They try to feed me, but I only sip a little juice. Awareness creeps back, then slips away. Then again it returns, but not much else.
Silence.
The hum of the engine fills the air.
Finally, my eyes stay open longer. The glucose from the juice helps. I blink and stare blankly.
The world slides past the windows: fields, colorful meadows, houses. But inside my head there’s just… this void. My whole body is numb, indifferent. I only know we escaped, but all my memories from this place are like distant dreams, the kind you wake from only to feel them dissolve with every heartbeat.
Or maybe I don’t want to remember them, for a simple reason: I hate horror movies. And what surfaces now and then, faint shadows of the past, feels exactly like that: horrifying. Pain. Fear. Terror.
I shift my gaze to the two escapees with me in the car.
One of them is Ragnar, my older brother. That I know. But his twin, Moon, is missing.
Where is he?
Ragnar is the one who came into that hell and pulled me out of the fortress during the FBI raid, and… he also saved another prisoner.
My eyes land on him. It’s another alpha, but not like a typical one. He’s beautiful. His golden hair shines in the flickering light. It’s Sun, and I know he’s my brother’s fated mate.
We’re going to Sun’s home now.
The knowledge feels implanted in me, but I have no recollection of a situation where somebody actually told me all this.
They don’t talk much.
They’re tired too. Well, no one escapes hell looking rested and happy, right? Their bodies show bruises, their clothes areripped, their hair is tangled. I’m no better. I’m in a filthy, torn T-shirt, and dirty shorts. I clutch the blanket tighter around me, trying to hide it all. My hair hangs in limp, sad strands around my face.
Will it all ever make sense?
Who knows. For now, I don’t even want to start remembering, because everything seems to hurt. Light, voices, touch, trying to speak. Ragnar and Sun have already asked me questions, but I can’t… I just can’t answer.
About half an hour before we reach our destination, we stop at a gas station.
When Sun heads to the bathroom, Ragnar turns to me and says, with a serious, worried face,
"Summer, I know you’re in shock right now. You’ve been hit with a heavy dose of some drug meant to mess with your memory, but there’s one thing you need to hold on to: safety. Because of what you can do, because of your power, you have to staylow-key. Do you understand?"
I stare at him. What? So who am I? Am I dangerous?
Ragnar lets out a breath. "Please, Summer. Don’t show people you can’t trust what you’re capable of. If it gets out, it could lead the mafia straight to us again."
I stare at him wide-eyed. His words try to scratch at my memory, but it barely works. Still just faint flashes.
A shadow of a family home.
A lonely life, being homeschooled, endless secrets.
Thesecret.
My power.
And what comes with it…
Isolation.
The worried faces of my parents lean in, and I hear similar words that were drilled into me:Never reveal your power to anyone! Because they’ll come. They’ll take you. They’ll treat youlike a freak, a monster. The military. The government. And then the experiments will start. They’ll never let someone like you live free…
