The Returning Read online

  Roth’s inner voice had begun speaking to him many years earlier, as the dawning of a new generation had begun in the Authority City. Its words now advised him that the path must be certain and followed without a single misstep.

  Roth considered himself a man of science, but he had grown in power and ambition as he allowed the dark energy to invade his life. Now it was part of him; Roth no longer knew the difference between his own skin and the darkness that gave him life. He needed it more than air and food; the energy was necessary for him to continue to thrive into a greater state of power. It gave him clear vision and complemented his greatest strength—his mind. The melding of science and power had influenced all the evolutionary advances Roth had seen fulfilled throughout the city. Yet now the kingdom he had built was being threatened. The darkness hissed violently at the mere thought. It was time to put an end to the madness.

  Jesse ran his hand through the side of his hair, pushing the locks away from his ear, and sat at the head of the council table. He didn’t look pleased to have been woken in the early morning hours, but Roth had little concern for how Jesse felt. Even in the dim chandelier light, the Scientist could see the silvery gray streaks growing through the top of Jesse’s hair. There was more gray than most men had at his age, but then Jesse was ruling a city, so he faced more stress than most. Roth still saw him as the young archer whom he’d rescued from himself, but now that he was a middle-aged man, it was time he stepped up and did what was best for the community. The Scientist knew the conversation to come was not going to be an easy one for Jesse, yet Roth found himself again caring very little about that.

  “We have a problem,” Roth said.

  “Well, I would hope you haven’t had me dragged out of bed for anything less than the storming of the front gates,” Jesse said.

  “They are storming more than our gates.”

  “Who?”

  Roth didn’t need to answer; he could see the twitch in Jesse’s face as he was already fully aware of whom the Scientist was talking about. Who else was there?

  “Have they been spotted inside the city?” Jesse asked, serious now.

  “No, but they are coming.”

  Jesse leaned back in the chair he was occupying and crossed his arms over his chest. “How can you be certain?”

  Roth paused. It wouldn’t be honest to say he completely trusted Jesse. True, the man had served him and the city well, but his affection for the Seers and the girl Elise, now a grown woman whom he had cared for all these years, gave the Scientist pause.

  “Aaron came to me,” Roth said.

  “What?” Jesse asked.

  “He warns that they will soon take the city back for the light—a threat I must not discount.”

  “How did he get into the Capitol Building?”

  “That is not important. His message is what concerns me. Greatly.”

  “He’s making idle threats, and you are letting him rattle you?”

  “Not idle. I have sensed for some time that something was coming. He is only confirming my fears.”

  “And why would he do that? Why alert you to them trying to take the city?”

  “Because he wants us to be afraid. Because he is falsely confident in a power that will fail him. Because he is a fool.”

  “Then pay him no mind. We know the Seers in Trylin City couldn’t actually pose a physical threat to us. We outnumber them one hundred to one. We have nothing to fear from them.”

  Roth nodded. Jesse was right, but the darkness coiled inside had been warning him not to take this lightly. Aaron had been perceived as nonthreatening before, and his influence had nearly brought this city to its knees in the past. Science had proven that the past often repeated itself. Roth would not risk such a thing happening.

  “I won’t take any chances. I’m making plans to have Trylin handled. I’ve called you here to discuss the issue of Elise,” Roth said.

  Jesse straightened. “What does she have to do with this?”

  “She has everything to do with this. Her presence has been a continuous threat we should have rid ourselves of when she was still a child.”

  “She is just a girl, Roth,” Jesse tried.

  “No, she is one of them.”

  Jesse stood from his seat. “We had a deal.”

  “Yes, I know, but deals change.”

  “I have committed my life to doing everything you asked, being your only ally on the Council while the rest would love to see you thrown into the street. I’ve served as president while letting you make all the decisions. I follow your orders, and you leave Elise alive. That was the deal!”

  Roth noticed the passion filling Jesse’s expression. Different than it had been before. Something had changed. “You have fallen in love with her, then?”

  Jesse swallowed and pressed his lips tightly together. He glanced at his feet for a moment as if finally letting himself believe what he had long denied, then raised his eyes back up to Roth’s. “Is that so wrong?”

  “She will never love you back,” Roth said.

  “How I feel about her is beside the point. You can’t break our agreement.”

  “Aaron named her as a part of this Returning, as he called it. She cannot live.”

  Jesse’s face darkened as he took a step toward the Scientist. “You still need me. You can’t run this city without me; no one would follow your command. The Council trusts me alone. If you touch her, our deal is off, and I’ll leave.”

  The energy in Roth’s chest roared through his mind. His eyes narrowed to slits as he closed the small distance between him and Jesse, striding close enough to the man that he could feel the heat of the anger rising from his skin.

  “You think I need you?” Roth began. “The only reason you are still alive is because of me. I pitied you, took you in when the rest of the world abandoned you, when Damien Gold failed you. After your grandfather died, after your father beat you, I saved you. Do not for a moment think that I can’t snuff out your life as quickly as I gave it to you.”

  Jesse clenched his teeth, his jaw trembling as he tried to breathe steadily.

  “You can’t leave,” Roth said. “I own you. You are nothing without me. How dare you spit in my face after I have given you a kingdom? And then threaten to abandon it for a woman? A woman that threatens the very kingdom I gave you to rule? Have you lost your mind?”

  “So you would kill an innocent girl over the ranting of a madman?” Jesse asked.

  “You would be surprised whom I would kill to protect what I have built.” Roth let the edge in his voice linger for a moment before he continued. “Elise has never been innocent. Their blood runs through her veins. She is one of them. She has never been yours.”

  Roth could see the desperation Jesse was fighting to mask, but it didn’t matter. He would see in the end that this was best. Roth would make sure of it or cut him off if necessary.

  “I will deal with Elise myself,” Roth continued. “I will make it quick and painless for your sake. But if you try anything, I will have her skinned alive, slowly. Is that clear?”

  Jesse kept his jaw shut and Roth registered the fear building in his eyes.

  “Good.” Roth turned and strode away from Jesse. “It will be over and only a memory soon, and then we can continue to walk into greatness.” Roth’s voice echoed through the large room as he moved across the marble floor and out into the hallway.

  Once outside the room, the heavy wooden doors sealing Jesse inside alone, Roth turned to the CityWatch guards and instructed they apprehend Elise immediately and escort her to the bottom level prison cells. She was to be watched around the clock until her execution could be carried out.

  Roth wanted to believe he could trust Jesse to do the smart thing, but love was dangerous and vile, and he wasn’t going to take any chances.

  4

  Elise’s legs burned as she raced through the trees. Branches scraped at her bare calves, and rocks cut the bottoms of her shoeless feet. Why was she running thro
ugh the forest without shoes on? She didn’t have time for questions as the monster on her heels was gaining. Elise recognized the panic its presence caused, sensed its hatred. She didn’t risk glancing over her shoulder; she knew it was still there, breathing down her neck.

  “Don’t slow down, or I’ll catch you,” the monster mocked, its voice buzzing in her ears and grating at the insides of her skull.

  She pushed herself to move faster, ignoring the abrasive pain thundering in her knees and thighs. She’d sacrifice both legs before she let the beast catch her. Intense wind whipped through the trees to her left and she followed her instincts, moving toward it.

  “Run. Run faster, little girl,” the monster sneered.

  The wind swirled ahead of her and she continued to follow it as if it were leading her to safety, which she knew was crazy because it was only wind. Elise tried to move past the fear in her mind that was threatening to slow her and fought off the panic as the beast’s sneering laugh echoed through the air around her.

  The path ahead looked as if it cleared, the ground becoming smooth and the trees thinning away. Beyond the clearing, she saw a beach that stretched out toward the sea. She couldn’t tell how, but she suddenly sensed that if she could simply make it to the white sands, she’d be safe.

  “Don’t you step onto the beach, Elise,” said the monster, its voice angry and closer than it had been before.

  With every ounce of power Elise had, she gave one final push, her lungs feeling as if they might explode, her legs turning to jelly, but her mind crying for the salvation the sand offered.

  Her toes sank into the warmth of the white beach and she fell forward, her hands catching her as her palms plummeted deep into the sand. She wanted to stop, to lie down against the warm ground beneath her, but her fear forced her to keep moving forward. Crawling now, she frantically kicked up sand as she scrambled farther out onto the beach.

  An angry cry echoed behind her and she dared a glance to see the beast standing at the forest’s edge. It was huge—a body like black smoke, fingers extending into razor-sharp talons jutting out of wisps of ebony curls that flowed to the ground and then back up to the place that held some semblance of a face. Its teeth were sharp edges, its eyes hauntingly crimson. It just stood there, rage pouring from its body as its chest rose and fell with each spiteful breath. Terrifying, but seemingly trapped at the tree line.

  Elise struggled to steady her thundering lungs. She pushed herself up onto her feet and nearly stumbled backward into the sand again. Her body was still trembling as she watched the beast eye her from its cage. That’s what the forest was—its own personal cage. As long as she stayed on the beach, she’d be safe.

  “Are you all right?” The voice came from behind her.

  Elise screeched in horror and lost the small amount of balance she’d regained. A strong arm reached out and a firm hand steadied her before she toppled over, helping her back to a standing position.

  Elise struggled against the stranger’s grasp, and without hesitation the hand released her. She spun around, prepared to fight off another monster, but was surprised to find none. It was just a boy, a man rather, maybe a little older than herself, his hands up in a position of surrender, his eyes soft and kind.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Elise felt her knees tingle and her pulse quicken, but not because she was afraid. In fact, she was overwhelmingly not afraid of the stranger before her, which made him feel less like a stranger and more like a friend.

  He smiled and her heart seized in response. He was tall, slender but not skinny, pale but not sickly, with captivating blue eyes and light-yellow hair that fell in a long swoop across one side of his face. When he smiled, his whole face made the motion, his lips full and his jaw strong.

  “I’m okay,” Elise said, finally finding her words.

  The man let out a sigh of relief. “Good—you looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

  “I was running from the beast,” Elise said, pointing toward the trees.

  The stranger followed her finger and shook his head in confusion. “What beast?”

  Elise turned and saw that the place where the monster had been standing was now empty. “It must have gone into the woods.”

  “I see. Well, don’t worry; if it comes out, I’ll protect you.”

  Elise looked back at the man and smiled. She believed him. Which seemed odd since they’d only just met, but there was something about his eyes that she trusted.

  “I’m Elise,” she said.

  The expression on his face changed. Surprise took over his features and then turned into joy. “Elise,” he said, his voice filled with awe.

  “Do you know me?”

  He shook his head. “No, just of you.”

  “Of me? No one knows of me.” She said it with a laugh behind her words, as if he must be teasing.

  “Many people know of you. You’re famous among the Seers.”

  Elise cocked her head to the side curiously. “What’s a Seer?”

  “So you don’t know, then?” The smile on his face faded, as if he realized something very important. “Are you safe?”

  She looked over her shoulder, toward the woods, and thought of the monster that waited for her there. “No,” she answered. “I’m afraid.” She turned back to face her new friend, but he was gone. And in his place was the beast. Elise cried out in terror as the monster stood only a few feet from her. Its eyes glowed red, teeth and claws poised to kill.

  It growled deep in its throat and leaped toward Elise. It was too fast for her, and talons sharp as glass shards dug into the side of her arm and ripped through her flesh. She screamed in agony and shot up in bed.

  Her mind was unsure of its position. Half of it still saw the sandy beach, while another part started to register that she was now somewhere else. There was still pressure on her arm where the beast’s talons had been, and she tried to rip herself from its clutches. She swatted at the hold, crying out for help.

  “Calm her,” a voice came, and it sent a notion of reality crashing into Elise’s mind. It wasn’t the voice of the beast or the boy she’d met on the beach. It was someone else. Someone familiar.

  The room around her was dim, but the glow from soft light nearby illuminated her vision. She was in bed, covers pulled up over her legs, her arms restrained by hands. Human hands, attached to human arms. She followed the arms to shoulders and then faces, also human, and not in a towering forest or on a beach.

  She had been dreaming again.

  “Get her up,” the familiar voice said. She moved her eyes to where the words were coming from and saw a CityWatch guard she recognized. Sam, she’d heard some call him. The two other guards holding her on either side did as they were told. They dragged her from bed, more forcefully than she thought necessary. Her mind ran in dizzy circles, trying to catch up.

  “What’s happening?” Elise asked, her voice cracking from drowsiness.

  “Hold her steady,” Sam ordered. “Follow me.”

  They started to move across the room as more reality quickly dropped into her head. They were in her room; the light she saw came from a small lamp she must have left on when she’d fallen asleep a couple of hours ago. Darkness covered the windows; it was still night. Why was she being yanked out of bed in the middle of the night?

  “Stop,” she said, pulling against the two guards leading her out. “What is going on?”

  “You need to come with us. Orders from President Cropper.” Sam didn’t even glance back as he stepped through Elise’s doorframe and out into the marble hallway that led into the grand Capitol Building walkway.

  Jesse. “Why?” Elise asked.

  “Enough,” Sam said.

  Elise knew better than to push. It would do her no good. That was the way things worked around here. The way they always had. She didn’t have the right to know. Maybe if she had been born in this city, if she’d had parents who wanted her, if the Genesis Serum work
ed in her bloodstream, then things would be different. But none of those cards had been dealt to her. She was the worthless child of parents who had abandoned her because she was different.

  The guards dragged her for several long minutes, making their way down to the lowest level of the Capitol Building, to a place Elise had never been, which was disconcerting since she’d spent nearly every moment of her life within these walls. Fear rattled inside her chest as her eyes scanned the unfamiliar surroundings. It was cold, the floor concrete, the walls gray stone. The lights were scarce and dim, and the sounds of the guards’ footsteps echoed as they moved.

  Her mind ran with worry. Where were they taking her? Would Jesse be there? Surely he would explain to her what was happening. She trusted him, didn’t she? Couldn’t she? Yet her instincts told her that something was very wrong.

  They finally rounded a corner into a large rectangular room that held barred cells along both the left and right sides. Her fear exploded and her body yanked away from her captors. This was prison.

  The arms held her tightly and pulled her toward one of the cells.

  “No—stop!” Elise said.

  “Inside,” Sam said.

  “I don’t—” Elise tried, but she was no match for the guards’ strength. With ease they walked her toward one of the cages and tossed her inside. She nearly fell forward on the concrete floor but managed to keep her balance. She whipped around to free herself, but she was too late. The cell door slammed with a metallic screech that sent a shiver through her bones.

  “Wait, please! I haven’t done anything,” Elise cried. She rushed to the bars and gripped them with both hands. “Please.”

  The guards barely looked at her before turning to leave. Her mind scrambled with confusion. Her breath was short and heavy, her skin rippling with panic. This couldn’t be happening. If she could just get them to listen.