The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,56
out of the night. The oars pulled through the water with ease. I rose to my feet, gripping the flashlight hard enough to feel a spark from the batteries snap back at me. Flannel…light hair…
It wasn’t Liam.
As the boat neared us, the rower turned to judge the remaining distance. I actually recognized her. It was Lisa—one of the first teens that they’d gone to retrieve three years ago. She was eighteen like me, and, at this point, was probably one of the older Psi at Haven.
Not Liam. Not Ruby.
Lisa looked at me, her face brightening with recognition. With my plan in pieces, I managed to salvage one last useful bit of it.
“Who the hell are you?” I called.
She stiffened, freezing halfway out of the boat. Roman reached behind him, his hand hovering over the gun.
“I don’t know you,” I said, keeping my voice hard. And you don’t know me either. Come on, Lisa…. “Where are the Psi in charge?”
Lisa’s mouth opened. Shut. Fear flickered across her face.
Liam or Ruby should have come. Things couldn’t have changed that much, especially when it came to security.
Something’s wrong. Something else was happening here.
Priyanka stepped up behind me, her shoulders back. “Do we have a problem?”
Roman moved in close to my other side. If it were almost anyone else, I would have thought they were trying to back me up, not make sure I couldn’t slip away.
No one said a word, and it was only because of that silence that we heard the branch snap. In the next instant, a voice barked out, “Drop it!”
Six figures, their faces obscured by black ski masks, poured out of the trees behind us, an array of rifles and pistols in their hands. They were camouflaged in dark shirts and slacks, and while none of it was military grade, it was good enough for an evening ambush. They’d used the distraction of Lisa’s slow approach across the lake to surround us while our backs were turned.
One of them, a tall teen, stepped out in front, moving his finger to the trigger of his rifle as he said, calmer this time, “Drop it.”
Roman had the gun in his hand before I’d managed to look behind me. That horrible, emotionless mask was back over his face as he shifted his gaze from threat to threat, assessing.
He could take them. The realization was like a knife to the gut. Roman wasn’t the type to take chances. If he was ignoring the order, it was because he knew he’d win.
I reached out, putting a hand on the barrel of the gun. He glanced toward me, and there was nothing there, just ice. I pushed it down slowly, watching him swallow hard.
Finally, he switched the safety back on and tossed it toward the young man out front. I didn’t like the look he shot Priyanka, or the message buried in it. I put my hands behind my head, kneeling on the ground.
“Just so there’s no misunderstanding,” I said, “I’m armed.”
Check them for more weapons.
Lisa nodded at a different masked teen, and the girl stepped forward, briskly patting me down. Finished, she kicked me square in the back, forcing me to catch myself before I ate dirt.
“Don’t touch her again,” Roman warned. To my surprise, the gun was all he’d had on him. The only thing they pulled from Priyanka was the two phones. Lisa caught me watching them and shoved them in the pocket of her flannel hoodie.
Separate us, I begged silently. Get me away from them long enough to find out what’s happening. Separate us. Don’t bring them to the house.
“I can explain,” I began.
The boy gripped my arm, hauling me back onto my feet. “You’re damn right you will.”
Priyanka took a menacing step forward, ignoring the guns pointed her direction. “Now, that’s no way to talk to a lady, is it?”
I held up a hand, trying to mask my own surprise. “It’s fine—it’s okay.”
The masked teen squeezed my arm. Reassuring, not threatening. “Take the others to the hole. We’ll question this one.”
“No!” Roman surged forward, forcing two of the teens to grab him and a third to point their gun directly in his face. “Don’t—please—”
That one word took the air out of my lungs. Please. I forced myself to look back at Lisa, who watched the scene unfold, her expression pained. The game I’d been playing was starting to splinter around me.
The anger burning in his expression was real. The fear in his voice was real.