As usual, I’m confused at what she’s talking about. “Can you tell me why you’re supposed to?”
“Not yet,” she says. “But soon.”
I sigh. I wish she could just tell us what we’re supposed to do instead of letting us know she knows. Things would be so much simpler. “What were you doing back in that building?”
She stops skipping and her eyes light up with excitement. “That was a school. They teach the children how to read there.”
“They teach people to read here?” I ask, stunned.
She nods her head with enthusiasm. “They teach lots of things Kayla. It’s different from our colony where the Highers are always controlling things and hiding things.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I tell her. “Since they don’t have Highers here.”
The sound of yelling suddenly interrupts us. I wonder if this is why Maci brought me back here, to hear something. The yelling is coming from around the corner, in front of the building. I start to take off to see what the commotion is about, but Maci grabs my arm and draws me back.
“You need to stay here,” she tells me. I shake my head, worried it’s the army or something, and then I begin to pull away. “Kayla, listen to me,” Maci says. “You have to stay here. They’re yelling because of you.”
I listen to the yells and suddenly I comprehend what she is telling me. They want to lock me away because they’re afraid of me.
“They don’t hate you,” she says sadly. “They just don’t understand you. They don’t know how important you are.”
“I hope you’re right,” I mutter, trying to block out the hateful words from the street, but it’s hard.
“I am,” she says simply.
The yelling continues for a while and then their voices suddenly fade. I hear Mathew speak, telling everyone to quiet down.
“We can go out now,” Maci whispers quietly, motioning me to go.
I cautiously make my way back to the front of the building and find Mathew standing on top of the steps of the building. Sylas is standing beside him with his hood remaining over his head because there’s still sunlight. The people in the crowd are all staring at Sylas as if he is some sort of a monster. I can tell by the look in their eyes what they’re feeling. Fear. They want to kill Sylas. And possibly me.
This is bad.
Mathew is trying to calm them down, but the colony members are still uneasy. I take a deep breath and start to walk towards Mathew and Sylas. When I step out from the corner, many people turn in my direction and the crowd begins to murmur again. I ignore their angry looks and walk with my chin held high up the steps and beside Sylas. He glances at me and then discreetly moves his hand over and slips his fingers through mine.
“Everyone needs to calm down. Sylas and Kayla are not responsible for what happened. I wasn’t attacked by them.” Mathew’s voice echoes over the crowd. I wonder what the hell he’s talking about. “Sylas is the one who saved me from Aiden. He went up against his own brother to protect me,” Mathew explains and my eyes widen in shock.
What did I miss?
Sylas must sense my panic because he squeezes my hand, and even though I hate to admit it, it slightly calms me down. Mathew steps down to the bottom of the stairway and into the crowd of people. He immediately gets bombarded with questions about what happened; where the other one is, what he’s going to do about the problem. They look at us every time they say problem and it irks me to my very core.
“What is going on?” I whisper, leaning in towards Sylas.
“I guess Aiden put thoughts into people’s heads and made them do things,” he whispers back. “He tried to get me to attack Mathew, but was surprised when I didn’t respond. When his little gift didn’t work on me, he tried to get me to tell him why. I honestly have no idea why it didn’t work on me, but the next thing I knew, he bit me... He was able to see my thoughts.” He swallows hard with his head bowed down. “He knows that you changed me back, Kayla.”
I notice there are a few drops of blood on his jacket; however the wound on his neck has started to heal, barely two specks.
“And it gets worse,” Sylas continues. “His bite made me black out for a few minutes and that’s when he attacked Mathew. I managed to pull him off before he bit him and then he ran off… with the papers.” He pauses, shaking his head at himself. “I don’t get it… I used to be so much strong than him, but felt so helpless… he took out the guards, too…” He shakes his head again and tips his chin up, keeping his eyes angled from the sun. “He’s different. Stronger than anything I’ve ever come across. I think he might really be working for the Highers.”
I swallow hard, wondering why I felt Monarch lying to Gabrielle when he clearly was telling the truth. The crowd starts to break up and Mathew walks back up the stairs towards us with a strange look on his face that makes me tense even more.
“I think I know the reason he attacked me,” Mathew says as he reaches the top of the stairway and stands in front of us.
“Because of the papers,” I say. “I think that the Highers have him brainwashed somehow.”
Mathew shakes his head. “Not brainwashed.” He pauses, gazing out at the sun descending below the mountains. “Aiden’s changing into a Higher.”
“What!” Sylas and I both cry simultaneously.
Sylas inches closer, anger surfacing in his expression as he dares to look up from the ground just the slightest bit. “How can you be so sure?”
Mathew shuts his eyes, puts his hand into his pockets and then takes a piece of paper out before opening his eyes. “I managed to read quite a bit before he stole the papers… I even had this one in my hand when he attacked me.” He unfolds the paper. “Monarch says on this one that he messed up on subject 409, a boy named Aiden. That he broke the DNA… put too much of injection 7 in him…” He trails off as Sylas and I gape at him, having no idea what he’s talking about. “Right.” He stuffs the paper back into his pocket. “To make a long story short, Kayla is the only perfect soldier. As much as Monarch tried, he couldn’t create anything like her. He had a few failed attempts where he created something else—something almost perfect—yet filled with one flaw, greed. A Higher; and Aiden was one of them he messed up on.”