“They’ve not moved since we got here,” Anderson breathes. “It’s been hours. What do we do now?”Quill has a troubled look on his face. “They’re more organized this time around. It’s almost as if—”“—as if they’re expecting us,” I hiss. “They probably are.”From the moment we reached the campsite, we’ve been hiding out, waiting for the enemy to retire to bed, but the soldiers are taking shifts. Jesse is leaning against a tree, his body limp and bloodied. My heart is racing at the sight of him, fear for him making me nauseous. He hasn’t even stirred once!“We can’t delay this any longer,” I say tightly. “They’re clearly waiting for us. I told you we needed to come up with another plan.”“We can still grab him,” Quill argues, pointing towards where Jesse is half leaning against a tree. “If we stay out of sight, we can bring him to us. Nobody is paying attention to him.”A bad feeling is forming in my gut. “I don’t know. I don’t think that’s going to work.”But Quill and Beth exchan
“What is this?” My fingers touch the edge of my eyes as fear begins to finally seep in. As my emotions get the better of me, I feel the coldness inside of me begin to recede. I turn around, looking at the carnage before me. Aside from a few of Rachel’s people, everyone is dead. I killed them.But instead of guilt, I feel nothing. They had it coming. There’s a small part of me that whispers that I should be more concerned that I took so many lives. But I don’t feel remorse. Instead, when I turn to my friends, I feel satisfied. I approach Beth, and when she flinches, I take a step back. “I’m not going to hurt you.”She must have heard the hurt in my voice because she hesitates. “I didn’t say that.”I look around at the rest. Everyone is in pretty bad shape. I doubt they can even move or be moved at this point. Jesse is in the worst condition, so I step towards him. When he tries to move away, I grit my jaw, holding back the pain of his open rejection, and lean down and break his
I never thought that Lowenstein would say anything to them. Was that why they had been trying to keep me out of the plan to rescue Jesse?However, even if he had, they should have said something to me.“We have to focus on what to do now,” Beth says, and I look in the direction where everyone is sitting. “Taylor is our friend. I don’t want her to feel like this. We’re already hurting her. But I just—I keep remembering how she just killed everyone.”Quill comforts her, “It’ll take some time for us to come to terms with what she did. That doesn’t mean we hate her. She’ll understand.” I don’t want to hear anymore. Slumping back against a tree, I sink to the ground, tears spilling down my face.Understand?They can’t even look at me.All those words to placate me, to tell me that they will always be my side, were they ever true? If this had been Quill or Beth, I would have stuck by them. To know that they couldn’t do the same is a painful revelation.I lean my head back against
The journey back is harder.Jesse has clearly communicated my intentions of leaving to the group, and both Beth and Quill keep looking my way. Kathleen isn’t happy with my decision. Isabel and Anderson don’t care, and I don’t expect them to.Each time we stop, I make my campsite away from theirs. By now, it is a personal preference. Beth did try to stop me.“You don’t have to do this, Taylor,” she says to me as I pick up my bag. I ignore her, walking past her like she doesn’t exist. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I hear her crying later as I try to sleep. I harden my heart even when a part of me wants to go to her. It’s the same part of me that screwed me over the first time.It’s a couple of hours until dawn when I wake up with a jerk.Someone is here!I jump to my feet, ready to fight, when I hear a rough voice speak up, “It’s me.”Quill steps out of the shadows with a bunch of sticks in his hand. “It’s a cold night. Thought your fire might go out.”I don’t say an
“Why is it so wet here?” Beth complains as her shoes make a squelching sound in the ground. “It’s like living in a marsh,” Quill agrees in disgust, lifting up his leg and glancing down at his shoe. “I hate marshes.”“I don’t think they’re that bad,” Kathleen, another of the new graduates to the Level Two island, smiles. “That’s because you’re weird,” another voice pipes up.Susan is the youngest of us all and looks the most annoyed. “These shoes were new. How are we supposed to get around this place? Do they expect us to walk barefoot?”I look down at my own shoes and curl my toes in them, feeling the wetness inside. “Weren’t we supposed to get those special shoes?”“We were,” Quill says darkly. “But apparently, they got misplaced. How convenient.”I wish I had the functioning braincells to figure out who he’s decided is the culprit, but a broken heart and sleepless nights hasn’t been going well for me. “I didn’t think we’d clear the test for Level Two,” Kathleen murmurs. “I
“So, what do we do about the boots?” Kathleen asks, looking around.We’ve all just unpacked, and Quill is still settling in his new barrack, which is right next to ours.“The counselor in charge for this island is Levi,” I read the small information pamphlet we got which was left on our desks. “His office is a ten-minute walk.”I glance out the window at the dark, roiling clouds and shudder. “The wind is picking up. I’ll take the wet mud over rain any day.”Susan sits up. “Baby.”“You bet your sweet behind, I am.” I sprawl back on the bed. “I’m going to go complain to him.” Susan gets to her feet. “I want my boots.”“Put one in for me as well,” I call out lazily.“You snooze, you lose.”“I’ll get one for you, Taylor.” Beth smiles at me. “I know your shoe size. Come on.”I don’t stop them from leaving, wanting to take a nap. However, not five minutes pass before I hear a quiet rap on the door.Groaning, I get to my feet and make my way to the door, only to see Abigail standi
I stare at the list of books, all of them checked out by Rachel.My heart is beating like a drum inside my chest. What does this mean?Why would Rachel even be interested in who I was?Rachel’s interactions with me had been hostile at best. Not only had she been interested in getting Jesse, her ex-boyfriend, back from me, but she had also tested me over and over again, putting me in perilous situations. At the time, nobody had believed me except my friends. It was only when I recorded her laughing confession had Director Yearwood believed me. That encounter had ended with her revealing that she had imprinted on Jesse, being a half-genie and all. The only thing I’m happy about was that I managed to wound her left eye.As my eyes scroll down the list, I notice something.One of the titles has the status: misplaced.Something strikes me, and although it might be useless, I check the shelf number and hurry over to where the books should have been. Climbing on the ladder, I poke aro
Isabel and Beth get along, much to my surprise. The younger girl plasters herself to Beth, finding excuses to stay by her side.It irritates me, but Beth is all smiles over it. She’s always been the nurturing sort, so it’s not like I don’t understand. But I don’t have to like it.It’s been a week since Isabel joined us. It’s obvious that she isn’t my biggest fan, but then again, I don’t like her much, either. She has this standoffish air about her. Aside from Beth, she gets along well with Susan, perhaps because of how close they are in age. However, she has this disdainful attitude towards Quill and I, and she just ignores Kathleen. We have our first trial today as Level Two students, and I’m feeling a bit tense. We’ve been working with locator orbs for a few days now. They are made of pure energy and have a core that makes them function. We’ve been learning to maintain them while carrying them, and I’ve not been doing so well.Isabel, on the other hand, is great at it. She’s e