Creators(71)

“You know what this means, right?” James asked.

“We’re going to have to talk to George,” I replied.

Together. Just as he wanted it. Just as he orchestrated it.

“Great,” I muttered.





Chapter 28


“Oh, your father’s here?” George asked, looking wildly around him.

“You know he isn’t,” I gritted through my teeth.

“Then how would I be working with him?”

George, James, and I stood huddled together deep within one of the council’s maze-gardens. Everyone in the headquarters was so insanely busy that the entire garden was empty. Creators and chosen ones alike practically ran from one corner of the massive building to the other, mumbling about advancing armies and strategies.

“Then why the hell bring me here, George? Why do you need me?” I asked.

“I told you what I wanted you to do. I gave you the code. I reunited you with your boyfriend. What else do you want from me?” he responded, casually plucking flowers from the vines that seeped through the hedges and chucking them to the ground.

“How about some answers?” James said.

“I really don’t understand why you two are so angry. You’re together. Isn’t that the most important thing in your pathetic little worlds?” George sighed.

“Why do you want me to kill the incubating chosen ones?” I asked again, my voice rising. James put a hand onto my arm in an attempt to calm me, but I could tell by the clench of his jaw, he was just as fed up with George’s antics as I was.

I tapped my foot. “Taking out the group of chosen ones down in the basement would only deprive the council of that army. It wouldn’t get rid of their power. They’ll still have all of the chosen ones walking around in there.”

“Yes, dear,” he clipped, “but it would be one less thing standing between the council and the East.”

“And why would we want the eastern sector to win? Why trade one round of power-hungry dictators for another?” James asked.

“If there is one thing I can promise you, James, it’s that you won’t see the eastern sector come to power.” George clapped his hands as if he was signaling the class to quiet down. “Now, if you want the council gone, taking out that army is the first step,” he replied. He was losing his patience with us.

The feeling was mutual.

“I can’t kill an entire army of chosen ones. Deformed or not, they’re still human,” I snapped, reaching over and taking James’s hand into mine.

“It’s their greatest source of power,” he said, sounding exasperated by my morality. “Tell her. You have to know that I’m right, James. Keeping her safe is the most important thing in the world to you, right? Well, as long as that army sits down there sleeping, she won’t be. The creators designed our kind to do their bidding. What will the council demand that damn army down there do?”

James stared at me long and hard. “Don’t let him get inside your head,” I said, cutting James off before he could agree with George. The man was smart enough to use our love against James, and I wouldn’t let him be a pawn in his game.

“Why do you want the council destroyed anyways?” I asked.

“It’s better for you if you don’t know all the details. In fact, you’re safer if you don’t,” George replied.

My father’s words. Those were the exact words my father had said to me back in the community. I pulled my hand from James’s grasp and shoved George with as much force as I could muster. He barely moved an inch, but his eyes narrowed slightly. I couldn’t read the emotion that brewed beneath them. It was only there a second, quickly replaced with a fake mirth. His go-to charade. “What the hell were you trying to do there?” He laughed.

“I want to know everything,” I yelled.

George clamped a hand over my mouth, but before he could reprimand me James smacked it away. “I’m here because apparently you have information we need, but if you touch her again, I’ll rip your head off,” he promised.

“I want to know how you are working with him,” I demanded.

“The girl who stabbed you,” he replied dully.

“Go on,” I said.

“On my way to meet you, I found her. I used my gift and discovered that your father had kidnapped Abrams. Oh, Abrams. I am sorry your friend killed him. Actually, I mean her. Wasn’t that a fun surprise when I pulled you from that closet.”

“You discovered my father’s plan?” I repeated, hoping to hurry him along. I didn’t have time to listen to his own creator-mommy issues.

“He needed you in the community, so he would have a base to hide and question Abrams. He didn’t want to take the community by force. If we have learned anything from living under the council’s thumb, it’s that power works much better when you get the weaklings to just give it to you. Your father’s a smart man. I knew he would discover what I have shaking the hands of all of Abrams’s advisors.”