The Cage (36 page)

“I can do it,” Cora whispered. “I figured out the puzzle was there without perceptive abilities, so I know I can make it through.”

His hands pulled her close enough to whisper, with a voice so human she could close her eyes and almost pretend he was. “Stay here. With me. The things I have done . . .” He stopped, and swallowed. “I’ve made so many mistakes, Cora.”

She didn’t know which mistakes he was talking about, but it didn’t matter. They had both made so many. In that moment, more had changed than just his eyes. In her, or in him, she wasn’t sure. When she had first seen him, she had thought him such a terrifyingly beautiful creature. Their captor. Their jailer. He was still those things to her, but he was something more. She didn’t want to put a word on it, and she didn’t know how she even would, but she knew it had to do with the times he had asked her what it meant to be human.

This was what had changed, and it was so devastatingly simple: she had become a person to him; he had become a person to her. Human, Kindred—it didn’t matter. It was just her, and him, standing in the sea.

His hand grazed the constellation markings on her neck. She couldn’t help but think about Lucky, who drew her to him as if they’d been made for each other—exactly as the Kindred engineered it. She and Lucky had everything needed to fall in love: attraction, respect, a shared past she hadn’t even known about. But in the same way the trees here were not quite trees, and the fruit was not quite fruit, the Kindred had misjudged something about humanity, and people, and the connections between humans. Love wasn’t just a combination of matching physical and personal criteria. It was something you couldn’t put into words, just a certainty, a twist of fate, a spark.

As much as Lucky drew her to him, she had never felt that spark. Not like she did with Cassian.

She pulled away, covering her face with her hands.

“Cora,” he murmured, and then said her name again and again. She was shaking so hard that she leaned her head against his chest and thought about how before him, before this place, everyone thought of her as a victim—her family, her classmates, the media, even Lucky. But Cassian had never looked at her that way. He had always known that beneath the smile she’d been told to wear, she was strong.

Cora started crying because she didn’t want this, and it was wrong, and she didn’t know anything about him. Cassian might have been Mali’s hero, but he could never be hers. How unfair, then, that suddenly she felt closer to him than anyone.

He touched a hand to her cheek. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

He knew, just as she knew, that what was happening between them was wrong. That he couldn’t fall in love with a human and she couldn’t fall in love with her captor, but here they were.

“Please,” he whispered. “Whatever you ask, it’s yours. Just tell me that you feel—”

“Stop.” Her hand went to his lips, silencing him. “Don’t say that.”

His muscles were tensing and untensing as he gave up the last remnants of his fight to cloak his emotions. He rubbed a hand over the bump in his nose, turned his head to the side and cursed. He was acting just like . . . a person. And that scared her most of all.

“Cloak your emotions again,” she ordered.

“I don’t want to. You asked what I was like in my private life. Let me show you.” He leaned in, touching his forehead to hers, his lips a breath away. “You captivated me. I knew you were different. Strong. So full of potential. You baffled the researchers. You baffled me too. I did everything I could to understand you, and you were still a mystery.”

His chin started to tilt toward hers. His lips parted. “I want to know what it feels like,” he whispered.

My god.
He was going to kiss her, and it was so wrong, and so was how badly she wanted him to.

She turned her head at the last second. “Don’t. If you cared for me, you’d help me escape.”

He balled his fists and straightened, trying to gain control over his emotions. He was a jealous person, she hadn’t forgotten. And Mali had said they were unpredictable when their emotions were uncloaked. As much as Cora wanted to think of him as human right now, she had to remind herself that he wasn’t.

He took a step away from her, pacing in the surf. “Is that what you want? To be away from me?”

“We weren’t meant to live behind bars.”

“What you are asking me goes against logic. You want to leave this place—leave me—when I’ve so recently discovered that you remaining close is the only thing I truly want.”

She urged her foot to take a step closer. Her hand drifted to her collar, to the charm necklace that tied her to a different world. She didn’t stop until she felt the heat from his body.

“I know,” she said. “I’m still asking.”

“Here I can at least see you, and touch you, and keep you safe from those who might do you harm. Why would I help you when I would lose even that?”

“Because I’d never be happy here. And caring about someone means you would sacrifice your own happiness for theirs.”

“That is a human way of looking at things. Not Kindred.”

“Well, you said you wanted to understand humanity.” He was silent, though he paced through the surf with his storm-cloud eyes still on her, and she added, “I’m not asking you to break the rules. I don’t want you to be punished. Just look the other way.”

He regarded her steadily, trying perhaps to see around his own mental blocks and read her thoughts. He put one hand around the back of her neck and moved closer.

His lips touched hers.

The flood of electricity broke through the dam of her lips and flowed into her chest, her arms, her head. She steadied herself against him. He hadn’t kissed before. It was stiff and hungry, but he had seen her and Lucky kissing, and Nok and Rolf. He knew what it looked like. He threaded his fingers though her hair like Lucky had. Cora let everything go, then. She didn’t care if other Kindred were watching.

She kissed him back, showing him how a kiss was meant to be, though she hardly knew either. He learned fast. His people might not kiss, but she could tell by his heart thumping under her hand that he enjoyed it, that he responded to it the same way humans did. Quick breath. Radiating warmth. Hands running over every inch of her back, arms, waist, like he had imagined this all in his head a thousand times. Everywhere he touched her rippled in goose bumps. He wasn’t careful and gentle with her, not like Lucky had been. He knew she wouldn’t break.

He was so warm, so full of energy and life that Cora never wanted to never let go. But she had to.

She pulled away from the kiss. He kept his arms around her as she closed her eyes, grounding herself in the coppery smell of his uniform. Something had happened here. They had crossed a line there was no going back from. It was a mistake—but some mistakes were worth making.

“Go at night,” he said. “The ocean isn’t as deep as it appears; there’s a pressure lens separating it from an equipment chamber beneath. You have to swim down far enough to reach it. The pressure will increase to the point where continuing feels impossible, but it’s not. You’ll break through the pressure lens. After that, you’re on your own.”

“Won’t the Warden and his researchers be watching?”

His eyes had returned to black, but his emotions were not totally gone. He pressed his lips to her forehead very softly, and then whispered a few words in her ear before letting her go.

“Leave them to me.”

He dematerialized, leaving her alone in the crashing waves.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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51

Cora

CORA SPENT THE AFTERNOON
hidden within the boughs of the cherry tree, until it was time to rendezvous with Mali. The jukebox music came, signaling dinner, and she heard the others’ voices chatting as they ate, then the crack of mallet against wooden ball as they played croquet beneath the stars.

Cora flinched at each crack, remembering Rolf slamming it into the pumpkin. She drew her knees closer. She hoped desperately that Mali had talked to Lucky, and that he’d been able to convince the others. Otherwise, it might be her head under that mallet.

Once the cage was quiet, and the house lights turned off one by one, Cora crawled from her hiding place and ran toward the side of the movie theater. She paced nervously, jumping at every shadow. She watched the house lights carefully, praying the others were all heavy sleepers. At last the sound of footsteps came, and Cora sighed with relief.

“Mali—”

But she froze. In the starlight, a tattooed face stared back at her.

“Going to leave us, sweetheart?” Leon grabbed her before she could run. “I don’t think so.”

Her heart shot to her throat.

“I wasn’t going to leave you!” she stuttered. “Please, Leon, keep your voice down. Don’t wake the others. . . .”

“I saw you out there with that black-eyed bastard. I was under the boardwalk. I heard you say you were going to escape and he would help you.” His voice bellowed. A light turned on in an upstairs bedroom, and Cora cringed.

“It’s true—I do know the way out, but I’m not leaving without you. Why do you think I’m still here?”

Rolf appeared in the house’s doorway, the military jacket slung over his thin bare chest, Nok behind him. Anger twisted their features. They tumbled out of the house just as Mali came down the trail, a few minutes too late. Her eyes darted to Cora’s, heavy with warning.

“What are you doing here?” Nok yelled. “They’re taking away my baby because of you!”

Cora straightened. What was Nok talking about?

Mali leaned close to Cora. “I cannot convince them. They strongly dislike you.”

“Yeah—I figured that out,” Cora whispered back. “I was right about the ocean, but we have to leave tonight. Cassian’s distracting the other Kindred.” She glanced at Rolf, who scooped up one of the croquet mallets. “But we’ll have to get through them first.”

“If it comes to this I am ready.” Mali cracked her knuckles. Cassian had said that Mali was an incredible fighter, so she might be able to handle Rolf, maybe even Rolf and Nok, but not Leon too.

“Where’s Lucky?” Cora asked.

Nok tossed her pink hair back, narrowed her eyes. “He left. He couldn’t stand to be here anymore after you tried to kill him.”

Cora chewed on the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t leave without Lucky. Maybe they weren’t soul mates, maybe they’d hurt each other, but she owed him this one thing.

“Things have changed, Nok. I know how to get us out of here. We can leave tonight, if you’ll just come with me.”

“Escape?” Rolf shook his head. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? There’s no way out of here.”

Leon paced in front of her. “Oh, she’ll be just fine. She’s got the Caretaker on her side. I heard it myself. He’s protecting her. She kissed him, right out in the ocean.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. Cora couldn’t deny it. In their eyes, she was already the enemy, and this just distanced her even further.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nok said, breaking the tension. “Serassi gave me a device I can use to reach her, in case there’s a problem with the pregnancy. It’s in my bedroom. If you leave, I’ll raise the alarm. Not even the Caretaker will be able to help you.”

Cora looked to Mali desperately, who cracked her knuckles a few times, stretching her neck like she was warming up for a fight. Rolf was blinking up a storm, fingers tap-tap-tapping, one eye wincing like his head throbbed.

“I’m not letting you do it, Cora.” He pressed his hands against his temples. “They’re taking away our baby because of
your
violent outburst with Lucky. They’re taking away all the artifacts from Earth, because
you
used one as a weapon. If you try to escape now, they’ll think we’re too rebellious and take away the habitats, or the shops, or chain us up.”

Rolf hefted the mallet and started for her. Rolf, quiet little Rolf, who Cora was certain hadn’t hurt a fly before.

Mali cracked her knuckles one more time.

“Wait!” Cora scrambled against the movie theater wall. “Wait! If the Kindred aren’t going to let you keep your baby, don’t you want to raise it back home, where it can be free?”

“Freedom doesn’t mean anything.” Rolf clenched his jaw, as though a bolt of pain ripped through his skull. “We were free at home, and we were miserable, all of us. You want to send me back to those bullies? You want to send Nok back to the tiny apartment where she was a glorified prostitute? I won’t let you!”

Glorified prostitute? Now it all made sense—Nok’s lies and evasions about her life in London. But before Cora could think, Rolf raised the croquet mallet. Time fractured like a kaleidoscope. Mali sprang forward to stop him, but Leon lunged with a growl. They rolled to the ground, clawing at each other. Nok jumped back just before the two of them trampled her.

Cora was left facing Rolf, the boy who was once here in her place, bullied to the point of near death. He raised the croquet mallet.

“Karl Crenshaw!” she screamed, throwing her arms over her head. “Karl Crenshaw hit you with a cricket bat and nearly killed you. Cricket bat, croquet mallet—it’s the same thing. Is that who you want to be, Rolf? A bully? A
murderer
?”

His eyes were blinking like mad, the muscles in his jaw twitching, but the croquet mallet paused above his head.

“That’s not you,” she continued in a rush, fighting against her own throbbing head. “That’s not who you want to become.”

He staggered back, just as Mali slammed her foot into Leon’s face. Blood spurted everywhere. Cora grabbed the mallet from Rolf’s hand, but his grip on it was loosened, the mallet already forgotten. Rolf sank to his knees in the grass, looking dazed.

“Rolf, don’t listen to her!” Nok screamed.

The croquet mallet gleamed in the light from the street lamps. Still within reach. Rolf’s eyes shifted to it, debating.

Cora’s heart pumped harder. “Nok is trying to manipulate you, Rolf. I heard her on the porch hitting on Lucky. She’s been sleeping with Leon too.”