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Chapter fifty-four

Forest

T he ground is freezing.

My body is dirtied, covered in dust from the hard concrete floor.

The air is stale. The smell of moisture and metal hits my nose in affronting waves.

Feeling my head pressed to the floor, I groan in pain, listening to the drag of the chains around my wrists as they scrape across the concrete. There’s an uncomfortable pressure around my throat. I reach up to find cool, unyielding metal encircling my neck. My eyes remain shut, my head and throat in a world of pain. My lungs struggle to take in a full breath of air.

Water drips intermittently onto the metal bars at the front of what I assume is a holding cell. I try to move, but the drugs they used to knock us out have left me disoriented. My limbs are heavy, and my mind races to put all the pieces back together.

“I suggest you take it easy,” his familiar voice says. I force my heavy lids open and move my eyes in his direction, coaxing my eyes open from their heavy-lidded state.

I choke back my words, looking at his relaxed posture in the chair before me. The space around us is dark, lit with only a few candles that seem to illuminate the concrete walls and floor with unsettling shadows. I wear my Academy uniform. My shirt is cut to expose my mark. Yanking my wrists against the chains, I try to move toward him, feeling the strain in my shoulders. My legs are too weak to get me up past a seated position.

The man in front of me is someone I don’t recognize. Where I’m used to seeing him clad in standard Official gear, he is wearing a new mask now. A black dress shirt fits over his sturdy frame. The black ink mostly hidden in the past now is on full display, the clear image of an unknown beast encasing his chest. His hair, always wild and free, is slicked back and tamed, cut perfectly to frame his face. Watching me, the light is gone from his eyes. His legs spread wide as he leans his elbows onto his knees.

“X-Xavier?” I question, hoping the obvious pain in my voice works in my favor. “What are you doing here?” I push, looking down at my wrists. “Why am I locked up?”

“You lied to me, Forest,” he mutters, tapping his fingers against my head. “Every sick and twisted little thought you had of him, I heard.” My hands begin shaking with fear. “It was disgusting, utterly nauseating,” he continues, grasping the side of my face, his fingers twining through my hair. “You were never his to have,” Xavier says, his eyes lowered.

I glance at his chest, seizing up once I realize what lies beneath his shirt.

“You’re Marked?”

“Is that what they call it now?” Xavier questions with a laugh, his eyes wide with delight. “So many years have passed, the labels start to blur together.”

“Who are you?” I question, spitting my words at him, thrashing against the binds.

He grabs my neck, forcing me to stop thrashing.

“Be good for me, and stay still,” he snaps, but being gentle with his touch. I wince at the pressure on my neck, my muscles aching from being handled so roughly earlier.

“Which one of my men caused these bruises?” he questions, ignoring my question.

“Your men?”

He grabs my head, and I suddenly feel a foreign presence devour my mind. The same foreign presence I’ve felt before, knocking on the back door of my mind, waiting to be let in. It’s him.

He forces himself into my memories; my strength is nothing compared to the overwhelming influence suffocating my ability to force him out. I try to find the other part of myself, but she’s nowhere.

“Ah, the two new recruits,” Xavier says after a few moments, keeping his hand under my chin. “I will find joy in snapping their wrists for disobeying me.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I ask again. He shakes his head, as if he is disappointed by reaction.

“I’m the same man you took to the Unfortunate sector with you last night. Can’t you see that? I know some part of you feels safe with me-”

“Found. Found safety, you fucking government mutt.” I seethe, his eyes narrowing at my words.

“Mutt?” He scoffs. “I’m the fucking ringleader love,” he says, his mouth curling into a satisfied smirk.

“You're-”

“This putrid sector’s Commander? Yes,” he says, my stomach sinking at his words.

He glances around the room and rises to his feet.

"Do you know what happens when you clip a bird's wings, Dove ?" he questions coldly, keeping his finger under my chin, forcing me to look at him.

"They can't fly," I mutter, feeling his body circle around me as he watches me.

"How many wings must I clip before you realize you can trust no one but me?"

I feel his hand run along my back, committing to memory all the bruises and lacerations left there by his men. My body shakes, unable to hide how afraid I am.

"How many people, Unfortunate or otherwise, must I kill before you finally come to your senses?"

Unfortunates and Untouchables alike. They were nothing more than pawns in his sick game.

“No-”

“How do you think I always knew where you were?” he questions, shaking his head in disbelief. “You think anyone else would have gotten away with the crimes you committed over the last few months? For fucks sake, Forest, do you have any idea of the rules I bent for you?” he hisses, his voice growing louder.

I feel my emotions surge. My inability to feel Fallan grows infuriating. Xavier grabs me, pulling me by the front of my shirt.

“You’re with me right now. I don’t want to hear another fucking thought about him,” Xavier hisses, his lips inches away from my ear. “You have no idea how easy it was to sway those Shifters to go after that blue-eyed piece of shit. I've waited so long for a moment like this.”

His hand reaches up my shirt, my disgust reaching a new level. Once warm and comforting, his fingers are now like cold, jagged blades. He brushes his hand over my mark and yanks me closer, forcing me up and onto his lap. My arms are pulled back behind me, straining to move. His hands hold my thighs down against him. I wince in pain.

“Where are my friends?” I question, his hands squeezing tighter.

It's terrifyingly silent in my mind.

“There's no use in trying to communicate with him,” Xavier says, his fingers brushing over my thighs. “I’m years older than I may look and have had much time to channel my abilities. The noise you two heard at the Academy was just one of the many skills I could use to get what I wanted. You’re in my labyrinth now, and I can promise not everyone makes it out alive.”

“Why? Why do all of this?” I question, trying my best to reach out to anyone through my infiltrated mind.

“Our kind has never been accepted, especially in this region of the world,” Xavier says, pulling down his shirt, showcasing the extent of his mark. “Beyond the ash, there are others like us, cruel and vile in their ways, persecuting our kind, just as they have here,” he continues, his eyes glued to me. “Every Marked has an ability. Some are stronger than the rest. In rare circumstances, some are gifted with more than one ability. Have the wrong people catch wind of that, and you’re a target for life.” He shifts beneath my weight as I struggle to sit steady, my legs a shaky mess.

“Is that not what you’ve done to me? Hunted me?”

He chuckles, letting out a long sigh before answering. “I kept you safe. Something you will someday realize. I meant it when I said I'd never hurt you. The only reason you are bound is because I am not foolish enough to underestimate the power you have. Even now, forcing back your abilities drains me tremendously,” he says, running his hands along his throat.

“Where are they? Where are my friends?” I push again, his frown growing at the question.

“Are you incapable of dropping that despicable creature you slept with? Maybe killing him would-”

Forcing my hand forward, I hear the chain rattle, the rusted metal snapping free. My hand goes flying toward his throat. He quickly grabs my wrist to stop me, a look of surprise hidden in the furrow of his brow.

“I will tear your throat out and spill your blood on this fucking concrete,” I hiss, his frown growing into a twisted smile.

“There she is!” he starts, almost relieved. “That part of yourself you so desperately try to cage,” he continues, the other’s presence creeping into the open space of my mind. “Let me see that part of you,” he coos like he’s calling to something lost. “Let me embrace just how powerful you truly are.” He gravitates his lips closer to mine.

Backing away, I spit in his face. I watch him flinch, his displeasure evident in the way he looks at me.

“Where are they!?” I reiterate, his grasp on my wrist growing.

“I considered sparing your brother and the girl from the Lottery,” he says, tilting me off his lap. Stumbling forward, I find my footing to hold my ground. He stands up, kicking away his chair. “But after that little stunt," he continues, pointing to me with a shaking hand. “Consider them as good as dead.”

“Why me? Why target me? You don’t even know me!” I yell, my shoulders nearly pulling free from their sockets.

“I don’t know you?” he yells, taking several steps toward me. “You say that as if you know-”

He stops speaking. Leaning forward, he grabs his neck. Taking a step back, I move away from him, his face flustered. His hand hits the wall with an undeniable force. The concrete crumbles beneath his touch, the wall falling away, hitting the ground in pieces. Slowly pulling himself into a standing position, he closes his eyes, running his hand through his hair.

“You know nothing of what is real and what it is that you’ve chosen to see as truth,” he whispers, dropping his hands to his sides.

“Bad day?” Its voice questions silently, a small sigh of relief leaving me. Its presence is faint, safeguarded in one of the few safe spots in my infiltrated mind.

“I've never wanted to hear your voice more in my life,” I whisper back through the connection, watching Xavier readjust his uniform with a scowl.

“I can keep you out of the Lottery under one condition,” he says, crossing his arms in thought. “You accompany me as a guest in front of the High Council and sit at my side to watch the games. You would not battle. Your life is guaranteed to be safeguarded under my personal protection. I can even try to get Kaiden a seat with us above the pit,” he says, making the deal sound like a generous offer.

“You'd do that?” I question sincerely, watching his mood shift as he steps closer.

Touching my face, he runs his thumbs over my cheeks.

“Your life is one I will safeguard. Tell me you’re with me, and this world will never destroy us,” he whispers, his body close, brushing up against mine.

Forcing the broken chain toward him. I hit him along the chest. He winces, his hand clutching the small area I’d managed to cut. I smile at his pain, narrowing my eyes at his agitated figure.

“Fuck you and your pathetic savior complex.” I spit, forcing up the walls in my mind the moment his attention slips.

He feels the blood pooling on his chest at his fingertips, glancing up at me with malice.

“I suppose to see things my way; you’ll need a little push,” he says, waving his hand, the bindings falling free from my wrists.

He moves toward me silently. My hands are forced down to my sides with the invisible strength that our kind have access to. Grabbing my hair, he drags me closer to the cell door, scoffing as I try to break away from his grasp.

“You cannot keep me out of that beautiful mind forever,” he snarls, pulling me free from the murky cell and dragging me down the poorly lit hallway.

Pausing in front of one of the many cells filled with nameless, helpless prisoners, he unlocks the door and tosses me into another confinement area.

Bumping into another body, we both meet the floor, our hands scuffing the ground, my energy dwindling down to nothing.

“As long as I breathe, your strength is mine to take. Had you accepted my offer, the ability to explore your strength would have been limitless… pity I must take it by force,” Xavier mocks, my head pulling up to meet my brother's terrified expression.

“Live together. Fight together. If you do not cooperate, maybe losing what family you have left will give you some clarity... au revoir, Blackburn.”

Slamming the cell door shut, he walks away. My body struggles to move as I make my way to my brother. Pulling me into him, Kai takes a deep breath, his heart racing, his hands shaking.

“Are you okay-”

“They took Valerie and Fallan,” he spits, looking to the empty cell across the way. “They were in there, and they dragged them out. The Officials were talking about bringing in more Unfortunates we know,” he sniffles, sobbing into my shoulder. “They're going after our family, and then they're going after Hunter-” he cries, my arms wrapping around him.

Holding his head to my chest, I comfort him. Looking around the space, my eyes land on a small pool of water that formed in a sunken area of the ground, most likely from the same kind of leak happening in the cell I’d just come from.

There t is in all of Its glory. The reflection that watches me, Its eyes golden, Its hair streaked with light tones, like spun silk.

“Are you with me?” It questions, my heart racing.

“I'm not just with you,” I whisper, all my fears melting. “I need you.”

It laughs, smiling with satisfaction.

“It’s within us that we’ll find the strength to set ourselves free from the wickedness that scorches this earth,” It whispers. “Time to fly, little bird.”