The Cage (38 page)

He’d done everything for her, and it still wasn’t enough.

“You said you loved me too.” He didn’t recognize the hard edge in his voice. “You lied.”

“Hell yes, I lied! I would never love you . . . you twitchy . . . stupid . . . boy!” Tears mixed with her insults. “Did you think I’d love you because you were kind to me? Because you were patient with me? Because for the first time in my life someone looked at more than my legs? I
hate
you. I do. I swear. I . . . I . . .”

She broke down into sobs. She stopped struggling and curled into herself instead, trying to hug her knees close. He let go of her hesitantly, ready to tackle her again if she tried to run, but she only sobbed harder, rocking back and forth like she had the first day. The pink streak in her hair was caught in her eyelashes, damp with her tears. She suddenly shoved it back angrily.

“I
do
love you, you idiot! Of course I do!”

His anger melted away with hers. He watched her rocking and crying, and started to touch her knee but stopped his hand. He loved her, but could he trust her?

“Then why did you cheat on me? Lucky was my friend. And Leon’s a complete ass.”

“It wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about sex at all. It was about creating a stable world for our baby. Not just getting the boys loyal to us, but Mali and Cora too. The boys were just easier to work with, because boys only want one thing. My talent manager in London, Delphine . . . I spent years watching how she made men fall in love with her. She built an empire out of manipulating men. Their money. Their connections. The stability she got from that. I learned from her, even if I didn’t want to. I was afraid you and I wouldn’t be enough. Not so far from home. Not in a place where anything could happen. I needed all of us together on this—and I tried to do it the only way I know how.”

Rolf stared at her. Part of him still wanted to hurt her back, hurl insults just like she had. Call her a cheater. Call her manipulative. But then he surprised even himself.

He started laughing.

It was filled with pain and bitterness. He doubled over, supporting himself in the grass, his stomach cramped with angry laughter mixed with tears. It wasn’t until he had wrung himself out like a sponge that she pushed the pink streak out of her face.

“What’s so funny, then?” she asked sharply.

“You. And me. This place. We’ve both become the one thing that tormented us most back on Earth. I became Karl Crenshaw, my old bully, and you became Delphine. Cora was right about this place. It isn’t paradise. And the Kindred . . .” His fingers curled in the hard earth. “Maybe they aren’t what we thought they were.” His fingers started twitching,
tap tap tap
, all his old fears and old bad habits coming back in full force. He pushed at the bridge of his nose where his glasses used to rest.

Some genius.

“I should have seen it. I’m an idiot—”

Nok grabbed his hand, holding his fingers still. “No. Don’t ever say that. You’re brilliant and that’s why I love you. But you’re not perfect, and neither am I. It doesn’t matter.” Her jaw was set with determination.

The feeling came back into Rolf’s arms. He dared to look at her and saw sincerity in the lines of her face. He pulled her into his arms, breathing in the scent of her smooth hair, feeling her heartbeat against his. His skin tingled like it was on fire. It wasn’t until the hair started rising on his arms that he realized pressure was building.

Nok went rigid in his arms. “Behind you,” she whispered in a frightened voice.

He whirled, holding Nok tightly, expecting to see the Caretaker. Cora had said he would help the escape; maybe he’d come to make sure Nok and Rolf posed no further threat to her.

But the Kindred that materialized wasn’t the Caretaker. It was a woman, and as her body took shape, he recognized the painfully tight bun, the high cheekbones.

The medical officer. Serassi.

His head spun to Nok, but she shook her head emphatically. “I didn’t summon her. I promise. You’ve been with me the entire time.”

“But if you didn’t, why is she here? The Caretaker was supposed to—”

His words were cut off as Serassi approached. Behind her, another figure began to materialize. Tessala, the substitute Caretaker. Yet another figure materialized behind her. A male Kindred who Rolf had never seen, big as the Caretaker, with a long row of knots down the side of his uniform and a permanent scowl that formed heavy wrinkles between his eyes. Two more Kindred men materialized behind him.

Rolf pulled Nok closer as the team of Kindred approached.

“Rolf . . .” There was fear in her voice. He held her tightly. He would never let them be separated.

“This enclosure is being temporarily shut down,” Serassi said in her mechanical voice. “This cohort has failed. I have instructions to take you to a holding cell in the medical chambers until the Warden determines what is to be done with you.”

“The Warden?” Rolf clutched Nok tighter. Cora had told them about the Warden, the ruthless Kindred who had tried to strangle her their very first day, whose forehead was knotted with angry wrinkles.

Rolf’s eyes went to the Kindred man with the hardened face. The way he looked at them so intently formed a deep vertical wrinkle between his eyes. Wasn’t
that
the man Cora had described? Could there be more than one Kindred with the same description? Usually Rolf was good at thinking things through, but none of this made any sense. “Where’s the Caretaker? Where’s Cassian? We need to see him, right now.”

The Kindred all stopped. Serassi cocked her head, as though for once her impassive mask might drop to reveal some true emotion; but then she straightened, and the mask instantly returned. Behind her, one of the Kindred took out an apparatus that looked like a weapon.

“Cassian is the one who gave the order for us to come. He notified us of your exact position.” Serassi removed two sets of shackles from her pocket. “Cassian
is
the Warden.”

Nok let out a small cry, and Rolf held her tighter. His head ached, and so did his heart. He cast a look in the direction of the ocean, where the others had disappeared, and wondered if they knew they were walking directly into a trap.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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54

Cora

THE CHAMBER WHERE CORA
had awakened was filled with machinery that hummed a hundred times louder than the black windows. Cassian had called it an equipment chamber, but she didn’t see any vents or buttons or moving parts, only cubes upon cubes, the ones Rolf had said were amplifiers, arranged in what looked like a haphazard order—but nothing about the Kindred was haphazard.

Lying on her back, she could see the ocean stretched out overhead, a beautiful, dancing dome of water. It reminded her of an aquarium her father had taken her to, where sharks swam overhead. Only there was no glass now. If she had been tall enough, she could have touched water, come away with the smell of salt. Once or twice she though she saw a star on the other side.

We made it.

She was alive—and so were Lucky and Mali, collapsed on either side of her, stunned but breathing steadily.

Mali jerked awake and coughed up water. Her body was hunched, as though she’d bruised every muscle when she fell. Cora’s own body ached in every joint. The pain made her feel wonderfully alive.

Lucky rolled onto his side, breathing hard, coughing. Their eyes met beneath the shimmering ocean dome. Despite everything, he smiled.

“Jesus,” he said. “I thought that ocean would never end.”

The thrill of victory was in their smiles, in the lightness of Cora’s heart. They weren’t out of the woods yet, but they were past the hardest part.

“We shouldn’t stay here long,” Cora said.

Mali wrung the water from her hair. “The traders are located in the lowest level. We must be cautious.”

Cora nodded. They had just done the impossible, so she felt ready for anything.

“Someone came with us,” Lucky said in surprise.

Cora followed his gaze to a wet patch a few yards away from them, with big wet footsteps leading to the open doorway.

“It was Leon,” Cora said. “I saw him running toward us at the last minute.”

Mali sniffed the puddle. “The water mostly evaporates already. He must wake long before us.”

“He left us,” Lucky said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Cora studied Leon’s evaporating footsteps, knowing it was true, but the fact that he had left the cage was strong evidence that he had regained his sanity. “He’s still rebelling against the Kindred, which means he’s on our side, whether he left us or not.”

They wrung the water out of their clothes so the Kindred wouldn’t be able to follow the seawater trail. Every drip made Cora feel stronger. The door was propped open—Cassian had been true to his word. The only shadow in her heart was the certainty that she would never see him again. After that one glimpse of his real self, uncloaked, she wanted more. She wanted to see him smile, and laugh, and sleep at night. She rubbed her neck where the Warden had strangled her. She prayed Cassian hadn’t been caught. What would the Warden do to someone on his own team who had betrayed him?

Lucky peered out the doorway. “It’s clear.”

Cora joined Lucky and Mali, looking up and down the impossibly long arched hallway. “Leon’s tracks lead to the left.”

Mali snorted. “He does not know where he goes.” She pointed the opposite direction. “We must go down.”

Cora frowned. “That’s downhill? It looks perfectly flat.”

Mali wobbled her head. Water dripped from her hair and ran in the direction she’d been pointing, though the floor appeared even. “You do not know anything about aggregate stations.”

She had a good point, and Cora was happy to let her take the lead. As they jogged silently down the austere hallway, Lucky kept stopping to marvel at the light coming from the wall seams. He’d never seen those intricate archways, the metallic walls, the eerie silence like ancient monasteries.

Mali paused, listening. “I hear something.”

Cora’s skin started to tingle with the urge to run. What if Nok had gotten away from Rolf and sounded the alarm? The Warden would send soldiers to stop them, and Cassian would be powerless to help.

She squeezed her charm necklace. She could still feel the lingering touch of his fingers brushing her skin. Had she made a mistake in letting him take such a risk?

They waited several impossibly long seconds before continuing. The hallway abruptly branched to their left, and Mali froze. Cora heard it too.

Footsteps. Boots.

“Go the other way,” Mali whispered urgently.

They followed her down the opposite direction, but the hallways only looped back. The sensation of being turned around made Cora’s head throb, and Lucky kept rubbing his forehead too, but it didn’t seem to affect Mali. She was faster than they were, not slowed by the strange perception. She disappeared around a bend, and when they stumbled after her, she was gone. The hallway stretched as far as Cora could see. Mali simply wasn’t there.

Instead, five Kindred dressed in black turned the corner.

Cora skidded to a stop, choked by the sight.

“Run!” she yelled.

Lucky and Cora raced in the opposite direction, turning at each branching hallway, desperately looking for a door, but Cora had the awful feeling they were just running in circles.

She focused her thoughts and projected that she needed Cassian’s help, but he must have been too far away to perceive her call, because minutes passed and he still didn’t come.

Lucky slipped. Cora pulled him to his feet as they stumbled around another corner. There, at the far end, was another soldier. Black clothes, short hair, but it wasn’t Cassian.

“Hurry!” Cora said, and they raced down the corridor, but the soldier was impossibly fast. He was on them in a second. His hands dug into Lucky’s shoulder, and Cora knew—she
knew
—that he would never get away.

“He can’t catch both of us,” Lucky yelled. “Keep going!”

Cora was crying now, that they had Lucky, and Mali and Leon were both gone, and she was on her own. The only way she could keep going was to tell herself that she’d come back for him. She’d head to the lowest level, and find the Mosca traders, and come back to rescue him.

She turned another corner as sweat poured down the back of her neck. A door stood at the end—a chance to hide. She threw herself against it.

Her beating heart was all she could hear as she dug her fingernails into the seam, screaming at the stupid door to open. She heard footsteps behind her and worked faster. The door didn’t budge. There were no tools around, only a blue cube above the doorway. An amplifier.

Rolf had said if she could damage it, the Kindred wouldn’t be able to open the doors with their telekinesis. Maybe the opposite was also true—if she broke it, maybe she could override the door and open it by hand.

She wedged her foot in the doorway and used it as leverage to push herself up until she could grab hold of the cube. She’d been expecting something hard like plastic, but it was cold and pulsing and wet, more like ice. Shock made her let go, and she had to climb up again, her heart pounding harder.

She gripped the cube again and dropped her weight. The sudden force made the cube splinter with a jolt of electricity. She cried out as she crashed to the ground, then scrambled to the door and shoved her fingers into the seam. It opened an inch, enough to wedge her toe in.
Thank you, Rolf.
She pushed harder, and it glided open.

She stumbled through the doorway, then pushed it closed behind her. She was in a room the size of the medical chamber, only not nearly as sparse. It was packed with a chaos of belongings, stacked on the floor, propped on a circular desk ringing nearly the entire room. Most of the clutter was unfamiliar—blue cubes of all sizes, boxes stuffed with a variety of apparatuses—but a few things seemed vaguely recognizable. Stacks of the Kindred’s cerulean clothing. A communicator like Cassian wore on his wrist. Metal boxes with lids piled against the wall. It all looked haphazard, but Cora got the sense it was actually highly organized, in the same way the market had been.