Collide (Entangled Teen) (The Taking Book 3) Read Free Page A

should talk alone.” I plead with my eyes for Mom to come back, but she’s already down the hall.
    “Uh, hey, are you okay?” Before I would have pulled her into a hug, but it’s been months since I’ve seen her, and I’m not sure if she’s the same Gretchen I once knew. Law certainly isn’t the same Law.
    She steps back for me to come inside, and then the door closes behind her and I see Vill sitting at her desk, whittling away at some composite material. Always the artist. It doesn’t surprise me that they became friends. My smile widens when I see him, because I know no matter what, Vill will always be Vill.
    “It’s good to see you up,” he says, smiling at me. He crosses the room and hugs me, but the move is awkward. We’ve never hugged before.
    “You, too.” I want to ask him about Jackson, about where he is and how we can go there, but right now, Gretchen needs me. I spin around and hug her close, despite my uncertainty. “Are you okay? What happened?”
    She nods against my shoulder. “No. Well, yes, I’m fine. I just…I wasn’t sure you’d wake up. That Kelvin would let you wake up.”
    Her response makes me wonder how long I’ve been here, and what all they did to me before allowing me to wake. “Do you know what’s going on? Mom and Dad seem worried. Law is a stranger now. He shot me, Gretch. Shot me.”
    She swallows hard, nodding. “It’s Kelvin. He’s got him brainwashed into believing Zeus is controlling you.”
    “What? That’s insane.”
    “I know. He doesn’t trust anyone that’s come over. Least of all you. Well, you, and, of course, Jackson.”
    My eyes shoot up. “What did you say?”
    Vill steps up beside us. “He’s here, Ari. Kelvin has him.”
    And then before they can say another word, I’m out the door, racing down the hall, unsure of where I’m going, but knowing I have to find him. A hand wraps around my arm, jerking me to a stop, and I remember that Vill was never part Ancient. He was born an Ancient and can outmaneuver me at his will. “Stop, before they see you and take you back.”
    I feel my throat closing up, every fear and emotion in me bubbling to the surface. “I can’t just leave him,” I say, my voice shaking. “There’s no telling what Kelvin will do to him. What he’s already done.” My knees go weak at the thought. Please let him be okay.
    “You won’t. We feel sure they’ll release him like they did you.”
    “Like me? Hardly. Tomorrow Kelvin plans to torture me into giving him information I don’t have. What do you think they’ll do to Jackson, Zeus’s grandson? I can’t let that happen. I won’t leave him again.”
    Dad and Mom are in the hall now, walking toward me. I can tell by their expressions that they intentionally kept this information to themselves. I eye each of them. Dad. Mom. Gretchen. Vill—all of them looking at me as though I’m crazy, capable of anything. And they’re right. I feel crazy. I feel it deep in my bones, rattling me whenever I try to regain a piece of my sanity. I’ve been through so much, and something tells me it’s nothing compared to what I’m about to face.
    I focus on Vill, because of the four of them, he loves Jackson as much as I love Jackson. He wants him to be okay. “How did he get here? Have you seen him? Is he okay?”
    Vill tugs me to him, hugging me for the second time. All this hugging is getting ridiculous, but I can’t bring myself to pull away. We have to comfort each other right now. That’s all we have. “I don’t know. To any of it. I don’t know.”
    “Then how do you know he’s here?”
    Dad steps around Gretchen, lowering his voice. “We told him. Your mom and I have seen him, though not in person, only through the glass of one of the examination rooms.”
    I suck in a breath, then two, desperate to calm down so I can process what they’re saying. “So he’s really here?” Tears run down my face, refusing to stop.
    Mom takes my hand. “Yes, Jackson is