Peter are already waiting.
“Well?” Fiona asks. “We have the Order’s backing. What’s our next step?”
I release my hold over her power crystal, and with it, the illusion of Walker falls away from me. Just as easily as I removed the illusion, I shed the Sector Four accent I grew up with. “Those two rebel bases our scouts found about a month ago,” I say. “Pull all the information we have on them.”
9
ERIK
TWO WEEKS WITH the rebels, and it feels like I’ve been here for ages already. After the first few days, everyone stopped being so cautious around me. When I walk through the makeshift town, kids run up to me and start blabbering like I know who they are. I get dragged into games of ball, talks of the sector, and storytelling sessions about my past. It doesn’t sound like I was close with any of the gifted in the town, but they tell me about raids we went on together, how everyone looked up to me—still looks up to me, by the sounds of it. It makes me uncomfortable. Especially when I know I’m betraying all these people looking at me with shining eyes.
I try to leave a gaggle of kids as politely as I can—“Sorry, I have to go; I’m going to be late meeting Gabriel”—but I barely make it fifteen steps before someone else pops up to chat. Seriously, how does anyone ever get to where they’re going around here?
But eventually—finally—I make it to the spot I’m meeting Gabriel, where he’s already waiting. Once he sees me, he lifts a hand and smiles slightly. My heart misses a beat. Whenever he smiles, the left side of his mouth always lifts a little higher than the right. It’s way too disarming. “Good to see you,” he says.
“You too,” I say lamely. Come on, idiot. Come up with something better than that.
We start walking down the haphazard paths. Gabriel stopped using his cane earlier this week, but he’s still pretty slow. Or deliberate, I guess. He might be one of those so-called limitless Nytes who can use their gifts without ever seeming to risk a fallout, but it still takes a toll on him. Little wonder. Everyone and their mom must want a power crystal that neutralizes other Nytes’ gifts, and making so many must take a lot out of him. Lai told me about this other “limitless” Nyte, a guy in the Order called Syon. He has endless control over energy, but at the cost of his emotions. Any slight feeling could send his power spiraling out of control. Gabriel’s price for unlimited power is his physical constitution. I don’t know which sounds worse.
“You didn’t have to come with me, you know,” Gabriel says as we stroll along. Today he’s delivering two of his power crystals to some rebels before our group meeting with Ellis later. I asked if I could tag along to get a better sense of the town’s layout, and he said sure. But honestly, I just wanted an excuse to hang out with him. “You’ve actually already got a good sense of the area, don’t you?” He’s sharp. “I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“I wanted to come,” I say with a half shrug. “I’m happy you let me join you.”
He raises an eyebrow. Was I too obvious? But the left side of his smile lifts a little higher, and he says, “Well, I’m glad you’re here. Have you managed to settle in all right?”
I hold back a sigh of relief as I tell him about the woodshop in the main office, getting used to always being hungry, and training with Cal.
Cal is obviously my best bet for learning more about my past, and he’s the easiest to talk to and be around, so I’ve been spending most of my time with him. Before I knew it, we were doing just about everything together. He’s happy to tell me about the old days, but whenever he describes the past me, who genuinely hated the sectors, the ungifted, and maybe just about everything, it feels like he’s talking about a total stranger. I like to think the current me has more of a passive-aggressiveness toward everything.
Other than Cal, the only person I hang out with is Gabriel—and I definitely don’t mention how much I like being around him. He said we weren’t close when I was with the rebels the first time, and it’s obvious after a few questions he really doesn’t know much