Sacrificed (The Ignited Series) (3 page)

I knew it made sense for us to work together. But why exactly Micah, Gabby, and Richie were here in the first place remained a mystery. One that I intended to uncover soon.

Alec and Callie had gone back to the hotel to collect our stuff. That left me and a tightly wound Nathan alone with our new allies. It was he who whisked me down the hall into one of the bedrooms before I even knew who had ahold of my arm.

He shut the door softly behind us. As much as I would have liked to think he had brought me in there to do something fun, like make out, I knew that wasn’t the case.

He had pulled me out of earshot of the others, simply to talk. And not about anything I really wanted to talk about. Not with him. Not since he’d made that ridiculous vow to not act on his feelings for me until we took some time thinking.

I’d gone along with his wishes at the time, but as the weeks went by, it became apparent that I didn’t need to think about anything. I had feelings for him. Period. I used to have feelings for Alec. But what I’d once felt for Alec was now overshadowed by what I felt for Nathan. I knew that. I only wished he believed it.

But then, he had things to think about too—like his thought to be dead girlfriend, Lillian, waltzing back into his life as a Skotadi—and I didn’t want to push him. I’d been a good girl, giving him his space, though it was a slow tortuous death for me. For the most part, I’d gotten good at pretending I wasn’t an emotion wreck every time I was alone with Nathan. Now, I tried to downplay the turmoil churning my stomach by acting over-confident.

“What’s up?”

He crossed the room to where I stood, and I allowed myself a brief daydream that he was coming over to sweep me off my feet and finally whisper to me the words I have been longing to hear from him for weeks, before kissing me madly.

Hey, a girl could dream.

“I don’t know about this,” he said instead. “Something doesn’t feel right. I don’t know if we can trust this kid.”

“Nathan, it’s fine,” I insisted. “Don’t ask me how I know. I just do.”

He blinked slowly and waited. I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t get it. He didn’t know about my dreams, and I intended to keep it that way. I had to convince him to trust Micah like I trusted Micah, without telling him how I knew to trust Micah.

“He’s a part of this, Nathan. An important part. He might be the only one out there that can help me—really help me—and he wants to. I think we need to hear what he has to offer.”

“If he’s really
the one
, the Kala they created to bring an end to this war…” Nathan continued, and paused as if to be sure I completely understood the gravity of what he was about to say. “You do realize that you’re the only one standing in his way? You’re the one enemy he has, and you’re standing here, in his house, telling me to trust him. You ever hear the saying,
keep your friends close, and your enemies closer
?”

When he put it that way, it didn’t sound so smart. “Yeah, I know it looks bad. But, Nathan, I’ve got to trust my instincts on this one. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”

There was more to it than us being born enemies. If it were really that simple, why didn’t he let Gabby and Richie shoot me? He’d had his chance to be rid of me…and he had protected me.

“You want me to trust him because you have a feeling?”

“A strong feeling, almost prophet-like,” I explained. And who knew? Maybe I was a prophet.

Prophets had the ability to visit people in their dreams, as well as visualize the future, read people’s intentions, and sometimes their minds. I sure couldn’t read anyone’s mind, but maybe I was picking up on Micah’s intentions.

And they were good.

Nathan considered what I said. “You really think you might be a prophet?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that I’m getting some good vibes from him.”
In person as well as in my dreams
. “Just let me talk to him,” I continued before Nathan formed another argument. “Alone.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone. I don’t want you to scare him.”

He gave me one of his almost smiles, and I knew I was getting somewhere. I took the opportunity to edge past him before he thought of a reason to stop me. Honestly, I did want to talk to Micah. I really, really desperately
needed
to talk to him.

I only made it a few steps before Nathan grabbed ahold of my hand and spun me around. The motion brought us closer than he had probably intended, and I saw the argument he had formed fade, replaced by something else. Something I had been waiting weeks to see.

He still wanted me.

I didn’t pull away from him. I didn’t move a muscle. I waited for his next move, readied myself for it, whatever it may be.

It wasn’t anything that I’d long hoped for. He dropped my hand and shifted, just enough to break the connection. And he was back in man-on-a-mission mode.

“Just don’t let your guard down because you have a sense,” he said gruffly, and I wondered if it was because of what had just happened or because his temper was rearing up. “If he’s really who he says he is, we don’t know what he might be capable of.”

“Nathan, I’ve got it. I can do this.” I placed a hand on his shoulder and tossed him a reassuring smile. “If it would make you feel better, you can hang out nearby, just in case I need you.”

He nodded like that had been his plan all along, whether I’d asked or not. “Just be careful, alright?”

“I will,” I said with a nod, and turned to find Micah.

It was my turn to get some answers.

CHAPTER 3

I found Micah on a bench swing, on the back patio, overlooking the snowcapped mountains. It was actually very pretty, and I took a moment to admire the view as I approached him. When I realized I was stalling, I zeroed in on Micah with a newfound determination.

I can do this
.

He looked up as I drew near, and extended the bag of potato chips he was munching on. “Want some?”

I stopped in front of him, hands on hips. No time for small talk. “Who are you?”

He set the bag down
with a shrug. “I’m Micah.”

“I got that much.
Who are you
?”

The grin on his face begged for a bitch slap, but his next words held my hand in check. “What you mean to ask is,
why are you in my dreams
, right?”

I folded my arms over my chest, refusing to let him know how much his mention of the dreams unnerved me. On some level, I had hoped that they weren’t real, that they were nothing more than a byproduct of my waning sanity. But he saw them, too. He’d just confirmed what I’d long suspected, but had never quite accepted.

The whole dream thing freaked me out.

Nathan had once told me that some prophets had the ability to visit people in their dreams, but he had made it sound like it wasn’t something a lot of hybrids could do, and he’d never said anything about both people being aware of the dream. It was as if Micah and I shared our dreams. What could that mean? And why did it happen every night, regardless of whether I wanted it to or not?

In fact, I
didn’t
want it to. 

“Come sit down,” Micah suggested softly, patting the spot beside him. “I won’t bite. Maybe we can figure some of this out together.”

I hesitated, but there was something in his eyes that reassured me. Though he was coming off as a little too cocky for my liking, I knew my instincts were right about him. They had to be. I’d dreamt it.

I had dreamt about him, and he was real. The rest had to be right, too.

I pretended to be enthralled with the view as I edged closer. Really, it was impressive, but my mind was roaming on everything but the scenery as I sat down beside Micah. None of those thoughts would form into words, however, and I sat there quietly, waiting for the right question to form.

So much for setting out in search of answers
. 

I felt Micah’s eyes on me, watching me, and I stared straight ahead, pretending not to notice.

“You look different than I thought you would,” he eventually said. His choice of words piqued my curiosity, and I finally turned to look at him as he continued. “I never saw your face. I imagined hundreds of different faces, but none of them were…you.”

We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before my thoughts formed into words. “Then how did you know it was me?”

He grinned. “I figured no one else would be stupid enough to be there, spying on the Skotadi, and when I got close enough, I just knew it was you.”

Like I had known it was him? “How? How did you
know
?”

He shrugged. “I have good instincts. I can sense things about people.”

“Are you a prophet?”

“It’s my strongest specialty.” He hesitated, looking at me as if he were looking inside me, searching for my deepest, most heavily guarded secrets. “I’ve known all along that you’re not what you’re supposed to be. I can sense it. Gabby and Richie weren’t as trusting, so we hung back and watched you for a while.”

“If they saw that I wasn’t all…” I wiggled my fingers as if it were the international sign for evil, “then why did they nearly shoot me?”

“They’re still a little skittish. They never agreed on my decision to find you, and they’re afraid of something happening to me and screwing everything up.”

His decision to find me? So, he had left the protection of the Kala base because of me? I’d suspected so. I just wished I knew why.

“Why did you want to find me?” I asked softly.
Please, don’t let it be to kill me. Please.

Please don’t let Nathan be right, just this one time.

He turned to face me with eyes so penetrating I had to divert my gaze. I was really starting to hate the way he looked at me, like we were best friends after only just meeting.

“After our first dream together,” he answered. “I had this pull to you, and this intense need to help you, even though I didn’t know how. Or why. I still don’t have those answers, but I do want to help.”

I’d had a similar pull in my dreams. Only it wasn’t to help him, but to
find
him. All along, I’d known that I was supposed to find him.

I stared down at my shoes, unwilling and unable to look at him. “What brought you here?”

“Another dream. A sort of vision. I knew something was here, and then we found the Skotadi’s warehouse. We still don’t know what they’re doing there, but I imagine it’s important or I wouldn’t have had a vision of it.”

“And you led me here?” I asked softly. In addition to Nathan and Alec uncovering the location of the warehouse by interrogating important Skotadi
leaders, Micah had been speaking the name of this town to me in my dreams for weeks before we’d found it.

“Yes. There’s something in that warehouse. We just have to find out what it is. And I knew you needed to be here.”

I nibbled on my lip as I debated whether or not to tell Micah what I knew. Ultimately, I decided that he was legit, and that if he was going to help, he needed to know everything.

“They’ve been converting Kala to Skotadi out of that warehouse,” I told him. “They’ve been doing it for years, apparently.”

Micah was silent for so long I was forced to look up at him. And regretted it immediately.

Why
did he have to look at me like that?

“We thought that if they could do that,” I continued to fill in the awkward silence as Micah gawked at me, “then there might be a way to do the opposite, or maybe even prevent me from going Skotadi in the first place.”

Micah nodded along in silence. He finally looked away from me and muttered more to himself than to me, “How can they do that?” Since I didn’t have an answer for him, I said nothing. After a long stretch of silence, he added, “We’ll figure it out. Somehow.”

There was such determination in his voice, in his posture, in his eyes. I didn’t doubt that he would do everything in his power to figure it out. Seeing all of that, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was so determined.

My eyes narrowed instinctively. Turning to him with squared shoulders, I said, “You seem really motivated for someone who doesn’t even know me.”

“But I do know you,” he returned automatically, and in a tone that sounded a little too intimate for my comfort. At least at this stage in our…friendship? It wasn’t even that, not yet, but this kid talked like we’d been buddies for years. “I know you don’t want this. I know there’s too much good in you to succumb to your fate. I think you can fight it.”

I jumped from my seat and paced the porch in front of Micah. For all he knew, I needed to stretch, or to walk off some steam brought upon by the heavy subject matter. Really, I needed some distance from him and his eyes. Sitting beside him on the bench had been too much.
He
was too much—the way he looked at me, the way he talked like we’ve known each other for years, the way he was so willing to help me…despite the risks to himself.

I remembered something that Nathan had pointed out, and only now realized how much sense he had made.

I spun to Micah like an attorney interrogating a witness. “Why would you want to gamble with your own life? We’re supposed to be enemies. I was made to kill you. Wouldn’t it just be easier to get rid of me now, than try to help me and it potentially backfire on you?”

“I don’t agree with the Kala’s decision to eliminate you,” he said as if that explained everything.

I shook my head because…it didn’t. Not even close. That was it? That was his reasoning? The look on my face must have portrayed my disbelief, because Micah held up his hands as if offering a truce.

“Alright. Think about this,” he said. “If we can find a way to stop you from siding with the Skotadi—if you side with the Kala—there will be two of us. Two that the Skotadi can’t touch. They won’t have a chance at winning this war.”

Now, that was the first thing he’d said all day that made any sense. And was something that I could believe. War tactics. That was something even Nathan could get on board with. And I knew Alec would be game.

“Actually, there will be three of us,” I said, earning a raised eyebrow from Micah. “Alec’s like me, sort of. They created him before me, a little differently, a little weaker than me, but he’s a super-hybrid too.”

“And Alec is…”

“Eyebrow ring, messy hair, green eyes.” I snapped my fingers and pointed to Micah when the ultimate description hit me. “The one that pointed the gun to your head.”

“Ah.” Micah nodded as it clicked. “And he wants to fight back like you?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sometimes he says it’s too late for him, that he’s working on helping me now, but I know he doesn’t want this either.”

“Why does he think it’s too late for him?”

I shrugged. “He started developing six months before me.”

“Has he shown any signs of changing yet?”

I thought about the glimpse of gold I thought I’d seen in Alec’s eyes earlier. Maybe I hadn’t imagined it? Was it a sign that he was beyond help? If it had been real, it couldn’t be a good sign.

“No,” I said to Micah, and had to look away when he stared back, like he knew I was hiding something. I’d never been a good liar, but I wasn’t exactly lying. I just didn’t know. I needed to talk to Alec to be sure.

Fortunately, Micah didn’t push, though I had the sense that he wanted to. Instead, he changed the subject. “Do you know what specialties you have? They start coming in yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Being a prophet, I have the ability to read people’s specialties. I could do that for you, if you’d like,” Micah suggested.

It was tempting. Really tempting. Waiting around for something to happen had me on edge ninety-nine percent of the time. Knowing what was coming might help alleviate some of the anxiety. That didn’t mean I still wouldn’t dread the moment they came in. Micah couldn’t help me there. Or could he?

“Can you help me to…
” I trailed off, unable to think of the right words to describe what I was afraid of.

“Control them?” he offered.

“Yes!”
Control
was the perfect word.

He nodded with a smile. “They’re a little overwhelming at first, but I’ve had some practice. They’re stronger for us when they come in than they are for the others. I can teach you some tricks I’ve learned along the way. No problem.”

“Thanks,” I said softly.

“We can start tomorrow,” he finalized with a clap of his hands, as if he were actually looking forward to it. 

And I suspected that he really was, though I had no idea why. He was really helpful. Far more than I had expected. Again, that little voice in my head wondered why he was so determined to help me, but I pushed it aside, because I did need his help.

Sure, I was a little suspicious. Either he was just a really good guy with a death wish, or he had an ulterior motive. Though I didn’t necessarily think it was anything bad. Whatever it was, the fact remained that I needed his help. But I would be sure to keep an eye on him.

And go about the old-fashioned way of figuring out what he was hiding from me.