“Who died and made you king, Ryker?” Ember spat. The unhappiness at being interrupted showed on her face.
Ryker. The man had a name, and he wasn’t at all what I expected when my eyes finally peeked through my shield of hair. He was extremely good looking with a devilish grin that made me think he wasn’t above breaking the rules. Black hair as dark as obsidian fell to one side of his face; the other side was shaved. Gold eyes, like a lion’s, held Ember’s, taunting her to contest him. The guy looked like he was up for a challenge. “Come on, Em, you’ve made your point.”
“I spent months looking for her. And do you know where she was when I found her? With Dash Darhk,” Ember chastised him.
“Yeah, I get it. The Slayer rejected you and you’re pissed off about it, but do you really think she had anything to do with that? She’s your sister—the one you spent months looking for. You have a funny way of showing how much you care.”
She poked Ryker in the chest. “Tough love. You could probably use some, softy.”
Those tawny eyes licked Ember up from head to toe. “If you want to go a round with me, just say the word.” The implication in his voice was sensual. He wasn’t talking about fighting.
But he somehow managed to diffuse Ember’s vendetta against me. Her cheeks grew a slight shade of pink that softened the hard lines at the corners of her eyes. “Don’t hold your breath. I don’t date losers.” The sound of her boots clopped on the floor as she walked away.
I exhaled.
“You okay?” Ryker asked. The texture of his tone had softened.
“Why are you being nice to me?”—not usually the first question out of my mouth when I met someone, but all etiquette flew out the window in the Institute.
He winked. “Let’s just say I have a feeling about you, Red.”
“Well, so far you’re the only person I’ve met that doesn’t want to cause me bodily harm.”
“Not all of us are Neanderthals. Give it time. They’ll come around once they realize you can be trusted.”
Could I, though? Be trusted? I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t have any loyalty to the Institute, at least not yet, and from what I’d learned they did to Dash, I wasn’t positive I ever could.
I never thought I would be happy to see this room.
Stripping out of my stiff training clothes, a dark spot on the shirt caught my eye as I tossed it to the ground. Blood. My blood.
My hand went to my swollen lip, and as I ran my finger over the sensitive area, I felt the cut.
I hissed as pain reverberated through my face.
This sucked.
How could she treat her own sister that way? And enjoy it?
There were many things I still didn’t understand about this new world, but how much of the mist had my sister inhaled? I swear it had altered more than just her DNA. It had messed with her brain as well. Ember had some wires crossed. I didn’t know how else to explain the drastic change in my sister’s personality. Monroe had never been a violent or physical person.
I’d been through some crazy crap—not for as long as she had, but maybe that was the key: the longer you lived in this crude world, the more it corrupted you.
Shoving my messy hair out of my face, I padded into the bathroom. I was too tired to eat. The plate of food Star had brought remained untouched on the little wooden table. What I needed was a quick shower and bed… in that order. And I did exactly that.
Exhausted, I gave in, curling up in the center of the bed, and I let the dreams take me. A vision came upon me the second my head hit the pillow. It was like being slapped with icy wind in the face.
Dash sat alone in front of a fire, looking somber, the soft amber light glowing over his cheekbones. I wanted to brush the midnight curl off his forehead, tell him I was okay, that he didn’t need to worry. Seeing Dash’s face took my breath away.
I could see the uneasiness in his eyes, but he was alive and that was all that mattered.
It gave me hope.
The light of hope didn’t last long. A shift in the air hurled lightning from the sky like a flaming arrow from a bow. The wind kicked up, raging in dark anger, extinguishing the flame from his fire. A dense fog rolled over the ground, sweeping in.
Dash shot to his feet, listening, watching the night as goose bumps crawled like critters over my skin. Still asleep, my head thrashed on the pillow. That same force, cold and fierce, grabbed ahold of me until all that consumed me was fear.
The Institute. They were coming… for him.
I had to warn Dash, but how?
I screamed his name. He didn’t hear me, and I hadn’t expected him to, for this was a vision after all. I had no way of knowing when it would happen or if it already had.
And that was all it took to snap me out of the apparition and back into the pretty pink prison. This room was the last thing I wanted to see, but I had little choice. Running my hands over my face, I swiped at the beads of sweat dotting my forehead. My heart jumped in my chest, and I felt hopeless, knowing there was nothing I could do to warn Dash.
No email. No text message. No owl carrier.
The only thing I could do was believe in Dash’s instincts. They had kept him alive this long. He had to know they would come for him. Run, Dash. Get as far from the Institute as you can.
Sleep was no longer possible. Nothing I did quieted my mind or my distress, so I gave up trying. My thoughts stayed on Dash. Seeing his face so vividly in my head had brought forth a wave of loneliness. It seemed Dash and I both found ourselves in unfortunate situations.
Just don’t let them change you, he had said before we had parted. He had to have known that even as their daughter they would still train me, still use my abilities. For what purpose remained unanswered. We’d both been naive. Ember should have been our first clue. Look at her. I had barely recognized my sister, and if I ever saw Dash again, would he know me? Would I recognize myself in a month? A year?
The idea scared me. I didn’t want to change, not completely. I’d already become someone different, but I would get stronger. I would learn how to use my gifts—not for the purpose of the Institute, but for my own purpose to get the hell out of here, because it was starting to feel as if I didn’t belong here, that my family didn’t really care about me, only what I could offer them, and that was not the kind of relationship I was looking for.
I didn’t know what I was looking for anymore.
Chapter Five
After my first disastrous training session, they pitted me against other recruits to spar with so we could beat the crap out of each other. I wasn’t given the choice to opt out, and when I expressed to my father how I didn’t want to be an Institute solider, I got a lecture about how the world was nothing like it used to be, and how imperative learning to survive had become. What better way to use my gift than to ensure that this world was a safe place?
Each time he opened his mouth and went off on a tangent, all I heard was blah, blah, blah.