Page 126 of Border Control

And Dom’s scales drain of color as he stares at them.

“What’s happening?” I ask him.

He doesn’t answer.

“What are you doing to him?” I fume at the Prif.

“Collecting data,” Samara says with a smirk.

New lines leap onto her graphs, way higher than before. Gasps echo around the courtroom.

Samara raises her voice. “This unremarkable Base is unstable. That is Apex-level psychic radiation. No Base has ever done that. He’s becoming something else. Something dangerous. And as the human has kindly defined for us, dangerous clones must be euthanized.”

Shit. She played me. I thought I’d been winning, but all I did was score tiny, insignificant victories. Samara had this nuclear bomb in her pocket this whole time, and I helped her fire it.

It’s happening again. No. Just like with Dad, the system turns, crushing an innocent underneath its heavy wheels.

And I can’t do anything against it.

“Law-rah.” Dom’s voice, a quiet croak, hardly audible under the furor of the crowd.

I turn to face him. I said I’d keep him safe. Instead, I handed the Prif the means to destroy him. I look into his eyes, prepared to absorb his shock, his disgust, his hatred. It would be a pale shadow of how much I hate myself right now.

When I meet his eyes, all I see is pride. “I am a Base, Law-rah. That’s all I am. Leave me behind, and know you did everything you could.”

I protest, “You’re not just a—” Ah. Ah!

Pulling the wriggling Shade out of my pocket, I hold them up. The females’ attention swings to me. “Observe this,” I say, walking away from Dom. ‘Bitch,’I add to Samara, shoving the mental message across as hard as I can.

Shade reacts to me, feasting on my anger, fear and shame. He writhes just as much as the Sanitatums surrounding Dom, tendrils flaring, drinking in the ambient storm.

I look directly at the Prif. “This plant is still feeding, and it’s not near Dom anymore. It’s not him alone, it’s us. Our connection. And I do recall, as I’m sure you do, we clarified thata clone who willingly submits, whose abilities we understand, is not dangerous. I understand his—our—abilities. And he submits to me.”

Prif Samara’s face tightens. She wasn’t expecting that, but now we’re both on shaky ground trying to win over the whole society.

Whispers reach me across the bare platform. “A female in a mind-sync?” “Fascinating!” “I wonder what it feels like?”

I press my lips together. Right now, without his voice inside my head, his steady reassuring presence, it feels horribly empty. Just me, and my endless cycle of anxiety.

Looking over at him, tied to a stake, head held high with a garrote above the metal collar encircling his throat, my thoughts spin. But seeing his soft smile, just for me, steadies me.

He really is my Base. I thought I was helping him out; turns out, all this time, even before the mind-sync, he was helping me.

I move back to Dom and the surrounding Sanitatums, forcing my fingers to stay still. If only I could take his hand; it would help us both.

“Nevertheless.” Samara’s voice booms over the excited murmur of the crowd. Bitch can project like a Shakespearean actress. “This is unprecedented, yes. An exiled clone who has caught a female in the mind-sync, a condition she wants reversed. The remedy is simple?—”

“You’re not killing Dom just to get me free!” The objection fires from my trembling lips, clear despite how much I’m shaking. I can’t get overwhelmed now, I can’t have a panic attack. I can’t fail him.

Dom glances at me, eyes warming as he whispers, “Law-rah. It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not alright. I don’t want to be free if that’s the only way.”

His eyes flash, a small frown dipping his brows. “Truly?”

That does the trick, pushing me from panic to exasperation. “Dom, I regret ever coming here. I want you in my head. We’ll work on the mind-sync, we’ll figure it out.”

He slowly shakes his head as much as he’s able with a collar and loop keeping him pinned to the pole. “It was hurting you, Law-rah.”