Chapter 21
It only seemed like minutes later when Xander was landing the helicopter. He and Kade got out and then opened the back from the outside. When I stepped out, we were back in the town that we’d been in earlier. The sun was rising over the tree tops, spreading light over the people running out from all of the buildings. And coming out of the big white house that we’d stayed in, was Lysander.
Everyone crowded around our little group, gasping when the saw that there was two of me now. But I wasn’t paying attention to any of them. All I was looking at was Lysander coming toward us. I started to run toward him and the crowd of people parted in front of me. And when I got to him, I threw my arms around him and started crying all over again.
“Miss Rayney, there’s no need to be crying now,” he said, laughing slightly.
“I know,” I said.
He pulled back and looked at me. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you four inside so we can talk about everything.”
I looked behind me and Rowan, Kade and Xander were there. Lysander took my hand and we all walked toward the house. Once inside, I sat down at the table and set my head on it. I felt when Kade sat down beside me, scooting his chair over so that he could wrap his arms around me. I leaned over and put my head on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead.
“How did everyone know we were coming back here?” I asked.
“We were planning on coming back here for a night before we set off for home,” Kade said. “But after they captured you, we came back here to plan how to get you back out.”
“Oh,” I said, and sat up.
Lysander was looking at Rowan, and so were Xander and Kade.
“You don’t have to stare at her like she’s some strange animal,” I said. “She’s my sister.”
“I know,” Lysander said. “I just haven’t seen her since she was a baby.”
I looked at Rowan. “He lived a little ways away from us,” I explained. “He and our grandma have been friends since they were teenagers.”
“Hi,” Rowan said timidly.
“I’m sorry, but this is just too weird,” Xander said, still looking at Rowan. “I knew she would look like you, but just not exactly like you.”
“She’d my identical twin sister,” I said. “She supposed to look exactly like me.”
“At least you can still tell us apart,” Rowan said. “She’s got the scar.”
“And she’s probably meaner,” Kade said, laughing, and I punched him arm. “See!”
I smiled. “I probably am,” I said.
“So, about Loryn…” Lysander said. “I didn’t know who she really was.”
“I didn’t either,” I said. “I should have never trusted her.”
“We all shouldn’t have trusted her,” Kade said.
“I didn’t tell you who she is, though, have I?” I asked, and they shook their heads. “Her dad’s one of the main guys in control of the Directrix.”
“He always was there when they’d come to sedate me,” Rowan said.
“Why did they do that?” Lysander asked.
“So we wouldn’t be able to contact each other,” I said. “Through our dreams.”
“So you two can do the same as your great-grandmother and her sister,” he said, nodding. “I knew they had a reason for kidnapping you.”
“You know about that?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “I’ve known for a long time.” He stood up and walked toward the stove. “Now, you two must be hungry. I know they probably haven’t been feeding you well in that horrible place.” He got out two bowls and poured some of the soup that he’d made into them. He took them both in his hands and set them in front of me and Rowan.
I hadn’t eaten since before we’d actually gotten into the city, but I really hadn’t paid any attention to my hunger. But once I smelled the soup, my stomach growled and I picked up the spoon to eat a spoonful. Rowan did the same.
There was a knock at the door and the blond woman, Auden, and her daughter Lilah came in.
“Sorry to bother you,” Auden said, looking toward me. “We heard that they’d gotten you out and had come back here, so Lilah wanted to come see you. She never really takes a liking to people. But she really likes you.”
“It’s okay,” I said. I looked at Lilah, who was walking toward me.
“Did the bad people get you?” she asked.
I smiled, remembering how much she reminded me of Lyric. “Yeah, but I got out,” I said. I looked at Rowan and then back to her. “You see, I had to go get my sister.”
We both looked at Rowan then, but she wasn’t looking back at us. She was staring at Auden with wide eyes. And for the first time, I watched as tears started to run down her face.
“Rowan, what’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Wait…” Auden started, and slowly looked at Rowan. Her eyes widened. “Rowan…”
Rowan stood up and started walking toward Auden. She stood still in front of her, tears still running down her face.
“Mom?” she whispered.
“Hold on,” Xander asked. “Mom? What is she talking about?”
“Rowan? Is that really you?” Auden asked, her hands going to Rowan’s face.
“Yeah,” she said, laughing.
They were both crying then, hugging each other. I looked at Lilah, who had a confused look on her little face.
“Who is that?” she asked, looking back at me.
“I think that’s your sister, too,” I said.
She walked over to her mother and pulled on the end of her shirt. “Mommy,” she said.
Rowan and Auden pulled away from each other and they both looked down at her.
“Sweetie,” Auden said, leaning down to pick her up. “Do you remember how I told you used to have a sister?”
“Yes,” Lilah said, looking at Rowan. “I thought you said she’s with Daddy?”
Auden kissed her cheek. “I thought so, too, but this is her,” she said.
“But she’s Rayney’s sister,” Lilah said.
“Yes, she is,” Auden said, looking over at me.
“I didn’t know,” I said. “I remember you said that I looked like your daughter was probably supposed to look, but I didn’t know you were talking about Rowan. Plus, you said she was dead.”
“I thought they’d killed her,” she said. She looked back at Rowan. “But here she is.”
“I’ve got a question,” Rowan said, wiping her eyes and looking at Auden.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Did you know Dad worked for the Directrix?” she asked.
“No, he didn’t,” Auden said. “He worked for…”
“He worked for them,” I said, standing up and walking toward them. “He was the one who kidnapped Rowan from our house we were only babies.”
“He said that he adopted her,” she said, fresh tears forming in her eyes.
“Mom, it’s true,” Rowan said. “He didn’t adopt me. He worked for the Directrix and they killed him after they kidnapped me seven years ago.”
“I didn’t know,” she cried. “He said…”
Rowan wrapped her arms around her and Lilah. “Mom, I know you didn’t. Even though he did kidnap me, I’m glad I didn’t go into a crazy family. I love you. Him, too. And I couldn’t be any more grateful for you two. You were the ones who raised me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry that it happened. If I would have known…”
“You wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” I said. “She was his assignment. If you would have done anything to compromise it, they would have killed you, too.”
“I know,” Auden said.
Rowan turned toward me. “I’m going to go outside and talk with her,” she said.
“Okay,” I said. And once they were out the door, I turned back toward the others. “I’m going upstairs. I don’t feel good right now.”
“Are you okay?” Kade asked, looking at me with a worried look on his face.
“Yeah, I’m just kind of tired,” I said. “I won’t be up there too long.”
I walked up the stairs and toward the room I’d been in a few days ago. When I walked inside, I took off my vest – putting my necklace in one of the pockets so it wouldn’t get lost – and the guns, my jacket and my boots, and then crawled into the bed. But when my head hit the pillow, I didn’t go to sleep. My mind was reeling with thoughts of everything that had happened in the past hour.
Knowing that Auden was Rowan’s adoptive – if you even wanted to call it that – mom was more than I could handle. She still had her mom, but I didn’t have mine. And seeing the two of them together like mother and daughter made me miss mine that much more. I wondered what she would be thinking right now, her and Dad both, about having Rowan back.
I heard my door open, but I didn’t want to open my eyes to see who it was. But when I felt someone lie down on the bed beside me and put their arm around my waist tightly, I knew it was Kade. I turned over and buried my face in his chest.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, still just a little shaken up,” I whispered. “Everything’s happened so fast.”
“I know,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“I’m more than okay now,” I said. “You make me feel safe.”
“Well, you make me feel safe,” he said, laughing.
“What happened after I got caught?” I asked, looking up at him. “Did you and Xander come back here?”
“Yeah,” he said. “We didn’t know what else to do. We came back to try and plan how to get you out.”
“How did Xander get a hold of that spray that Loryn had used before?” I asked.
“It was in the helicopter,” he said. “There’s actually a ton of stuff in that thing. It’s faster than our other one, too. Xander’s already set up the shield on it so the Directrix can’t track it.”
“So they don’t know where we are now?” I asked.
“No, we’re perfectly safe,” he said.
I was quiet for a moment. “What do you think of Rowan?” I asked.
“She seems protective of you already,” he said, laughing. “She was going to come back with me to find you, but I made her stay behind. All we needed was for the Directrix to capture her again.”
“It feels like I’ve known her for all of my life,” I said. “Everything between us seems like it was supposed to be that way.”
“I know what you mean,” he said. “Even seven years ago before all of this happened I knew there was something missing from your life. I did my best to try and fill that for you, but I don’t think it really worked.”
“That’s because you’ve got your own special place in my life,” I said, looking up to look right in his eyes. “Nothing’s going to change that.”
He leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips. Then he pulled back. “What did they do to you in there?” he asked.
“Other than strap me to the bed and make Loryn watch over me while I pissed her off?” I asked.
He smiled. “Yeah, other than that,” he said.
I thought about telling him how his father was alive and the head of the Directrix, but I thought that would be too much information to get in one sentence. I didn’t think I was going to be able to tell him about everything. Not now.
“I met the head of the Directrix,” I said.
“Really?” he asked, his eyes widening. “Who is he?”
“I don’t remember his name,” I lied. “I wasn’t really coherent then. It was a little hard after Loryn tranquilized me.”
“I saw that,” he said. “I was just…”
“You were just coming out of the hangar when you saw me start running,” I said. “I know. Rowan saw what happened.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to get used to that either, you two knowing about stuff before it even happens,” he said, smiling.
“I don’t think I will either,” I said.
He laughed. “Yes, you will,” he said, kissing my forehead.
We lay there for a few minutes. I could feel his heart beat against my cheek.
“So when do you think we’re leaving?” I asked.
“Probably tonight,” he said. “That gives us enough time to rest up.”
I was quiet for a moment. “What about Auden and Lilah? I mean, now that Auden knows that Rowan’s not actually dead, she’s going to want to be with her,” I said. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. I mean, there’s enough room for them at our place,” he said.
“And I’m sure Lyric would like someone her age to play with,” I said.
“I think we should let them come with us,” he said.
“Are you sure?” I asked, looked at him.
He smiled. “Then us guys will be really outnumbered,” he said.
“You’ll get used to it,” I said, leaning up to kiss him.
“Come on,” he said, pulling back a second later. “Let’s go downstairs and tell them.”
“Did they come back with Rowan?” I asked as I sat up and through my legs over the side of the bed so I could put my boots back on.
“Yeah,” he said. “They came back a few minutes after you came up here.”
When we made our way down the stairs, Rowan, Auden and Lilah weren’t at the table with Xander and Lysander.
“Where did they go?” Kade asked.
“They went back over to where Auden and Lilah were staying,” Lysander said.
“I’ll go over and talk with them,” I said.
“Do you want me to come?” Kade asked.
“No,” I said. “I’ll be okay.”
“Auden’s house is three down on the right,” Lysander said.
“Yeah, I remember,” I said, and headed out the door.
When I made it outside, the first thing I could smell was smoke coming from the fires in the chimneys of the little houses. There weren’t a lot of people out, but the few who were stopped to stare at me as I walked by.
When I got to Auden and Lilah’s house, the door was already open, so I just knocked and stepped in. Lilah was sitting at a table next to the fire, playing with a little doll. She looked up and smiled at me.
“So you’re kind of my sister, right?” she asked.
I smiled at her. “I guess so,” I said. “Where’s your mom and Rowan?”
She pointed toward a doorway behind her. “They’re in there,” she said.
“Okay,” I said, and started walking toward it. I heard the chair scoot across the floor then and turned to see Lilah getting out of the chair and walking toward the door with the doll in her arms. “Where are you going?”
“I want to go see Mr. Lysander,” she said, and continued out the door.
I walked toward the door again. Rowan and Auden were in the room. Auden was putting a few things in a bag and was talking with Rowan at the same time. They both paused to look at me when I came in.
“Sorry if I’m interrupting anything,” I said.
“No, you’re not,” Auden said, smiling. “Just the opposite. We were talking about you actually.”
“Me?” I asked.
“Well, what you and Rowan can do,” she said.
“Oh,” I said. “That.”
“Yes, that,” she said, and laughed. “I think it’s quite extraordinary.”
“Listen,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Auden paused and looked at me. “What is it?” she asked.
“We were thinking that maybe you and Lilah would want to come with us,” I said. “There’s enough room for us all. There are four more people there now, but I’m sure they’d love it if you were there, also.”
“Really?” she asked. “Are you sure none of you would mind?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, you thought Rowan was gone for all these years. Why would we want to separate you from her now?”
She came over toward me and took me in her arms. “You don’t know how much this means to me,” she said.
“So you’ll come?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said, laughing.
“Good, because I’m sure my little sister Lyric would love to have someone her own age to play with,” I said.
“Lilah’s the same,” she said, letting me go. “She doesn’t like being the youngest here.”
“Okay, then,” I said. “We’re probably going to leave later tonight, so get whatever you need together.”
But right as I said it, someone started screaming from outside. The three of us stood absolutely still, not making a sound, and then more screaming started. When we ran outside, three Directrix helicopters were hovering above the town, five Guards climbing down from each. People were running in all different directions as the Guards started opening fire on them. Some people were shot to the ground and others kept running.
“Where’s Lilah?” Auden screamed.
“She’d gone out when I came in!” I yelled. “You two just run toward the helicopter and get in. I’m sure Xander or Kade are already there. I’ll find her.”
Before they could stop me, I started to run back toward the white house. Lilah had said that she was going to see Lysander, so maybe she was still there with him. But when I ran into the house, no one was there. I ran back out and yelled.
“Lilah!”
I could barely hear myself over the screaming people. Everywhere I looked Guards were breaking into houses and shooting at the people. That was until one of them spotted me in the doorway of the house.
“There she is!” he yelled, and all the Guards turned to look at me. And then, all at once, they were running toward me, forgetting about the other people running from them.
I ran back into the house and out the door in the back. There was nothing behind the house but trees. I didn’t go into them, though. That’s exactly what the Guards thought I was probably going to do. So instead I went around the right side of the house and back behind the others. And there was Lilah, standing behind her house.
“Lilah!” I yelled, and started to run toward her.
She looked up, and that’s when I noticed tears were in her eyes. “Rayney!” she screamed.
“Don’t worry,” I yelled as I ran toward her. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“No, behind you!” she screamed.
And that’s when I saw the blue flower in her hand.
I stopped dead, just staring at her, not looking at what was behind me. That’s when Auden suddenly appeared behind her and was scooping her up in her arms. She was about to start running toward where the helicopter was, but then caught sight of me.
“Rayney!” she shouted.
“Just go!” I yelled. “Please!”
I heard the shot before I could feel it. But when I did, it felt like someone was driving a molten hot metal rod straight through my right shoulder. I looked down to see blood covering my skin quickly. But then there was another shot, and the same feeling in my lower stomach. The same burning, searing pain…
“Rayney!” someone yelled from behind me. There were more shots fired, but I knew that they didn’t hit me. I was grateful for that.
I didn’t feel when my knees gave out from under me. I actually couldn’t feel them at all, along with the rest of my body. And then all I could see was the trees above me when I fell to the ground.
Everything seemed to be glowing, and it wasn’t just because of the sun coming through the trees. Then I could see swirls of gold, green and blue. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen it before. All I knew is that I was happy it was the last thing I saw before everything turned to black.