Hal grumbled but leaned into Barrett, who was shorter but easily held his friend up. I followed them out, watching them walk down the hall before turning right. Hal didn’t say goodbye. I was starting to think I would never be able to say goodbye to him—glowing wrist or not.
THE REST OF THE DAY, I STARED AT THE HOLOGRAMS AND WORRIEDabout Hal: the pain he was in and how I could do nothing to help. The first few paintings were landscapes that went quickly. After my midday meal, I pulled up the next piece and instantly felt paralyzed.
A woman with dark, free-flowing hair and a unibrow stood topless, white bandage-like wrappings above and under her breasts and twice around her midsection. The background was barren earth and an indigo sky. Her face looked determined, but the thing that held my gaze was the tear down her middle, revealing a fractured column where her spine might be, ripping her in two. I looked closer to see countless small metal nails piercing her skin. An involuntary shiver snaked up my spine.The Broken Column.I felt transfixed by the woman’s evident pain, the impassive glare in her eyes that confronted the viewer, the gaping hole for all to see. I just sat with her for a long time.
The usual ding signaled the end of the day. I tore my eyes from her and hitdelete. I typed some notes in my report before I gathered my things and resurfaced. My anxiety trailed behind, lurking. The sun was close to setting as I exited the atrium.
I found Lo alone by the Pods. “Hey,” I called out, making my way to her. I hadn’t seen her in almost a week. “Are you okay?”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Lo mumbled as we moved forward in line.
“Do you want to ride back together?”
Lo shrugged. We stood next to each other in line, an odd silence between us.
We scanned our wrists as we boarded the Pod. I sat beside her as the Pod took off. Lo sat staring blankly ahead, leaving her hair in a plait. Was she that stressed about Gregory?
In seeing Hal, my thoughts had quieted, and unease settled within me as an eerie silence blanketed the Pod. None of the women looked at their Comm Devices. No one talked. They all stared blankly ahead like Lo.
I turned toward Lo, fully taking her in. Her blue eyes looked glazed, her sunshine hair was haphazardly braided, pieces falling out, and her clothes were wrinkled. I had never seen her look so unkempt. My unease thickened.
Everyone around me had the same glazed look, and I realized what had happened to the Minors.
I had been so distracted with what might be happening underneath that I hadn’t paid attention to the surface. The balance Tabitha had preached entailed sedating the Minors into submission.
I grabbed my Comm Device and pulled up Collin’s name. I began to type but stopped. Collin hadn’t reached out since the murder, after I had told him he had chosen wrong. I wanted to ask him about it, but he could be behind this.
I deleted the message, noticing the gold light that filled the Pod in the dark. My mating was on full display, but no one whistled. No one even looked.
Except one, a woman wedged between two drugged Minors. Her hair was pulled back in a bun. Her eyes locked with mine, alert and assessing. She looked down at my wrist and then up at my mismatched gaze. She smiled, winking at me, and every hair on my body stood on end.
The Pod stopped at our living quarters. Two Minors and Lo exited without a backward glance. I hurried after them but froze on the threshold.
“The supplements.”
I whipped my head toward the woman with the clear eyes, but she stared straight ahead. “Doesheknow?” I whispered, afraid to say the Reaper’s name aloud.
“Of course he does. Now run along, pet. They’re watching you.”
The reason for their behavior slammed into me almost as hard aspet. I was so stupid. I hadn’t been taking the supplements, but they all had. My HI had said they planned to alter my supplements to calm me. None of them would have gotten the same information. This was more than calm—they were drugging the Minors.
I chased after Lo, slipping between the closing doors of the elevator. The woman’s other statement burrowed into my chest. I was being watched, but which side was watching me? Both of them? I had never seen her in the transportation Pods before. Suddenly, Hal’s declaration that there was a vulnerability in being known sent my mind spiraling. How many spies did the Reaper have? How big was this operation?
The doors opened and Lo walked off. I followed her down the hall and into her living quarters. It wasn’t until the door fully closed that I approached her. The room was smaller than mine, facing Low Town.
“Lo, listen to me. Are you taking the supplements daily?”
She didn’t blink. “Of course.”
“Lo, you have to stop taking them. They did something to them.”
“We have to, Emeline.” Lo gazed over my shoulder. “I have to make this mating work.”
“This is more important than a Mate. Don’t take them,” I urged.
Lo grunted as she scanned, and the automated voice filled the room as she walked to her wardrobe filled with only gray. She stripped, throwing on gray leisure clothes.
I glanced toward her black boxes and counter space to find trays and empty stimulant cups everywhere. “I’m going to pick up.” I gathered the trays and consolidated them as the first box dinged. “I’ll bring it to you.”
