Sharon pressed her lips together. I clutched harder onto her hand. “Please,” I said. “Help me protect our family. Blood doesn’t always make family.”
“You don’t think I know that?” she replied, placing a hand against my cheek.
I opened my mouth to entreat her help once again when a loud ringing cut me off. It was the loudest bell I had ever heard. I unhooked my hand from Sharon’s and placed both of my hands over my ears.
“What is that?” I screamed.
Sharon paled, and she looked over my head toward the infirmary. I turned around to see my sister shaking, clutching the blankets to her chin. Sharon grabbed my elbow and pulled me close.
“We’re being attacked,” she yelled into my ear.
Chapter 16
Tess,
It has been so long since I’ve written you. I am ashamed that I have tried not to think about you. In my defense, it has not been entirely for selfish reasons. The torture the council put me under worked. Every time I reach for your image or a memory, my body is taken over by pain. They mean to burn you straight out of my mind.
My greatest fear is that they are quite close to succeeding at their mission. Even as I write you this letter, I am overcome with sweats and shakes. Even though I’m on the verge of another episode, I must write to you.
I will write to you. I need to explain.
I realized that the men who tortured me had almost forced you out of my mind entirely, so I hid you. I shoved your presence deep inside my head where neither they nor I can find it. If I don’t think of you, if I choose not to think of you, then they can’t burn you out of me. That’s what the pain is like, Tess—fire. It burns and burns, and then I heal only to burn again.
So, I have forced you away. Not forever but long enough to make them forget. Make them think I have fully given myself to their whims. It has already started to work. They have assigned me back to the family. I now live in the estate on which the council headquarters sits. This place… If you thought Templeton was all pomp and circumstance, it is shambles compared to this place.
I spend my days getting to know my assigned creator, Harper. The hope is I will bond with him and be able to protect him. He is important. Though I am yet to be informed as to why.
That is why I am writing to you. Thinking of you. Aching for you.
Our bond.
Tonight, I woke up with only you running through my mind, and I knew you were in danger. Only twice before in my life have I been filled with such dread. I must admit that there is a small part of me that is comforted that I had a premonition concerning you. It means that our connection, despite the work of the council, is still as strong as ever.
But then what I saw keeps playing over and over in my mind, and I have no way of stopping it. There are guards always outside my door. So, I write you like some useless man who can’t do anything else. I write, because if I am correct, I will see you soon. Because leaving here won’t stop what I saw happening to you. I will make sure you get these letters. You’ll need them. You’ll need to know what you’re in for.
You’re in danger, Tess. Even though I will not be able to stop the first of what appears to be a long line of chain reactions that lead you to the moment that torments me worse than any torture ever exacted on me, I write to you.
I see you here. You work in the headquarters in the service of the council you hate. I don’t know much about the women here, but I will make it my duty to find out. They are rarely seen in the main labs. They, like us chosen ones, are assigned to families. While I don’t hear much about them, what I saw concerning you—I can barely write it.
I keep thinking of the third mark on the back of your neck—the third branding that George gave you back in the woods. I can’t help but wonder if this is what he planned all along. I will search him out in the morning. I don’t know if I can trust him. I don’t know that I can trust anyone.
Three marks. That is the first image that came to me in my vision. The back of your neck. Your hair was tied up into a bun. I couldn’t see your face, but I knew it was you. You were trembling. You stood in a room fancier than anything I have seen yet.
There was a noise behind you and you crouched down. You crawled across the floor and hid behind a curtain. But the darkness did nothing to protect you. He found you. I couldn’t see his face, but he grabbed you and pulled you from your hiding space.
The last thing, the final moment of my vision, was you screaming.
So, I write to you now. I’ll have to find someone to trust. My only hope is that these letters can get to you. Because without a doubt, I know one thing is for sure. You’re coming here.
~James