The Rising

TWENTY-FIVE

DR. INGLIS LEFT AND Antone led me to my room. He didn’t say a word until the door was closed. I walked to the bed and sat. Kenjii hopped up and laid down with her head on my lap.

“So they told you the grand plan,” Antone said.

“Yep. I get a brand-new life. Everything I could ever want . . . except my parents, but that’s okay, because they’ll get a new puppy—I mean, baby.”

He sat beside me on the bed. “If you think that means the Delaneys will forget you, they won’t.”

“You really think I’m worried about that?” I shook my head. “I’m not pissed off at being replaced. I’m pissed off at the basic lack of respect for my parents. They lost a daughter? Let’s give them a new one. A real one. Then everyone will be happy.”

“Except you.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be happy. I get a new puppy, too. A brand-new daddy. Lucky me.”

He flinched at my sarcasm, and I reminded myself that I couldn’t do this anymore. I didn’t have to suck up to him—I couldn’t—but nor could I afford to antagonize him.

“This isn’t what I wanted either, Maya,” he said after a moment.

“What did you want?”

He took a moment before answering. “Contact. That’s all I’ve wanted for years, since you got too old to be taken from the Delaneys. I just wanted to be part of your life. I won’t make excuses. I allowed the Nasts to commandeer that rescue helicopter. They promised it would be temporary. They’d tell you kids what you were and, they hoped, woo you from the St. Clouds.”

“Like head-hunting new employees? Seriously?”

“That’s what you are to them, Maya. Very valuable future employees. The Cabals . . . I can’t get into it now, but this isn’t unusual, fighting for rare supernatural types. The Nasts would have laid out the situation. Positioned themselves, not as the people who kidnapped you, but as the people who were honest with you. Told you the truth. Let you make your own choices.”

“And let me go back to my parents?”

“Yes. I know you don’t believe that, but I’m really not the enemy here, Maya. I’m the guy trying to make the best of a lousy situation. An impossible situation.” He looked at me. “You understand that, don’t you? The situation. You can’t escape it. There’s no place to go. You need the Cabals.”

“Good.”

He hesitated. Then said, slowly, “Good?”

“Yes, good, because that means we can negotiate.”

“Negotiate?”

I paused. Daniel and I had discussed this, but only briefly. Negotiate with our captors? We’d rather fight and we’d win.

Win what? Our freedom? No, because even if we got our friends and our families back, we were still held prisoner by our conditions. Corey’s headaches would get worse, Annie would stop progressing, and I’d continue regressing.

I took a deep breath. “They want happy little future employees? Let’s back up a step. Back to what they planned before the crash. They can pitch us their packages. We’ll make our own decisions, including the decision to be reunited with our parents.”

He went quiet. Very quiet. When he tried to speak, his breath hitched and he had to take another moment. Then he looked me in the eyes. “That’s a very mature solution, Maya. Remarkably mature, and you have no idea how proud I am of you right now, for even thinking of it.”

“So we can, right?” I knew the answer. I’d seen it in his face as soon as I suggested it. Pride and pain. Mostly pain.

“The Cabals would never allow that, Maya. The risk of telling your parents, after they’ve buried you . . .” He shook his head.

“And after they paid good money for us.”

“It wasn’t money. It was a trade of resources and intelligence.”

I gave him a look. “Do you really think that matters? We’re bought and paid for, whatever the currency. They say they want us happy, but they really just want us compliant.” I looked at him. “I don’t do compliant.”