Page 4

Miranda

“T his is the infirmary.” Nyx gestures to the open doorway beside her. “Remember what I said,” she whispers as I pass.

There’s no way that I would forget her instructions.

“Doctor Gayle!” she calls as she takes the lead.

The room looks like an ordinary hospital ward, far separated from the ancient stone and wood where we just came from. White floors, pale blue walls, about six beds with drawn curtains in dark blue. In the back of the room is a desk where a woman sits, her attention on her computer monitor. Her hair, nearly all gray, is pulled up high on the back of her head, and her dark blue eyes peer around the side of the screen before she smiles kindly at Nyx.

“Nyxeris!” The doctor rises from her chair, and a strong floral scent floats my way. This is an Omega, but her lack of collar indicates she’s not Cursed. When she turns her smile to me, her head inclines. “I’m Gayle Jónsdóttir, the nurse in this facility. You must be Miranda Amato.”

Despite pronouncing her surname like a native Scandinavian, she doesn’t speak with a discernible accent. She could have been born and raised down the street from me in UNA.

I nod in confirmation, and Gayle’s smile turns consoling.

“I can’t begin to imagine how overwhelming this is for you, dear. I promise to make this visit as swift and as painless as possible.” She gestures to the nearest bed. “Take a seat, please.” She reaches for something on her desk as I sit on the edge of the bed. When she returns to my side, she holds an electronic tablet. The screen is clear glass, and the information that lights it up appears backward on my side. A photo of my face, some basic information like my age and height. Her fingers dance across the screen nimbly, and the information scrolls as she begins to ask questions.

“You’re an uncontrolled tactile, yes?”

“Yes.”

“All right, and when was the last time you administered a suppressant?”

I swallow. “Just before...I came here.”

She doesn’t look up from her tapping. “Excellent. I’m going to draw some blood and do a few tests. This will only take a moment.” She looks at me then. “If you would, please, unzip your sweatshirt and expose one arm.”

I do as she says while she puts on gloves and grabs some other instruments from a nearby table. Before I know it, she’s put a tourniquet on my upper arm, drawn a few vials of blood, removed the tourniquet, and put a bandage around my elbow. I put my arm back through the sleeve and zip up while the doctor takes my blood to a machine across the room.

Nyx stands beside me, like she’s lending me strength, while we wait. For what, I’m not entirely sure until minutes pass and Doctor Gayle is back on her tablet, tapping away and scrolling. She smiles up at me, her face illuminated in the screen's blue glow. “We’re all set here,” she says. “I’m assigning you a date to return for your next suppressant dosage, which will be on the tablet you’ll be given before lights out. All your other tests look good. You’re in perfect health.” Her smile is wide and kind.

I let out a long breath and am suddenly aware of the heightened anxiety that had been flowing through me. When I slide off the bed, I land on wobbly legs but feel physically lighter.

It worked.

“Thanks, Doctor Gayle!” Nyx says, sounding chipper. She places her hand on my back and guides me out of the infirmary and into the hall. “Good job,” she whispers. “Now that’s over, it’s time for your assessment.”

Training Ground One is an indoor facility, vast with mostly glass walls and a solid domed ceiling.

Nyx walked me all the way and then went off on her own, assuring me she’d see me that evening.

Now, I stand alone in the center of this vast room, strangers, mostly in military uniforms and lab coats, standing along the far wall. Headmaster Laurant is there, too, as is Major Tomlin.

Oh, and something tall covered in a sheet is just a few feet to my left. I don’t know what it is, but it’s square at the top.

The discomfort invading my senses raises my anxiety.

One of the men in a white coat steps forward and says in a loud, commanding voice, “Remove the sheet.”

I look around to confirm that I’m the only one around the thing.

I am.

My feet move slow and rigidly closer to the object, and I grasp the sheet, slowly pulling it from what it’s obscuring.

I can’t even react to what I find. My brain kicks into overdrive because I know...I know exactly what they intend me to do.

Beneath the sheet is a cage atop a pedestal. Inside the cage is a small, white rabbit. It looks at me with dark, frightened eyes, that fear surely reflected in my own.

“Remove your gloves and touch the animal.”

My head whips to the lab coat guy with the white hair and thick glasses, the same one who commanded me to remove the sheet.

He’s out of his fucking mind.

“No.”

The word leaves my mouth before my brain catches up, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what they do to me or threaten me with. I am not going to kill a defenseless animal to sate their curiosity.

I just killed a full-grown man, for the love of the universe! They know full well what I am capable of.

The man frowns, his electronic clipboard tight in his grasp. “This is not a request. It is a requirement. If you do not comply—”

“Leave us.” Major Tomlin’s tone leaves no room for argument, although the lab-coated man looks severely outraged.

Everyone files out the door, save a couple of soldiers who remain just inside the facility guarding the doorway. My heart rate spikes as the major approaches me, his expression neutral.

There’s no telling what he wants. Betas can’t be trusted, especially those in the GBE.

His next words surprise me.

“I’m an animal lover myself.” He looks over at the cage and the snowy white hare within, a small frown playing on his otherwise stoic face. “I told them not to do this, but I find that scientists care very little for life.” His stony eyes land on me, and my heart skips with fear. “Regardless of predator or prey, animals are innocent by nature. People are not.”

He stands before me now, leaning in just enough for me to hear his whispered words. “There’s something I must tell you, Miranda. About your father.”

My body goes rigid at the mention of my dad, fear washing over my senses. What’s happened to him?

“He fought hard. So hard that a call was made I don’t see often.”

I look him square in his eyes, my brow drawn tight in question.

His voice becomes softer, quieter. “They didn’t send him to Korezak. They sent him to Tenebrosa.”

As the room spins, I go deaf, and then a distant, high-pitched whine pierces my eardrums.

I’m going to faint right in front of these monsters.

Tenebrosa...the facility they send Cursed to who are never heard from again. The facility where the Cursed are experimented on in an attempt to figure out why we are the way we are. A place, rumor claims, that Cursed are tortured in ways unimaginable.

Major Tomlin’s airy voice breaks through the whine in my ears. “The Beta who made that call is here.”

Everything stops at his words. I look back at him now with a bubbling rage. “You?” I whisper-spit.

His head shakes in a negative response. “The one who just commanded you to kill this innocent creature. I will bring him back in here. To you.”

“For what?”

A fierce anger flashes across his gaze. “The Council has given him far too much power. He lives in lawlessness.” His words are spat like quiet bullets. “I loathe the man. He doesn’t deserve the authority he’s been given.” Tomlin’s eyes narrow on me. “He came here only because you are your father’s offspring.”

A jolt passes through my bones. “Why—?”

“He wants to know if you’re as powerful as he is, of course.” He lets that sink in a moment before continuing. “If he wants you in his facility, Miranda, I cannot stop it from happening.”

Fear blazes in my soul. “How would bringing him here—?”

“One touch from you,” he cuts me off, “I get what I want, and you get revenge while proving your power to the faculty.”

“They’ll kill me.”

He tsks and shoots me a dubious look. “Have you ever killed before the solider who captured you?”

I don’t answer, but he knows the truth. I must give it away with some facial twitch.

“On purpose?”

My head shakes no without me meaning to.

“You will be forced into battle soon enough, Mira. Your abilities mean you’ll be a melee combatant, looking your enemies in the eye as you take their lives. And you will do it. If you don’t, it will be your life that’s forfeit.”

Acid forms in the back of my throat, scratching and irritating the flesh.

What he says is true. I’ve always known it, and yet...

“Allow me to give your first purposeful kill meaning.” His head tilts as he looks down at me. “This scientist’s cruelty is only surpassed by those on the Council. He’s defenseless without his security detail, and that detail answers to me.” The smile that stretches across his face is twisted. “Once he is gone, I will persuade the Council to instate one of mine as the head researcher at the facility. They’ll have no choice. Do as I say, and I will have your father transferred to the prison as soon as possible. A far better fate than awaits him now, and the possibility of future release into the armed forces. If he behaves.”

My back shoots up ramrod straight. There’s no way I can trust this man. Can I? Yet he seems hellbent on this Beta dying.

“Why can’t you do it?”

“If I did it, my loyalty would be questioned. I wouldn’t be able to put someone I trust in charge of the facility.”

I give him a disbelieving look. “And me doing your dirty work would make a difference?”

“Would you prefer your father to stay in Tenebrosa?” his tone is harsh. “Experimented on for the rest of his life, which will end prematurely, I promise you.” He takes a step closer, so close that I lean back out of habit to avoid possible contact. “This man cuts Cursed open, removes organs and limbs. Without anesthesia.”

That acid fills my mouth now, forcing me to spit on the floor before gulping for air.

I can’t let my father endure that. Not when I have a chance to possibly save him from this fate.

“I see you understand now.” He steps away from me, his hands clasped behind his back. “Do this, Miranda. Help us both. Help your father.”

I must be out of my mind because I believe him.

But can I purposely kill someone?

Visions of my childhood flash in my brain: of my mother shouting at me in anger because I wouldn’t go with her to the store without my father. Of me screaming that I hated her. Of her hand coming down to slap my face. The moment it connected with my skin, that unmistakable crackling as she snap-froze before my eyes, right in the middle of my bedroom. How my father came running into the room at the ruckus, finding me there, mute and gaping at the ice sculpture that was once my mother. The look of fear in his eyes as he assessed what had happened. How I screamed at him not to touch me and backed away when he tried to embrace me.

My father, who gave up his entire life to keep me safe. Out of love. Out of guilt.

How could I not do this for him?

Tears swim in my vision as I look at Major Tomlin, my jaw set with decision and rage.

I say nothing. There’s no need to.

Tomlin gives a slow affirmative nod and turns to the soldiers guarding the doorway. “Bring in Dr. Ness. No one else.”

One soldier claps his heels and salutes before leaving. He returns only a moment later with the old man with the hook-nose and glasses in the white lab coat. His severe face goes more sour at the sight of Tomlin beside me.

“What’s the meaning of this, Major?”

“I’ve convinced the subject to give you a personal demonstration of her curse.”

This brings an odd glimmer to the old man’s eyes, and I know instantly that everything Tomlin has said is true. The cruelty there is something I have only ever seen on TV when the Council gives their bloated speeches and tells the world how they’re keeping us all safe from the vile Cursed.

“Is that so?” As he approaches, he pushes his glasses up his nose and grins. He fucking smiles like a sadist.

Tomlin looks at me and asks, “Are you ready?”

His question holds meaning the scientist isn’t privy to. The moment he finishes speaking, my gloves are on the floor, and I rush the old man with all the power my legs can give after the emotional duress of the past couple of days. I double-fist him in the gut so hard he flies backward with a silent cry, the air pummeled out of his slight frame.

I want him to suffer. For what he wants to do to my dad. For what he likely wants to do to me. For what he has already done to countless others. But somewhere in my enraged brain, my self-preservation still lives on. I can’t allow him to alert anyone of what’s happening until it’s already done.

I give Dr. Ness no time to recover before I’m on him, my bare hands wrapped around his scrawny neck in a vice-grip that’s wholly unsatisfying since his body does what everyone’s does at my touch: snaps to solid ice in a blink.

My breath comes ragged and fast as I seethe down at the clear face below me, little delicate glasses still somehow on his nose after the initial blow I’d given him.

I’ve never been so angry, yet so elated.

And that scares me shitless.

“Excellent work, Miranda,” Major Tomlin says as my gloves land on the floor beside me. “Bring in the rest of the faculty,” he calls, I assume to the soldiers, as I climb off the block of ice that was once a vile bastard.

I don’t look at the doorway or the people returning as I hear their footsteps. I glove my hands, my heart beating hard and fast.

Am I a monster? I can’t be any worse than that doctor was, can I?

“What the hell is going on here?” a female voice shrills. “What has the subject done?”

“What I commanded her to do.” Tomlin’s voice booms through the building, met with silence.

A part of me is surprised that he told the truth. That same small part of me that was sure he would send me to my death after doing his bidding. But he stayed true to his word, for now.

“You may examine the late doctor’s body and find your answers. The soldier’s body turned to puddles within a few hours, so document and take your samples quickly.” The major approaches me and grips my upper arm with far more delicate care than he had last night. “Laurant,” he calls, and the headmaster’s stricken face looks up at him. “I have things I must attend to immediately. I want you to take Miss Amato to release the hare into the wild.”

My head snaps to Tomlin’s face above me, pure shock coursing through me. He’s allowing me to set the rabbit free? Why?

His lips get dangerously close to my ear as if he could hear my unspoken question. “I told you I love animals.” He straightens then as Headmaster Laurant approaches us, his expression still shellshocked and also worried. “I have promises to keep,” Tomlin says cryptically as he steps away.

A moment later, I’m holding the caged creature as Major Tomlin exits the building with his soldiers, leaving me with the faculty, security, headmaster, and whirling thoughts.

There’s no way that this plays out exactly as Tomlin promised. Right?

Laurant’s hand touches my forearm. “Come with me,” he says aloud before saying in my mind, “ Speak freely in the car.”

As he leads me to the doorway, I feel eyes on me while everyone else clamors around the doctor’s body, swabbing and photographing and doing whatever it is these people do. When I raise my gaze to find the source of heat on my face, I’m met with a sight that steals my breath.

A young man with snow white hair, straight yet wild about the top of his head and falling over his forehead into his eyes, which are wrapped tight with a red blindfold, the tails cascading over one of his shoulders. His skin is creamy, his frame tall and lean, wrapped in all black clothing. Despite the covering on his eyes, it’s as if he can see me clear as day.

It’s when that thought strikes me that my senses are overloaded by the most glorious scent, like smoky cherry blossoms, something I have never encountered before.

The young man’s head follows the headmaster and me as we pass through the door, and I find myself craning my neck to keep looking at him until I’m unable to.

The sense of loss is...concerning.

“ Raito.” Laurant says the word in my head I jolt back to attention. “ His name is Raito.”

Raito…

I’d never heard the name before, and to say I was intrigued was an understatement. What I didn’t know was why.

I clutch the cage tighter to my chest and try my best not to jostle the small rabbit within.

The headmaster releases my forearm and says, “This way,” gesturing to our right when my feet touch the paved walkway.

It isn’t long before we reach an open lot with several all-terrain vehicles, many of them new and glossy in the sunlight. I follow him to a smaller SUV, and when he opens the back hatch, I gently place the cage inside. Laurant uses a tie-down to secure it, and a grateful feeling wells inside me.

I still can’t look at him. This kind man who I just met...what he must think of me now.

He gets behind the wheel, and I climb into the passenger seat.

The roads we traverse in silence are narrow but paved until we reach a dirt path that diverts off the main road.

Laurant stops the vehicle, and I follow him to the back, where he opens the hatch and lifts the cage before handing it to me.

“This way,” he says, gesturing to the denser woods ahead.

I follow again until he stops and says, “This looks like a good place.”

I look at him then, his profile, as he looks into the trees, a near-wistful expression on his face. There’s a touch of longing there as well. For freedom lost, I think. And I understand that more than I can express.

I may not have been in the academy longer than a day, but my life has never been my own. Not even before I was on the run.

I look at the little rabbit behind metal bars and wish I could feel its fur beneath my fingertips. To know, just once, its soft, silky feel before we part ways.

But it will never be.

With great care, I lower the cage to the ground and gently place it there, the door facing away from me.

“Okay, little guy,” I whisper as I grip the clasp with my fingers and pinch it, then pull it open. “Be free, my friend.”

The hare stands there a moment. Once I rise and step away, it scampers out of the cage and dashes off into the woods, obscured by the tall grass there.

Loneliness strangles my heart once he’s gone. The little guy was in my life less than an hour, but I felt a kinship to him. Captured, caged, used...but I was able to set him free.

If only I could do that for others like me.

“Tell me what Tomlin said and did.”

Laurant’s voice draws my attention back to him. I pick up the cage to busy myself as I respond with a question.

“Was Ness the head of Tenebrosa?”

He doesn’t answer right away, and I look at him, his expression switching from surprise to suspicion. “Yes.”

A little of the weight on my chest is lifted to learn Tomlin had at least been honest about that.

So, I tell Laurant the rest. How my father, also Cursed, was captured and sent to Tenebrosa. How Tomlin hated Dr. Ness and intends to replace him with someone under his command. How he told me to kill him so that could happen.

Laurant doesn’t look upset or angry, more confused. “What is he up to?”

The words are just above a whisper, almost carried away by the cool breeze.

“We have to get back,” he declares with sudden haste.

As we make our way to the vehicle, I can’t help but notice that Laurant isn’t horrified that I’ve murdered someone, nor is he judging me for listening to Major Tomlin, who he doesn’t seem to get along with.

There is more going on at the Cursedblood Academy than I know, but I intend to discover every little secret. And then, I will do whatever it takes to save my father.