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“No,” I whisper when I see Ayden’s face contort with pain. I run to him. I can’t help myself. I have to somehow free him. This has to stop right now!
Mr. Collins turns and sees me, and at first, he looks utterly horrified. But that quickly changes, and a look of intense rage spreads across his face. His eyes flash with loathing, and his hands clench into fists as he moves to block my path.
“What are you doing here?” he hisses. “You have no business being here. Do you understand me?! Get out of here this instant and don’t you dare speak a word of this to anyone. If you do, I swear you’ll regret it!”
His words echo through the room like whip lashes, cutting through the silence and leaving no doubt about how serious he is.
I slowly shake my head. “Release Ayden first. Then I’ll say nothing to anyone.” Right now, it’s the only thing I care about. His torture has to end now.
“You have a nerve trying to dictate conditions to me! You’ll be lucky if I don’t have you expelled for trespassing. It’s a mystery to me how you even found us. Did Ayden tell you about this room?” He cocks his head and scrutinizes me. “I find that hard to imagine, especially since he has no idea what happens to him down here.”
So it’s true. This is where Ayden submits himself to those trials that leave him so wrecked. Now I understand why. Every time he comes down here, he’s subjected to unbearable pain.
I clench my fists and walk past Mr. Collins with resolve. “If you don’t do it, I will!”
At first, he’s so stunned that he freezes for a few seconds. But his paralysis doesn’t last long. He lunges at me, and as I touch Ayden’s cheek and whisper his name, his father grabs my arm.
“I’m not going,” I hiss, tearing free of his grip. “There’s no way I’m leaving him here.”
“Oh yes you are, you’re leaving right now!” Mr. Collins yells, reaching for me again.
There’s a brief scuffle, during which I manage to slip out of his grasp again. As I dodge the principal’s hands, I trip and knock out one of the tubes. My heart skips a beat. I look at Ayden and see him begin to stir. The life is returning to him; he’s regaining consciousness. And as that happens, the full force of the pain hits him.
“Get him out of that thing right now!” I scream at Mr. Collins as I watch Ayden try to free himself from the nightmarish machine, still racked with agony. He’s moaning softly, but his voice is growing louder.
His father actually moves to help Ayden free himself from the device. He’s now screaming, and I can’t bear it.
I put my arms around him and say soothing things to him. “It’ll stop soon. It’s almost over.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch the principal remove the last of the tubes. His brow is furrowed with anger. I know I won’t get away with this. But that’s irrelevant at this moment. All that’s important is Ayden and getting him out of this room somehow. His body is still twitching, and his breathing is ragged. The pain fades only slowly, but at least he’s coming around. His hand goes to his brow, then he lifts his head and looks around. When he sees me, his eyes widen.
“Tess, what are you doing here?”
“Getting mixed up in things that are none of her business, again,” Mr. Collins hisses. He folds his arms across his chest. “But you went too far this time, Miss Franklin. The Council won’t let this go unpunished.”
“Are you saying the Council approved this perverse ritual?” I ask, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. Fortunately, my fear is far outweighed by my rage right now. But I try to rein that in too and make sense of this weird experiment. What exactly was happening to Ayden? “What were those images? I’m guessing Ayden doesn’t know about them. You fed him a bunch of lies about what goes on in here.”
I can feel Ayden’s horrified gaze on me, then he looks at his father. “What’s she talking about? What’s going on here?”
Mr. Collins purses his lips and shakes his head. “You know what we’re doing here, and you know that your little friend here has a problem with it. She doesn’t understand how important this is for us. She wants you to stop the trials.”
“Ayden,” I say, kneeling down in front of him so that I can look him straight in the eye. “You told me they were trying to increase your odeon down here. But what I just saw didn’t look anything like that. There was this … projected image in front of you … voices. I recognized Noah’s voice, and I saw … another guy.” Luckily, I stop myself in time before admitting in front of Mr. Collins that I know Noah’s father. “I assume he was another Noctu.” I point at the apparatus set up around us. “This was attached to your eyes and seemed to be extracting the image from you somehow. I can’t explain how that’s possible, but that’s what I saw.”
I pause for a moment to consider something. Could it be true?
“Your father said you’re the only one who can do it. You can somehow see through his eyes, Noah, your twin brother. You’re connected to him in some way, and this device taps into that.” I slowly turn to Mr. Collins. “You knew all this time that Ayden’s brother was with the Noctu, and you exploited that.”
I stare at him in disbelief. His expression darkens. I’ve never seen so much hate in his eyes.
“You don’t seriously believe that?” Mr. Collins asks.
Ayden turns to me, searches my face for the answer, and finds it. “That’s why it’s so important for me to do this before the raids. So you could get information out of me.”
Mr. Collins just stands there and lets Ayden’s words echo through the room. He still seems to be resisting the situation and searching for a way to salvage things between him and his son. How could a father – even an adoptive one – do something like this to his child? I can’t comprehend it.
“How did you figure out that my brother was still alive? How did you track him down? And what I really want to know is: how did you know to try this procedure?” Ayden’s voice is increasing in volume. He struggles to his feet and takes a few steps toward his father. “I trusted you, and you used me. You’ve been lying to me all these years. I was basically just a snitch.”
“You’ve got it all wrong, Ayden,” Mr. Collins says in an attempt to soothe his son. “We originally used this procedure, as you call it, to find out whether your brother was still alive.”
