“Let’s get settled before we keep talking,” he says. “This is a long conversation, and it’s an important one.”
“Let’s have it now,” Aaron says.
“Yes,” Kenji says angrily. “Now.”
“She tried to murder me,” I say, finally finding my voice. “Why would you bring me here? What are you trying to do?”
“You’ve had a long, difficult journey,” Castle says. “Iwant you to have a chance to get settled. Take a shower and eat some food. And then, I promise—we’ll give you all the answers you want.”
“But how can we trust that we’ll be safe?” I say. “How can we know Nouria isn’t trying to hurt us?”
“Because,” she says steadily, “I did what I did to help you.”
“And how is that plausible?” Aaron says sharply.
“It was the only way I knew how to get a message to you,” Nouria says, still staring at me. “I was never trying to kill you—and I knew that your own defenses would help protect you from certain death.”
“That was a dangerous bet to make.”
“Believe me,” she says quietly, “it was a difficult decision to make. It came at great cost to us—we lost one of our own in the process.”
I feel myself tense, but otherwise betray no emotion. I remember the day Nazeera saved me—the day she killed my assailant.
“But I had to reach you,” Nouria says, her dark brown eyes deep with feeling. “It was the only way I could do it without rousing suspicion.”
My curiosity beats out my skepticism. For the moment.
“So— Why? Why did you do it?” I ask. “Why poison me?”
Unexpectedly, Nouria smiles. “I needed you to see what I saw. And according to Castle, it worked.”
“What worked?”
“Ella—” She hesitates. “May I call you by your real name?”
I blink. Stare at Castle. “You told her about me?”
“He didn’t have to. Things don’t stay secret for very long around here,” Nouria says. “No matter what The Reestablishment has you believe, we’re all finding ways to pass messages to each other. All the resistance groups across the globe know the truth about you by now. And they love you more for it.”
I don’t know what to say.
“Ella,” she says softly, “I was able to figure out why your parents have kept your sister a secret for so long. And I just wanted t—”
“I already know,” I say, the words coming out quietly.
I haven’t talked to anyone about this yet; haven’t told a soul. There’s been no time to discuss something this big. No time to have a long conversation. But I guess we’re going to have it now.
Nouria is staring at me, stunned. “You know?”
“Emmaline told me everything.”
A hush falls over the crowd. Everyone turns to look at me. Even Haider, Stephan, and Nazeera finally stop talking amongst themselves long enough to stare.
“She’s kept in captivity,” I say. “She lives in a holding tank, where she exists almost permanently underwater. Her brain waves are connected to tidal turbines that convert the kinetic energy of her mind into electricity. Evie, my mother, found a way to harness that electricity—and project itoutward. All over the world.” I take a deep breath. “Emmaline is stronger than I’ve ever been or ever will be. She has the power to bend the minds of the people—she can warp and distort realities— Here. Everywhere.”
Kenji’s face is a perfect encapsulation of horror, and his expression is reflected on dozens of other faces around me. Nazeera, on the other hand, looks stricken.
“What you see here?” I say. “Around us? The decay of society, the broken atmosphere, the birds gone from the sky— It’s all an illusion. It’s true that our climate has changed, yes—we’ve done serious damage to the atmosphere, to the animals, to the planet as a whole—but that damage is not irreparable. Scientists were hopeful that, with a careful, concerted effort, we could fix our Earth. Save the future. But The Reestablishment didn’t like that angle,” he says. “They didn’t want the people to hope. They wanted people to think that our Earth was beyond salvation. And with Emmaline they were able to do just that.”
