can’t help wondering why I’m trying to save people.
They despise and fear anything that is different from them. Then I
remember the words Aiden said to me earlier.

If everyone’s the same, then how can someone
be considered perfect when there’s no imperfection to compare them
to?

What am I doing thinking that way?
I
shake the thoughts out of my head and walk to the stucco building
the guards pointed to, people clearing out of my way until I have
open land in front of me. When I reach the door, I can hear voices
giggling from inside, which makes me feel just a little bit
better.

I open the door and walk inside, immediately
startled. Maci is sitting inside with about a dozen other children
while, at the front of the small room, is a young woman with
blondish hair streaked with blue that matches her pants. She has
black boots on and a white button-up shirt. She’s telling some kind
of story to the children about something called ponies and a lot of
rainbows.

The room is actually pretty colorful; the
walls this alarming shade of green and covered with pieces of paper
that have drawings on them.

The children are all smiling at her as they
listen to the story, and in the middle of the crowd, is a red
headed girl. Maci. She looks like she’s enjoying herself. When she
turns in my direction, she jumps up from her seat, smiling.

“You’re here!” she exclaims, running over
and wrapping her arms around me. The rest of the children follow
her, looking equally as happy. I’m shocked when they circle around
me, joining in the hug Maci offers me.

I’m instantly reminded why I need to save
the world again.

Chapter 19

The young woman in the room tells the
children that they need to sit back down. I look up at her,
expecting to see her eyes filled with hate like the rest of the
people in the colony, so I’m surprised when she smiles at me with
kindness in her eyes.

Maci grabs my hand and pulls me towards the
door. “Come on, Kayla. We need to talk.”

She leads me outside the door and around to
the back of the building. There’s an alleyway that is surrounded by
walls and the only way out is the way we came in. Then Maci lets go
of my hand and starts humming as she skips around in a circle.

“Why did you bring me out here?” I ask her
as I look around the empty alley.

“Because I am supposed to.” She shrugs as
she kicks at some pebbles on the ground.

As usual, I’m confused at what she’s talking
about. “Can you tell me why you’re supposed to?”

“Not yet,” she says. “But soon.”

I sigh.
I wish she could just tell us
what we’re supposed to do instead of letting us know she knows.
Things would be so much simpler
. “What were you doing back in
that building?”

She stops skipping and her eyes light up
with excitement. “That was a school. They teach the children how to
read there.”

“They teach people to read here?” I ask,
stunned.

She nods her head with enthusiasm. “They
teach lots of things Kayla. It’s different from our colony where
the Highers are always controlling things and hiding things.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I tell her. “Since
they don’t have Highers here.”

The sound of yelling suddenly interrupts us.
I wonder if this is why Maci brought me back here, to hear
something. The yelling is coming from around the corner, in front
of the building. I start to take off to see what the commotion is
about, but Maci grabs my arm and draws me back.

“You need to stay here,” she tells me. I
shake my head, worried it’s the army or something, and then I begin
to pull away. “Kayla, listen to me,” Maci says. “You
have
to
stay here. They’re yelling because of you.”

I listen to the yells and suddenly I
comprehend what she is telling me. They want to lock me away
because they’re afraid of me.

“They don’t hate you,” she says sadly. “They
just don’t understand you. They don’t know how important you
are.”

“I hope you’re right,” I mutter, trying to
block out the hateful words from the street, but it’s hard.

“I am,” she says simply.

The yelling continues for a while and then
their voices suddenly fade. I hear Mathew speak, telling everyone
to quiet down.

“We can go out now,” Maci whispers quietly,
motioning me to go.

I cautiously make my way back to the front
of the building and find Mathew standing on top of the steps of the
building. Sylas is standing beside him with his hood remaining over
his head because there’s still sunlight. The people in the crowd
are all staring at Sylas as if he is some sort of a monster. I can
tell by the look in their eyes what they’re feeling. Fear. They
want to kill Sylas. And possibly me.

This is bad.

Mathew is trying to calm them down, but the
colony members are still uneasy. I take a deep breath and start to
walk towards Mathew and Sylas. When I step out from the corner,
many people turn in my direction and the crowd begins to murmur
again. I ignore their angry looks and walk with my chin held high
up the steps and beside Sylas. He glances at me and then discreetly
moves his hand over and slips his fingers through mine.

“Everyone needs to calm down. Sylas and
Kayla are not responsible for what happened. I wasn’t attacked by
them.” Mathew’s voice echoes over the crowd. I wonder what the hell
he’s talking about. “Sylas is the one who saved me from Aiden. He
went up against his own brother to protect me,” Mathew explains and
my eyes widen in shock.

What did I miss?

Sylas must sense my panic because he
squeezes my hand, and even though I hate to admit it, it slightly
calms me down. Mathew steps down to the bottom of the stairway and
into the crowd of people. He immediately gets bombarded with
questions about what happened; where the other one is, what he’s
going to do about the problem. They look at us every time they say
problem and it irks me to my very core.

“What is going on?” I whisper, leaning in
towards Sylas.

“I guess Aiden put thoughts into people’s
heads and made them do things,” he whispers back. “He tried to get
me to attack Mathew, but was surprised when I didn’t respond. When
his little gift didn’t work on me, he tried to get me to tell him
why. I honestly have no idea why it didn’t work on me, but the next
thing I knew, he bit me... He was able to see my thoughts.” He
swallows hard with his head bowed down. “He knows that you changed
me back, Kayla.”