Cridex

Chapter Fifeteen

The sidewalks were crowded with commuting pedestrians and shopkeepers peddling their wares. The scene reminded me of the market- where I had first seen Camden, scrambling across the rooftops.

"Any of this look familiar to you, sweetheart?" Jonas asked sardonically, raising his arms to be crossed tightly across his chest.

I looked above me, with the towering, silver skyscrapers breaking up my view of the sky, and shook my head. "No. I was never allowed by my mother to be down by the auction houses."

Jonas snorted, "I wonder why," his gaze traveled informs of our group in sweeping motions, and addressed Camden in a softer tone, "None are in view, but that doesn't mean that someone couldn't be pocketing them."

"What?" I asked in confusion, furrowing my brows. No one answered, Imogen hardly even glancing over her shoulder to acknowledge that I had said something. "What? What are you looking for?"

Camden hushed me, raising his hands up as if soothing a startled horse. "Nothing you need to worry about, Ellery."

"Nothing that I need to worry about?" I questioned incredulously and pointedly looked about. "We are in a city, surrounded by people who wouldn't hesitate to kill you if I shouted the alarm." I raised an eyebrow, "So while it may be nothing that I need to worry about, I would be worrying about keeping me informed."

"And placated," Jonas mumbled bitterly, angered that I had threatened to reveal their secret.

"Ellery," Imogen sighed slowly, chest concaving with her exhale, "If this is going to work you need to trust us."

"Trust is a two way street," I shook my head and crossed my arms, ceasing my pace along the sidewalk and making several disgruntled pedestrians walk around us, staring at our little group.

Jonas had apparently caught on, and grabbed my arm roughly to keep walking. "Quit drawing attention to us. We'll tell you, alright? The things we are looking for?"

Ca,den shook his head but kept his gaze locked onto the crowd of people in front of us. "We were looking for those machines- the detectors, the ones you mother had developed."

"They make our left eye blue," Imogen pointed to her face, "like, a luminescent blue. A clear, dead giveaway."

I scoffed to hide my uncomfortableness, "They didn't seem to stop you from killing my mother- from abducting me."

"Are we seriously still on that?" Jonas growled out, "Elizabeth Kent was not even your mother. She was an enemy to the rebellion."

"Enough," Camden clenched his raised fist, signaling us to silence. "I'll have no more of this. We need each other to get out alive. And Ellery-" he turned to face me, "You may not stand with the rebellion, but if you wish to avoid enslavement you will cooperate with us within the city limits. Understood?"

I nodded reverently, taken away by his directness. I had never seen Camden even slightly irritated by my lack of belief in the rebellion- here, he had shown almost anger.

"Good," Imogen clasped her hands together, "We are all on the same team, and just in time too."

"We are here?" I asked looking about for the auction house, or perhaps a crowd of well dressed men and women- even associates of my mother- but instead found crumbling brick and mortar, and the drifting stench of mildew.

"Welcome to the stocks, Ellery." Jonas spoke, and I turned to see him open his arm wide to gesture towards an old building, in a halfway state of decay. "Where our kind is sent before the auction for branding and pricing."

"Branding?" I asked and look around at the almost empty streets, "Pricing?"

"The seal of the auction house is burned into your circuitry," Imogen shook and scowled at the ground, "It is excruciating. Then we are sent to be examined and have a number attached to our value as a tool. Those who are sold must face the brand twice in one day- at the hands of the auctioneer and at the hands of their new master."

I felt pity rise in my throats and swallowed quickly to keep it from causing my tone of indifference to waver. "And you know this how?" I scoffed, trying to diminish their stories into lies, "Your leader told you?"

Imogen sucked in a sharp breath, and Jonas' gaze grew even more steelier than usual. "How dare you?" Jonas growled, "How dare you put down the pain our kind must face everyday? The pain our kind has faced for decades?"

"Jonas, don't-" Imogen was moving to her sleeve, rising it up, but Jonas reeled on.

"You know nothing, you are nothing. And one day you will wake up and realize that while you've been pining for a heritage that has never been yours, your real family- your real kind- has been there all along."

I felt my cheeks redden at being scolded so thoroughly, but fury soon overtook the embarrassment.

"I never asked for this!" I shouted, stepping up to face him directly. Merely inches separated us But I felt the divide growing larger with each passing second.

"Neither did we!" Jonas grit out, "we did not ask for enslavement, we did not ask for enhancement or creation or whatever the humans use as an excuse to keep us in chains." He leaned further, his dark hair sweeping to cover parts of his even darker eyes from my view.

I leaned forward, too stubborn to back down.

"You can't deny what is inside you, Ellery," he grabbed my forearm and raised it to interrupt my gaze, tilting it so that the wiring was visible underneath his pale skin. Slowly but surely, I tore my gaze away from the circuitry and met his, sucking in a breath at what I saw.

"You were wired to be one of us," He had titled his head so that his thick, dark hair hung away from his eyes and no longer concealed the, from my view. But they were no longer a pair of dark brown burning coals- his left eye was glowing, a shade similar to a computer's start up screen- blue, a vibrant, glowing blue, that I guessed my gaze mirrored too. So caught in his gaze, I hadn't even noticed he had stopped speaking until he spoke again, "It's far past time that you start acting like it."