Your One & Only(61)

“What is this?” Jack said, his voice harsh.

“The clone doctors invented it. It’s called Bonding. It’s what they do when a clone fractures. The siblings are at risk. They figure the bond is made stronger if they all feel pain at the same time. At least I think that’s the idea.”

Jack’s muscles went rigid as Jonah slipped an arrow from the quiver on his back, but then he used the blunt end to lift an Althea’s hand and drop it down again, limp and heavy.

“There might be drugs involved,” he said.

Jack surveyed the tools and instruments on a nearby table—syringes, vials of liquid, bandages, and a few scalpels.

“It’s torture.”

“Your Althea was supposed to be here, you know. She didn’t show, so I guess they went ahead anyway.”

It was then Jack saw the tenth chair shoved into a corner, cords and wires dangling off the edge.

“This is wrong. We have to help them.”

Jonah propped himself on one of the countertops, one knee casually pulled up. “By all means, play the hero.”

Jack looked up sharply, but the lazy amusement that colored Jonah’s voice didn’t reach the ice in his eyes.

Jack turned to the chair nearest him. The girl in it looked identical to the others; the flat, serious mouth, slightly parted, the creased brow, the smooth skin. It took his breath away, to be so close to her and know she wasn’t Althea. That she wasn’t his Althea.

He searched the sides and underneath the chair, looking for a power source feeding the current. Not seeing one, he clenched his teeth and gripped the main cord leading to the cluster of wires under the Althea’s skin. A searing jolt shot through him as he ripped it from the other wires. That Althea’s sisters should suffer in this way—it was unbearable.

As gently as he could, he plucked each humming wire from her arms. Pinpricks of blood seeped from where they’d been. As a group, the nine girls let out a half sigh, half moan when the current broke. With some difficulty because of his cast, Jack lifted the girl he’d unhooked and settled with her on the floor. Her skin was too warm, and her head dropped lifelessly from his arm. He glanced up at Jonah, who watched with impassive eyes.

“She’s not waking up.” With effort, Jack steadied his hand as it passed through the girl’s hair. “What do I do? She’s not waking up.”

Jonah shrugged, running the arrow tip under his fingernails. “Give it a minute.”

Even as Jonah spoke, her head lolled to the side and she groaned softly.

“Althea?” Jack said. He didn’t know what number she was, but it didn’t matter. He felt as if he were holding his own Althea in his arms.

The girl’s eyes fluttered open, and her gaze traveled questioningly over him.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” she murmured drowsily. Then something sharpened in her face. She gasped, and every muscle in her body stiffened against him as she fought the hold of his arms. She scrambled across the floor, ending in a crouch against the wall. Her hands rubbed her skin where he’d held her, as if she’d been touched by something cold and unpleasant. “What’s happening?”

“It’s okay,” Jack said, his palms held out placatingly. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to help.”

“You?” She looked frantically over the room, taking in Jonah and her still-unconscious sisters, and then her gaze settled back to Jack. “What have you done?”

“It’s okay,” he said again, hoping to calm her.

“You said you’re going to help?” Her eyes narrowed, suddenly less scared. “You can’t help me. We’re here because of you. This is your fault!”

Jack shook his head. “What?”

“You’re the reason our sister fractured. You made Inga-296 fracture, and the Samuel too. You’re why we’re here, and now you want to ruin the Bonding?”

“Ruin? I thought—”

“Get away from me. Get away from all of us,” she yelled, standing on shaky legs and moving protectively between her sisters and Jack.

“But . . .” Jack stammered. Jonah was behind him then, lifting him up from where he knelt.

“Come on, brother. Time to go.”

The other Altheas were stirring, moaning in their sleep, communing and picking up the emotion of the Althea who stood glaring at him.

“Get out,” she said viciously, the echo of her words muttered on the half-sleeping tongues of the other eight Altheas. The chorus of their voices surrounded him, suffocated him. He heard them still while Jonah dragged him down the stairs and outside, until he realized finally he was only hearing them in his head. Get out, get out, get out.

Jack looked up at the sky, breathing heavily, instinctively searching his lungs for any sign they were about to betray him. Jonah stood next to him, his light head flung back.

“You needed to see that, Jack,” he said coolly. “They’ll have a Binding Ceremony for the Althea. Your Althea. They’ll kill her. They want her dead—even her sisters do. They have to be stopped. We can take them down, all of them. Help me, and then we’ll leave this place together.”

Jack stared into the night sky and felt it closing in on him. “Do what you want,” he said finally. “I won’t stop you. I won’t help, but I won’t stop you.”