Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(88)

I fumble back the hammer with shaking hands. I have to kill him. That’s my job. To protect the city from filthy, dirty Surface Dwellers. Surface Dwellers are manipulative and dangerous. Nothing more than heathens who’d just as soon kill you as look at you. He’s the worst of them all. Why am I protecting him? He means nothing to me.

The words come to me in a voice that’s so different from mine, I suddenly know they’re programmed responses.

But the answers to those questions are so simple I can hardly argue with them.

He isn’t a manipulative and dangerous Surface Dweller. He’s smart. And kind. And nothing like what Mother said a Surface Dweller is. He means much more than nothing to me. And that’s why I’m helping him escape. Because he means everything to me. Because I love him. And he loves me. And I’ve done everything I can to protect him.

My fingers fall from the pistol, which clatters to the ground as pain rips through my head. It feels like hundreds of bees stinging my brain. I gasp and scrunch my eyes closed, grasping my head as I fall to my knees.

The bees fill my head with a buzzing that blocks all other sounds, then it slowly dies down and Gavin’s voice turns from a soft hum to clear sentences as he holds me tightly to his chest.

I push myself up to a sitting position and he slowly pulls away, but stays within reach, his eyes filled with concern as he watches me.

Tears pour from my eyes as I collapse into his arms. “I love you, too,” I choke out as the final twinge of pain fades away like it was never there in the first place.

I touch him everywhere, as if to reassure myself he’s really there before pressing my lips to his. “You’re insane. I could have shot you from shock alone.” I press kisses all over his face.

His mouth finds mine. “It was worth it,” he mumbles against my lips.

Suddenly a bang sounds behind us and we turn to see the door to the rest of the Sector is being hit by something. Another bang and we see it bend inward.

“They’re coming,” I whisper.

“Quick.” Gavin turns back toward the console. “I need you to work the sub controls. How do we get the door open?”

I stare at the console, filled with blinking lights and levers, knobs, and buttons. I close my eyes and try to recall my training, but something’s wrong. The Enforcer memories that were so clear just seconds ago are fading.

Hand plate. Hand plate. Hand plate, my mind screams at me over and over, but I don’t know what that means. Hand plate?

I shake my head. “I-I don’t know.” I slam my hand down on the console. Lost. Defeated. We’re going to die here, because I can’t remember. Mother’s last trick has succeeded.

Mother’s voice is no longer in my head, but the victory has come at a terrible cost. My memories.

Bang! I turn to see fingers work their way through the gap that’s been opened between the two doors. They grab the sides of the doors and slowly start to force them open the rest of the way.

“Hurry, you idiots, they’re going to escape,” Mother’s voice shouts, and I shudder.

She’s here. Directly on the other side of the door. And those must be her Elite Enforcers. They’d be the only ones strong enough to force those doors open. From the sounds, she probably brought what’s left of them.

With two on the door, how many is that? Five? Six? Dozens?

I can only stare in horror as those fingers yank the doors wider, allowing slim, muscled arms to slip through the opening. They manage to shove the doors enough that through the crack I see Mother standing in the middle of at least half a dozen Enforcers.

Despite the fear piercing through me, part of my mind is already cataloguing their exact positions, calculating the angle of attack, the distance between us, which weapons they’ll use in this small area.

When Mothers sees me, she smiles, replacing the scowl. “Come now, Evelyn, you’ve had your fun, but playtime is over. You don’t want to go to the Surface.” She steps forward, and lifts her arm, extending her hand into the gap for me to take. “There’s no need to fear me, Evelyn. The Surface Dweller has manipulated you into thinking I’m the monster, when it is he and his kind. I saved you, Evelyn. Made you my own. Because I love you. Just take my hand and I’ll help you. You can trust me.”

I can trust her? I tilt my head to the side. Of course I can trust her. Mother loves me. She has had nothing but my well-being in mind. It is my privilege to follow her orders.

I step toward her and lift my arm to take her hand.

Suddenly I’m being picked up and spun around. I scream and fight and kick, trying to do anything to escape from the real monster.

“Shh, it’s just me,” Gavin says in my ear. He hugs me tightly and kisses the side of my head, and the fog that started when Mother started talking lifts and I remember exactly why I can’t trust her.

“Gavin,” I whisper.

“Evelyn, don’t listen to him.”

My head throbs as a series of those deep clicks go off in my mind. My visions strobes as my Conditioning turns on and off. I grit my teeth against the pain, and the vertigo.

Suddenly, Gavin lets out a whoop and hauls me toward the submarine.

“No!” Mother screams. “Get those doors open now! Evelyn must not escape!”

“Let’s go!” Gavin says as he lifts me over the side and drops me into the seat of the submarine.