You know as well as I do how that played out.”
“I’m not talking about escape,” Cora whispered. “Cassian has a different plan. There’s a series of tests that’s happening in a few weeks. If I run them and pass, humans will be granted intelligent species status. They won’t be able to cage us anymore. That’s why he put us here, to train me in psychic abilities secretly so I can pass the tests.”
Mali, her long braids dangling toward the floor, let out another soft grunt. “You speak of the Gauntlet.”
Cora nodded.
Lucky stared at her with an unreadable expression in the blue glow. “Psychic abilities?” There was a strange undertone in his voice. She couldn’t shake the feeling that words like freak were circling around in the back of his head.
“Will you do it,” Mali asked.
“I didn’t say yes,” Cora said. “I can’t bring myself to trust him. He had me completely fooled before. You have no idea how awful it is to even be around him, the constant reminders that he was lying the entire time.”
Lucky didn’t respond right away, and she realized her connection with Cassian was probably the last thing he wanted to talk about.
“The Gauntlet is dangerous,” Mali said. “Eleven humans attempt to run it before. None still live.”
“They died in the puzzles?”
“A few. The physical challenges are difficult, but the moral and perceptive ones are most dangerous. They can break your mind. Some humans go insane and die after.”
“What kind of puzzles were they?” Cora asked.
“No one knows,” Mali said. “There are rumors that the moral tests form impossible choices: for example, a human is placed in a room with a caged lion that is dying of starvation. The human is told to save its life, but the only way to do that is to free it so it can eat you. The perceptive puzzles are even worse because they force the brain to work in unnatural ways. Pushing a weak mind to perform telekinesis can rupture the tissue.”
“And this is what you plan on doing?” Lucky asked.
“I’ll be better prepared than the people who have run it before,” Cora said, trying to sound confident. “That’s why I’ll train with Cassian, so I don’t lose my mind.” She took a deep breath. “He said it’s the only way we’ll ever be free. Maybe he’s right.”
“Well, I know this isn’t right,” Lucky said. “This place. The things they do to these animals is sick. And there’s something wrong with these kids too. Everyone’s half starved and bruised. Who knows how many kids have vanished before Chicago. Or how soon the rest of us will.” His face turned very serious.
“What’s wrong?” Cora asked.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Remember what Dane said about turning nineteen?”
Cora nodded slowly.
“My nineteenth birthday is October twenty-first. We were abducted from Earth on July twenty-ninth. I don’t know how much time has passed exactly, but it’s got to be close. And if what happened to Chicago is true . . .”
The significance of his words wove their way into Cora’s head. Nineteen. The age the Kindred determined that a human went from child to adult. Her eyes went to the supply room with the drecktube.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“I’ll turn nineteen any day now and be taken away, and then Mali will, and then you.” He jerked a hand back toward the cell block. “And everyone else.”
“So the Gauntlet’s our only option.” Cora shifted, anxious. It wasn’t just the idea of working with Cassian that bothered her, or that ache in her head when she tried too hard to use her abilities. It was the weight of what it meant. Humanity’s freedom resting on her shoulders alone. What if she failed?
And then again, what if she succeeded?
“There could be a third option,” Mali said quietly, still hanging upside down.
Cora’s head jerked up. “What do you mean?”
“The Gauntlet tests competitors in twelve puzzles. If the competitor successfully passes all of them, each tester, known as a Chief Assessor, inputs his approval into the algorithm at the end of the examination. It is a simple process: they approve you or they do not. The exact mechanism is similar to turning a key. Technically, one does not beat the Gauntlet by beating the puzzles. One’s success is registered when all four keys are turned.”
Cora still looked at her blankly.
“I am saying that you do not have to run the Gauntlet,” Mali explained. “You do not have to complete a single puzzle. You must only make the testers