The Rogues

Chapter 41- Her Power

"Then how?"

Verena smiles, a subtle laugh escaping her lips, "No need to fret so much Evelyn. A little birdy of mine told me."

Someone told her? I pull back my breath, trying to hide the shock rolling through my bones. If someone told her...that meant one of the Rogues was a spy. A spy for Detra.

How long had someone been giving information about us to Detra? What exactly did Verena know? And most importantly...who is this little birdy of hers?

My first thought was Beckett. He came from Detra, and would be a perfect candidate. A vulnerable young kid. But then again, he was simply a kid. I didn't think Detra would put their trust into a fragile boy. If not Beckett...it could be any of the new Immunes we rescued. But they were all damaged, wounded even. They held a hate for Detra that could not be controlled. It would have been any of them. But God knows.

Then it hit me...Gemma.

Gemma, my best friend since i could remember, had to be the spy. Gemma had always pledged her loyalty to Detra and showed her hearty appreciation for the system. I couldn't understand how she fell so out of love for Detra, how she grew to hate it. She was a Deja for sure, but was she really on our side? Had Detra known Dominic and Celeste were going to break into the prison and free the immunes?

I've learned Detras knows more than it should. It didn't seem entirely impossible.

Grado holds his leather hand up, halting the troops behind him, and meets next to Verena and me.

"Have you done it?" He asked, wearily.

"I've done it. It was much easier than I expected. I thought the power kinesic would put up a better fight?"

God, how I wanted to snatch the air from her lungs and make her choke.

"Isn't that right Evelyn?' She said holding her finger to my chin and lifting my face to meet hers. I snap my attention back to her, "Tell me. Who do you serve?"

The words tasted like poison on my tongue, "I only serve Detra. And you of course."

Verena smiles, satisfied. Grado lifts his helmeted head, "I'm impressed, Verena. I wasn't sure if you'd be able to do it. Usually, hexers don't work on her kind."

"You doubt my strength, sir."

"I won't doubt it again." He nodded and walked back in front of the troops. Hexers still didn't work on my kind. Not fully at least. It worked for a moment, but I was able to unearth my way out of the consumption of her power.

Verena glanced at me, pleased at her creation. Pleased at the validation from Grado she received as if it were a once-in-a-lifetime gift. She shouldn't find so much pleasure in gratifying him. But maybe she just wanted praise in place of someone else...someone who couldn't see the good in her.

The troops marched forward into the woods, and Verena touched her hand to my back. A chill ran down my spine as her fingers grazed soft circles on the surface of my skin. She leaned in, her lips meeting my ear, and whispered in her smooth alluring voice, "Your little friends are nothing against our power."

She laughs deeply and pulls away, pushing to my back and leading me forwards. My feet crack on the surface of the woods grounds, and before I can blink my vision is met with the giant rims of a gate towering over my head. The gate Kyler had just put up to keep troopers away. It normally would be guarded, but where were the guards?

Something wasn't right.

The troops ahead of us stopped, and Verena saught through them all, the troopers practically dividing apart to cave a path for her and me to walk within. We proceeded to through the armored bodies, stepping right beside Grado. He looked at me, and even though I couldn't see his eyes through his mask, I could feel the haunt in his stare. I wondered what his face looked like. Did he look like Dominic? Was the scar on his face really that horrifying as people say? A giant gash, distorting his eye and mouth, drooping his features, making his skin coarse and hard, and all the more terrifying. I wondered how he got the scar. People say it was in battle, but a scar so deep he feels ashamed to show his face, had to have a more interesting origin. Maybe Grado wasn't as strong as I deemed him to be.