Fractured Truth (27 page)

“Then let’s go save them! We can get them today.”

“There’s no way. The place is full of Vykens. If we go in there, someone’s bound to die, and I don’t think I can handle any more death, especially from people I love.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Did Liam tell you how I escaped?”

She shook her head.

“Christian was there—”

“He let this happen to you?” she said, her voice loud.

“He did this to me. But he let me see Sophie,” I continued. “She told me about an underwater tunnel that led to a canal outside. It was a way to escape.”

Tessa leaned back, understanding coming over her face.

“I went into that tunnel, Tessa. And I ran out of air. It’s too long.”

“That’s why you wanted me.”

I spoke quickly. “I figure if we can get some of us back into that tunnel, then there’s a good chance we can get everyone out without Vykens knowing we were even there.”

“You know what you’re asking me to do, right?”

“I know.”

“No one knows about Lizens’ ability to breathe underwater, Llona. No one. It’s the only thing we’ve managed to keep all our own. Besides, this isn’t just my secret. If it were, I’d gladly give it up. But the others . . . they’ve been keeping this secret for hundreds of years. I can’t just expose them.”

“Then will you ask them?”

Her eyes lowered. “Of course. I want May and the others back just as much as you do.”

“And what if the Lizens say no?”

“Then I’ll just take you. When you’re better, of course.”

“That’s too dangerous.”

She raised her hand in a stopping motion and stood up. “Let’s see what they say first before we tackle plan B. You rest, and I’ll go speak with the Elders.”

“Elders?”

“Just like Auras, we also have our leaders, but not many know this.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I think there’s a lot we don’t know about Lizens.”

She grinned, and I swore I saw the thin strip of scales on the side of her face shimmer.

“Thank you, Tessa.”

“I’ll be back soon,” she said and left the room.

Liam came in after her. “Did you get what you wanted?”

“Maybe. We’ll see.” I propped myself up on my elbows in an attempt to sit up. My head began to swim and all sorts of colors, like a kaleidoscope, crowded my vision.

“Let me help you.” Liam slipped his arm behind my back and slowly lifted me into a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

I lowered my head. “The whole world is spinning. Just a sec.” I took a few deep breaths. “I have to get better,” I said.

“It will take time.”

“I don’t have time.” I raised my head and still the world spun. I began to fall backward. Liam caught me and lowered me into the bed.

“You went through a lot. Don’t rush this.” He dotted my forehead with a cloth. I was so hot. “Whatever they did to you”—his breath caught in his chest, and he cleared his throat—“was bad. I’m surprised you survived.”

My memory stirred, memories I had refused to think about before. “They could’ve killed me,” I whispered, “but someone stopped them.”

“Who?”

I closed my eyes, thinking hard. I was on the ground, gasping for air. A pool of blood was just below my face. It
frightened me to think that it was mine. Then the voice. Telling them it was enough. They begged to kill me, to take my blood, but he wouldn’t let them. It’s not time, he’d said, and I wasn’t theirs to kill. I had looked up then, remembering how difficult it was to do such a simple motion, and saw him. Cyrus. Standing in the doorway, staring down at me with a thin smile.

“Llona?”

I opened my eyes. “Cyrus. He was there. He said it wasn’t my time, and I wasn’t theirs to kill.”

Liam wiped at my face again. He didn’t say anything, but his expression was serious.

“If he’s there,” I said, “that means the Shadow is too.”
The door!
I almost sat up, but the pain stopped me.

“What is it?”

“When I was trying to escape, I came to the door that led to the underwater tunnel, but it was locked. I tried everything to open it, but by then I could barely use Light. That’s when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, like the darkness in the corner had shifted. I was afraid it was the Shadow, and I thought that was the end of me for sure, but then the door unlocked, like someone was on the other side. No one was on the other side, Liam.”

“You think it was the Shadow?”

“I do now. Cyrus wanted me to escape, but why?”

“You said Sophie gave you the knife to break free.”

I thought about this. “I bet Cyrus told Christian to take Sophie to me. They probably even planted the knife in her cell so she’d find it.”

Liam was standing up. “Christian was there? He let them do this to you?”

“Yes, but none of that matters right now.” I tried to reach for him, but he stepped back.

“Cyrus wanted me out, which means he knew I’d come back for them. He’s expecting it. He wants a fight.”

Liam looked back at me, his eyes bright green, like that of a predatory cat. “Then we’ll give him one.”

“No. There’s a better way.” I wish I could be as fired up as he was, but I was so tired. Sleep was pressing on me, threatening to close my eyelids.

“And it has something to do with Tessa, doesn’t it?”

I nodded. “She’ll come back soon with an answer.” The words came out slowly, between deep breaths.

“You’re tired.”

I answered yes but didn’t feel my lips move. My eyes closed against my wishes.

“Rest, Llona. I’ll be here when you wake.”

Thank you
, I thought.

Words came back to my mind. Several of them.
I’ll always be here for you. Forever.
A warmth spread through me as my mind went black.

This time when my eyes opened, the room was full of light. My arm, which was outside of the thin bedspread, was warm from the sun. I breathed in.

“Good afternoon.”

I rolled over. Liam was standing near my bed. He looked even worse than before. “You need to shower,” I said. His hair was messy and his shirt wrinkly.

He smiled, but it looked forced. “Am I that bad?”

“You look terrible. When’s the last time you slept?”

“I haven’t.”

“Liam, you’ve got to stop this!”

He bowed his head and waited a short moment before he said, “I’m angry, Llona. So angry that I’m afraid if I leave this room I’m going to do something I can’t come back from. Sometimes I think it would be worth it. To just go to that stupid warehouse and kill anything that moves, and if my actions tip the scales to where I’m a full Vyken, then I’ll have Dr. Han kill me. It would be worth it, right?”

“But then where will that leave me?” I asked, my heart heavy knowing he would leave so easily.

“Avenged.”

“I don’t want to be avenged. I want you.” Saying this out loud finally felt right.

Liam relaxed his hands and came and knelt by the side of my bed. “You don’t have to say that.” His face looked pained yet hopeful.

I lifted my hand and placed it on his arm. “I mean it.”

He looked away from my eyes and down at my lips. “This isn’t the time,” he said and backed away. A knock at the door drew his attention.

“Liam—”

He opened the door before I could finish my sentence. Tessa walked in, looking tired. Addressing Liam, she asked, “Can you give us a minute?”

“Of course.” His eyes met mine, and I almost called out to him, but then he disappeared.

Tessa ran her hand along the wall, tapping her fingers as she went.
Tippety-tap, tippety-tap.
The sound was sharp and pointed. That can’t be good. “How did it go?” I asked.

She lowered her arm. “Here’s the thing.” She pounded her fists on top of each other, switching them back and forth. “There was a lot of discussion. Half of the Elders couldn’t get over the fact that you already know about our underwater breathing ability—”

“How many of them are there?”

“—and the other half were divided even still. Some say absolutely not, but a few say it’s time to just tell everyone about who we really are. Including our past and where we come from.”

“Where do you come from?”

She wasn’t listening and continued on. “There was a lot of arguing. The Elders don’t like to argue, Llona. The whole thing was a mess.” Finally she stopped moving and looked at me.

“So they said no?”

“Not exactly. At first they didn’t want to give me an answer. They said they needed time, like weeks, to discuss what to do. But I insisted. I told them that if I didn’t have an answer, then I would expose the ruins.”

“Ruins? Who are you people?”

She smiled mischievously. “Another time. Right now we need to save May and the others.”

I rose up on my elbows, feeling somewhat better. At least the room wasn’t spinning anymore. “Serious? They’re going to share their secret?”

“They said I can choose four people to tell and only the ones I think will keep our secret.”

I thought about this. “So whoever you tell has to be willing to go underwater, sneak into a Vyken-infested building, and rescue several girls who probably will be so weak they’ll have to be carried out.”

“Exactly. So who do you think?” She dropped into the chair near my bed. “Liam for sure. Arik and Aaron?”

I scrunched my nose and shook my head. “I don’t know. The tunnel wasn’t that big. I’m not sure if they’d fit.”

“Aaron will want to be there.”

Tessa was right. There was no stopping him when it came to May. “Maybe he can still help, but somewhere else.”

“Kiera should go too.”

“I thought of her, but I worry about leaving Lucent without an Aura who knows how to fight.”

Tessa grinned. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“How do you think you’d do in a wheelchair?”

“I can manage. Why?”

“There’s something you need to see.”

Twenty minutes later, fighting through
several bouts of nausea, I was finally sitting up in a chair.

“This is so dumb,” I said and shoved away the lap blanket Abigail was trying to put on me.

“It’s just going to take time,” she said. Abigail had come in at Tessa’s request to help me dress. I could move but wasn’t up to standing on my own just yet.

“But why? It’s not like I haven’t been hurt before.”

“But you’ve never been so physically beaten and so exhausted of Light before,” she said as she adjusted my legs on the foot pedals. The whole thing felt silly.

Liam was across the room staring out the window from the side to avoid the sunlight shining through the glass.

“You ready?” Tessa said from behind me.

“I guess.”

She pushed me forward into the hallway outside my room. The place was quiet with no signs of life. Even my sensitive hearing couldn’t detect anyone. “Where is everyone?” I asked. It was lunchtime. There should be students everywhere.

Tessa didn’t answer as she wheeled me into the elevator. Abigail came in with us. “You coming?” I asked Liam.

He avoided my gaze. “I’ll meet up with you in a few minutes.” I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but the door closed.

“You two seem closer than ever,” Tessa said. “I never thought you’d get over Christian.”

“The part of Christian I loved died a long time ago.”

Abigail touched me lightly on the back. “You don’t mean that, do you?”

I looked up at her, surprised. “Christian’s a Vyken now. There’s nothing left in him to love.”

“But how do you know? Liam’s half Vyken and you clearly accept him just fine. Christian was a good kid, a dedicated Guardian. I don’t think you’re giving him a chance. Think of all you two have been through together.”

“You can’t be serious?” Tessa said, voicing my thoughts.

“I’m just saying that maybe there’s still good in him. It seems hypocritical to rebound with a guy who’s in the same boat as your one true love.”

“That’s not what I’m doing!” I said, anger swelling within me.

She tsk-tsked me. “Now you’re getting defensive because you know I’m right. You haven’t given Christian a fair chance.”

“You weren’t there, Abigail. Christian could’ve let me go, but he didn’t. Instead he kept me tied up, even after I was beaten within an inch of my life. Even knowing that my Light would accelerate the healing process. He didn’t care!” My voice lowered. “Not about me anyway.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I just want you to consider the fact that maybe he did what he did for a reason, for a greater purpose. Isn’t that the sort of thing Christian would do?”

I wasn’t sure what to say. Her words had me all sorts of confused.

“But Christian, the old Christian, would never have hurt Llona, ever,” Tessa said.

The doors opened, and she pushed me into the hall.

Abigail knelt next to me. “I’ll be in my office if you need anything, all right? And think about what I said. Don’t give up on him just yet.” She stood up and walked away.

“Don’t listen to her,” Tessa said and began pushing the chair.

“Why would she say all that stuff? It’s almost like she knows something I don’t.”

Tessa opened the door leading outside and awkwardly maneuvered my chair down two steps. I tried to help, but I was still too weak.

“Don’t let her get to you,” Tessa said. “Trust your gut.”

“Where are we going?” The sun was bright, but the air chilly. In the distance, I spotted a few girls hurrying over to Risen Auditorium.

“Risen.”

“Where the Furies train?”

“Not anymore.” It sounded like Tessa was smiling, but I couldn’t turn around to confirm my suspicions.

We were almost to the auditorium when I heard a series of pops, followed by what sounded like a small explosion. My heart beat faster. “What’s going on in there?”

She didn’t say anything, but continued forward. Two younger looking girls, one in a bright pink shirt and the other in a green dress, opened the door for us.

“Llona! You’re awake,” the girl in pink said and smiled sweetly. “We’ve all been so worried.”

“You have?” I felt bad I didn’t even know her name.

“You’re an inspiration,” the other said, “and I hope I become just like you.”

Tessa continued by them.