Kingdom Come (15 page)

I looked to Ethan, whose eyes were wide as he scanned the area in front of us. He must’ve been ripped from sleep, too. Danny had stirred and was struggling to a sitting position, but Haven . . . well, she was just kind of
there
. She hadn’t budged since the last time I saw her. Finally feeling somewhat awake, I crawled over to where she lay sleeping. I reached out and shook her shoulder, but my stomach sank the second I touched her. Her body was scorching hot. Well, now I felt like utter crap for being annoyed with her earlier; the poor girl was sick as hell. Taking a deep breath, I took hold of her shoulder again and gave it another gentle shake.

“Haven.” When she didn’t respond, I shook harder, more desperately. “Haven, wake up!” Though it was barely noticeable, she finally moved the slightest bit. Her eyelids fluttered, looking as if they wanted to open, but couldn’t. “Damn it,” I whispered, standing. I ran a hand over my face, stopping to rub my aching forehead. Just as I bent down to Haven once more, the
crack
sounded again, and I jumped.

Ethan sprang to his feet as Danny struggled to his, while I willed my heart to resume beating. There was no mistaking it—the noise was coming from above. The three of us looked up, unsure of what we would see. It sounded like the sky itself was being torn open. The clouds were now a lighter shade of gray, but nothing else was new. We huddled together, standing back-to-back-to-back, desperately searching the area around us.
Nothing
. Nothing to signal what was coming. Nothing to signal what the hell we were about to go through next.

I really hated the unknown.

Ethan grabbed my hand, and I squeezed his gratefully. As long as he was there, we would be okay. I was sure of it.

“What’s going on?” Danny asked, his voice hoarse. “What the hell is it now?”

“Ice,” was all Ethan said just as another
crack
ripped through the air. Seconds later, the rush of sleet and hail filled my ears. I screamed, but the sound was lost in the roar.

Ethan’s hand tightened to a death grip around mine. “We gotta go!” he yelled. He started to pull me along, but I planted my feet in the ground, which was already piling with snow. Tiny hailstones smacked me in the head, but there was no way I was leaving Haven behind.

“Haven! We can’t just leave her here,” I shouted when he gave me a confused look.

Snow clung to his eyelashes as he held my gaze. He appeared truly torn. My mouth dropped open with amazement that he could even
think
otherwise, that he would consider leaving her behind. Before I could say anything, his expression turned to one of determination as he made a beeline for Haven. He scooped her into his arms.

“Run!” he yelled.

And we did. Danny stumbled, but kept up as we sprinted through the demolished forest, dodging chunks of ice and struggling to see through the curtain of white. I had no idea where we were going, or how long it would take to get there, but for now, we’d run like hell. Just when my muscles seized and I thought I wouldn’t make it any further, I spotted something in the distance that reignited that sliver of hope still buried deep down.
It couldn’t be, could it?

 
It could.

Cars. No, not just cars—two Hummers, waiting along the side of a road. I slowed, as did Ethan and Danny. The three of us stood side-by-side. I stepped forward, but the two of them moved in front of me, blocking my path just as the passenger door opened on one Hummer, then the other. Haven was still unmoving in Ethan’s arms, but maybe if these people could hurry out of their cars and help us, she’d have a fighting chance.

Two hooded figures stepped out of the vehicles, and a chill ran through me as the driver from the first Hummer joined them. They were dressed in black, from their hooded parkas down to their heavy boots. Something wasn’t right. I instinctively took a step back. On my second, I ran right smack into something. I gasped and whirled around, only to be met with yet another black-clad man. His dark eyes bore into mine as he pushed his hood off his head, and a devious smile stretched across his tan face.
Where the heck did he come from?

“Well, well,” he murmured, looking between us. His gaze briefly landed on Haven, but shifted back to me. My heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes. It was a look of pure mayhem. “Look who we’ve got here.”

I wanted to be tough. I wanted to demand to know who he was. Instead, the words caught in my throat as I stared back at him in shock. My legs quivered, threatening to give out. He merely cocked an eyebrow before shoving me toward the Hummers. Danny grabbed my hand just as he was pushed forward, as well. I glanced over and caught Ethan’s gaze, and though he held Haven tightly to him, I could tell he wanted to do something. What the heck were we
supposed
to do? What was even going on?

The man prodded us forward like we were freakin’ cattle. The closer we came to the vehicles, the more I wished we’d run when we had the chance. The other three men, now without their own hoods, stood calmly in front of the Hummers, which were left idling.
This isn’t good, this isn’t good, this isn’t good . . .

“Who are you?” Ethan finally asked once we stopped.

The shortest of the three cracked a smile, which only heightened my paranoia. “I am Aaron, and this is Joseph,” he replied in heavily accented English. “There’s also Adrian, and you’ve met Simon.” He nodded to the man who still stood behind us, with his fingertips pressed firmly to my back.

I studied him for a long moment, then looked to the man called Joseph. They were similar to Simon in appearance, with tan skin and nearly black eyes. Brothers? Hit men? Random kidnappers?

As if hearing my unspoken questions, he added, “We’re members of the council.”

I swallowed thickly, trying to decipher what the dread coursing through me meant. I’d always been told to trust my gut, and my gut told me that something was very wrong here.

“Council?” I stammered.

Aaron cocked his head to the side, seeming genuinely confused by my reaction. “The Council of The New World, Ms. Andreas—or should I call you Callia? Your brother sent us to search . . .”

Whatever he said after that was nothing but a murmur, because now, the pieces were in place.
“He’ll be looking for you.” “Can you say exousia, Callia?”
The tan skin, the dark hair—they were all the same as the boy in my vision that night in the cellar. They were the same as my hair, as my skin.
No, no, no.
Shaking my head, I tried to step back, but Simon was a brick wall that wouldn’t yield.

“Kerrigan,” I whispered, then cleared my throat. “I think you mean Kerrigan.”

Aaron stiffened, pressing his lips into a thin line before responding. “Well,
Kerrigan
, we’re under strict orders to bring you to Mr. Andreas himself. He’s been very concerned as to your whereabouts. His most recent visions of you have been quite disturbing.”

I scoffed. “I’m sure.”

Joseph reached out and grabbed my arm, yanking me forward. I pulled back, but it was no use; he had my arm in a vise-like grip. “What the hell are you doing?” I shrieked, pushing at him with my other arm. “Let me go!”

He jerked me to him until his face was an inch from mine. “You’ll get in the car like a good girl,” he said, “and no one has to get hurt. I can’t promise anything other than that.”

My lower lip trembled, and I bit down to make it stop. I wouldn’t show him weakness. I wouldn’t show him fear. I wouldn’t give him the pleasure.

“Let them go,” I whispered, my eyes pleading with his. If I could help anyone at all, Ethan, Danny, and Haven deserved it. “They’re not part of this.”

“Kerrigan!” Ethan snapped, but I ignored him. There was no reason for them to suffer because of me. This was becoming my fight.

Joseph chuckled. “You really want to leave them all alone out here to fend for themselves?” As if on cue, the sleet intensified, creating a sheet of bone-chilling ice between us.  

I had no answer, which seemed to be all the confirmation he needed. He glared at me while backing away, and opened the back door of the Hummer. “You two”—he pointed to Danny and me—“in this one. The other boy goes in the second vehicle.”

My eyes widened. “What about Haven?”

Joseph and Aaron both looked at Haven, who was still curled against Ethan’s chest, with equal expressions of disgust. “Leave her,” Aaron said. “The last thing we need is dead weight.”

Ethan spat, hitting Aaron directly in the face. “Like hell we’re leaving her here. She’s one of us. She’ll never survive out here on her own.”

Within seconds, Simon had each of Ethan’s arms pinned behind his back, and Haven landed in a heap on the ground. She didn’t even move.

“No!” I screamed, but I was pushed into the backseat, with Danny forced in right behind me. The door slammed closed, and my attempt to open the other failed. I smacked the window, desperate for any way out, but it was no use. Claustrophobia and panic set in, because this was it. I was trapped in here with
them
, whoever they were.

“Calm down,” Danny murmured. I looked over, and he was sitting with his hands in his lap, staring straight ahead. “Fighting won’t do us any good,” he continued in a low voice as Adrian and Joseph slid into the front seats. “Fighting will only piss them off. Then who knows what they’ll do?”

He was right. I knew he was right. But it didn’t change the fact that I was dying inside. I sat back in my seat, willing my legs to stop trembling. I closed my eyes, but all I could see was Haven lying in the snow, forgotten. She didn’t have the survival instincts necessary to keep going. Like Ethan said—she wouldn’t make it out there on her own, especially now that she was so sick. I thought back to my visions, my nightmares, of her gut-wrenching screams. Maybe she would wake up. Maybe she’d realize we left her. Maybe that’s when my vision would occur.

She told me she wanted to live, and we left her there like a sack of trash.

The bracelet’s vine scraped against my wrist, and I teared up at the thought of Ethan. Were we going to the same place? What would they do to him? What were they doing to him
now
, after what he’d pulled with Aaron? What would they do to us?

I turned to the window just as the car started moving. Snow continued to fall, and hail pounded the top of our car. We were warm in here while the world deteriorated before our eyes.

“I wonder if she was right,” I mused, looking back at Danny. “Haven. She believed in heaven, God, angels . . .” I chuckled humorlessly and shook my head. “Think those angels will come save us now?”

Danny stared back at me, his eyes hazy with both fatigue and tears. The fight I knew him for, the strength, was gone. All that remained was a broken seventeen-year-old who’d accepted that he’d lost.

It was over.

“It’s too cold for even the angels, K. We’re on our own down here.”

Chapter 15

According to the tiny clock on the dashboard, we were in the Hummer for over an hour. Each time I looked out the window, though, everything appeared the same to me. Mountains covered in fresh snow stretched on for countless miles. That is, until the snowfall suddenly stopped and gave way to sunshine. Real, honest to goodness sunshine. It was the first time I’d seen the sun in weeks.

I shifted in my seat, pressing my face to the cold window so I could get as close a look as possible. It was as different as night and day, just like that. Snow still blanketed the ground, but it was fresh and normal December snow
—
not at all like the blizzard we’d left behind. My head throbbed mercilessly, but that was the last thing on my mind once the estate came into view. Actually, “estate” was putting it mildly. The place we were fast approaching was more like some sort of kingdom.

“Shit,” Danny muttered. It was the first time he’d spoken since we left the woods. “What the hell is this place?”

The Hummer jerked to a stop outside a wrought-iron gate, which was at least twenty feet high. Guards armed with rifles lined its entrance, and there were enough cameras that they probably would have caught a roach crawling by. And . . . there were people behind the gate.
People
. My eyes narrowed as I leaned forward, peering through the windshield. Some of them were shoving one another, some were standing around with wide eyes, and some were even sleeping. Well, I hoped they were sleeping.

“Shit,” Danny repeated, leaning forward as well. “How many people are out there?”

Joseph turned in his seat. “10,434. Not nearly as many as we’d hoped. Each person is embedded with a micro-chip upon arrival.”

I gaped. “So, basically, they came here for safety, and you treat them like dogs.”

Joseph snorted and rolled his eyes. “Not the comparison I would use, but yeah. Something like that.” He turned back to the front. “You like dogs?” he asked over his shoulder. “I’m sure Bennett can scrounge one up for you, if you’d like. Might make you feel more at home.”

“Screw you,” I mumbled, settling back in the seat. The only home I’d ever known had been destroyed two weeks ago, along with the people who actually made it a home. I’d rather sleep in a patch of dirt for the rest of my life than call this place “home.” I’d gotten plenty of practice camping over the last couple of weeks; I could do it again if worse came to worst.

“Suit yourself, Princess. We’ll see how long that high and mighty act lasts once you get inside.”

The gates creaked open and the car lurched forward, continuing down a long driveway. The people were contained by fences on all sides, penning them in like cattle.
This
was the “safe haven” they came for?
This
was what Bennett gushed about in the broadcast? About mid-way down the drive, we reached the end of the enclosure, leaving the crowd behind. I shifted to look out the back window, my heart sinking for the people who screamed at our vehicle. The other Hummer continued steadily behind.
Ethan.

It took ten minutes for us to complete the length of the driveway, and we arrived at the hugest house I’d ever seen. Not only was it massive, but it was . . . well, it was
gorgeous.
It was made of cobblestone, had countless windows, and was at least three stories tall. This actually could have been a kingdom, because this place looked fit for royalty. The grounds surrounding it were meticulously groomed, with lush green grass despite it being the dead of winter.