The Gathering (2 page)

I swallow and look away, my head incapable of nodding.

If not for Fray’s fragile health, if not for Clive scheduled to arrive tomorrow, I’m positive Cap never would have agreed to Link’s plan. Thankfully, Cap doesn’t want to leave. Disbanding in the dead of night isn’t his style.

“Twenty minutes will be enough to learn what we need to learn.” Link attaches a probe to my left temple. Usually, he attaches two. One that sends electrodes to the part of my brain that is most active during sleep. Another that brings me to the dojo—a shared dream space Link created for training purposes. But we’re not going to the dojo tonight. We’re going to find Claire and we can’t wait around for sleep to take us in our beds.

Time is of the essence.

I rest my head against the chair and squeeze my eyes tight, praying with every ounce of faith I have that Claire will be asleep. Finding her now, figuring out what she’s up to, is the first step to saving Luka.

“All right, we’re both attached.” Link has taken the chair next to me. He grabs my ice-cold hand and gives it a confident squeeze. “You can push the button in ten … nine …”

I close my eyes tight and focus on Claire, the betrayer. I imagine her the first time I saw her, when Luka and I arrived at the hub. Her white-blond hair loosely braided down her back. Her regal beauty. The way her nose turned up in the air without trying. The shock of seeing her down here, in the hub, after having studied her file for days.

“Six … five …”

The grating way she flirted with Luka. The victorious feeling of taking her down in the dojo. The hateful look in her eyes when Cap announced he would be training me.

“Three … two …”

Her foot reaching out to trip me as we battled inside the walls of Shady Wood. Her look of triumph when I fell.

“One …”

Wind whips hair around my face. I’m no longer laying in the training center; I’m standing beside Link outside a home I’ve been to before—with Luka, when we were searching for Claire, who at the time was nothing more than a patient file Dr. Roth left behind.

Now she stands on the front stoop, pounding on the door, while trees bend beneath the force of the wind.

My hands curl into tight fists. The blood in my veins turns to molten lava.

Link sets his hand on my shoulder. “We’ll learn more if she doesn’t know you’re here.”

He’s right, of course. As much as I want to shove my fist in her face, now’s not the time. I duck behind a row of emaciated bushes and strain to hear above the wind.

“Please Mom! It’s me.” Claire glances up at the ominous, swirling sky and pounds harder. “Please open up.”

Link approaches behind her. “Claire?”

She whirls around, her icy blue eyes wide with panic, her face streaked with tears. “Link?”

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“I-I’m trying to get to my parents, but they won’t let me in.” She wipes at her cheeks. “How did you get here?”

“How do you think?”

The wind loses some of its strength.

Claire looks up at the clouds. They no longer swirl as threateningly as they did seconds ago. She peels a strand of hair from her lips. “This is a dream. You’re spying on me.”

“I’m not spying. I’m checking.” He holds up his hands, as if to show her he means no harm. “You left without telling anybody. We’re all worried.”

I grit my teeth. Not one part of me is worried about her. She’s been bad news from the beginning. I should have realized the danger I was putting Luka in—the danger I was putting everybody in—by going on such a high-stakes mission with Claire on the team.

Her chin trembles. “I never meant for Luka to get hurt.”

“But Tess—you wanted
her
to get hurt?” Link’s question is gentle. Non-accusatory. Everything opposite from what I feel.

“I just wanted things to go back to the way they were before she came. I-I wasn’t thinking. I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it. All I want is my mom and dad, but I don’t think they want to see me.”

Liar. Lies. I don’t believe a single note of her remorse.

“Have you told anyone about our location?” Link asks.

“No. I would never do that. But I couldn’t stay. Nobody wanted me there. Not even you.”

Link shifts his weight. His back is to me, so I can’t see his face. I have no idea if he’s falling for the act or not.

“I would never put you in danger, Link, never. I just want to go home to my parents. That’s all I want.” She turns around and beats the door with her fists, begging the wood to let her inside.

*

“She didn’t defect.” Link peels off his probe and swings his legs around, bringing his feet to the floor. “She’s not going to give our location away. She just wants to get to her parents.”

Cap looks from me to Link, waiting for me to verify.

I don’t contradict him, even if I don’t believe a word of Claire’s sob story.

Cap rubs his forehead.

A glance at the clock tells me it’s four in the morning. Two hours have passed since I saw Luka, bound and tortured. I’m so desperate to get to him, it feels as though a hole is burning a wide path through my heart.

Cap looks at Non and Sticks, who stand inside the small room. “What do you think?”

“It buys us some time,” Sticks says. “At least until Clive arrives and Fray is gone.”

“And Luka’s back,” I add.

Nobody listens.

“Non?” Cap asks.

She slides her hands down her head, flattening her bushy hair to the sides of her face. “Gabe’s standing guard above ground. If danger arrives, he’ll be able to alert us in time to carry out emergency protocol.”

Emergency protocol? I don’t know about any emergency protocol. We’ve certainly never practiced an emergency drill during my time at the hub. But of course there would be something in place. Cap would have thought of that.

He rubs his knuckle along his bottom lip, then pushes out a breath. “You two can return to your rooms,” he says to me and Link. “We’ll stay for now.”

Link’s plan worked.

Cap doesn’t think Claire will betray us.

He believes we’re safe.

I don’t. Not for one second.

But I’m willing to risk the safety of everyone at the hub if it means getting Luka back.

Unstable

H
is hands slide up my back, his lips feverish on mine as I curl my fingers into his hair and pull him closer. He wraps his arms all the way around my waist and pulls me closer too. Only there’s nowhere to go. Our bodies are pressed tight, with his slightly bent over mine. I wrap my arms around his neck and he stands up straight, lifting my feet off the sand. It’s a hungry kiss. A desperate kiss. A euphoric, blissful kiss. Because it’s Luka. He’s here. He’s alive. And I can’t get enough of him.

A wave rolls up onto the beach, hitting our legs, pushing us sideways.

Luka pulls away, his green eyes hungry and bright. “I love you, Tess.”

“I love you, too.” Saying the words out loud makes my heart soar straight up to the sky. I don’t think it’ll ever come down.

A throat clears, extra loud.

I turn around in Luka’s arms. Link stands a few yards away, toeing the ground. I slide down Luka’s body and plant my feet in the rocky sand. This is the first time anybody has showed up on our beach. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought we’d find Luka.”

“I have found Luka. He’s right—” I turn around, but Luka’s arms no longer hold me. Luka is no longer near me. He has disappeared. “Where did he go?”

“He was never here.”

“What do you mean?”

Link scratches the back of his head, his cheeks pink. His cheeks are never pink. “Come on, Xena. You know how this works.”

My soaring heart crashes hard. “I was constructing him?”

He nods.

All the ache and panic I’ve felt since waking up from our rescue mission returns, so fast and so completely it knocks my breath away. The Luka I was just kissing was a projection—a figment of my imagination. “But I went to bed thinking about him. He’s all I thought about.” After we found Claire, Cap ordered Link and I both to bed. I went willingly, eager to find Luka. To make sure he’s still alive. “Why aren’t I with him? What went wrong?”

“I don’t know. You could try thinking of him now.”

Right. I can hop to Luka from here. I found him once, which means I can find him again. And if he can be found, then he also can be rescued.

Link offers me his hand. Incredibly grateful for his help, I take it and close my eyes. I picture Luka’s dark hair in a constant state of disarray. Smooth, olive skin. Grass green eyes. The subtle smell of wintergreen and fabric softener, even down here in this basement. I picture the heady way he looks at me—like I, Teresa Eckhart, am his entire world.

Nothing happens.

My feet remain on the sand, my fingers laced with Link’s.

I close my eyes again, squishing them so tight my nose wrinkles. I think about the confident cadence of Luka’s voice. The way he commands attention whenever he walks into a room. I think about the shield he threw inside Shady Wood’s staircase, so powerful it obliterated one of our enemies. His strength, his confidence, his passion, the way he stands up for things that aren’t popular.

I remember the day I first saw him in Current Events with Mr. Lotsam. The shock of recognition that flickered in his eyes. I recall the first time we met in a dream, on a beach like this one. I relive our first kiss in the locker bay of Thornsdale High School, being carried in his arms as he rescued me from the Edward Brooks Facility. Sleeping beside him on a squeaky mattress in Motel California.

Still. Nothing.

Panic balloons inside my chest, morphing into this unwieldy thing. This happened once before, a couple days ago, when I tried jumping to my grandmother’s dream. I couldn’t find her either, and when we finally arrived at Shady Wood to save her, she was already gone. It was too late.

I turn to Link. “What’s happening? Why can’t I find him?”

He waves. Not his hand, but his entire body. It crimps in a way that isn’t physically possible. And then slowly, he fades away.

“Link?”

The beach flickers, like a blip on a television screen before it loses reception. Everything goes black, then comes back into focus. Another blink. Another, and then …

I sit up in bed, my breath coming in quick rasps. What happened? Why couldn’t I get to Luka? Why did Link leave me? I tear the covers off my legs. Maybe if I’m nearer to Luka, I’ll be able to reach him. That’s how I got to him before. I fell asleep beside his warm body and woke up in the place he was being held prisoner.

I pull open my bedroom door.

Jillian tumbles inside, her hand on the door knob. She quickly regains her balance and takes a few steadying breaths. “Holy smokes, you scared me.”

I’d apologize if the what-ifs weren’t pelting my thoughts like an onslaught of sharp hail.

Indistinct chatter filters down the hallway.

Jillian looks over her shoulder toward the sound, then back at me. “Link sent me. He’s waiting in the training center.”

*

I follow Jillian past our makeshift classrooms; both are dark and empty. There will be no classes today. There will be no classes ever again. Not down here. Dream spying on Claire may have bought us some time, but we will never be able to go back to the way things were. Life as we know it in the hub is over.

Inside the training center, Link stands behind the computer, punching keys on the keyboard.

“Why did you leave last night?” I ask.

“I didn’t leave. You booted me out.”

I join him by the computer. A string of numbers scroll down the screen. I have no idea how Link makes sense of them. “What do you mean?”

“Your dream wasn’t stable.”

“Why not?”

“Because you aren’t sleeping well.”

A pocket of hope opens up in my chest. “Is that why I couldn’t get to him?”

“If I had to take a guess, I’d say it’s a combination of that,” he punches some more keys, “and the fact that he’s probably resisting you.”

“Resisting me? Why would he resist me?”

Link stops and looks at me. Usually, he’s an open book. Usually, he’s all devil-may-care and adventuresome—a combination that infuriates Luka to no end, since most of Link’s adventures include me. Last night, Link was my serious-as-a-heart-attack ally. Today he’s something else. Something I can’t read.