Page 71 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

“It’s not her fault,” Cyan says, moving close to me. She takes my side and I appreciate that.

“It’s not,” I say. “I didn’t let him do anything. But the link is there and I know you’re torturing him. I can feel it!”

I feel Uzi inside me. It makes me sick. I don’t know why. I’ve always loved it before. But Cyan kicks him out. She’s there now. She has a special place inside me. She fills me up and makes me complete. She begins probing and poking. Looking for things she feels entitled to.

But there’s a trick us illusionists learn early. We did it in the classrooms at Prodigy all the time. If there’s someone in your head without permission, you can kick them out using another, stronger mentalist to take their place.

And normally I have no one I can use. Uzi and Cyan have been coming and going inside my head for so long—it’s been just us for so long—I’d forgotten what it was like to replace them.

But now I have a third option. And he’s much, much stronger than the two of them put together.

Now I have Thomas.

I call for him. He’s weak, but he’s still a level ten. The only level ten I’ve ever heard of. You don’t have to be strong to take a mind. You just have to know the tricks.

I call again and this time I feel his attention on me.

“Stop it!” Cyan says.

“Get out of my head.”

“Don’t let him in there, Sadie. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

I call again. “Get out of my head!” I say. This time it’s loud. “Or I will let him in.”

Cyan retreats. Uzi doesn’t try to take her place. They both stare at me—open-mouthed—like I have lost my mind.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Sade?” Uzi yells.

“Just calm down,” Cyan says, grabbing Uzi’s arm to hold him back.

I clutch the towel around my body and turn away. They follow me, still demanding answers.

I realize I don’t have any clothes. I was wearing a nightgown when I woke up. “I need clothes,” I say. “And then I want to see him.”

“No,” Cyan says. “That’s absolutely not going to happen.”

“Yes,” I say back. Forcefully. “It absolutely is. You’re torturing him. And as long as he’s in my head, I won’t stand for it.”

Then I do something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I trip them. I trip them both. I make them see me as Thomas. The way he looks right now.

I don’t know what he looks like right now, but that’s the beauty of my power. I make people see what they know to be true. I don’t have to know what people look like to turn myself into an illusion of them, I just need a face.

So they see Thomas.

“Stop it!” Cyan yells, yanking my arm. “Why are you doing that? What the hell is wrong with you? Did he brainwash you?”

“You’re sick, Sadie,” Uzi says. “You were with them too long.”

And that stops me for a moment. The word… them. My illusion snaps and I’m Sadie again. “With… them? Who is them?”

“He means the Alphas. They did something to you. That green gas. Iziah has been complaining for days now too. He’s—”

“Where is Iziah?” I ask, forgetting Thomas and the way they’re torturing him.

“He’s resting,” Cyan says. “He’s not feeling well today so he’s resting. He told me to wake him for dinner. And that’s what we’re gonna do now, OK?”

She starts out speaking harshly to me. But her tone is that same soft voice of love and compassion by the time she’s done.