We catch those fallen th.., p.1
We Catch Those Fallen (The Lost Defiants Book 2), page 1
We Catch Those Fallen
The Defiants Book Two
Yolonda Kay
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter One
Trying to disregard the way my head throbbed and my hands trembled, I tightened the string of the glittery black and silver lace mask concealing my face from everyone else for the evening.
Then I stepped out from behind the partition concealing me from the hundreds of people who'd gathered in the first-floor ballroom of Hegiralon Towers.
The air in my lungs burned deep down. Bit by bit, I forced myself to walk across the marble landing to the balcony railing at the top of the ballroom's grand staircase.
On the ivory quartz-speckled ballroom floor below me, innumerable guests chatted and danced merrily to the upbeat tune echoing across the enormous room.
The music rumbled loud enough to vibrate the railing beneath my clammy palms. The band had set up directly below me, tucked into the recess of the curved double staircase.
Every woman wore graceful and fancy ball gowns in a rainbow of bright, vibrant colors. The men sported suits in various shades of white and tan.
While I stood at the top of the balcony, it took several minutes for me to convince myself to join the crowd. Everyone in the room was happy, zealous to celebrate the occasion.
Everyone but me.
I wanted to run back up to my apartment and lock myself in my room. But I couldn’t. Tonight, I was the trophy; the center of attention for everyone important to Hegiralon City high society to stare at and talk about for a while.
My breathing became shallow, and my tongue turned into cotton.
“Brinya!”
I exhaled, trying to calm my somersaulting stomach before waving at my mother, who stood at the base of the staircase, gesturing for me to join her.
Her excitement abounded by the way she twirled around, spinning the mermaid tail of her red dress as she danced beside my father.
The feathery masquerade mask over her eyes matched her dress and my father’s tie, which looked sharp against his beige suit.
Father glanced up the stairs. Then he, too, waved me to join them.
Forcing myself to stand upright and stop using the verandah as a leaning post, I gripped the balcony rail a little tighter before pushing back with all my weight. With another deep breath, I took a step, hoping to keep myself from fainting.
“Here goes nothing,” I whispered to myself as I headed for the stairs.
Time to play the obedient trophy and give them all something to talk about.
Throwing my chin up defiantly, I grabbed my lacy skirt, holding the hem up just high enough so I wouldn't trip while descending the steps. My dark-brown ringlets flicked against my neck as I sauntered down the staircase toward my parents.
At the bottom, my father’s mouth fell open a little at the sight of me. My mother adjusted her mask to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, then bit down on her bottom lip and cleared her throat the second I stopped in front of her.
I offered a feeble smile. “Mom. Dad. The two of you look nice tonight.”
Mother tugged at the nape of her neck, presenting only a pathetic excuse of a pleased chuckle.
The way her face flushed revealed her humiliation, and she didn’t even try to obscure her dissatisfaction with me. Her hazel eyes, which looked green in this light, were too busy scanning the room to see how many others had shifted their focus to me.
“As do you, daughter.” My father wasn’t much more convincing, his voice strained as he glanced around. Finally, he turned back to me, a concerned expression consuming his face, causing the green eyes peeking from the holes in his mask to become somewhat misty. “Brinya, sweetheart—”
Mother took a firm hold of my arm and pulled me tightly against her tense body. “You didn’t tell me you were having the dressmaker make your dress”—she struggled to say the next word—“black.”
I glanced down at the black gown I had ordered especially for this occasion. “You never asked.”
“I expected something bright, something cheerful. This is your Nuptial Celebration Ball, after all.” Her eyes bored into mine as she spoke, no longer concentrating on everyone else around us.
People were still dancing and talking, but I, too, noticed how many curious eyes were glancing in my direction. As I had intended, my dress astonished everybody.
Even Addie and the governor’s mouths sagged with shock as they eyed me from across the room. Then, before my mother could display any more of her displeasure, Caleb appeared at my side.
He took my hand without asking and offered my parents a faint grin before escorting me onto the dance floor.
I went along willingly to avoid causing more of a spectacle than my entrance already had. My goal was quiet insubordination, not outright rebellion.
Still, the difficulty of pretending to be fine with my current situation and act happy as Caleb pulled me tightly against him for a dance set my teeth on edge.
My feet followed him, moving to the beat of the slow melody, without my gaze ever rising to his face.
“Are you trying to prove a point, Brinya?” he asked, his tone taut.
“Simply dressing for the occasion.”
“You’re not grieving an expiration,” he replied curtly.
“I imagine I’d feel the same way if I were.”
Venting his palpable frustration, he exhaled and dropped his voice. “Okay, Brinya. Your past glitches allowed you to be more emotionally inept than most of us, but for your sake, I suggest you get on board with this. It's time you accept things as they are.”
“I have,” I spat.
I bit my tongue, trying to control my anger while glancing at the floor under my feet. I didn’t want to be here, but I also didn’t want to instigate another argument in this particular venue.
“We’ll be married in just a few weeks,” he reminded me in a bitter tone.
“You think I don’t realize that, Caleb?” I hissed with considerable derision.
“I will not have my partner disrespecting me, Brinya. Not in public. Not in private. And definitely not in actions carried out behind my back. I thought we agreed to… tolerate this…”
“Tolerate?” My whole chest clenched.
If that was what we were both doing, why did this seem so much harder for me than it was for him?
His grip around my waist tightened, and he pulled me snugly against his gaunt chest. Caleb had always been lean but never this boney.
There had to be something wrong. He was much too thin recently, particularly in contrast to the inexplicable strength he’d been able to display these past few months.
It was almost like he’d had Vigortech implanted, the advanced gene app his parents could’ve never afforded, but it wasn’t possible. I’d known Caleb all his life—long enough to know the only advanced Genotech in his body was Intellitech.
For a second, it bothered me, stirring to life my fears about the administration getting their hooks into him, but then all concern vanished. His conduct at the moment made me too mad to care, much less voice such worries.
“You will not embarrass me or the seriousness of our upcoming union in front of all these people,” he hissed. A rainbow of light shimmering down from the festive globe lights overhead caught in his golden locks. “You know what this joining can do for me and my family, especially for our standing with the Technocracy.”
He cast an eye over the room. Briefly, he focused on Governor Parker, who stood chatting with Controller Reed, the undisclosed Secretary of State, across the room.
When his yellow eyes came back to mine, however, I noticed Doctor Nora Chandler staring at us from the appetizer and beverage table in the corner of the hall.
“You might think this union will elevate your family’s status, Caleb, but at what price? Look at yourself.” My eyes burned as my attention dropped to his hand on my waist. His veins hadn’t gone dark yet, at least not noticeable through his skin, but every day, it made my chest ache to know someone had gotten their hooks in him. He wasn’t a Nightbringer—at least not yet—but what he’d become wasn’t much better. “You’ve changed. You've changed because of this attention that the elite Grays are giving you right now.”
“Oh, please.” He chuckled.
“It will come to an end, Caleb. And when it does, what will you be left with? A crumbled friendship. An unhappy union. Is it really worth it?”
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“You don’t mean that.” A barbed knot climbed into my throat. “The Caleb I knew would never mean that. What about your theories about how they treat the Azures or that they only care about advancing the richest of Grays with the best Genotech? Do you really think they’re going to forget what family or social rank you came from just because you marry me?”
He scowled.
My stomach spiraled while I wondered if he’d ever given much thought to what I worried about day in and day out.
“Have you ever wondered why they would partner the two of us?” I asked. “Don’t you ever wonder if they paired us for a reason, Caleb?”
Almost nobody knew their partner before the mandate announcement. The fact Caleb had been one of my best friends since childhood and then, on a seemingly pure stroke of chance, got named my partner didn’t seem all that coincidental to me.
A thin, empty grin crept over Caleb’s face. “The reason is because we’re a match that works in the favor of Climoflyer-1’s best interests.”
He’d just voiced my worst fear.
“You know, Brinya, it really would be a shame if anyone noticed how resistant you are to me. How disagreeable you are to this union that the Technocracy has ordered between us.” He sneered. “And all these wild ideas you keep getting that are making you resistant… Well, it’d sure be a shame if anyone important discovered that you’re acting this way because of a certain little adventure you went on—an adventure that got you a copy of the Founders’ Doctrine.”
“You’d never—”
“It’s treason against the Technocracy for anyone to have that book. Rule number four, remember it?” His shoulders stiffened. “No citizen is allowed to read the Doctrine except for the administration until they make it public. You know the punishment for treason can be high, Brinya.”
My brow rutted as I glared at him.
“I’d say, at the very least, if any of the leaders discover that you have that book, it might send a red flag that you gained perfection accreditation by cheating somehow.”
My knees went weak in the face of his threatening grimace.
“You forget that I know everything about you, Brinya. Things that others could use against you. Addie might believe you when you say your glitches cleared on their own, but I know better. You did something to gain your accreditation.”
From the way his emotionless yellow eyes narrowed on mine, he was still trying to figure out how I’d done it.
“Is that a threat, Caleb?”
“Only if you make it one.” His voice softened as the flat line of his lips relaxed. “I’m still hoping you choose the most pleasant route. That you realize that I’m your best option for blending in out here—and you mine.”
Aghast, I stared down at the rounded toes of my pumps as we continued to dance. I desperately wished to be anywhere other than in this ballroom. I wished I could be with anyone else besides Caleb.
Or, at least, this Caleb. Domineering and unkind. The Caleb that I’d been stuck with as my partner for the past eleven months. So unlike the Caleb I had always known. More like the Nightbringers I saw when I closed my eyes at night.
“I wish you’d just see this for what it is—our opportunity to be tolerably content.”
Tolerably content. Wow.
My insides wilted as weight settled on my heart. I wanted so much more than a relationship I could merely tolerate. I wanted to be more than just content with someone.
It hit me like a tram car that the ideals of our society weren’t completely wrong. The belief of equality and peace were admirable, but nobody with glitching tech—someone like me—could deal with this and keep their sanity.
The fact that my parents, who couldn’t possibly know my heart the way I did, got to select the sex of my life partner right after getting me out of the growth pod made me detest the whole process.
The Technocracy could espouse their choice and make the final pick under the laws of our society, without reprieve.
I’d heard of a few fortunates appealing who they’d been partnered with to the technocrats for various reasons over the years, but even those lucky few couldn’t change their birth-selected partner’s gender without going against #3 of the 20 Unbreakables.
And nobody wanted to face treason charges to try. Not when everyone whose embedded gene applications worked correctly was a complete panromantic, indifferent to not getting a choice. I shuddered when Caleb’s hand came to a rest on my back.
“You’ve been accredited as having flawless tech, guaranteeing your place in our society. That’s what you wanted.”
My gut churned as I remembered back to when I was that girl. I was grateful that I was no longer her.
“It’s time you accept you’re not as defective as you once thought. At least for all appearances.” A muscle in his jaw twitched as he brushed a strand of my hair away from my face and whispered in my ear. “Better start accepting your life in this city or else you’ll regret it. I’m dealing with this situation the same as you.”
Right. His torture. The fact that he kept acting like this was as hard for him as it was me made my blood boil.
I’m not going along with this charade for you or the genetically perfected destiny of Earth, I thought with revulsion.
There wasn’t much we could do to help Earth—the Doctrine had revealed that, crushing my hopes for reacclimation. But I had my reasons for tolerating this, none of them to ease Caleb’s qualms. Whatever they were. Our personal issues were minor in the face of those that were more pressing.
My only regret was going along with this farce for as long as I already had. But I had to. Time just hadn’t been on my side. My wedding day drew nearer with each new dawn, and there were answers still to be unveiled.
My heart sank, but I didn’t let it show. Every muscle in my back stiffened. I had more of a desire to stare at my shiny black heels than have any reminder of the carefree friendship we’d once shared.
But I couldn't help myself. Each time he threatened me, deep within, my resentment toward him amplified. Right now, my agitation had reached a boiling point. But then, without warning, the great memories we'd shared as kids came creeping in, causing more angst than anger.
My eyes burned and strained; crying became a real possibility. Thankfully, the slow song we had been dancing to suddenly transitioned into an upbeat jam, and the moment was gone.
“Remember, the eyes of everyone here are on us.”
“Not like I could forget,” I said as I leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
It was all for show, of course. I’d already taken note of the number of high-ranking members of Climoflyer-1’s elite who were watching us during our dance.
They were scattered all over the ballroom, in all four corners and at every table. I didn’t know half of them, but I couldn’t trust any of them. I had to keep up the charade by any means necessary.
Caleb drew in a surprised breath, and his vacant gaze shifted to delight beneath his mask. I tried to ignore my mother’s cheerful squeal from across the room.
And I pretended not to notice the way Addie’s mouth dropped open as she tried to keep her unruffled, solemn stance beside her father and a group of his associates.
Instead, I lingered, refusing to pull my lips away from Caleb's cheek without whispering one last message. “Just so you know, I miss my friend Caleb Kent, the guy who would’ve never threatened me.” I paused. “And to think, you used to consider yourself pathetic back then.”
He sucked in a frustrated breath, his stiff posture telling me he was insulted by my insinuation as I backed away. “Like you know my motives for anything, Brinya.”
As I weaseled my way through the horde of masked celebrators crammed onto the dance floor, his eyes drilled into my back. It only took a minute or two for me to make my way to Addie.
She stood diligently at her father's side by the glass-sculpted fountain overflowing with red punch. The sight of it made my stomach crawl, a reminder of the blood that would spill here in a few months if the Climoflyers’ self-destruction couldn’t be stopped.
Addie smiled, though it gave the impression of an involuntary twitch as she directed me away from her father by pretending that she wanted something from the beverage table. I followed, watching the tips of her ginger hair brush her shoulders as we navigated the floor.
“What is it?” I adjusted the mask over my eyes as she poured some punch with berries into two dainty glass flutes.
