Follow Me Through Darkness Read Free

right.”
    But will he be there? Will I go back home? I’ve hurt Thorne. Even with hundreds of miles of distance between us, I know that. There are some things that aren’t easy to forgive.
    “I am. My daughter, my family will be home once I return. The people you love don’t leave so easily if they truly love you.”
    I inhale as we walk, and press my finger into the branding on my neck. It’s a lot to hope that Thorne will understand this, that his love for me is stronger than this, because Bayard’s right. The people who love you don’t leave, and that’s exactly what I did. I faked my death to leave him, and he’ll never know why. A spark rushes through me from my branding, a warm heat coursing through my body that jolts me forward. The shock of it makes my feet fumble under me, and I run into Bayard, knocking the torch from his grip. My breath hitches at the sudden darkness that stretches before me.

70 DAYS BEFORE ESCAPE
    MY BREATH HITCHES AS I SEE the outline of my father waiting for me at the end of a dark hallway in one of the lower levels of Headquarters. The branding on my neck tingles. Father is grinning, happy but devious. His blue eyes shimmer, and it chills me to the bone. Each step toward him feels as if it’s taking me further away from where I want to be. Each step makes my branding burn a little more .
    There’s a sudden jolt in my stomach, and I feel nauseous. It catches me so off-guard that I can’t catch my breath again. Thorne. His fear attacks me, this constant pressure washing over me. Where is he? What’s causing this? Thorne is never scared. Not like this. I look around the hallway, but there’s only my father at the other end .
    A scream echoes, barrels toward me. Pain spreads through my whole body, and I fall to my knees. I should get up, but nothing wants to move, muscles on strike and stiff. Fear and shock trample me. Thorne’s fear. Thorne’s agony. It’s like he’s dying, or I’m dying. The screams engulf me while I add my own to them, like a chorus. The sounds echo down the hallway-whether his or mine, I don’t know anymore. Then the pain subsides, but the fear and confusion are still very present. Thorne knows it’s coming again, and he’s terrified .
    “Look what I discovered, Cornelia,” my father says, pulling me to my feet .
    My fingers grip a large windowsill and my father’s arm as he holds me up to see. Thorne lies beyond the window, his arms and legs shackled to a table in a stark white room. There are poles and tubes running from his arms to a large machine in the ceiling .
    I yell Thorne’s name at the sight of him. Caramel eyes look in my direction, dark and glassy. His voice cries in low, steady groans, and then I read my name on his lips .
    There’s a noise, a simple buzzing, and a flicker of the lights in the hallway as the room he’s in fills with light. His body convulses. His wails are louder than before, and each one I mirror. The pain and fear are more intense than anything I’ve ever felt. The branding burns on my neck, but it’s so minor it barely compares to everything else. We connect more in times of intense emotion, and this is the strongest I have ever felt race through me. The emotions he’s feeling are so twisted and connected that my body is trying to process them, but it can’t. I can’t even think straight; everything is too jumbled. I want to run, but my body doesn’t seem to work. Burning waves vibrate through me-spreading and running through my veins. A constant piercing pressure, pulsing and throbbing. Fire burning through everything .
    “Please!” I beg my father. “Let him go.” It almost feels like it’s happening to me. I don’t know what he’s feeling or which emotion is the strongest, and that makes all this harder. I can’t take it from him. I can’t carry it for him. I can’t do anything except feel his terror and do nothing .
    Father’s stance doesn’t change, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes