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CHAPTER 28

C alla

I wake up to see lights overhead. I’m being dragged down some sort of hallway by the peace officers. I try to blink my vision into focus, but my head is pounding too hard. Before I can get my senses, I pass out again.

The next time I wake up, I’m on a table. My vision is still blurry. My eyes ache like my brain is angrily hammering them. I’ve felt this before. When I first woke up in the cage outside Haven North. It’ll pass. I just have to let it.

I groan a few times and ride out the effects until my vision finally focuses. My limbs are weak, but slowly start to respond. There are restraints on my wrists and ankles. I move them enough to figure out they are similar to what we use to restrain patients at the hospital. I pull on them, but I don’t have the strength. My shoulder is aching, and they haven’t bothered to bandage the wound. It’s no longer gushing blood, but they didn’t even clean it.

I force myself to sit up. I’m in some sort of medical facility, based on what I can see. There’s equipment that looks old, like what we saw in the abandoned clinic, and a lot that looks newer. It doesn’t look like a bunker from before the Great War. This has been built since then.

“Hello?” I call out. “Anyone there?”

I’m all alone, still wearing what I was wearing when they sedated me, so they haven’t done anything invasive except draw blood. I can see bruising where multiple needles were inserted into my arm. The marks weren’t made by someone with a velvet touch, considering the damage.

A door opens and I turn my head toward it. My blood runs cold when Clyde strides into the room, looking just as cocky as he always has with a stupid smirk on his face.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Clyde laughs. “I told Dr. Thomas you were tough.”

“You are a fucking asshole,” I mutter, sounding like one of my mates instead the kind nurse Clyde would remember.

“Sorry, Calla. This is just how the world works.” He walks closer and I see a syringe in his hand. “But it’s not time for you to wake up yet. Dr. Thomas wants to do some tests. See what makes you so special. That bracelet seems to be nothing more than a vine from The Tangle. How did you turn it into a weapon? If you tell me, maybe I can convince Dr. Thomas not to cut you open.”

My eyes widen for a moment. I don’t want to be cut open, but I’m not giving Clyde any information. “I’m not telling you a damn thing,” I mutter.

“Have it your way,” Clyde chuckles, jamming the syringe in my neck.

I gasp as the darkness appears at the edge of my vision, but then I see a haze mixing with it. The Aether. Maybe it’s not done with me after all.

One second, I’m on a table. The next, I’m standing in front of Silas. The ground is white. The sky is white. Everything is a blank slate except the midnight-haired man. He looks different too. His shoulders are slumped. There’s sadness in his eyes.

“Silas!” I call out. “I need help! The Aether helped a little, but it wasn’t enough! Please, everyone is in danger. Your brothers… Your pack!”

“It’s over, Calla,” Silas sighs. “My brothers fought bravely. You were given as much help as The Aether could provide through your bracelet, but it wasn’t enough.”

“There has to be something that can be done!” I demand, walking closer to him. “Are you even Silas? Or am I just talking to The Aether?”

“The Aether allows me to speak to you, and it speaks through me sometimes, but I’m exactly what I said I am,” he answers. “A lost soul that cannot move on. Broken like The Aether. You gave me a glimmer of hope. The first one I’ve had since that knife went in my back. I truly believed you were the answer. That you could not only save my pack, but save the entire world. I was wrong.”

“So, that’s it? Your brothers get experimented on, again. I get cut open and dissected by your father?” The anger flourishes inside me, and I don’t even try to hold it back. “What was the point of all this if there’s no way to change it?”

“Nothing is predetermined, Calla. I didn’t even know my father was still alive. I wasn’t sure if he moved on before The Aether was broken, or became a twisted vine in The Tangle, but I had no idea he was in Haven North,” Silas sighs. “But even if I had, I couldn’t stop you from leading my brothers inside. The Aether doesn’t interfere in free will. Your choices are your own—as are your mistakes.”

I swallow hard and shake my head. My anger rises until tears dampen the edge of my eyes. I can’t believe The Aether, the very fabric of creation, has nothing to offer. No way to help.

“What if I convince Clyde to bring me my bracelet?” I suggest, trying to think of any option. “Just a little more help from The Aether. I could save them.”

“That’s always been the problem, Calla,” Silas says. “Ever since The Aether offered you a way out of the cage. All you do is beg it for help. Use it like a crutch, even though you’re not strong enough to wield that kind of power. You run toward danger, begging and pleading like a child.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” I mutter, tasting bitterness on my breath. “Let your brothers die? Let my friends die? Why give me the bracelet, if I wasn’t supposed to ask for help?”

“Instead of begging and pleading with The Aether for help, you could have commanded the power inside of you,” Silas growls. “Learned to wield it, instead of channeling The Aether’s strength through a vine.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me that?” I yell. “Huh? I’ve been to The Aether multiple times. You could have mentioned it! That seems a lot more important than what made The Tangle and a bunch of history lessons I barely understand.”

“The Aether shows you what you need to see,” Silas replies. “Those ignorant to history repeat the mistakes of the past. You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk.”

“Well, I never learned to walk and now I can’t even crawl,” I mutter angrily. “If The Aether has given up on me, and so have you, then just send me back. If I’m going to be cut open by Dr. Thomas, I’d rather face the scalpel than stare at someone who thinks I’m a failure. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I come back here—permanently.”

“Another lost soul,” Silas sighs. “But I can’t send you back. You come here by choice, and you leave here by choice, every single time.”

“You always tell me when I’m out of time,” I say, looking around. “Then I wake up.”

“You’re still the one doing it,” Silas says. “If you want to leave, all you have to do is open your eyes.”

I jolt myself awake with a gasp. I’m back in the medical facility. Still restrained, but I’m naked now. All of my clothes have been cut off. There’s equipment beside me, but I don’t recognize it. That means it has to be technology from before the Great War. But more concerning is the tray full of instruments next to my bed.

A wall suddenly lights up, and I realize it’s not just a wall. It’s translucent, and as it shimmers, I see what is on the other side. My mates. All in cages, slamming themselves against the bars and fighting to get free. I tear up when I see them, and when they notice me, they stop thrashing. They call out for me, but I can’t hear them. The room must be soundproofed.

Then the door opens, and Dr. Thomas walks into the room with Clyde trailing behind him. I pull against my restraints, but it’s no use.

“I hope you don’t mind an audience while I open you up to see what is under the hood,” Dr. Thomas says, amusement in his tone. “But this is a teachable moment, I think. My sons need to see what defiance has earned them.”

“And after we have a look, you’ll have to forgive us if we don’t bother to stitch you back up,” Clyde chuckles. “You won’t be any use to us after we harvest whatever makes you special.”

“The tests say you’re still infertile. I was surprised by that, honestly,” Dr. Thomas remarks. “After the way my sons reacted, and I saw you shooting vines out of your bracelet, I thought maybe… just maybe, there was some kind of mistake. I guess it would have been too much to ask for my sons to bring me a perfect match, but I’ll find one, and now I’ve got all the time in the world.”

“You’re sick,” I mutter, then glance at Clyde. “Both of you are.”

“I don’t see any reason to waste anesthesia on her, do you?” Clyde asks.

“No, I don’t mind a little screaming,” Dr. Thomas snickers. “Won’t take her long to pass out from the pain.”

“After that, you’ll never wake up again, Calla,” Clyde says. “You’re going to wish you had accepted a life of slavery, rather than coming back to Haven North. At least we can still sell the rest of them. Can’t risk sending you back into The Tangle. It likes you too much.”

“What do you mean sell the rest of them?” I ask, panic in my voice.

“We’re certainly not going to keep them,” Dr. Thomas spits back. “They’re more useless than ever now. A teacher who talks about a bunch of things we want to stay forgotten. A nurse who won’t shut up about being saved by wolves. The younger ones think you’re some kind of hero. They worship you more than people worship Leon Hadaway.”

“Not for long.” Clyde picks up the scalpel. “Can I make the first cut, Dr. Thomas? I want it to be a nice, deep one that she can feel.”

“You’re a nurse, not a doctor,” Dr. Thomas snaps, taking the scalpel from Clyde.

“Shit!” Clyde says, pointing toward the glass. “One of your kids is about to break out of their cage.”

Dr. Thomas puts the scalpel down and the two of them rush to the door. I sit up and see Gideon, pushing with everything he’s got, and actually bending the steel lock on his cage. Peace officers run into the room with black batons. Gideon shifts, but he’s still trapped in the cage. A peace officer steps forward and jabs Gideon with the baton. Electricity crackles like lightning, but I never hear the thunder. I can’t hear the whimpers, but I can feel them—they make my heart hurt so much, tears run down my cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

Dr. Thomas starts shaking his finger and yelling, based on his body language. It looks like he’s scolding his sons. I collapse against the table and the tears come gushing out.

I haven’t done anything. My entire life is meaningless. I was ready to graduate as a nurse, but all I would have been was a supplemented citizen who did enough good not to get sold. I found something special in The Tangle, and not the part that found me, then dropped a key in my hand. Nara, Fiona, Tansy, and even Brenna, who may be the only one of us who survives.

But there was more. Frank, the Gen-Lion. Now searching for a Pride that needs a king. Because The Aether spoke through me. Through a vine, coiled around my wrist. Strong enough to rip a treant apart.

“This can’t be the end,” I whimper, shaking my head.

I can accept dying on this table. I can accept failing The Aether, and not saving the world. But I can’t accept this. My mates in cages. Subdued, shocked until their bodies go limp if they don’t do as they’re told. I had no idea their father was the one conducting the genetic experiments. That he experimented on himself, too. I understand why they don’t talk about him.

So much evil behind that seemingly kind man who carefully laid out my supplement cycle, sent me to the Academic Medical Center to get my first shot, and adjusted it as necessary. Clearly, he’s figured out how to crank up the dosage, considering those peace officers surrounding him.

There has to be something I can do. If the power is inside me, I can still use it, right? It’s not something Dr. Thomas will find if he slices me open with that scalpel. The Aether can’t see the future, which means as hopeless as it seems, there could be a way.

“I command you to free me from these restraints,” I say weakly, tugging at them. “Okay, that didn’t work.”

There are no vines around here. Nothing to summon from the dirt, or if there is, I can’t see it. I turn to the scalpel and focus on it, trying to will it to move. Then I try commanding it, but once again, nothing happens.

“I have the fabric of creation inside me,” I mutter. “How the hell do I use it?”

I blink several times. I order it. Harshly, weakly, and I even try begging it, just to be sure, before I feel the fatigue from the sedative and my wound. I glance at the other room. Dr. Thomas is moving toward the door, still yelling at Jace. The peace officers aren’t looking my way, but Vance has noticed.

Our eyes meet, and the only thing we exchange is hopelessness.

“Something ancient,” I mutter. “That’s the connection we share.”

An idea hits me. What if my power is like their wolves? I close my eyes, relax, and simply call for what is inside me. The way my mates described calling for their wolf. A part of them that they don’t beg for help, because they are one and the same.

I spiral into my mind. Every visit to The Aether. Every word Silas has said. They explode like a vision in front of my face, and I sit up with a gasp.

There’s not just a piece of The Aether inside me.

I am The Aether.

A green glow erupts across my skin, then it becomes a golden shimmer that pulses in rhythm with my heart. I shrug off the restraints like they’re not even there. This power is different. It’s me . But I can tell it won’t last long. I’m not strong enough to wield it.

Unfortunately, Dr. Thomas has noticed the commotion and he’s sending the peace officers after me.

I’m not a channel. This isn’t a bridge through a vine. I’m not meant to beg for help like a child. This power is mine.

But I have to do something with the energy crackling across my skin. Fast. I sling my hand to the right and the translucent wall explodes. Tendrils, not of vine, but of light, spiral out of my fingers and I rip the doors off the cages holding my mates.

“Holy shit!” Jace yells, calling his wolf and attacking a peace officer.

“Never doubted you for a second,” Vance jokes as he scrambles out of his cage and calls his wolf. Mossy brown fur flashes as he tears into a peace officer.

Knox doesn’t say anything. He just growls and platinum streaks across the room. Caleb follows, but the look in his eyes reflects everything I’m supposed to be. Hope.

The door bursts open beside me. I send tendrils of light at the peace officers. I slice through several, open a hole, and push them down the hallway.

My mates start attacking the peace officers. Except Gideon. He’s in his cage now, back in human form, and motionless. And my power is fading. It’s flickering around me. I see black in the edge of my vision. I don’t have the power to sustain this.

It’s chaos. Dr. Thomas and his men are caught off guard, but there’s too many of them. I send a blast toward the door and take out several more peace officers, but it makes me gasp and the shimmer starts to fade.

“No!” I scream, and it flickers back, but it’s weaker. It’s fading.

Too many peace officers. They’re storming down the hallway while Clyde and Dr. Thomas try to push through them to escape. We need a way out, and we need to stop the ones that are coming for us. They’ll overwhelm my mates, just like they did outside.

I send more tendrils of vines down the hallway. But I’m not aiming for the peace officers. Not Clyde. Not Dr. Thomas. I sink the tendrils into the ceiling and yank, collapsing it. Now everyone is trapped, but there are more peace officers coming for us. All pale and lifeless like they’ve never known any emotion.

My power flickers again. I don’t have much left. I send tendrils toward the wall behind the cages, ripping and tearing at it. When it opens, I tear into the next one, finally seeing daylight. We have a way out, but we have to fight our way there. Unfortunately, the hole I opened allows more peace officers to join the fray.

My mates need help. They’re fighting bravely, dodging batons, avoiding projectiles that are being fired from rifles. I try to assist with another flurry of tendrils, but they flicker out. I’m getting weaker. Too weak. I’m about to collapse.

In a final moment of desperation, I reach forward. Not toward the peace officers, Clyde, or Dr. Thomas. I reach further than that, past the barrier between The Aether and our world, wrapping my fingers around a mass of midnight-black hair. The darkness tries to consume me. My power flickers until it’s barely a pulse.

I’m weak and can’t wield this power forever, but I’ve got enough. Enough to do what I need to do.

Enough to pull Silas across the divide that separates our world from what is radiating inside me.

Because they’re not separated anymore.

I give into the darkness as soon as I see him shift.