Creators(73)

I sighed. Could my father and George’s plan make that dream a reality?

“You know he has us exactly where he wants us, right?” I asked James. I no longer knew who was working for whom and what the endgame was. It seemed impossible that George could be on our side.

“I know,” James said quietly.

I was petrified of what he had planned for us next.

…

The next couple of days went by without incident. I hadn’t seen George since our meeting in the garden, and James’s duty as bodyguard for the elder Harper kept us from each other. He had told me that Harper didn’t trust him entirely yet, so his access to information and daily routines was limited at best. Mostly, he stood watch outside doors. Neither of us wanted to risk getting caught, so we didn’t attempt to see each other. We both knew George had been playing us, and we didn’t want to do anything else that might put us further in danger.

At least not yet. Not till we had to. Every morning, as the sun broke through my sleep, a rush of gratitude filled my soul. I was eternally grateful for another day where the world didn’t fall down around us. Another day of knowing James was still out there. Another day of knowing that he knew I was still out there, too.

So, for the time being, we had to be content within our memories.

I busied myself with fulfilling the meaningless and insulting demands of Terrance and Richard. I followed after them, building an iron shield around myself to keep their petty and unkind words from eliciting any anger. After the incident with the piano, I was sure that Terrance was more miffed than pleased that George was able to produce results where he could not. Terrance had not bothered me about the map again. James had recreated a fake one to take its place, and for the time being Terrance’s father couldn’t tell the difference.

Late one night, when I had finally finished cleaning the pots and pans of the four different dishes the boys demanded I make for dinner, I sluggishly walked toward my room. I was thankful for the exhaustion that claimed my body. It would make sleeping a bit easier. But as I got closer to the room I shared with Regan, I had to make one stop.

The piano.

It was the one luxury I allowed myself. I slowly creaked open the door and stepped into the study. I was never crazy enough to play; I simply touched the keys. I needed to know they still existed as well. The piano was my connection to the past, rooting me in the knowledge that some things would never be lost.

I was making a mental list of all the times I had played when a hand came down over my mouth. I grinned under the hand, remembering how James has snuck me from my room. Smiling over how we had found each other again. We had always been able to find each other. He was the only one who would think to find me there. Perhaps he felt like I did, that it was, while crazy, worth the risk.

I leaned back into his body and went still. I knew James’s frame as I knew my own, and he wasn’t the man standing behind me.

I reached up to try and pry the hand off, but the culprit was too strong. I screamed but it only came out muffled. The man’s other arm wrapped around my waist, squeezing so tight that I found it difficult to breathe. He began to pull me backward. I tried to drag my feet, but it barely stopped him. I kicked. I let my body go limp, forcing him to carry dead weight. Nothing worked.

He pulled me further into the darkness of the room. As soon as he lifted his hand from my mouth, I screamed again as loud as I could. I didn’t care if the whole chosen one army came running because that would bring James, too.

Shocked by the noise that issued from me, the man dropped me to the ground. I scrambled across the floor, praying the darkness would be my ally. I pulled the velvet drape over me and scrunched against the wall as much as I could.

A hand grabbed my ankle and yanked me across the floor from my hiding place. The man walloped me in the side of the head as a reward for my screams. Spots appeared in front of my eyes, and soon the darkness I was always running from was back.

When I came to, I was on my back. The moon reached down for me through the window like it wanted to cover me, protect me like a shield from whomever it was that wanted to hurt me.

I gingerly reached a hand to the side of my head. My fingers came back wet and bloody. With a groan, I sat up. It was only a matter of seconds before I threw up everything I had in my stomach. I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Wipe that blood off your face, girl.”

Terrance.

He stood before me. Above me.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked, forcing the fear down somewhere deep inside me. Hoping, praying, that it would stay hidden. I was pretty sure my life depended on it.

“Is that how you talk to a man? Is that how you talk to your master?” he leered.