Human Bait

Chapter 53: Flies and Rabbits

An hour later, Serigg slumped over the desk in Rekkan's room, face in her hands. "I can't believe any of the Sentries would Implant Zhina. The first four were violent and divisive, but Zhina... she was our stronghold. Our voice of reason."

Rekkan's shoulders shifted up and down against the headboard behind him. "Not everyone likes reason."

I sat cross-legged beside Rekkan and flipped through the pages of my mother's book with trembling fingers. Though I had almost memorized the words by now, each passage landed differently knowing the writing was not my mother's. The conversation between my new teammates interlaced with the words dancing before my eyes.

Serigg — "Uzmed certainly doesn't like reason. And he always hated Zhina."

The Seven Sentries = humanity's only hope.

Rekkan — "Yeah, but Ivogg is the one who spent the night in the lab."

More successful trials required before mass experimentation.

Serigg — "And we can't cross Mekkar off, either. He is exactly the kind of coward who would try to dispose of a problem without getting his own hands dirty."

Recommended course of action: exterminate. Exterminate, like the Implanted were simply mice, or...

Rekkan — "Yeah, like with the flies."

I glanced up from my book. "Serigg, will you come look at this writing? Maybe you will know whether Mekkar could have written it."

Serigg shifted onto the bed and scooted close enough to see the book. Her drooping eyelid twitched as she studied the note. Then she dipped a hand into her pocket and withdrew an engraved bracelet.

"The writing is similar," she said, "But I don't think the slant is the same."

I blinked at the engraved name, carefully scrawled into molten metal on the wedding day. Mekkar.

"You still have the wedding bracelet?"

A little shrug, too quick, too casual. "He still has his, too."

"But you said Mekkar might have taken you away from the Headquarters to kill you."

She swallowed and pocketed the bracelet. "It's possible, but I still..." 

"You still love him?"

"I don't know." A strange kind of humor strained her voice. "That's strange, isn't it? Some days, I wish I had never met him. Other days, I wonder if I should have told him to stay. If he could have learned to love this ugly face, and we could be as in love now as we were twenty years ago."

Rekkan's head swayed to the side against the headboard, and he raised a brow at Serigg. "But he failed you. He abandoned you. How could you move past that?"

"He made mistakes, yes, but..." Her eyes flitted to Fluffy's jar on the bedside table, and her voice dropped quiet. "Rekkan, I made mistakes, too. I abandoned you. And I told Zafaru he should leave you, too. I told him you were dangerous."

His eyes fastened to her for several silent seconds. Then, carefully-measured words: "You weren't all wrong."

Her droopy eyelid glistened. "You were made to feel that way. I made you feel that way."

"What way?"

"Like something was wrong with you. Like you were unworthy of love."

Rekkan licked his lips. Opened his mouth. Shut it again. Never before had I seen him so defenseless, so confused, so... childlike. Remembering Fennikk's words, a rush of protectiveness squeezed my chest.