Elite

“Liar!” The word tore from Sylvie’s lips, harsh and accusatory. Leaping to her feet, she fastened new eyes on Jack, ones filled with a renewed disgust for his kind. How dare he slander her father in such a way! It was one thing to blame him for actions taken by New Eden, but to link his name together with her mother’s death was an outrage. Reidan Price had loved his wife—Sylvie knew it like she knew her name—and she would not stand for anyone to speak to the contrary.

Not even Jack.

“Take it back!” Sylvie demanded. Her hands, which were balled up into fists at her side, itched to strike him, to knock the venomous words from his mouth. But she waited, giving him the chance to resent his smear. The seconds seemed to stall, frozen in an anxious pause for Jack’s reply. But his only response was the slow, sad lift of his eyes to meet hers.

The pale pools were almost white in the soft luster of the moon, but Sylvie found herself reading a story in their faint depths. She searched them for evidence of the lie, but she came up wanting. Jack believed what he said, but that didn’t mean she had to.

“Explain yourself,” Sylvie said and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. Her words were clipped and sharp—ready to punch holes in whatever Jack said next.

“You’re not ready to hear it,” Jack said softly. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” He shook his head ruefully before running his hands briskly through his unkempt hair. “I should go.” Pushing off on his thighs, Jack lifted himself to his feet, but before he could take a step, Sylvie moved to block his path.

“I don’t think so,” she said, practically spitting the words. “You don’t say something like that and then take off.” Untucking her arms, Sylvie shoved her hand hard against Jack’s shoulder, causing him to step back. “Talk!” It wasn’t a request; it was an unspoken threat and it was one Sylvie meant to see through.

“Your mother,” Jack said, saying the word so delicately it was as if he was afraid it would break. “Was an Emissary.”

“A what?” Sylvie snapped impatiently.

“An Emissary,” Jack said again. “An Elite sympathizer of our cause.” Jack hesitated, giving Sylvie the opportunity to interject again, but she only stared at him with steely eyes that demanded he go on. She wanted to hear everything. It was what she had wanted from the very beginning, long before the information had become personal. There was no way she was letting him stop now. “She smuggled medical supplies and food rations to the Sectors for years. I even met her myself once—right before she was discovered. That was five years ago.”

Five years.

It seemed impossible that she had been gone that long and yet Sylvie’s ache for her stretched out further and deeper than time. The hurt was only made stronger learning that there had been a part of her mother that Sylvie had never known—a part she probably never would.

“How do you know she was my mother?” Sylvie asked, clinging to the slightest possibility that Jack could still be wrong. “Anyone could have used her name.”

Jack studied her face, finding his answer in the arch of her brow and the curve of her mouth. “I know she was your mother,” he said softly. “Because she was exactly like you.”

Sylvie’s hands covered her face, hiding away the proof of his claim and felt for the first time the flood of tears blanketing her cheeks. She had no idea how long she had been crying, but the moment she became aware of the sad rivers running down her face, a corresponding sob took hold of the rest of her body.

“You have no proof,” she cried, her protest battling her tears. But even as the argument crossed her lips, she knew what he said—at least in part—was true. As a little girl, Sylvie remembered nights when her mother had been mysteriously absent. Sylvie always assumed she was working since Ellena Price had been consumed with her job, but Jack’s explanation seemed to slide and click into place. The echo of raised voices muted behind closed and locked doors flooded Sylvie’s mind, but she pushed them away with both hands. Unfortunately, Jack was prepared to shove them right back.

“What proof do you need?” he asked, his voice sad, but sure. He was ready for her request. So ready that it made Sylvie’s stomach churn. She swallowed hard, unsure if she wanted to take the snare he offered, but she knew deep down that resistance was futile.

“My father,” Sylvie said. “How do you know my father was involved?” Sylvie held her breath and waited for the words that would shatter the image of the man who had read her bedtime stories and tucked her in at night. The man who had always brought her such pride and commanded unquestioned love and respect. In her angst, Sylvie realized she already believed what Jack said even before he spoke.

“Doc was there,” he said, taking a cautious step toward her. “Doc saw everything.” Jack punctuated his remark with one final step and outstretched arms that caught Sylvie the moment her legs failed her. She crumbled against him in an inconsolable heap with one crucial word clinging to her lips.

“Why?” Sylvie sobbed, unable to put together the fragments that remained of her reality. What could have been so terrible that it would drive a man to murder his own wife? The mother of his only child?

“She was working with the Resistance to take down the Hub,” Jack said, providing an answer Sylvie had not expected to receive. “Many believe it was the reason she married your father to begin with.” So there it was—the missing piece that made all the others fit into place.

Betrayal.

It made Sylvie’s blood turn cold and catch in her veins. If her parents’ marriage had all been a political ploy then what did that make her? Something told Sylvie that she didn’t want to know. “This can’t be true,” she said, turning away from Jack’s earnest face and comforting arms.

She stared out across the empty field before her and in that moment felt a sad kinship with the forgotten space. Like her, it had once been full of purpose and life, but now it was only a shadow of all it used to be. Jack’s revelation had stolen something from her—something fundamental and now only a cracked and broken shell stood in its place.

“I’m so sorry, Sylvie,” Jack said, his voice reaching out to her while his arms waited by his sides. “I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you this, but we felt—I felt—like you had a right to know. I—“

“What were you doing in the Hub that night?” Sylvie asked, clipping Jack’s apology short. It was a waste of words and there were others that Sylvie preferred to hear. “Was I part of your plan or just a consolation prize?”

“Your presence in the Hub kept us from completing our objective,” Jack said.

“Which was?” Sylvie snapped.

“Which was,” Jack said patiently. “To disable the Network that controls your OPTICS.

“What’s your problem with the damn OPTICS,” Sylvie said venomously. She spun around, facing him again so that he could see for himself the incredulity on her face. “Do you know all they could do for you? The lives they could save? You talk about the costs of using them, but all I can see are the gains.”

“That’s because they have never been used to make you a slave!” Jack met Sylvie’s glare with an intensity she had never seen in him before. His eyes burned like blue embers, scorching through her argument like dry, brittle leaves. It was hard to believe that a mere week ago, Sylvie would have contended that Scabs deserved everything they got, but her reasons had drifted away in a wisp of smoke and ash.

As she stared up at one of the main reasons for her change of heart, Sylvie watched Jack’s face soften and flush under her gaze. He had never so much as raised his voice at her before and Sylvie could see he was regretting it now.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said, apologizing for the second time that night. And just like before, Sylvie waved it away for more pressing information.

“I know they are coming for me,” Sylvie said gravely. “What will you do when they get here?” There was no sense pretending that she didn’t know what was coming next. She and Jack had far surpassed the need for subtlety and it was a good thing too. They had no time for it.

“We will try to reason with them,” Jack said, taking Sylvie’s lead and letting the ceremony drop away. “Doc thinks we can bargain you for amnesty and the freedom to live our lives without fear of being hunted down and enslaved.” He stopped there but Sylvie heard the apprehension in his voice that comes from giving an opinion that is not your own.

“But?” she said forcing him to continue, “What do you think?”

“I think,” Jack said, “ that we will fight.” Sylvie gave him a curt nod- one that said that their thoughts were the same. Reidan Price, head of New Eden’s Elite would not be bargained with. He didn’t get to where he was by asking for what he wanted. He got there by taking it. And with an army behind him, Sylvie knew her father would destroy everything in his path.

“You won’t win you know,” Sylvie said after a long stretch of silence. “You’ll never win.”

“I know,” Jack replied. His face was one of complete acceptance and resolve and the sad sureness of it broke Sylvie’s heart.

“You should take me back,” she said, “ forget all of this happened. Find somewhere safe to hide. Its not worth the risk.” Sylvie stepped toward Jack, her eyes pleading with him to listen even though she knew it was in vain.

“But it was,” he said closing the remaining distance between them. “ Meeting you was worth it.” Sylvie’s chest tightened and she felt her cheeks burn- the red flush signaling the warning signs going off in her head. She knew she should step away from him and keep the promise she’d made herself before she came here tonight, but Jacks sweet words and the soft panting of his full lips were magnetic and they only pulled her in closer.

Sylvie had only a split second for her breath to catch in her throat before Jack encircled her in his arms and brought his sweet mouth down on top of hers. She couldn’t stop herself from yielding to him—molding her body seamlessly against his. His taste, spice and taboo, sent a jolt of want through her until even her fingertips tingled with it.

Her lips were still burning for more when Jack pulled away to catch his breath. Dreamily Sylvie lifted her eyelids to gaze up at him when they caught sight of someone standing in the field behind him. Even in the darkness, Sylvie could make out long, blonde hair and the look of shock and betrayal.

Jules had seen everything.