The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Minds Novel, A) Read online

All the muscles in my body seemed to tense at once. When she and Liam had left, I’d felt…

  It didn’t matter what I’d felt. I had always understood they’d acted for Ruby’s protection. After her father had been shot shielding her from some hateful monster’s bullet while they took a walk through the park, the threats against Ruby had gone from being something to scoff at to something to actively worry over.

  Her father had survived, but Ruby’s faith in the world hadn’t. She had a power, and a control of that power, that set her apart from the rest of us. It put her at the very top of our food chain and ensured there would always be a bright red target on her back for everyone who feared her and what she could do.

  “You can rule out the government,” I said. “Don’t forget how many former Children’s League kids work in it. One of us would have heard about her capture or seen something come up in the various systems.”

  We had friends at every level of the government, in every department. Not to mention Nico had monitors set up in the system to flag anything like that. Plus, the government was the leakiest ship out there. You couldn’t keep the capture of the most powerful Psi secret for long. Someone’s ego would eventually demand credit.

  “I think they would have made an announcement,” Lisa said. “Ruby always said that the fact that she’d gotten away was more harmful to the government’s reputation than anything she could actually do to them.”

  “What are you thinking?” Miguel asked me.

  “I’m thinking…” I took a deep breath. “Is it a coincidence that Ruby goes missing and then someone targets me shortly after?”

  “There might be something there,” Jacob said. “The timing is suspicious, and the two of you are high-profile. It could be a message to the wider world—no Psi is untouchable.”

  It wasn’t just that Ruby was powerful, it was her story that mattered. She had completed the circle and destroyed the place that had held her prisoner. She was a symbol. Our symbol.

  I shook my head, frustrated by all the missing pieces. “She really didn’t tell any of you what was going on, or give any clues about why she was pulling back? Was she working with any of the kids one-on-one before she left?”

  “Owen,” Lisa said softly. “She’s been working with Owen. But he’s…fragile.”

  “In what way?” I pressed.

  “He’s a Red,” Jacob clarified. “Project Jamboree.”

  That brought me up short.

  “I want to talk to him,” I said, “if it wouldn’t be too hard on him.”

  “You probably won’t get much,” Miguel warned. “Owen is not what we’d call a talker.”

  “Would you be if you’d been subjected to that?” I said. “Not much is still more than nothing—”

  The sudden, sharp ring of a phone blasted through the room, launching all of us to our feet. Jacob let out an uneasy, awkward laugh, but still darted for it. “Betty Jean Pizza, can I take your order—? Oh, yeah. She’s here. Hang on.” He turned and held out the phone to me.

  With a deep breath in through my nose, I pushed myself away from the desk. I took the phone and unwound the coiled cord, drawing it back out of the Batcave and into the kitchen for a modicum of privacy.

  Even with another deep breath, my words still shook. “Did it even occur to you—”

  But it wasn’t Chubs.

  “Shut the fuck up and listen to me. I only have a few minutes before they realize I’m gone.”

  “No,” I shot back, “you listen to me for once, Vi. What the hell is going on? Ruby and Liam have been missing for two weeks and you didn’t think I would want to know? Don’t pretend like that’s brand-new information. Chubs tells you everything.”

  “Of course I know,” Vida said, her tone hushed. “What do you think I’ve been doing these last few weeks? I’ve been hauling ass all over this country looking for them.”

  I gripped the phone, ignoring the current of static that brushed over my fingers. My anger deflated, just slightly. “Did you find them?”

  “No,” she said. “Not yet. But I’m not calling about them—I’m calling about you. Are you all right?”

  “Not really,” I told her. Mel, Agent Cooper, the reporters…the memories cut through me like a hot blade. Admitting it was enough to bring tears close to the surface again. “But I’m not hurt.”

  “Tell me, as fast as fucking possible, what happened.”

  “You saw the footage?” I asked. “The angle—”

  “It was jacked as hell,” Vida said. “I’ve seen meth labs less suspicious than that camera angle.”

  The story burst out of me, the words rolling over each other in a rush to get out. “I have a phone. I took photos of the people who grabbed us—how should I get them to you?”

  “I need you—and those photos—to stay planted right where you are until I get there. Don’t send the files anywhere. I don’t care how secure their network is, we can’t risk anyone tracing them back to Haven.”

  “I want to do something more than sit here and wait…” I began, frustrated.

  Suddenly there were voices crackling in the background on the other end of the line.

  “I didn’t realize stupidity scorched retinas, Murphy,” Vida snapped at someone. “It’s a personal call. Give me a goddamn second. Yeah, to my dead mother. No, I don’t give a shit—”

  “Vida?” I said. “Vi?”

  “You still there?” Vida’s voice sounded thin, so unlike her. “I have to go, I’m sorry. Listen, I love you, okay? Don’t do anything stupid. Just stay where you are, and one of us will be there soon. Okay?” She paused. “Okay?”

  Nothing about that was okay.

  “I’m not going to just hang out while the killers are out there and Ruby’s—”

  The line went dead. The shock of the dial tone wormed through me, hollowing out my core.

  “I love you, too,” I whispered. I leaned against the kitchen counter for a moment, pressing the receiver to my forehead. Just as I set it down, I noticed a stack of newspapers on the counter.

  The top one was from a month ago, and featured a bold headline: CEO in Chief? I picked it up, reading the first lines: As corporate fixer Joseph Moore purchases another shipping company to add to his empire of cable, cars, and containers, his supporters make the case for him to fix the highest office in the land.

  I threw the paper down in disgust and turned back to the Batcave, where the three of them weren’t figuring anything out so much as arguing about it.

  “It’s not the craziest idea, if they’re trying to frame her—”

  “Frame who?” I interrupted.

  Jacob swung around, the hands he’d been using to emphasize his words falling back to his side.

  Miguel jerked his thumb toward him. “This adorable clown thinks we should bring in the two from the hole and see if they’re willing to tell us anything about the Psion Ring.”

  “The only problem with that is that I don’t think they were ever actually in the Psion Ring,” I pointed out. “I really believe their story was made up on the fly.”

  “I could question them,” Jacob offered. “See if they’re willing to ask me to stay, or about whoever Lana is?”

  “No,” Miguel interrupted, looking unhappy about the risks associated with that. “If they lied to Zu, they’ll lie to you. I can’t keep a secret from you, but, unfortunately, that superpower only works on me.”

  “We can’t keep them in there forever,” Jacob argued. “And while they don’t know exactly where the house is, I’m pretty sure they could figure it out now.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told them. “I thought Ruby might be able to help with that.”

  “You didn’t know.” Miguel shrugged.

  Lisa passed by his chair, bringing her face close to one of the monitors. She pointed to it—to the image of Roman waving his arms and Priyanka shouting something. “They wrote something on the ground….”

  Miguel swiveled back to the screens, sending the footage to t
he largest screen at the center. The film was grainy, but the words were still clear.

  TURN OFF THE PHONE

  “Shit,” Miguel said, unmuting the feed.

  “Turn off the phone!” Priyanka was shouting. “Turn it off!”

  “What phone?” Lisa said. “What are they talking about?”

  Miguel seemed to figure it out a full five seconds before the rest of us. He swept the cell phone I’d brought in off the charger. Its face glowed as it was turned over. He only needed one look at it to start breaking it apart. “Shit!”

  “Wait!” I cried. “The photos—!”

  The walkie-talkie on Jacob’s belt suddenly flared to life with crackle of static. “Jay? They’ve been going on for ten minutes—”

  I felt it then, the flare of sudden heat against my nerves, the electricity moving through the nearby wires as it intensified from a hum to a scream.

  A second later, Haven’s power shut off.

  IN THAT MOMENT, IN THAT darkness, no sound could possibly have been more terrifying than the clang of bells as the old-fashioned trip wires surrounding the house were set off.

  But then I heard a little girl scream.

  Miguel shot to his feet and started for the door that led outside. I caught him, holding him in place.

  “The generators—” he began.

  He was so much taller and heavier than me, I struggled to keep him in place until Jacob helped me. “We don’t know what’s out there.”

  “Yeah, and we won’t if I don’t get the cameras and emergency floodlights on!” he said, finally wrenching away.

  Lisa blocked the door, holding out both arms. “We don’t have time. You and I need to get the kids and get to the trapdoor.”

  “The power—” he protested.

  “It’s too late,” she barked, hauling Miguel toward the kitchen door. “Let’s go, while we still have time.”

  “Ben?” Jacob said into the walkie-talkie. “Ben! Anyone? Can anyone hear me?”

  He looked to Miguel in the darkness.

  “They must have something jamming the frequencies,” Miguel explained. “Which means—”

  “They’re well-trained and well-armed,” I choked out.

  “We’ve drilled for this,” Lisa said. “We need to wake up the kids in the tree houses.”

  “No,” Jacob said quickly. “We need to get them quickly and quietly. If we make a lot of noise alerting the kids, the intruders might attack immediately.”

  The agitation on Miguel’s face broke as he nodded, moving to pull pieces out of each server. He dumped them all into a bag that had been stowed beneath the desk. As soon as Lisa opened the door, I heard the confused voices of the kids upstairs. She cupped her hands around her mouth, calling softly, “Free Bird! This isn’t a drill! Leave everything!”

  In response, feet pounded down the stairs, heading our way.

  “The escape hatch is in the laundry, under the dryer,” Lisa explained to me, catching Miguel’s arm again as he reached the doorway.

  “I’ll get the kids in the tree houses,” Jacob said, looking to me. I nodded.

  “Please be careful—please,” Miguel said, returning only long enough to lock Jacob in an embrace.

  “I’ll see you soon,” Jacob promised.

  After one last long look between the two boys, Miguel followed Lisa out.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…the phone…” I began.

  Jacob gave a sharp shake of the head. “Even Miguel missed it.” Seeing my face, he gripped my shoulders. “You should go with Lisa and the others.”

  The horror blanketing my mind was ripped away by his words.

  I did this. I’d inadvertently brought the kidnappers here, and had been careless enough to think they wouldn’t track the missing phone. I wasn’t going to leave this place until every kid was safely away from whatever—and whoever—was coming for us.

  “No,” I said. “No, Jacob. We need weapons—”

  “They’re upstairs,” he said, already heading that way.

  The kids who had been sleeping in the bedrooms ran down the staircase as we ran up. Lisa was in the hallway, waving them forward toward the laundry, counting them off as she went.

  She called the last number just loud enough for us to hear: “Eight!”

  “Nine in the tree houses?” I confirmed with Jacob.

  “Four at the hole,” he said.

  A string of white-hot cusses streamed through my mind. The hole—Priyanka and Roman were either sitting ducks, or the safest of us all.

  We charged up into the attic. To Ruby and Liam’s bedroom.

  Their room hadn’t changed at all since the last time I’d been there—it was almost disarming. There was the same tufted green rug, adopted from Ruby’s grandmother; and along the windows of the far wall—the one where all the lines from the tree houses connected—were the striped curtains she had made for them. Aside from the desk, the two nightstands, the bed, and a bookshelf, there was no other furniture in the room.

  Which wouldn’t give anyone up here much cover, if it came to that.

  The last two of the Haven kids were waiting for us up there. Jen and another girl with raven-black hair had already pulled heavy weapons cases out from under Ruby and Liam’s bed and were assembling the guns.

  “What’s going on?” Jen demanded.

  Jacob dropped to a crouch beside them. I did the same, only I moved to the edge of the room’s enormous windows, the ones that overlooked the tree houses. I kept my back to the wall.

  “Is it a raid?” the other girl asked, unable to keep the note of fear from her voice.

  “No,” Jacob said, sliding a pistol over to me. “Something else.”

  A scream rent the air—somewhere in the darkness wood snapped, splintering loudly as it crashed to the ground. I moved onto my knees, scanning the shadows between the trees. “I don’t see anything—”

  Thin red beams of light pierced through the underbrush. Gun sights, sweeping up over the ground to the front of the house.

  “Take cover!” I shouted, throwing myself away from the wall. The two girls dove across the room and crouched defensively by the door. With a single sweep of his hands, Jacob upended the bed and bookshelves and sent them sliding our way, barricading us behind them.

  “We need to check out the back and make sure they don’t have the whole house surrounded,” he said. “Jen, you’re with me. Zu and Ana, I need you to stay here and cover us.”

  His voice disappeared beneath the battering hail of gunshots. They pierced the side of the house, spraying through the wood siding. Shards of glass and plaster whipped into a hurricane of sound and violence.

  “Did they make it out?” I asked, smoke and debris filling my mouth. “The house kids?”

  I didn’t hear any noise downstairs. They must have made it to the hatch. They had to have escaped.

  But the kids outside…

  The gunfire had stopped, but their screams hadn’t.

  “Help! Help me!”

  “Get out! Run!”

  My next thought sent a chill deep into my core. If the intruders wanted the kids dead, they already would be.

  “They aren’t going to kill them,” I told the others. “They’re going to take them!”

  Jacob crawled through the broken furniture, dragging a rifle after him. He braced it against the blown-out window’s frame, looking through the gun’s sight. A gash on the bridge of his nose sent blood streaming down over his face.

  I followed, bumping up against the other side of the window, the pistol gripped tight in my hand.

  “Can you get a shot off?” I whispered, craning my neck to see out of the corner of the window.

  He couldn’t. Not without hitting the kids being dragged out of the trees, kicking, scratching, hollering.

  “Why aren’t they using their powers?” I whispered.

  The other kids had to know these people weren’t friendly, and we could hear them trying to get away, even in the face of
the intruders’ guns. Something else had to be preventing them from using their abilities. Something we couldn’t see from up here.

  The men in all black—they looked like monsters. They’d painted their faces to blend in with the green of the forest, and their body armor was as heavy as any soldier’s going into war.

  Just like the men who had kidnapped us in Pennsylvania.

  Horror gripped me. This place…it had been Liam and Ruby’s dream, and I’d turned it into a nightmare. The evil had chased me here, and now it was going to infect the lives of these innocent kids.

  I switched off the safety and checked the cartridge, then slammed it back into place. I hadn’t felt the heavy, bitter kiss of a gun in my hand since I was a child myself, when Vida had given me the training no one else was willing to. After, I’d sworn I’d never hurt anyone, let alone kill them. There wouldn’t be any need. Not with the world we were creating.

  We wouldn’t need to fear every stranger and their intentions.

  We wouldn’t have to protect ourselves, or claim self-defense.

  We wouldn’t feel the cold brush of death on the backs of our necks every time we stepped outside.

  My hand tightened on the gun. You are not going to take these kids.

  “Where are you going?” Jen whispered as I approached the doorway. “Zu! You can’t be serious!”

  I shouldered past her, ignoring the protests of the others.

  It was almost like the soldiers had sensed it, like they somehow knew the exact moment to truly crush me.

  I only made it one step before the White Noise switched on.

  The same second I realized I was still on my feet, I saw that no one else was.

  The sound blared from speakers outside, enveloping the house like hurricane winds. It hummed and intermittently squealed. But it was just…there. Too loud, too aggressive in the way it invaded my skull, but there was nothing blistering about it.

  Not for me.

  Jen moaned, her legs curling toward her core, her hands jammed against her ears. Across the room, Ana was struggling to push herself up off the ground, swaying like she’d been drugged. A few feet away from her, Jacob craned his neck around, his face red and sweat-slick from the effort it took to push back against the White Noise.