Creators(82)

“And your boyfriend is going to help me do it. I knew once I pushed him to the edge, made him see that in order for you to be safe, he had to let his kind die out, he’d help me,” George said.

“I’m safest when I’m with him. We keep each other safe,” I yelled.

“As long as he lives, the rest live. He’d rather watch a whole species die to give you the smallest hope of finding peace. In fact, he was the one who told me where the fail-safe was. He memorized the map you gave him. I didn’t even need to take the secret from him.”

“Your child died,” I spat out. I needed something, anything to keep him in that room with me.

“Good. I wouldn’t want it to grow up in this world anyway. Would you?”

…

As soon as George was gone, I thrashed and pulled against my ropes. Sweat covered every inch of my body, and my muscles screamed in agony. I yelled for help as long as I could. I kicked at the door, and when that didn’t work, I swung my feet around the small office, knocking anything I could off the walls. Trying to make as much noise as possible.

After a half hour, I lay my head against the railing. I was panting. My legs and arms trembled so hard that my teeth chattered. I closed my eyes and thought of James. All the things I would say to him to not let George enact the fail-safe.

All the ways I loved him.

All the ways he loved me.

How that love was worth living for.

“Tess!”

Someone was screaming my name outside of the door.

“I’m in here! Please! Help me!” I begged.

When the door opened, I had never been more thankful to see anyone in my life. “Lockwood! Thank God! Friend of the year award for sure.” I laughed, near delirious.

“Yeah, I’ll remind you of that the next time we get into a fight,” he replied, bending down to untie me. Once free, he lifted me to the ground. I nearly fell right back down. My whole body was sore from trying to fight against the ropes.

Once I steadied myself, I explained to Lockwood everything that George had told me. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go save your boyfriend,” he replied, punching me playfully in the arm. I nearly fell on my ass again. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, offering his hand for support.

George had been wrong. I was a force to be reckoned with. I had a weapon he couldn’t comprehend.

A friend.





Chapter 32


Lockwood held up his rifle as we climbed over the debris that blocked the entrance to where the fail-safe was kept. “You really think James and Robert will just let them end their kind?” he asked me as he slowly moved the gun from left to right and back again.

“I think either they don’t fully comprehend what the fail-safe does, or, yes, they’ll let him,” I replied, a coldness slipping down my throat to the very center of my soul.

“But why?”

“Think of everything they’ve seen, Lockwood. Everything their kind has been responsible for.”

“Yeah, but the council was responsible for that. Not them.”

“But how does one take down the council?” A chill was spreading from my center to the tips of my fingers and toes. “You show someone enough darkness, and they either become consumed by it or do anything to bring back the light.”

Abrams. That was what Abrams had taught me.

James would do anything to keep me safe. I just had to locate the fail-safe and destroy it before he had the chance.

“I think we’re here.”

I nodded and placed a finger over my lips. We stealthily moved down the hallway to where a door stood open. I could tell by the numerous arms, legs, and various carnage strewn across the floor that we had come to the right place.

Lockwood counted down from three. As he mouthed each of the numbers, my heart beat a little faster. Once the countdown was done, he whipped his rifle around the corner. When he held up the all-clear sign, we both moved deeper into the room. The lights flickered above our head to reveal a seemingly bare white room.

“Damn it. I think we’re in the wrong place,” Lockwood said.

I walked to the wall and placed my hand against its surface. Three times. Harper had knocked on the wall three times to reveal the training chosen ones. A seemingly simple hiding trick. So simple no one would guess it. I lifted my hand and knocked it against the wall three times.

The marble crackled and changed under my touch, revealing a huge glass window and a door. Inside the observation room was a series of machines I had only ever heard about. It looked like a violent symphony of lights and buttons, flashing me code I didn’t know how to break.

Four men stood in front of what I had been told was called a computer. My father. George. Robert. James. I ran for the door only to find it locked when I reached for it. I pounded on it frantically, but none of the men turned to look at me.