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

Our eyes met, and without thinking, I took a step toward her, but a guard shoved me back into the group.

“Stay in line,” he barked. “Keep moving.”

I had no choice but to comply.

The hood shadowed Lena’s face, but I could feel her gaze following my progress as I put more and more space between us with each step I took. Even once I’d left my sister behind, I couldn’t stop looking over my shoulder, and I was still staring at her when a guard stopped at her side.

I recognized Dean despite the helmet covering his face and winced, thinking about him branding me. About Lena watching it happen and now being forced to interact with him. His cruelty seemed to be never-ending.

He was still talking to Lena when I finally lost sight of her.

The gate came into view, wide open and more inviting than anything I’d ever seen, and the crowd began to move faster. Soon, I was being pressed forward, the people making it impossible to go anywhere but toward the District. Not that I had any desire to go somewhere else, but the thought of finally leaving my sister behind once and for all caused an ache to spread through me.

Still, there was nothing I could do about it, and I found my thoughts once again turning to Finn. He was still missing, and no matter which way I looked, I couldn’t spot him in the sea of swirling people.

In seconds, I was inside the District, and I somehow managed to extract myself from the crowd while Ione was swept away. She disappeared from sight, but only for a second. Then I spotted her in Rye’s arms, the two of them hugging like they’d thought this moment would never come. Around them, other families were reunited, but still there was no Finn. I searched the faces of the people rushing by only to be disappointed again and again.

Where was he?

By the time he finally appeared toward the back of the crowd, I was wound as tight as a knot. I let out a sob of relief as I pushed my way through the throng, calling his name, and ten feet still separated us when he turned. He moved to meet me, throwing his arms around me when we met and lifting me until my toes barely grazed the ground.

“Are you okay?” we both said at once.

He pulled back, his beautifully unhuman eyes sweeping over my face and down my neck to the still throbbing brand. “I’ll kill him.”

I grasped his hand, which hovered over the mark, and gave it a desperate squeeze. “Don’t even think it. Understand? You saw what Mayor Waters is capable of.”

Finn hugged me against him again. “Watching that happen to you made me want to kill them all.”

“Stop,” I said, the word barely a whisper.

I swallowed, forcing my tears down, and pulled back to wipe my cheeks as I took him in. He looked as bad as I felt, his face bruised and a cut below his right eye, as well as another on his lip. His wrists, too, were covered in purple scabs and cuts, and there was a scabbed area on the top of his hand where his chip had been implanted.

“What happened to you?” I asked. “Where were you?”

“Being interrogated.” Finn looked toward the now closed gate.

I followed his gaze to find three soldiers watching us.

He stiffened.

“Come on.” He took my hand and pulled me deeper into the District. “We need to find my mother.”

Melora was waiting at the first staircase, and when she saw Finn, she let out a sigh of relief.

“My son,” she said when he stopped in front of her. “I was so worried.”

“I’m okay.”

Once she’d assured herself he was in fact okay, Melora turned to me. “Ava. I am so sorry for the things you have had to endure for us.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’d do it again. A hundred times over.”

She gave me a sad smile.

“We need to see Anara,” Finn said, drawing her attention to him. “The humans interrogated me. They wanted to know where the group was trying to go.”

“What did you tell them?” his mother asked.

“They—” Finn’s body stiffened, and he swallowed. “They tried to torture me, but they didn’t know how much pain Veilorians can withstand. I told them I didn’t know. That they must have just been desperate and stupid.”

I gripped his arm, horrified by the thought of what they might have done to him.

Melora rested her hand on his cheek. “You did well, my son.”

“It didn’t matter. They knew things already. They must have gotten some information out of the humans before they were put to death.” Finn’s expression twisted with emotion. “They know another ship came with us, but they don’t know where it landed. That was what they were trying to get me to tell them.”

“But you did not?”

Finn shook his head, and I could tell there was something else eating at him. As if he knew something dark and terrifying.

“This is only the beginning,” he said, the words stiff as if he had a difficult time getting them out.

“We knew it would be so,” Melora replied.

Finn swallowed. “It’s much worse than we thought.”

“Tell me,” his mother urged.

“The mayor wants to stop humans and Veilorians from procreating. Not only does she want to terminate all pregnancies”—I gasped, but Finn still didn’t look my way—“she wants to sterilize every human living in the District.”

The words slammed into me, and I cried out, “She can’t.”

Finn still didn’t look my way. “You know she can.”

He was right.

His mother barely reacted to the news, and I wondered if she’d expected this outcome all along. Thinking back to everything Mayor Waters had said during her campaign, I shouldn’t have been surprised. She wanted everyone living inside these walls gone, after all. Not just the Veilorians and half-humans, but species traitors like me as well.

“Did you learn anything else?” Melora asked her son. “What of the half-Veilorians who escaped with the others? They were