Resist (The Harvest Saga Book 2) Read online

  He looked over at me and then quickly away. I slowed my pace and looked around. We were headed toward my cabin. Lulu’s and mine. No. They took it?

  “Please tell me it’s not what I think.”

  “I can’t tell you that. It is what you think.”

  “Do they have to take everything from me, Kyan? No wonder they threatened my head. It’s one of the only things I have left to take. They took Lulu, my freedom, my freaking eggs!”

  “Shh. Calm down. We’re close. You don’t need any trouble. You’ve got to steer clear of the guards. Period.”

  He pulled me further down the trail that my feet and Lulu’s had worn over the past fifteen years. I remember being so small, with sticky fingers and chubby toes, running up and down this very earth.

  The ‘guard station,’ better known as my cabin, was buzzing with activity. Male Greater guards, all clad in black entered and disappeared inside, while others exited and made their way along different trails. I was glad we weren’t about to encounter any along the trail again. Nope. This was much worse. We were heading straight into the hornet’s nest. Lulu always told me that anything worth doing was worth doing right.

  Golden hair gleaming in the midday sun, Kyan’s warm brown eyes met mine. “Keep your eyes down and your mouth shut.”

  I nodded.

  As we approached the porch that I’d scrubbed my entire life, I immediately noticed the mingled clumps of old, dry dirt and freshly caked mud tracked all over it. I could feel my lip twitch. The Greaters respected nothing. Kyan stopped short of it and waited. I stood beside him with my head tilted down, eyes fixated on my shoes.

  A moment later, a guard exited the cabin. “State your purpose.”

  “Kyan Marks, sir, with Abigail Kelley. The council has requested that she be placed in a work team immediately.”

  “Fine. Place her on the paint crew. They’re at the depot today, but I’m sure you already know that.”

  “Yes, sir. I will see that she gets there.”

  “Dismissed.”

  With that, Kyan turned and tugged me along behind him. We took the path to our right, toward the depot. When we were out of earshot, he said, “I have some work to do inside. I have to arrange for some supplies to be delivered. But I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  “Don’t. I have to do this on my own, Ky. Don’t forget your promise.”

  He stopped and blew out a breath. “I won’t. I just. Damn it, I just worry about you. And I know you don’t want to hear it, but I love you, Abby Blue. I know how you feel about him, but I don’t care. I love you.” He scrubbed his stubbled jaw.

  “I love you, too, Ky.”

  “No. Don’t say that anymore until you actually mean it the same way I do. I know you love me as a friend. But you know that I’m in love with you. I promise you that I’ll hear those words come out of your lips one day, but until you mean it, don’t you dare say it again.”

  I looked away from him. I was on the verge of bursting into tears. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

  He pulled me in for a brief hug. “Don’t be. I just need you to know.”

  I nodded. We started down the hill toward the depot. I could see the team painting. I wasn’t close to any of them, but that didn’t matter. The guards standing at attention all around the depot told me we wouldn’t be conversing anyway.

  Being on the paint team sucked. It was beyond frigid outside. My hands were frozen. They shook as my brush traveled left and right across the beams of wood constructing the depot. Kyan kept watching me from inside. He would hover at the window occasionally, pretending to do something. He was going to get us both in trouble if he didn’t stop hovering.

  I know he missed me while I was gone. I missed him, too. I was terrified. When I was taken, I wondered if I would ever see him or home again. Kyan had always been my rock. He was a big part of my home.

  His profession of love this morning wasn’t a surprise. Inwardly, I wished he’d find someone who felt the same way about him. My heart ached for Crew. I felt like I left a chunk of my heart in Olympus, the city I’d grown to hate, the home of the boy I’d only begun to love.

  I know he said he would get the girls out. He promised he would do the right thing. But I knew his father and the influence that man had at his fingertips. President Cole drugged his own son. What else would he do to him if he learned that Crew was working against him? I hoped he never found out where I was and that it had been Crew who arranged for my escape.

  A cold chill shook me and dried leaves stirred and danced at my feet near the base of the building. Even the guards were shivering. They blew warm breath into their cupped hands and shifted on their feet. Their guns were hanging by their sides, no longer pointed in our direction intimidatingly.

  All afternoon, no one spoke. Afternoon turned into evening and the silence stretched on. But the more the guards relaxed, the looser their lips became. It wasn’t long before we knew that they were assigned here indefinitely, that most had wives waiting back at home in Olympus. No children were mentioned.

  One of the older women working along the back wall of the depot started coughing violently. She gasped for air and dropped to her knees. “I can’t do this anymore,” she choked out.

  A guard approached her. “Get up. Get back to painting.”

  “I can’t. I just can’t,” she croaked in between bouts of coughing. Tears flooded her eyes.

  “Get up! Now!” he roared.

  She shook her head.

  He stepped up to her, a challenge present in his dark eyes. “Are you resisting?”

  “If refusing to get up is resisting, then yes.” She met his cold stare with a determined one of her own, tears dripping off her chin.

  He scowled then barked, “Take her away.”

  Two guards stepped around him, flanking the now-sobbing woman. Each grabbed one of her elbows and began trying to get her to stand up. She refused. So, they dragged her away. Her boots dug into the earth, dust billowing up behind her. She didn’t cry or scream, just refused to go quietly. She refused to cooperate. She resisted.

  Most people on the team continued to paint, watching from the corners of their eyes as the entire thing unfolded. I was shocked. I stood, frozen in my own thoughts at the building’s corner. Where were they taking her? What did they mean by resisting?

  “Why aren’t you painting, Lesser. You should mind your own business before you get what she’s getting.”

  A lanky guard who stood nearby noticed my still paintbrush. He looked a little older than me after he pushed his stringy black hair out of his eyes. They were mostly gold, but showed a little green along the edge. It looked as if he hadn’t shaven in days. He scowled and stepped closer, now clutching his gun.

  I averted my eyes and began moving my paintbrush back and forth against the wood. Eventually, he moved back with his friends, but I could tell he was keeping his eye on me. So much for not drawing attention to myself.

  Nightfall came far too soon. I was dressed in the suit that my father insisted that I wear, sitting in the seat that he demanded I occupy, waiting for the woman he was ordering me to marry in three days. There was no way I would marry her. Unfortunately, I had not been able to find a way out of the situation yet. I would have to find a way to delay the ceremony.

  I sipped from the curvy glass of water, the ice tinkling happily along the side. Even it mocked my predicament. The door to the small dining room opened and a young lady, my new intended, stepped inside. She was dressed in a light pink gown that delicately grazed the floor.

  Father had mentioned that she looked like Abigail. Cocking my head to the side, I watched her walk toward me, graceful step after graceful step. I suppose in a way, she did look like Abby. Her hair was dark brown with reddish streaks. But it wasn’t as intense and richly colored like Abby’s. This girl’s was more muted, washed out. Her body was lithe like Abby’s but not from hard work. It had been engineered that way; it was manufactured. It was fake. Abby was real.

 
“Hello. I am Marian.” A slight smile stretched over her soft lips.

  I stood, meeting her outstretched hand with my own. “Hello, Marian. I am Crew.”

  “It is very nice to meet you, Prince Crew.”

  She bowed her head slightly. I returned the gesture. This dance was already getting old. Over dinner, we exchanged superficial question after superficial question. She was two years younger than I, an only child, had excelled in all of her secondary education courses and was eager to marry. She and her mother had begun all of the “important” wedding preparations, but she still hadn’t found “the” dress.

  When we were finally finished eating, I escorted her out of the palace.

  “Prince Crew, would you like to go for a stroll. I know it is cold, but my home is not far from here. The fresh evening air would be lovely.”

  I nodded once. “Sure. I suppose it would be nice to get out for a few moments.”

  I offered her my arm. She accepted without hesitation. We strolled through the intricate gardens that now lay dormant, seemingly dead and brown with vibrancy lurking just beneath the surface. It was nature’s greatest illusion. It was amazing how alive they would become in a few short months, hiding behind a facade of death for the winter.

  Once we exited the palace gate and strolled along the road, she tugged me across the street quickly and into a darkened alleyway. I followed the clacking of her heels into the dark abyss that swallowed us both whole. “What is going on Marian?”

  “Look, I know you do not want to marry me. I do not want to marry you either, but you have to do it. I do not have long to explain. I know everything. I know what happened with the Lesser girls, with everything.”

  I was taken aback. “What? How do you know such things?”

  Marian took a deep breath and began talking quickly. “My mother is a nurse. She knows what your father is trying to do. It is wrong, Crew, and we have to stop him. I will help you, but I can help you better if we’re together. Marriage is the perfect disguise.”

  I swallowed thickly and asked, “How can I trust you?”

  She leaned into me, “Senn said you might ask me that. He also said to give you this.”

  She held out a piece of folded up paper and I quickly tucked it into my inner jacket pocket. I blew out a breath.

  “We only have a moment, but please trust me Crew. I want to help. I promise. If we can help those girls and somehow stop your father from causing any more damage, a short marriage, in name only, is the least we can do. You have to stop him. I can help you. Let me help you.”

  I nodded. “Fine. I suppose I will have to trust you until you give me a reason not to. Please do not let that happen, Marian.”

  She fixed her eyes on mine. They were wide and innocent. “I will not betray you, Prince Crew.” She was either telling the truth, or was a very skillful liar.

  “You know you are scheduled for the procedure, right?”

  “Yes. My mother was notified today.”

  “How are you going to stop it?”

  “I’m not.”

  Raking my hands through my hair, I paced in front of her as she leaned against the building. “What do you mean you are not going to stop it?”

  “I want a child. This is the only way I might get the opportunity to have one and I will not pass it up. Don’t ask me to do that. Just know that I will help you. I promise.” Tears blurred her eyes.

  “I understand. I am sorry for being callous. I do not know what it would be like to be barren.”

  She sniffed and said, “It is okay. I have accepted it. I am actually happy to have the procedure, and I only hope that it is successful.”

  Offering her my arm again, we walked out of the dark alleyway and down the sidewalk toward her home. Trust was not something that came easily to me, but something in Marian’s eyes told me that she would not betray me.

  After we had strolled through the dark evening toward her house, Marian and I decided that she would postpone her procedure until after the wedding. She would be sore and did not want to ruin her wedding day. It would be rescheduled a few weeks later, providing she still wished to have the procedure at that time. I understood her need, her want of a child, the one thing she could not have.

  I was seated at my desk combing through messages that my father or his cronies insisted that I be involved with when a light knock sounded at my door. “You may enter.”

  Gretchen stepped inside. “Are you sure about this, Crew?”

  “Yes. I am sure. I am ready.” I pulled my coat on.

  Gretchen shook with nerves. She was brave, but bravery did not remove all of the fearful feelings one wrestled with internally. I had a feeling we would all need a heavy dose of bravery to face the future that lay ahead of us. We made our way down the servants’ hallways, low-lit back staircases and out into the dark night. Slipping beneath the palace into the cellar and then into the tunnels was easy. It would be the return journey that would prove more difficult.

  We emerged into an alleyway, slipping quietly from shadow to shadow. The outskirts of the city, the Lesser section, was appalling. Trash and dirt littered the ground. Shacks made of any material they could find dotted the shantytown, which smelled of feces, decay, and squalor. It was almost officially winter. I could not imagine how horrific it smelled after being baked in the hot summer sun.

  Gretchen made her way to a small, wooden shack and knocked on the door. Shadows and light danced from behind the warped wooden door. Gretchen spoke quietly with someone beyond the door and motioned me forward. I stepped onto the porch, its boards creaking underfoot.

  Disappearing into the tiny hut, Gretchen held the door for me to enter as well. Laney was seated at a small table. Gretchen held hands with a girl I recognized as being from Wheat Village.

  Laney looked horrible. Her blonde curls were loose and dirty, dark rings floated beneath her once vibrant eyes. She looked up at me and the defeat I saw in her entire person disappeared, instantly replaced by fierce anger.

  She stood so quickly that her chair overturned, but even the sound of it crashing against the plywood floor did not even make her flinch. She marched over, stopping directly in front of me. I did not even see her hand move. The crack sounded like that of lightning before the flesh of my cheek caught fire. “You. How can you even show your face here? You’re the reason that we are here, that they’ve taken everything from us!”

  “I─”

  “No. I get to speak. It’s my turn. You lied to everyone. You pretended to be one of us and then had them drag us away for your harvest.” It sounded like the very word was poison on her tongue.

  Tears spilled out of her eyes and streaked slowly down her face. Her fists beat my chest, hard and frantic at first, then slower and slower until they stopped. I held her while she cried. “Shh. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I know now that it was wrong. I was wrong. But I will make it right. I promise.”

  “How can you possibly make this right?”

  Gretchen’s voice filled the room. “By joining the resistance.”

  Gray paced the floor in front of the fireplace. He never paced. Something was wrong. “Gray?” He paused and looked at me before continuing to wear a path into the floorboards. “Gray, please. What is it?”

  Gray blew out a breath and then sat down on the couch and patted the seat beside him. “Come here. You should know something. I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell you, but I’d rather it come from me than from someone else, like one of the Olympian guards.”

  I smiled slightly. “You are an Olympian guard.”

  He elbowed me gently and handed me his comm. On it was my worst nightmare. It wasn’t Norris or the Preston’s. It was Crew. He was dressed in a fine, white suit, a golden crown upon his head, waving in the camera’s direction. His other arm was busy. It was wrapped around the slender waist of another girl. It was an engagement announcement. Crew was engaged to be married. It promised more details in the very near future.

  I read the arti
cle again and again. It just wouldn’t stick. Or, maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want it to stick, didn’t want to admit that it was real, that kept me from absorbing the facts contained therein.

  Gray was patient. He sat beside me. He didn’t push me to speak, didn’t ask if I was okay. He knew. He knew that I didn’t want to speak and that I was anything but okay. I was devastated, torn in two, and stomped into the ground. He sat with me until I handed his comm back and quietly told him to go home because he had to work the next morning. He wouldn’t get enough sleep as it was.

  Gray didn’t protest. He gathered his things, shrugged his coat on, gave me one more lingering, concern-filled look, and then disappeared into the darkness outside the front door.

  So many emotions rolled through me; anger, denial, sadness, envy, and more anger. I couldn’t believe it. If I hadn’t read the words and seen the picture on Gray’s comm, I wouldn’t have believed it. I should have known this would happen. His father was dead set on controlling his every move, every aspect of his life. When he sent me to the Lesser section of Olympus, told me I was infertile and therefore, not a suitable match for his son, the Crown Prince, I should have known.

  I sat on the edge of my bed and clutched my chest while I remembered the bolded words. I only wished I had been caught up in a dream. Reality was always more brutal.

  Crew was engaged to be married. He would be getting married to a beautiful woman who was a much more beautiful version of me. Our hair was a similar shade of dark auburn. Her smile was stunning. Standing beside her, Crew looked smitten. He’d looked at me like that.

  How could he move on so fast? If his father did orchestrate the union, why did he look so happy in the picture? Did he ever really love me? Did he even know the difference between love and infatuation? Did I?

  Either way, Crew was engaged to someone else. In the near future, Crew would be joined with this woman. They would be a pair for the remainder of their natural lives. I looked at the smooth silver encircling her slender throat and wondered if he had engraved her ring with the symbol of infinity, the symbol of forever, the symbol he had given me.