Species Traitor: A Science Fiction Dystopian Novel by Kate Mary (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“Finn,” I whispered, wishing I could grab his face, but I was bound and helpless. “Look at me, Finn.”

It took him a second to comply, and even when he finally tore his gaze from Dean and focused on me, the fire raging in his eyes barely eased.

“Don’t do anything stupid. Just cooperate. Promise me?”

He nodded, but his body was so stiff his head barely moved.

“We’ll be okay as long as we cooperate,” I said.

Dean laughed, and the sound made my entire body jerk. “If Mayor Waters is smart, she’ll put the whole group of you in front of a firing squad. Honestly, it would be too good of an end for species traitors, even if it did solve our problem.”

I turned to face him and spit out, “Did you always feel this way, or is it just because I dumped you?”

Dean’s mouth curled into a nasty-looking sneer. “You never know when to keep your mouth shut.”

He moved so fast I didn’t see it coming, swinging his pulse rifle up and slamming the butt into my face. It made contact with my cheek in a sudden burst of red-hot pain, and I dropped. I barely registered when my body hit the hard ground, barely heard the shouting over the ringing in my ears and the pain throbbing through my skull. My head was spinning, but I had to roll onto my side because my bound hands prevented me from lying on my back. Ione knelt next to me, her lips moving as she sobbed, her own tied hands making it impossible to help me. Finn’s voice was loud even over the ringing in my ears, but I couldn’t decipher the words.

“Back off, Johnson. Now!” A new voice broke through the noise, and a second later Brentwood’s frowning face replaced my cousin’s. “Are you okay? Ava?”

I shook my head and had to close my eyes when my brain seemed to throb against the inside of my skull.

Hands pulled me to a sitting position, and I opened my eyes. Brentwood was still next to me, but Dean was nowhere in sight.

“Take a breath,” the guard said.

I did, trying to get my head to clear. It took a couple seconds, but once it did, I was able to take in my surroundings a little better. I could see the hundreds of people being ushered toward the gate and out of the District, all of them bound. All of them human or half-human. Species traitors just like me.

“Can you stand?” Brentwood asked.

I nodded and allowed him to help me to my feet. Not until I was up did I realize Dean wasn’t the only one gone. Finn and Ione were missing, too.

“Where are they?” I asked, searching the crowd, trying to spot my cousin and Finn even though I knew it was futile.

“Dean took them. Don’t worry. They’re okay,” Brentwood said.

My stomach knotted as I thought about Ione, pregnant and scared. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to be together. I was supposed to protect her.

“I promised,” I said, turning my gaze on Brentwood. “I promised Ione I’d stay with her.”

“Right now, Ava, you should be more worried about yourself.” His expression tightened, almost like he’d caught himself saying too much. He looked around before leaning closer, lowering his voice. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but your name is on a list of humans who are not only species traitors but have also committed treason.”

I blinked, not sure what he was saying at first. When realization hit, it felt more violent than the blow Dean had given me. “Because I saved Arch.”

“The mayor wants to make an example of a human traitor,” Brentwood said. “Live.”

I swallowed, thinking about how my mother had seen me on the viewing screen. There would be no way to deny what I’d done even if I thought Mayor Waters needed evidence to convict me, which everyone knew she didn’t. Even better for her, I was recognizable. A familiar face to fuel her supporters’ hatred.

“What’s going to happen to me?” I asked, almost afraid to learn the truth but once again finding it impossible to stay quiet.

“Brentwood!” someone shouted. “Get your ass moving!”

The guard took my arm, his grip firm but not forceful as he pulled me to my feet. “I don’t know. I wish to God I did, but I don’t.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Brentwood ushered me toward the gate, and in seconds the crowd of prisoners had engulfed us. Even after we’d left the District, he didn’t release me. No one else was being personally escorted—at least not that I could see—but I wasn’t sure what that meant, if Brentwood was being protective or if he had orders to bring me straight to the mayor. He’d been almost helpful recently, which made it that much more difficult to guess what I was facing. Not that I cared, because despite my worry over my own circumstances, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ione. Couldn’t stop searching the crowd for her, straining to find her short, round form among the dozens of other people.

Even spotting Finn, his head poking out from the shorter humans and half-humans around him, didn’t give me comfort, because when I searched the faces of those surrounding him, Ione was nowhere to be found. Where was she?

It was the middle of the night, but someone must have tipped the public off to what was going to happen, because the streets were crowded. People yelled as we passed, hurling not just insults, but objects as well. A human woman a few feet in front of me was struck in the side of the head and would have gone down if not for those around her. Somehow, despite their bound hands, the other prisoners managed to keep her on her feet.

The hatred I’d felt radiating from other crowds had nothing on this one. They were furious, their shouts ringing through the air and throbbing with volatility until it felt like