“Only because he created you. And he doesn’t know the real you, the one not doped up on medicine and drugs and being controlled. I used to know you better than anyone.”
“When we were little and hiding out behind trees making plans to run away?”
He perks up. “You remember that?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “I also remember a fire and you burning in it.”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t burn in it, Kayla.” He takes a slow inhale through his nose, fighting his racing heart. “You saw it wrong. They were weeding some of us out of Cell 7.”
“Why would they burn you out?” I hold his gaze, aware of his lie.
He swallows hard, observing the ground. “I’m going to go check on Ryder.”
“You better be up to something good.” Sylas breath is hot against my ear.
My shoulder jolts upward and bumps him in the chin. “I’m not up to anything… And I thought you were heading back to the city.”
“You think I’m going to let you just walk away,” he says, his dark gaze piercing beneath the shadow of his hood. “I spent days trying to chase you down and then you end up walking right into my hands.”
“Why am I so important to you? Or better yet, why is following Monarch’s orders so important to you?” I ask over my shoulder. “From what I’ve seen, Monarch was horrible to you.”
“Why are you so determined to follow them?” He cocks an eyebrow. “He was the worst to you.”
I scratch the numbers across my wrist. “Maybe, but he’s all I know.”
“He’s all we all know, but only because he made it that way.” He pauses, tucking his hands higher in his sleeves. “Besides, I’m not following his orders, I just want to know if there’s a way to reverse the vampire disease. And if we stray from what Monarch told us, I could really care less.”
I rub dirt out of my eye. “Sylas, where did the Highers come from? Were they part of the virus? Or something entirely different?"
He stares at the ground. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
“It was me,” I say softly. “I made them who they are.”
He turns my head to meet his eyes. “No, Monarch created the Higher strand. You were used as a tool to test it on.”
“So it’s in me,” I breathe, staring wide-eyed at the hills. “I’m one of them.”
‘I’m not sure,” he says truthfully and pauses. “I can take it away for a while, if you want.”
“Take what away?” I ask, distracted.
“The pain you’re feeling.”
“I’m not in pain,” I lie.
He shrugs, crosses his arms, and watches Ryder and Aiden chat in hushed voices. “Care to share what you picked up on him?”
“Why? So you can find another excuse to start a fight with him,” I say. “For the moment, I need him to think I believe him, otherwise I can’t trick the truth out of him.”
“You’re evil.” He winks at me and drags his fingers across his lip, like he’s zipping them shut. “I promise I won’t say a word.”
I let out a breath and fall back into stride with him. “He’s hiding something at the cave that he really doesn’t want me to find, which only makes me want to find it. And besides, Maci is there and I don’t want to just leave her behind.”
“The little girl who can see the future,” Sylas clarifies, tucking his chin down as the light becomes too hot.
“You know her?” I ask. “How?”
“You saw for yourself that I’ve been to The Colony.” He glances behind him, longing for the shade. “A warning, though. You might want to find out what you’re walking into. Just because Aiden seems good on the outside, doesn’t mean he won’t do what he has to do to get what he wants.”
“But what does he want?” I wonder, watching Aiden put his arm around Ryder. “He seems so content with his life, even after everyone he cares about died. It seems like he’d want to end this all. It makes absolutely no sense to me.”
“That’s because you’re you,” he points out. “And he’s different from you, whether he wants to accept it or not.”
“But I wasn’t always like this.” My eyebrows knit together. “I had to be different or else he wouldn’t have ever loved me.”
“We were all different at one time or another, Kayla.” He wraps his arms around himself, the afternoon simmering at his skin. “Aiden’s just lucky because he didn’t lose himself completely, like you and me, who have blood stained all over our hands.”
Before I can respond, he speeds up, leaving me in a track of dust. A knot builds in my stomach. I squirm, unsettled by the nervous feeling that I may not be the only murderer wandering around.
“Kayla, you’re concentrating on all the wrong problems,” Monarch whispers. “Set who you used to be aside, and focus on fixing the world. You’re going to mess this up.”
“You already did,” I whisper to no one but myself.
Chapter 14
One argument and two fights later, we arrive the hillside that once used to be Aiden and Ryder’s home. They refuse to walk by it, fearing that Highers might be there. Plus, they don’t want to feel the pain of the memories the place carries.
Aiden is irritated that Sylas is with us, but there’s nothing he can do about it. Sylas is strong, quick, and could beat the living daylights out of all three of us without blinking an eye. I decide to risk the chance of walking through the ruins, but only so I can have a private conversation with Sylas.
I dip down the hill and walk the line by the rocky hill.
“This place smells like death,” Sylas remarks, observing the ashes littering the ground.
“We need to come up with a plan.” I kick a piece of wood out of my path. “About what we’re going to do when we get to the cave.”
Sylas picks up a can of food and shakes it. “They say they’re out of food, but only because they’re too scared to look for it.”
“That’s not all they’re afraid of.” I inch closer to him and drop my voice. “The closer we get to the cave, the more fear I feel from Aiden.”
“And you’re sharing this with me because…”
“Because I need your help with something.”
He considers this with amusement. “And you think I’d help you because…”
My hand twitches, thinking of the days when I didn’t have to ask for help. “Because I asked you nicely.”
He presses back a grin and chucks the can of food to the side. “Well, I’m not nice and I don’t do things just because someone asks… although, if you were a Day Taker, you’d be strong enough that if I refused, you could make me do it.”
“You are such a—”
He covers my mouth with his hand and holds up a finger. “I’ll make you a deal. Promise you’ll come back to the city with me, once you figure out what my brother’s hiding and then I’ll help you.” He drops his hand.
“And what about my memories?” I grit my teeth. “The one’s Aiden has are the important ones. And we can’t get them without Ryder’s help.”
“Leave Ryder to me,” he says with a conniving smile.
I don’t ask him what his plan is because I don’t want to know. I proceed past the silver-laced water that blocks the pipe to the underground hideout. I breeze by it, but something pulls me back.
“What’s up?” Sylas is by my side. “You wanna go in?”
Most of the water has evaporated, but a shallow pool still touches the pipe. “The water’s laced with silver.”
He shrugs. “And your point is…”
“You can’t go in.” I hover at the shore of the water. “But this is where Dominic lived and I never did search it myself after the… killings.”
“But what’s your sudden interest in Dominic?”
“I just wonder why he would do it. Why he would turn over everyone to the Highers so he could go back to The Colony? Besides, he worked with Monarch and knew about the experiments that went on. Maybe there’s something in there that could lead us to the truth. Maybe he has something that will lead us to the glass cages.”
“What would that old man know that could possibly be important? All he did was sit here and tell people what to do.”
“He had a Higher in there,” I tell him, swirling the water with my boot. “And he put me up against it to find out if I was one.”
“He had a Higher?” he asks. “What, like as a pet or something?”
I roll my eyes. “An experimental Higher that still had humanity. He knew me and told me I was going to save the world.”
Sylas runs his tongue along his teeth. “And what happened to this Higher? Did you kill it?”
“A Higher can only be killed by another Higher.”
“I know.” A pause. “So did you kill it?”
“He killed himself.” I wade into the water and stop when it hits my knees. “Have you ever been in here before?”
He stares blankly at me. “As soon as I woke up from The Gathering, I put the needle in me and changed.”
“That quick huh?” The water soaks higher on my jeans.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he says, watching me become drenched in the silver-laced water. “Aiden wasn’t the only one Monarch messed up. I just chose to do something about it—I chose to live.” Before I can respond, he takes a giant leap and flies over the water, arriving in a crouch on the pipe.
“You know there’s water running down that pipe right?” I stride further into the water and peer down the dark pipe. There’s a thin stream flowing to the bottom. “How intolerant to silver are you exactly?”