Behind the Walls. NOVEL By Claire Darcy.

27. Who Are You?

AGENT LUX.

I marched back and forth on the small concrete bridge, clutching the cardboard box to my chest like my life depended on it. I was nervous. Scratch that; I was terrified.

This box held the last belongings of Amelia Cassidy Earnest. How Ace reacted when she saw it could prove if she was the one we'd been searching for. Any sign of recognition at the mentioning of Amelia's name, or at seeing a familiar item in the box; this would prove everything. I had no idea what was in the box. Nobody had opened it. Nobody dared to.

I breathed heavily and fiddled with my badge, pulling it off and wiping the metal face with a gloved hand.

Agent Lux.

That was me. An Agent of the Council. One who had to go by his middle name to protect his own identity. One who was ashamed of his family. If you could even call it that.

What most people would call a family, was nothing more than a group of business colleagues, in my case. The power-hungry ache that flowed through the blood of my relatives was one that couldn't be dulled.

Any connections there had been between family members were severed. So much so that if I had seen some of them; be it cousins, aunties or uncles, I wouldn't even recognise them. But of course there were those that I could recognise.

My mother; crazed and twisted, doing anything she could to gain more power, to be on top of things and have everything her way. Had someone asked if she was really as bad as I said she was, I'd have to give them the most brutal example of her unrestrained search for supremacy: My father.

She had killed him.

In an act of cold-hearted malice, and in turning a blind eye to any love they had ever held for each other, my own mother killed her husband.

She never had to listen to him again; never had to show him any obedience. He had been an obstacle in the way of her having control, so she got rid of him. No son should ever have to go through that.

Then there was my brother.

A liar and a traitor ever since he could spell out either of those words. Time and time again he betrayed the trust of his family, of his friends and of the Enigma Council. Had he not been a key part of the Council's plan, they would have disposed of him long ago.
I only wish they had.

There was no connection between that traitorous rat and I- no familial bond that stopped the hatred for him from coursing through my veins. He was nothing to me.

He had no discernment; no perception of right and wrong. Everything he did, he did without thought. No reasoning could stir his stubborn opinions. And no emotions could stir his cold heart. I hated that scum for reasons I couldn't utter to another human soul.

He wasn't my brother.

Rowan Zackary Slade could never be my brother.

...

Ace snuck quickly around the Arena, her hands steady against her weapon. Her eyes flashed across the scenery, soaking in every detail, and keeping an alert lookout on her surroundings.

She froze at the sound of footsteps, crouching down with her back against a wall and pointing her gun out before her. Her heart pounded like a drum.

The wind whistled through the trees for a moment, then settled. Ace's eyes wondered cautiously over everything in sight; the buildings, the floor, the few trees, the concrete ledge that jutted from the ground, the water features and strange machines that sat silently.