Forged(56)

I nod. “Ready as we’ll ever be.”

“Okay then.”


I close my eyes because I know I won’t be able to take it otherwise. Garrett clocks me good. Twice. The second sends me staggering backward.

“Go on then,” he says to Harvey. “Call them.”

Harvey points my gun at the night sky and lets off a shot. It’s deafening in the stillness.

“Over here!” Garrett shouts, bringing me to the salt-slicked docks. He presses a knee to my back and I let him gather my hands there as well. “I’ve got—Holy hell! I said over here! Hurry up!”

Another two Order members come running, peeling from darkened streets where they were stationed.

Hands find my back. I’m flipped. Tugged to my feet. A pointed nose examines me. “Is this who I think it is?” I recognize his voice. Garrett’s boss. The inspector September distracted. He’s younger than I expect.

“Sure looks like him,” Garrett says.

“It is,” Harvey affirms.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Harvey Maldoon. Gray held me hostage since he escaped our facilities a week back. I barely got the jump on him tonight.”

“Make the call,” the inspector says to someone behind him. Then he turns to me. “Got business in Bone Harbor? Think you can sneak into my port in the dead of night?”

“I did sneak in. If I hadn’t lost hold of my gun, you’d still have no clue I was here.”

He knees me in the stomach. As I hang buckled over, sucking in air, Harvey tells the Order member to go easy, which results in the scientist’s loyalty being questioned.

“You clearly have no clue who you’re talking to,” Harvey says. “Frank is going to be elated if you bring this boy in unharmed. Even more thrilled when I come with him.”

“And me,” comes a voice from inland. “He’ll be glad to have me back, too.”

I glance up and my chest seizes. Emma. Jogging down to the docks like she owns all of Bone Harbor.

“I told you to run,” Harvey snaps, improvising expertly fast. “Why would you—?” He turns back to the Order member. “She was with us, another of Gray’s hostages. When I overpowered him, I told her to bolt; I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold him.”

“I work in Taem’s hospitals,” Emma says to the guard. “I was one of the best set of hands in that place. I just want to go home.”

Home? To Taem? What is she playing at? She was set to stay here in Bone Harbor, watch over Aiden, help September come Sunder Day.

The inspector leans backward, yelling into the darkness. “What’s the word on that call?”

“They’re sending a rig immediately. Secure him.”

“Allow me,” Harvey says.

I know it’s part of an act, but as he strikes me with the handgun, I can’t help but question everything. His smile—so malicious, so willing to play this part. His cool reaction to Emma’s joining, and his lines so swiftly delivered they almost seemed rehearsed. I cringe as he winds up again. The world goes blurry, then cuts off entirely as a bag comes down over my head.

I’m jostled, shoved.

I listen while Emma gives her name, and the Order welcomes her back into its ranks. The roar of an approaching helicopter drowns out the world.

As I’m forced toward it, the panic hits. Deep in my chest and then surging upward, like a sickness I need to eject, like a burn scorching from the inside out.

This is wrong. Emma shouldn’t be here. There’s no reason for it. Not unless she somehow persuaded Harvey to let her join. Or maybe she’s trying to accomplish something—revenge, justice. Have I become her biggest enemy?

Is that ridiculous, to think it all comes back to that? To believe that Emma—sweet, gentle, loving Emma—could be driven to act this way out of hate and bitterness?

I writhe against the ropes.

Bree, Sammy, Clipper.

I need them. I need them and I sent them away.

An extra set of hands pushes at the back of my spine, forcing me forward. Then I’m hoisted up, shoved. I land on my side, strike my head against a hard surface.

Next comes the roar of an engine, the nauseating feeling of the world dropping away beneath me.

At least one part of the plan is still unfolding as arranged. We’re flying. Hopefully east. I don’t know what I’ll do if we’re not.


When I come to, it takes me a moment to remember being shoved into the vehicle, the fall that caused me to strike my head. I have no recollection of what followed, how I got to wherever I now am. Or how much time has passed since the flight.

They gave me something, I’d wager—to knock me out and blur my senses.

I sit up in the darkness, and feel a restraint pull against my neck. My fingers find rope. Coarse. Brittle. Once I know it’s there, the scratch of it against my skin is so discomforting I wonder how I’d ignored it previously. The rope continues upward, much farther than my hands can reach. I’ve been collared like a dog.

Lights clap on. I’m in a stark, unadorned room, on a platform raised several feet from the ground and smaller than an average mattress. It’s a miracle I didn’t fall off the thing while asleep.

I hear a door open behind me, and when I twist, Frank is entering the room. Hopefully this means I’m in Taem.