Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) (7 page)

The entire ballroom was draped
in finery from ceiling to floor. It was elegantly adorned with wide swaths of sheer white fabric, flickering candles, and heady floral arrangements. The sun had set and the ceremony was ready to begin. Music poured from the instruments positioned in the corner of the room. My suit was crisp, made of fine white fabric. The best, my father had assured me. The only things on my person that were not white were my shoes, hair, and eyes. I had grown to hate the empty hue.

It represented lies. Olympus and my father loved to give the illusion of purity, cleanness, perfection. But that’s all it was: an illusion. Nothing was perfect here. The guards signaled my entrance and I stepped from my small room, taking a deep breath before heading down the long aisle, people standing up from their seats in honor as I made my way to the front of the room.

My brother’s mournful eyes found mine as I passed by the front row, heading toward duty and the man I was growing to hate more each minute. There was no way Cam would stay long. He would run as soon as Father would allow him out from beneath his thumb. I could see flight in his eyes even tonight.

My father stood waiting for me, my crown seated atop the sterile pillow held by a servant at his side. He smiled cruelly at me as I approached, but replaced that expression with the false one, the one of the proud father and dutiful King. Standing directly in front of my father, I bowed my head as was customary and allowed him to place the heavy golden crown upon it.

My crown was smaller and less ornate than the one my father boasted, thankfully. His was tall and encrusted with glistening diamonds that formed the shape of an “O” in the center of his forehead.

I turned to face the crowd, my future subjects. If I could have, I would have sprinted away from the situation, from my father, from Olympus and my duty to her. I would have run toward Abby and never looked back. I straightened my spine and waited as the orchestra played the traditional Olympian wedding processional.

Marian appeared at the end of the aisle in the fullest white gown I had ever seen. It looked as if every inch of it was covered with downy, white feathers. With each closer step she took, I could see that indeed, they were feathers of varying shapes and sizes. Some were even tucked into her reddish hair. She did look beautiful. She was a beauty in her own right, though incomparable to Abby in every way.

My father took hold of her outstretched hand and placed it within my own as she stepped beside me. She smiled sweetly up at me and I returned it. Every girl dreamt of this day, right? Even though it was fake, she seemed excited. I had to play along. I didn’t want to ruin this for Marian or the resistance.

Besides, going through with the marriage would bring me one silent step closer to Abigail Kelley.

We were ordered to fill
the square in front of the stage, to smile and cheer when the cameras panned across our faces, to appear joyful. Well, joy was certainly not the emotion rolling though me at that point. I was angry, sad, nervous and scared as hell about what I was about to do. Ky positioned us near the staircase that led to the stage. Even if the cameras wouldn’t stay trained on what I had to say, the village and everyone in it would hear my story tonight.

I watched my doppelganger sway down the aisle elegantly toward Crew, placed her dainty hand in his, and smiled up at him. That was when the first tear fell down my cheek. Ky wiped it away. It wasn’t long before the guards started to line the square, though most looked positively green at this point. Whatever was in the drinks was working its magic.

The woman marrying Crew was named Marian Teegan. The King asked her to recite an oath to Olympus, wherein she vowed to protect and honor her all the days of her life. Then, he asked that she pledge the same to Crew, as he would be her husband, her King and her future. She regally repeated the words after King Harrison Cole.

My stomach rolled. Kyan stroked my hair back and tucked me into his arm. One more moment of warmth. One more moment with someone I knew without a doubt loved me. In that short moment, it hit me. Kyan would never do to me what Crew was doing. He would never pledge his life and love to another if I loved him back. Crew didn’t love me. He never had. It was a hard lesson to learn; the difference between infatuation and real love.

Crew looked into Marian’s eyes. The cameras panned in on the couple. He poised himself to repeat after his father, but instead looked into the camera. “I am so happy to have found my forever. We will waste no time embarking on this journey together. Know that if we are ever separated, my heart will be with yours and yours with mine. I will always find you and always return for you. Thank you for accepting my hand. I shall hold your heart carefully within it for an eternity,” he looked back at his bride, “Marian.”

I flushed as I imagined him saying those beautifully romantic words to me. But it was Marian who beamed at him as if the sun itself shone from his face, not me. I imagined that I’d looked the same way when he’d showered me with pretty words and soft kisses. He’d just given her the forever he promised me.

As the King droned on about the new union, about hope for a better Olympus tomorrow, Gray stepped up beside me and nudged me. “Game time.”

I nodded and hugged Kyan one more time. The cameramen were gone, replaced by Councilman Stephens and Rileck. The cameras were at the ready. I climbed the steps quickly so that my legs didn’t collapse, like I felt they might do any second.

Murmurs traveled through the crowd. Most of the guards were clenching their stomachs, unable to respond to me quickly enough. Gray stood at the steps, his gun trained on anyone who might challenge me.

Stephens gave me a thumbs-up. My voice rang out from the night, startling even me for a split-second. “My name is Abigail Kelley. I’m a Lesser from Orchard Village. A train of Greaters showed up in our village about a month ago during our Harvest. But it wasn’t our fruit that they collected. They ripped all of the women of childbearing age from the village. King Harrison Cole had guards drag us away on trains and took us to Olympus where we were treated as prisoners, sub-human and without rights. Why did he do it? He’s been lying to you. He’s covering up the fact that the vaccines that they’ve given you, given your children, have made all Greater women infertile.”

“If your wife or daughter has had a recent doctor visit or procedure, or is scheduled for one, just know that she will be implanted with a Lesser egg. They’re trying to cover up what they’ve done by planting our eggs in your women. Your wombs will bear Lesser babies.”

The commotion had begun in earnest and rippled through the crowd toward the stage. Guards were making their way to the stage, pushing over anyone standing in their way. One stood ready, the blazing red of his laser light dancing on my chest. “We just want our women back! Stop taking everything from us. We work ourselves to death to provide goods for you! You should not take this from us. It’s not right! We’re human beings, too! We have feelings. We have rights! And you should know that there is a resistance. It’s coming for you! We
will
get them back!”

Something sliced through the air. Councilman Rileck dropped to the ground along with his camera. Blood quickly spread over his shirt as he gasped for air. Stephens threw his camera at a nearby guard and tried to jump from the stage. He was easily caught and dragged into the night, screaming for Paige to stay put.

Three guards approached Gray. He yelled, “She’s not to be harmed, on order from King Harrison Cole. She has the eggs the Greaters need. She’s the key to it all. She’s half Lesser, half Greater.”

My mouth gaped open. I couldn’t believe he just screamed that. The guards backed off. They looked at me as if I were a mutant. Ky motioned for me to jump off the stage and he caught me easily and sat my feet on the ground. We took off running. I turned to look back toward the stage. I wanted to motion for Gray to follow us. He had already surrendered his gun and the three guards were beating him. Soon, he was being dragged off the stage and into the night, too.

I stopped just past the square. “Stop!” I screamed. Kyan slowed and stopped. “You can’t go with me!”

“I am. Nothing you can do about it.” He panted, his breath white against the night sky.

“No, Ky! You promised!”

“I don’t care.”

“Well, I do! I’ve had enough people break their promises to me today. Please!”

The guards were running toward us. “Go!”

I pushed him into the woods and stood firmly, waiting for the sick guards to catch up with us.

They were sweating and grasping at their stomachs when they reached me. “Tie her hands!” One-stepped up to comply with his order and I offered them freely.

Ardis stepped up, a sneer on his face. “All this talk of resistance and you’re going without a fight?”

“I’ve said my peace.”

He snorted and grabbed my upper arm, dragging me into the black abyss. When we were past the park, I asked him, “Do you have a wife at home, Ardis?” He pinned me with a glare.

“She have any appointments lately? One scheduled soon? Just know she’ll be having my baby.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m not lying. They took my eggs. They’ve taken the eggs of the other Lesser women. They’re going to implant the Greater women with them.”

He jerked me forward again. I dug my feet into the earth. “Haven’t you ever wondered why no women were having children?”

He stopped abruptly and glanced over at me. “Yes. And I’m not the only one. But I never imagined this.”

The rest of our trek was spent in silence, my upper arm screaming from his tightened grip. I wanted to tell him that I knew the way to the old prison, most of us did. But that was something he didn’t need to know.

We stumbled over exposed tree roots and rocks that had been disturbed lately. I wondered how many people were in the prison at this point. Ardis had obviously been thinking during our hike, too. He turned to me as we approached the large prison gate. “I’ll find out if you’re lying and if you are, I’ll personally make sure you beg for death before it comes for you.

“I’m not lying. And you know it, Commander.”

The gate was tall and made of brick and stone with razor wire crowning the top. Tall guard towers were placed within the wall along the perimeter, every five-hundred feet or so. Flashes of light and movement inside their glass windows indicated that they were manned. The building had seen better days. It was enormous. From childhood explorations, I knew that the main building housed everything administrative and from it, the cellblocks spread like spokes from the tire of an old bicycle. There were six of them. Each block had over one-hundred cells.