The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,30

as I pulled it from his belt. Say something, say anything…

But it was Priyanka who broke the silence. She clucked her tongue, her smile too easy to be completely natural. “What a shock, no response. Did your speechwriter not give you any canned one-liners to use?”

I knew a lot of Psi didn’t necessarily see the point of the work we were doing with Cruz and the interim Congress—but they also didn’t see half of what we were up against. It was always easier to be cynical than actually roll up your sleeves to help.

“Well, you’re clearly not a fan of my work,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “But I guess that makes sense. Roman already told me you weren’t really there for the speech.”

That was a lie, but her lips parted in surprise all the same.

Dread braided with disappointment, until I could no longer tell one feeling apart from the other.

I wanted to be wrong.

I wanted to believe them.

It was like I could see the flurry of thoughts and excuses moving behind her dark eyes as she flicked away each option, searching for a best one. She finally settled on the one I expected: outright denial. “Clearly his brain was fogged by whatever drug they pumped into his system. We were there because we had to be, as members of the new class.”

It was tempting to keep digging, especially as the lies began stacking up like a house of cards. But one wrong move on my part, however slight, could send everything crashing down on me, escalating an already dangerous situation. A little suspicion would read as normal, but if Roman and Priyanka did have something else planned for me, pushing them too hard for answers would only make them close ranks and shut down.

I had exactly one guaranteed way of making it out of here and contacting DC: alone.

“Good point. He could have just misheard me, too,” I said. “Your families must be worried sick about you. Did you see if they were hurt? As soon as we’re out of here, we’ll find a phone for you to call them.”

Or we’d see if they made an excuse not to. Or pretended to put a call through.

“Ouch with that assumption,” Priyanka said. “Roman is my only family, and vice versa.”

Shit. The forced lightness of those words pinged against my mind as truth. Shame burned in my throat. I shouldn’t have brought families into this. God knew I didn’t ever want to talk about mine.

“Sorry,” I said with weak smile. “I’m a bit on edge. To answer your earlier question, though, I have no idea what group they could be. Antigovernment, anti-Psi, the Psion Ring…”

Priyanka held out her hands for me to cut the zip ties there, the rigid lines of her posture finally relaxing. I cut the ties binding my ankles together before taking care of hers. By the time her hands fell back into her lap, her expression was no longer shuttered; she lost that defensive glint in her eye, and, for a fraction of a second, her lips traced out a faint smile. There and gone.

But I saw it.

Who are you? I fought to keep my face blank, even as the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Who the hell are you?

“Well, you can cross the Psion Ring off that list,” Priyanka said. “It wasn’t them.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

The group was like a ghost; they had countless agencies trying to track them and reports of violence done in their name, but they’d never stepped out of the shadows. Many people assumed that they were some remnant from the Children’s League, but everyone affiliated with the League was accounted for, and most had moved directly into government work.

“Because,” Priyanka said, “we used to work with them.”

The truck swayed as it hit a bad patch of road. I stared at her.

“Oh, come on. I saw the expression on your face when you watched Roman take those guys out,” she said, looking down at him. “You’re not stupid, and you have a working set of eyes. It’s obvious we’ve had some kind of tactical training. I’m surprised you didn’t put it together yourself.”

Her tone was so baiting, I felt my temper rise and had to take a breath.

“I didn’t think the Psion Ring actually existed,” I told her. And where’s your proof?

“Well, that would be because the whole point is to operate under the radar and covertly push for the things no one in