The Taking 02: Hover Read Free

she’s going to use it as a weapon, and I try to push past Emmy, who seems to guess my moves before I make them, outmatching me with every step.
    “Let me go,” I shriek, growing angry and annoyed. The medication obviously hinders my reflexes as much as my emotions. “What is this? Why can’t they leave her alone?”
    Emmy eases me back, again shocking me with her strength and ability to move me without my realizing. “Quiet, child. Best turn an eye.” She has me a foot from my room, when something catches my attention to the right. Another room, directly across from mine, the curtain open, exposing a person covered from neck to toe in an ivory wrap, her arms locked to her side. A gasp escapes my lips, and I push Emmy hard out of my way, torn between getting to the room or helping Lexis. I’m almost to the room, almost to Cybil, when one of the men who held Lexis locks his arms around me from behind, squeezing so hard I struggle to breathe.
    “Release her,” a voice growls, and everyone in the room freezes. The Ancient drops me hard to the ground, and I scramble up, astonished to see Jackson standing beside him. I didn’t recognize his voice, so hard and authoritative, and now all I can do is watch him study the Ancient as though he’s deciding whether to kill him immediately or torture him slowly. “This area is restricted. As you were informed.”
    “Yes, sir,” the Ancient says. “The healers requested assistance with the human behind you. Then this one—”
    “I did not ask for an explanation. You were informed. Exit now.”
    I peek around Jackson to an empty hall, Lexis now gone, and my eyes flash with fury. “Where did they take her? And what’s wrong with Cybil?” I say to Jackson, ignoring Emmy’s gasp at my tone.
    Jackson hesitates, breathing in and out, calming himself with each release. “Let’s go. We’re now late for the assignation.”
    He leads me out the door at the end of the hall, down steps that seem to spiral forever, past an elderly Ancient at a large wooden desk, and then out an arched doorway and into the day. He never speaks the entire way, his jaw set so tightly I wonder if it’s locked in place. As soon as we’re a safe distance from the Panacea, I pull away from him. “What was that? What just happened back there?”
    “I’m sorry,” he says, as we step onto a pebble stone walkway lined with grass greener and thicker than anything we have back home. “You weren’t supposed to see them like that. I know how it looks. Cybil is bad off. They’ve been working on her for days now with little to no change. The wrap is supposed to pull out impurities from her body. And Lexis…she’s with some of the others who have been…difficult.”
    “What do you mean ‘difficult’?”
    “She’s resisted treatment, resisted housing. At some point, we have to contain high risks like her to prevent our kind from singling them out. It’s a safety measure.”
    I fight the urge to question his “safety measure,” knowing I’m too clueless about what’s happened to give a solid argument. All I know is that Lexis was petrified, and something about Jackson’s excuse doesn’t sound right. Either he doesn’t have the full details or he’s refusing to share them with me. I might have put up with his secrecy before, back when I was too concerned with losing everyone I loved to question him, but now, I have nothing to lose. I have no reason to hold back. So I turn on him, anger causing the veins in my head to pulse. “Enough with the shadowed talk. Tell me what’s going on. Right now. Not later. Now.” A hurt look crosses his face, and I have to glance away to maintain my anger. I hate looking at him like this, talking to him like this. I hate that it feels like we’re on opposite sides. I want him on my side.
    Jackson sighs, his face composed—patient—as though he’s dealing with a crazy person and doesn’t want to cause an episode. I guess he’s not too far off. I feel