Out of My Mind (COMPLETED)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Mia's POV

Adrian is leaning against the dome next to a side entrance when I arrive fifteen minutes after I texted him.

"I was beginning to think I would have to send out a search party," he says, smirking.

I bend at my waist, resting my hands on my knees in front of him. I'm breathless from walking up the steep hill. "Hey," I breathe out. "I didn't decide where we transported to."

He rolls his golden eyes, the same ones who used to be a part of my nightmares but now give me comfort. I can't believe I have a step-brother.  "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Want to tell me why you're really here?"

To put my father in his place, I want to say, but instead, my mouth keeps my cover and says, "To see my father, of course." A sinister smile, one that I'm sure looks exactly like my father's, etches itself into my face.

Adrian's head tilts to the side. "How come I feel like there's more to that?"

I lean in close and lower my voice. "'Because I am my father's daughter."

He laughs softly. "That you are," he remarks and then jerks his head towards the door. "Let's go."

"Lead the way," I say and then follow Adrian as he unlocks the door and walks through.

Unlike Headquarters, this place is so dim I can barely make out Adrian's body in front of me. What's the point of making it this dark?

"Do you guys have, like, set times for everything here?" I can't help whisper to Adrian.

He glances at me sideways and his yellow eyes are bright against the dark. "No, why would we?"

I shrug my shoulders, changing topic. "Where is he?"

My heart is racing in my chest. I'm not scared or anxious. I'm here to do one thing and I've given enough thought to everything I have planned after it's done. I won't leave until I'm done.

"His lab, last time I checked," Adrian mumbles and turns left down another hallway.

This place is nothing like Headquarters. It's so quiet in the hallways here that a pin could drop and people on the other side of the country could hear it, whereas back in New Shoreham, there's always conversation going on. Headquarters is a home. Here, it just feels like a workplace, which makes sense. There are no children running around, practicing their powers or playing within their age groups. There are only adults.

"His lab?" I question, confused. And then a lightbulb goes off in my head. "Oh god, please tell me he isn't using his 'technology' on anybody." I use air quotes when I say technology.

I relax when I see Adrian's head shake. "Dad hasn't used it since we got back from Asheville."

"Why?"

Adrian pauses as he makes a right down a hallway with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, looking into a room with a long metal table covered in equipment and then what looks like an electric chair. My eyes scan the rest of the room.

Pacing across the far end of the room is the man who started this all. The same man who ruined my trust as a little girl and never gained it back. The man who took away the father of the boy I love without caring. The man I plan on ending.

"He coerced my mom into staying here," Adrian whispers from behind me. I turn to look at him. "He wanted a wife that loved him, but didn't care when she didn't love him back."

A wife that loved him? What was my mom to him then?

"It was Alastair who had your mother's heart," he continues. My heart seizes. "Killing him was revenge not only on you, but on your mother as well."