Blood Crown (21 page)

I feel foggy and weak, my brain befuddled and filled with more questions than answers, more doubt that confidence.

“Take these off!” My wrists burn inside the silver cuffs. No matter how hard I try I feel as though my nerves have been packed with foam.

“What’s going on? Why have you brought me here?” My words slur together and sound hollow and meaningless to my ears.

The android—
Archibald
—looks around and hangs his head, refusing to meet my eyes. “I am sorry, M’Lady. I thought it unwise to return to your quarters. I only wished to take you somewhere secret until your strength is renewed.”

He seems so disappointed, so sorry for his error that the wall of ice around my heart begins to melt. I let out a long sigh. “It’s okay. I’ve spent more time here than there, anyway. I’m probably more comfortable here.” I try to push myself up to sit straighter but my arms still feel like limp noodles. “How—” I shake my head. “I need these off.”

Archibald frowns. “I am sorry, M’Lady. As long as you wear them, you are nearly invisible to the Mind—certainly indiscernible from any other human. I am not willing to expose you just yet.”

Archibald slowly raises his eyes to mine and when our gazes meet, I gasp. He smiles slowly, almost shy. “Since you kissed Nicolai, you may never feel yourself again, for you will not be yourself again—as Nicolai’s symbiants are now a part of you as yours are his.”

My mind is a mass of confusion and Archibald’s expression conveys tenderness and regret that soften my heart.

I am sorry, Sera, it was my job to prepare you for your future, and instead, I have left you all alone.” He hangs his head and his sorrow, his sincerity, moves me so intensely that I lean forward. My fingers only barely graze the back of his hand, but it is enough.

Synapses, long unused, dusty and neglected, burst to life in my mind—only to be immediately dampened by the cuffs.

“Please,” I say. I can’t stand that he is here, that my awareness is on the verge of awakening, but I am still trapped—here in this prison where I’ve lived my whole life.

Archibald regards me with his sad, familiar eyes. When a slow smile creeps up his face I know I have won and grin, wild and free. He presses his index finger to a divot on the right manacle and the cuffs pop open.

I sigh as my senses come alive—and then I am caught in wave after wave of data.

The package of information Archibald prepared for me comes to life and I see everything,
know
everything. While my mind explodes with knowledge, I am vaguely aware of my body flopping back, and Archibald cradling my head.

Time runs backward in my mind. I see the moment Archibald caught me in his arms before I blacked out. See him receive programming for his position in the Mind’s navy. See him subjected to years of torture, sensory deprivation, and menial labor—all to extract the secret he never revealed. The secret of me.

I see the moment he erased my memories and severed my connection to my symbiants. The moment he sent me flying down the garbage chute. The moment, I thought, that he abandoned me.

But now I learn what really happened—what proved to be the only way Archibald could save me from the same fate as my parents.

“Ah,” Archibald breathes and I sense the tension leave his body. “The Mind have withdrawn.” He takes me by my shoulders and pulls me to him—the third embrace in so many days. But this one is welcome and familiar. I tuck my face into his neck and grip his jacket in my fists.

“Oh my Sera, my brave, brave girl.” His symbiants carry his love and concern to mine, leaving me no doubt of his sincerity.

We cling together for a long time while we share our histories—all that has transpired in the last nine years. Until we come to the events of the last days. Then Archibald pushes me back and captures my gaze in his.

“When you kissed Nicolai,” the filaments in his pupils spark rapidly as he searches my thoughts, “you saw the Blood Crown?” I feel the urgency in him, feel it spread to me. His excitement is disquieting and I withdraw from his touch. I tug my shift over my legs and wrap my arms around them.

“Nicolai . . .” I begin, then shake my head sharply. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Archibald closes the distance between us, but stops short of touching me. It doesn’t matter, I read everything he is thinking and feeling through his symbiants. He feels urgency and hope.

It is the hope that frightens me most.

“He is not the savior you think him to be,” I tell him. “He is a manipulative, arrogant, egotistical coward.”

Archibald watches me, unruffled. “As you believed me to be.”

There is unspoken chastisement in his words, a truth I do not wish to see.

“He wouldn’t even admit his true identity—he told me all about who I was without once mentioning that he had ever been my betrothed. And when the Mind arrived and Nic was gone—gone to them or to save himself—either way, he abandoned me.”
Like everyone else.
I don’t like the way the thought makes me feel helpless and childish. I know Archibald expects more of me—I expect more of myself.

“Sera.” Archibald places his hand on my cheek, wrapping his fingers over my ear and into my hair as I remember him doing when I was a child. With his touch comes comfort and love, a soothing balm. “Nicolai is no more a traitor than I am. No more a traitor than you.” He drops his hand and clasps it around my own in my lap.

“And he is not our savior, my child. You both are. Together.”

My exuberance disquiets her, but I find it difficult to contain. Not only have I regained my near-daughter, but the Blood Crown—
the Blood Crown!
—has been achieved. This is the pinnacle of our creation, the fulfillment of our Creator’s designs.

I found Serantha against every odd and the flame of hope burns bright in my heart. We will find Nicolai and complete the Blood Crown Bond.

“I always knew I didn’t belong, that there was something wrong with me.” Serantha says. She sits tucked in on herself, her back pressed against the damp wall. Beneath her dank garment I see the pale shadow of light flickering below her skin.
So she has maintained her ability to communicate with the ship.
She looks past me to the wall that closes off the cell.

“I was different from them and they all knew it. They hated me, hated that I could protect myself from the guards.” Her hand rises to her face where she traces an invisible line. “Mostly.

“I had to learn not to do things they couldn’t—like move fast or lift heavy things. I had to—” A dry sob forces itself out of her throat and she pauses to swallow and breathe. I long to comfort her, but she keeps me at a distance and I am unwilling to force her heart. “I had to learn to be like them, even though I didn’t want to be like them. I wanted to be like you—the man from my dreams. My father.”

She begins to cry and I understand what it costs her.

“Oh, Sera.” I scoot forward and pull her to me, cradling her against my chest like a little child. I stroke her hair and whisper soothing words of comfort. “I have never left you, never forgotten you. My symbiants were with you always. Even though we couldn’t Share with one another, I
have
loved you. I am so sorry you felt so alone.”

She is trembling and her skin is like ice beneath my hands. “Come—let’s get you warm.”

I stand and help her to her feet. Together we leave the cell that I now know had been the only place she felt any semblance of safety. I push away my sorrow for her and the guilt that has riddled me all these years. Neither emotion will serve her now and that is what I must do.

Serve Serantha, my queen.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

No matter how many times I bang my head against the wall, I can’t awaken my nanos, can’t get myself out of this mess—can’t bring Serantha back.

My conscience whispers,
if only I had opened myself to her, if only I had Bonded with her when we had the chance, maybe together we could have put an end to Galen and his genocide.

Instead I indulged my pride and it cost Serantha her life.

Cost me her life.

I thought her lost long ago, but now, with the memory of her lips on mine, the electrifying joy of her touch, our bond, her loss means so, so much more.

I bang my head against the wall and wish, in lieu of all the Gifts I possess, I could turn back time and kiss Serantha again.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” I ask once we are in the transport, ascending.

“You don’t have to trust my word, M'Lady. See for yourself.” He nods toward the wall, but I hesitate. I’ve never flaunted my abilities—certainly not before anyone who understands what I’m doing.
What if I do it wrong? What if I embarrass myself?

Archibald dons a kindly smile and touches my shoulder. His hand spreads warmth and reassurance through my veins. So I reach out, place my hand against the wall and ask the ship if we are alone. Satisfied there are no sentient beings aboard, I withdraw my hand and offer Archibald a wry grin.

He returns it but doesn’t keep it on his face for long. His symbiants convey his regret a breath before he says, “They will soon realize I failed to bring you to them and they will return. We must not be here when they do.”

“But Nicolai took the last pod—there is no way off-ship.”

Archibald frowns slightly, then cocks his head to the side. “No, he did not. Is it possible he disembarked with the others at
New Oregon
?”

I don’t see how, but it doesn’t matter. This only proves what I suspected—Nicolai didn’t remain, he didn’t try to help me, didn’t think of anyone but himself.

“I don’t know where he went. I don’t even know where he came from—maybe he can fly in space. We’re better off without him, that’s all.”

“Or he was captured. Not every being has nefarious plans, Serantha.”

“But he was gone before the soldiers arrived. He knew I’d be returning to the Con. He took the opportunity to report to his evil masters and set me up.”

I can tell by the disappointment in his eyes that Archibald disagrees with me, but I push his symbiants away and refuse to acknowledge him.

“If he truly is not a traitor, he would have Bonded with me to save our people.” I turn away from Archibald but not before I see the flicker of doubt in his eyes.