Sylas howls and touches his neck. “Silver.” He wobbles to the side. “I didn’t think you had it in you.” He trips forward, and then falters back, striving to maintain his footing. My fingers seek him as he falls to the floor. Sylas shows no emotion as he slips into a state of unconsciousness.
Monarch looms above him with two syringes in his hand, one filled with a red liquid and one with a purple. He plunges the purple one straight into Sylas’ arm and wipes his memory clean. Then he turns to me with the red syringe.
“Sorry,” he says in an unsympathetic voice. “But they have to think you’re dead, otherwise they’ll kill you themselves. They know what you are now and you can’t stay here.”
I let out a muffled scream and try to jerk my arm away as the needle descends into my skin. The red liquid immerses my veins and surges through my body. My eyes roll into the back of my head and the red door burns in my mind.
Monarch says, “Figure out how to save the world, and then come back for me.”
Chapter 9
My eyes shoot open. I’m panting and sweat beads my skin. Sylas watches me with his dark eyes, shadows cast across his face.
“What do you remember?” he asks quickly.
I sit up and rub the sweat from my forehead. “What do you remember?”
He stays silent for a moment. “Not much. Emmy dipped inside my head and tried to pull some of the memories out, but pieces are missing, like how I got into The Colony in the first place or why I went there.”
“You weren’t just living there then,” I say. “You came back.”
“No, I was thrown out of The Colony a few years ago, but that day, for some reason, I went there. I think through a tunnel.”
“A tunnel?” I rest against the hillside. “Like the one that leads to the river?”
He shakes his head. “This tunnel was different. There was no river and there were things there…” his forehead scrunches over. “Strange rock carvings and colorful images.”
“Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“Why would I? It’s for you to figure out, not me.”
I sigh and stand. “So you were there to get me?”
“I guess.” He shrugs, raising his eyebrows and staring at the ground, attempting to conceal the hurt he was experiencing at the time. “But Monarch changed his mind and wouldn’t let me take you. He wanted Aiden to help you, not me.”
“But what drove you to go there?” I ask. “Because, from what I saw, Monarch never told you to do it.”
He glides to his feet and stretches out his legs. “That’s the million dollar question.” He holds up his finger. “Perhaps it was my undying love for you.”
I start to speak, but his laughter shuts me up. I rub my hands across my face. “Is there anything else behind the red door?” I ask and take the watch out of my pocket. “Besides a lab? Is there anything else that goes on in there besides experiments and torture?”
“Lots of things went on in there besides experiments.” He sketches his finger along my collar bone and breathes in my scent. With an intimate look on his face, his eyes travel up my body. “Lots and lots of things.”
What does this guy know that I don’t? “Sylas, how close were we?”
His eyebrow curves up as he drags his finger down my arm. “Another million dollar question.”
I open my mouth to order him to stop, but the words won’t leave my lips. They don’t want to leave my lips.
“Aiden and I were close too,” I say as his fingers journey down my ribs. “He loved me once.”
“But did you love him?”
“I wish I could remember.”
He closes his eyes, breathing me in again, and he wants to do things to me I’m not comfortable with—I sense it dripping from him.
“Sylas,” I warn as his hand moves downward.
He pulls away, giving me a cold look. Then his eyes dart over my shoulder at the sound of voices and two distinct heartbeats.
I freeze, my muscles tensing. “It can’t be them? Can it?”
“This is so ridiculous,” Ryder says. “I bet they didn’t even take her. I bet she wandered off on her own. And we just left everyone behind on a rescue mission for her.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” Aiden replies confidently and guilt plagues me. “I know she wouldn’t.”
“That’s what you think.” Ryder’s voice rings with anger. “You build her up in your head and make her into something she’s not.”
“She’s exactly what I think she is,” he responds defensively. “I know her better than anyone.”
Sylas lets out a low chuckle. “My brother, the idiot.”
I shoot him a dirty look and shove him back against the hill. He laughs harder and it echoes around the hill for Ryder and Aiden to hear. They stop talking, walking, breathing.
“Did you hear that,” Ryder whispers, nervousness lacing her voice. “It came from over the hill.”
“Shhh,” Aiden hisses and then they still. “Be quiet for a minute.”
Sylas laughs louder, not caring if they hear him. I sigh and hike down the hill, leaving him in the shadows. I slip to the bottom, my boots filling with warm sand, and I step around the hill into the open.
Aiden’s honey eyes light up. He looks like he hasn’t slept in ages. He’s clothes are filthy and worn out. He begins to run for me, but I step back, shake my head, and hold up my hand.