The Cage (The Cage 1)

“I wasn’t going to leave you!” she stuttered. “Please, Leon, keep your voice down. Don’t wake the others. . . .”

“I saw you out there with that black-eyed bastard. I was under the boardwalk. I heard you say you were going to escape and he would help you.” His voice bellowed. A light turned on in an upstairs bedroom, and Cora cringed.

“It’s true—I do know the way out, but I’m not leaving without you. Why do you think I’m still here?”

Rolf appeared in the house’s doorway, the military jacket slung over his thin bare chest, Nok behind him. Anger twisted their features. They tumbled out of the house just as Mali came down the trail, a few minutes too late. Her eyes darted to Cora’s, heavy with warning.

“What are you doing here?” Nok yelled. “They’re taking away my baby because of you!”

Cora straightened. What was Nok talking about?

Mali leaned close to Cora. “I cannot convince them. They strongly dislike you.”

“Yeah—I figured that out,” Cora whispered back. “I was right about the ocean, but we have to leave tonight. Cassian’s distracting the other Kindred.” She glanced at Rolf, who scooped up one of the croquet mallets. “But we’ll have to get through them first.”

“If it comes to this I am ready.” Mali cracked her knuckles. Cassian had said that Mali was an incredible fighter, so she might be able to handle Rolf, maybe even Rolf and Nok, but not Leon too.

“Where’s Lucky?” Cora asked.

Nok tossed her pink hair back, narrowed her eyes. “He left. He couldn’t stand to be here anymore after you tried to kill him.”

Cora chewed on the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t leave without Lucky. Maybe they weren’t soul mates, maybe they’d hurt each other, but she owed him this one thing.

“Things have changed, Nok. I know how to get us out of here. We can leave tonight, if you’ll just come with me.”

“Escape?” Rolf shook his head. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? There’s no way out of here.”

Leon paced in front of her. “Oh, she’ll be just fine. She’s got the Caretaker on her side. I heard it myself. He’s protecting her. She kissed him, right out in the ocean.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. Cora couldn’t deny it. In their eyes, she was already the enemy, and this just distanced her even further.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nok said, breaking the tension. “Serassi gave me a device I can use to reach her, in case there’s a problem with the pregnancy. It’s in my bedroom. If you leave, I’ll raise the alarm. Not even the Caretaker will be able to help you.”

Cora looked to Mali desperately, who cracked her knuckles a few times, stretching her neck like she was warming up for a fight. Rolf was blinking up a storm, fingers tap-tap-tapping, one eye wincing like his head throbbed.

“I’m not letting you do it, Cora.” He pressed his hands against his temples. “They’re taking away our baby because of your violent outburst with Lucky. They’re taking away all the artifacts from Earth, because you used one as a weapon. If you try to escape now, they’ll think we’re too rebellious and take away the habitats, or the shops, or chain us up.”

Rolf hefted the mallet and started for her. Rolf, quiet little Rolf, who Cora was certain hadn’t hurt a fly before.

Mali cracked her knuckles one more time.

“Wait!” Cora scrambled against the movie theater wall. “Wait! If the Kindred aren’t going to let you keep your baby, don’t you want to raise it back home, where it can be free?”

“Freedom doesn’t mean anything.” Rolf clenched his jaw, as though a bolt of pain ripped through his skull. “We were free at home, and we were miserable, all of us. You want to send me back to those bullies? You want to send Nok back to the tiny apartment where she was a glorified prostitute? I won’t let you!”

Glorified prostitute? Now it all made sense—Nok’s lies and evasions about her life in London. But before Cora could think, Rolf raised the croquet mallet. Time fractured like a kaleidoscope. Mali sprang forward to stop him, but Leon lunged with a growl. They rolled to the ground, clawing at each other. Nok jumped back just before the two of them trampled her.

Cora was left facing Rolf, the boy who was once here in her place, bullied to the point of near death. He raised the croquet mallet.

“Karl Crenshaw!” she screamed, throwing her arms over her head. “Karl Crenshaw hit you with a cricket bat and nearly killed you. Cricket bat, croquet mallet—it’s the same thing. Is that who you want to be, Rolf? A bully? A murderer?”

His eyes were blinking like mad, the muscles in his jaw twitching, but the croquet mallet paused above his head.

“That’s not you,” she continued in a rush, fighting against her own throbbing head. “That’s not who you want to become.”

He staggered back, just as Mali slammed her foot into Leon’s face. Blood spurted everywhere. Cora grabbed the mallet from Rolf’s hand, but his grip on it was loosened, the mallet already forgotten. Rolf sank to his knees in the grass, looking dazed.

“Rolf, don’t listen to her!” Nok screamed.

The croquet mallet gleamed in the light from the street lamps. Still within reach. Rolf’s eyes shifted to it, debating.

Cora’s heart pumped harder. “Nok is trying to manipulate you, Rolf. I heard her on the porch hitting on Lucky. She’s been sleeping with Leon too.”

“She’s lying,” Nok snapped, cheeks bright red. All eyes went to Leon, who wiped the blood from his face and didn’t deny anything.

Rolf’s fingers started tapping again. He looked confused, like the past few weeks hadn’t happened and he’d just woken here.

This is how it ends, Cora thought. With our bleached bones buried beneath the sand.

“Is that true, Leon?” Rolf asked in a deadly quiet voice.

Leon put a hand to his head, wincing like Mali’s last punch had jarred him too hard, or else he was suffering the same headaches. “She threw herself at me, brother. Sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry, that’s it?”

Leon coughed, still wiping away blood. “What do you want, a greeting card?”

Rolf shot back something about Leon deserving to be alone, how Yasmine would have hated him, and Leon’s entire body went rigid.

Cora took a step back.

Mali’s hot breath came in her ear. “If we do not leave now, I do not think we will have another chance.”