Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (5 page)

The feeling of home I felt when I met my
real parents, it definitely forged a connection, but how can the other Aerlings
really expect all of us to just forget the families that raised us, that cared
for us and protected us for most of our lives. My real parents are foreign to
me. Even though I desperately want to know them and understand where I came from,
giving up what I already have seems impossible.

“Not that I’m unsympathetic to what
everyone is going through right now,” Sloane says, “but we really do need to
get moving. We have very little time left. The Sentinels have had Hayden for
three days already. Leaving him in their hands much longer is risking his life,
if he’s not already…” She doesn’t finish her sentence, not with Molly staring
at her with wide, frightened eyes, but we all know what she means.

Olivia suddenly wraps her arms around her
body. Fear creeps into her expression and she bites her bottom lip. “How do I
find him?” she asks. “Tāwhiri said I could, but he didn’t explain how
before he disappeared.”

I have seen many sides of Sloane just in
the short time I’ve known her. When she asked to come with us, she was tearful,
desperate for a chance to save the last connection she has to her lost brother.
In dealing with Evie and Molly, she has been tough and immovable. Now, as she
turns toward Olivia, her expression is filled with compassion and
understanding, though I have no clue what inspired the shift.

“I can help you,” Sloane says softly.

“Really? How?” Olivia asks.

“Just as all Aerlings have different
gifts, we all were born to different roles. Mason serves our people as a
Warden, and I serve as a Guide.” She reaches out for Olivia’s hand and seems to
take stock of her power as she holds it in hers. “My role is to help Aerlings
and Escorts develop their powers once they come home.”

“So, you’ll help me figure out how to find
Hayden?” Olivia asks with hope.

Sloane nods. The solemnity in her motion
is slightly unnerving. “I will help you find Hayden,” she says. “I will not let
you fail.”

Olivia and I both look at each other,
wondering if that was a promise or a threat.

Chapter 6

Make Them Pay

(Hayden)

I swear I recognize the Sentinel that just
walked by my cell. From where, though? It’s been driving me crazy for the last
three days. Maybe I’m only focusing on it because if I think about being a
captive of the Sentinels, I might lose it. Trying to figure out where I’ve seen
that Sentinel before is the only thing keeping me together.

Shifting, I wince as my battered body
complains. The cot groans under my weight. I contemplate for the millionth time
how I’m going to get myself out of this mess. Escaping would require being able
to stand, and that isn’t happening right now.

All I can think about is Olivia. I was
barely coherent when I saw her literally vanish with Mason. When I first came
to and was faced with Olivia looking like a misty specter, it was enough to
jolt me back to semi-consciousness. In my haze, I was convinced I was seeing
her ghost. Olivia leaving with Mason, I can handle. Olivia dead? Not even in
the realm of what I can face.

Seeing Olivia and Mason vanish together in
the middle of a rain of bullets convinced me they weren’t dead, but seeing
Robin reach out at the last second and grab Olivia’s hair took all the fight
out of me. I still have no idea why Robin wanted to go with them. If just
knowing it was Robin behind the plan wasn’t enough to convince me it was bad,
the general chaotic hum of excitement running through the Sentinel base makes
it pretty apparent.

That and their questions and their
favorite way of trying to get answers out of me. They assume I’m just hiding
things from them. I am, of course, but half the questions they’re asking, I
have no clue what the answer is anyway. Yeah, I’m an Escort, but a failure. I
didn’t protect Levi. I didn’t save him. I didn’t take him home. I have no
freaking idea how Olivia was finally able to cross over to Mason’s world.

She wouldn’t have kept it from me if she
had figured it out. I can only assume that when the time was right, she
understood what it took and did whatever she had to in order to get Mason home.
Left behind, I can only hope that didn’t mean giving up her life. I keep
telling myself she went with Mason when they both disappeared, but I don’t know
if I’ll ever actually know that for certain.

When I’m not worrying about my friend,
thoughts of my family wrap around me, sometimes in comfort, sometimes like a
noose. Thinking about them comforts me. What are they thinking, though? I left
the house that morning to follow Robin, telling my parents I’d be home when
Mason was on his way. That was the last they saw of me. Do they think I’m dead?
Is anyone looking for me?

“Time for a few more questions!” a
Sentinel I’m all too familiar with yells through the slit in the cell door.

I groan, but I don’t get up. If they want
me, they can come get me. I’m not expending any energy I don’t have to for
them. Everything hurts as the Sentinel I can’t quite remember yanks me up from
the cot. He stops pulling once I’m on my feet, and starts to let go, but grabs
me again when my knees buckle. Huffing, the other Sentinel grabs my upper arm
and they both start dragging me out of the cell.

Closing my eyes, I concentrate on not
throwing up. I don’t need to try and remember the turns anymore, because I have
those memorized. Not that it will do me any good, unless I plan to escape my
cell and run straight for the interrogation room. That’s the only place they’ve
taken me since being dumped here.

When I’m thrown roughly into a hard
plastic chair, I take a few shallow breaths and refuse to look at them. It
doesn’t do a lot of good. The Sentinel who usually takes the lead yanks my head
up and glares at me. Before he can say anything, though, I ask, “What are your
names?”

The man pauses, seeming uncertain of
whether or not I’m trying to pull something.

“I’d just like to be able to refer to you
in my head as something other than the guy who seems to be in charge and the
guy I can’t quite remember,” I say.

The second guy smirks at me. “I knew you
did not remember me.”

He seems to find that fact extremely
funny, which only irritates me even more. Grinding my teeth, I glare at him,
trying furiously to figure out why he looks so familiar. “I didn’t say I don’t
remember you,” I growl, “just that I can’t place you.”

“I can place you.” He grins and steps
closer to me, clearly enjoying this. “The exact moment I took notice of you was
quite memorable for me, and really, it should be for you as well, since it was
the very second you revealed your Aerling to me.”

All the fight I had left in me suddenly
evaporates. Not jumping up or running or just throwing up is almost impossible
as what he just said sinks in. I kept trying to remember every moment with
Olivia, find that split second where I must have seen this guy. My mouth goes
dry as I realize my recognition had nothing to do with Olivia. Closing my eyes,
I bring back the day at the skate park… the day I met Levi.

“I had already begun to suspect there was
an Aerling in the area,” he says. His tone is mocking, relishing the pain he’s
causing me. “There had been a few strange occurrences at the skate park, and I
just happened to be watching that day. The second you bumped into what seemed
like nothing, I knew.” He laughs. He laughs at me for unknowingly putting Levi
in his sights. “Then, you made it even worse by talking to him, and all those
little Caretaker kids ran over looking so excited, babbling over each other. I
couldn’t believe my luck.”

He laughs again, a sick, twisted sound.
Even the other Sentinel is smiling as he enjoys watching me sink in on myself. How
many times did people try to tell me it wasn’t my fault? The Sentinels just
found Levi. There was nothing I could have done to stop it from happening. No
one blamed me for what happened, but they should have.

My stomach turns, and I have no doubt I’m
about to lose everything I ate a few hours ago. I probably would have if not
for the other Sentinel stepping up and saying, “If you want to stop any more
Aerlings from dying, all you have to do is answer our questions.”

I know I shouldn’t trust them, but Levi’s
dead eyes stare up at me from my memories, haunting me, blaming me. Slowly, I
lift my head and look at the Sentinel. “What do you mean?”

He knows he has my attention now. Crossing
his arms over his chest, he holds my gaze. “The Aerlings don’t belong here on
Earth, and neither do we. All we want is to go back home.”

“But,” I say slowly, “your creator, he…he
wanted to come here, right? He wanted to get away from his parents and the, uh,
darkness they had to live in.”

“The darkness?” Levi’s killer asks.

The other guy nods, but at me, not his
companion. “Tū wanted to escape, not a literal darkness, but the
confinement of being under absolute control by his parents. They watched over
the Earth, protecting it from a distance, but denied their children any chance of
interacting with humans or leaving the Aerling home. They were prisoners in
their own world.”

This guy obviously wants me to feel bad
for Tū and all the Sentinels, but all I can say is, “Most people don’t get
to go hopping between worlds. He chose to leave his world and come down here.
Why is he trying to get back now?”

“Tū did not choose to banish himself
here,” the one Sentinel snaps. “He escaped his parents to have freedom! Instead
of being free to make his own choices, he was imprisoned here on Earth, locked
away from his home and family. Cast out for wanting more than a life of
slavery.”

I just stare at him. Part of me knows I
have very little knowledge about what’s actually going on with the Aerlings and
Sentinels, but this guy is really tough to just believe straight out. The
basics of this story isn’t unique to the Māori. It’s in every culture and
religion around the world. Good and Evil, God and the devil. Tū seems to
want to be cast in this righteous light, but I’m not buying it.

“He rebelled. What did he think was going
to happen?” I ask.

“Rebellion,” Levi’s killer scoffs. “That
word is a matter of whose side you’re on. You, little Aerling Escort, have no
idea what’s really going on, no clue who is right or wrong or which side you
should be on.”

Tensing up at the mere sound of his voice,
I force myself to face him. “I know precious little about the war between you guys
and the Aerlings, and you’re right that I have no clue who’s in the right,
though I don’t think you’ll ever be able to justify killing innocent children.
What I do know, is whose side I should be on.”

Levi’s killer twists his mouth into a vile
grin. “You would choose the Aerlings just because you were
born
to serve
them? Are you truly as sheep-like as we’ve been told so many times?”

“I’m not choosing the Aerlings,” I growl,
hating him more and more with every word that slithers out of his mouth. “I’m
choosing my friends. I choose to protect their lives over my own. No one is
forcing me, no compulsion or duty is choosing for me.”

The other Sentinel laughs. The harsh,
abrasive sound of it makes me want to turn away from his poisonous self, but I
turn to face him instead. His laughter mellows into a condescending smile. “You
only think you are making the choices. That is how the Mother and Father work.
The let you believe you have free will. They are clever enough to give you just
enough freedom to make it believable, yet the leash only gets tighter the more
you fight for independence.” He grabs my chin, yanks me forward until we are
inches away from each other, and then shoves me away in disgust. “Humans are
weak and foolish, but the Aerlings and their toys are even more pitiful because
they willingly subject themselves to a life of slavery and dependence.”

“Sheep,” Levi’s murderer spits.

Struggling away from my captors, I force
my aching body to stand, to face them head on. “You want to talk about sheep?
Look at your own reflections, you delusional lemmings. You’ve never even set
foot in the Aerling world, none of you! The Sentinels were created
on Earth
.
You don’t know the truth of what happened between Tū and his parents any
more than I do! All you have is what your master has told you, and you follow
it because you’re
his
creations and you have no other choice, no other purpose
in life. Tū never wanted freedom, he wanted control, and he has it over
you. All of you. But it isn’t enough. No, now he has to gain control over
everyone else, too. Over humans, over Aerlings, over whatever he touches. You
all were just the first stepping stones to his empire of subjugation, and
you’re all too stupid to see
that
.”

Knuckles meet skull before I can even
process the sight of the main Sentinel’s punch winding up. My legs turn to
jelly immediately and I crumple to the ground. I can feel the pain, but after
three days of being tortured, this is hardly the worst I’ve endured. Suffering
through it, I stare wide-eyed and slack-jawed at my captor’s scuffed tennis
shoes. For some reason, it seems off to me that he’s wearing tennis shoes, but
my thoughts are too fuzzy to think of why.

Another pair of shoes joins the first.
Then two pairs of knees appear just above me. All I can do is stare, blink, and
suck in labored breaths that seem to hurt more than the Sentinel’s blow. I
don’t resist when hands grab beneath my shoulders and lug me back into the
chair. Throbbing begins the second I’m upright, forcing my hands to my head to
cradle it, though it does no good.

Hayden
.

My head jerks up at the sound of her
voice. The movement sends me reeling, but my eyes search as my vision swims. I
don’t understand when all I see is the gray block walls of the interrogation
room filled with two Sentinels, myself, and the chair I’m sitting on. Where is
she?

Hayden
, her voice
whispers again. My heart is racing now, verging on full blown panic.

Hayden
, she says, her
voice stronger than before,
we’re coming
.

It makes no sense, but if there is one
person in this world, or any other, that I have complete faith in, it’s Olivia.
The pain and fear all slip away as her words settle over me. Whatever the
Sentinels do to me, Olivia is coming, and I have no doubt she will make them
pay for the last three days. Both Sentinels stop talking when my bleeding mouth
turns up in a wicked, vindictive grin.