Stolen

Chapter Five

Knox

There was an awkward silence that consumed us as we waited for the director to decide what the best punishment for our infraction would be. Rhett had been quiet since the soldiers had shown up at the building. Something was tearing away at him inside. He had never been very good at masking his emotions. I stole a glance at him now as he sat hunched over with his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands. Something was very wrong here. I leaned my head back against the cold concrete wall and shut my eyes. She was all I could see. Her green eyes beckoned me to find her. Come back to me, I pleaded silently, please come back. When I opened my eyes again, I found Carrson watching me. As if he could read my thoughts. His relationship with Ember had always been so one sided. He was madly in love with her, but he never realized that I felt the same way. I hid my feelings for her from everyone except for her. She knew me better than anyone. I needed her.

Carrson was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest, there was dried blood on the side of his neck from where my bullet tore open the skin on his ear. Why did he take us there? Who was this contact of his and how had skitters from the darkness leaked into that apartment without warning? And where did Rhett get that light that burned them? How could he have possibly known to bring something like that into the city? I had a rising suspicion that the boy I called my best friend was hiding a lot more from me than I was from him. What were the chances that Rhett Michaels could be the light bearer? I had heard whispers about the academy finding one but never thought they were true. Most recruits assumed it was Ember. Why else would they let her start so late at the academy? But I knew the truth about what she was, and she wasn't the light bearer. I let myself weigh the possibility in my mind. After graduation we would be split into our specials and be taught to harness our abilities. Would Rhett be whisked away to a private sector and protected? The seconds ticked by like hours as we waited, and my thoughts went unanswered. We should be looking for Ember. The tether I felt to her had gotten stronger the closer we had come to Academy One. There was something here. I just had to find it. Just then the director opened the door to her office.

"Let's go, Knox," she said sternly.

I pushed myself up from where I had been sitting on the ground and walked forward into her office. She closed the door behind us and moved to sit at the big oak desk that bisected the room.

"Take a seat," she gestured to one of the oversized leather chairs in front of her desk.

"I'd rather stand."

She sighed heavily but didn't push the issue any further. "Care to explain to me how you got mixed up in this?"

"Mixed up in what?" I played dumb. I just needed her to let me out of this. Just this once. I needed to find Ember and I couldn't do that if she had me on lock down.

"How did you, Rhett, and Carrson end up at an energy signature site that was powerful enough to tip off all of our sensors?" She inquired. She wasn't going to budge from this.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied.

"Don't do this," she breathed, pushing herself up into a standing position. She rested the palms of her hands on her desk. "Let me help you, Knox." She was pleading with me but I clenched my jaw and looked out the window.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her. She'd never been interested in being my mom. All she ever wanted from me was success. Something she could stick her name on and say 'look what I made'. I'd done everything right. I'd earned three specials and was on the fast track to being the top recruit in the history of the school and yet somehow it didn't measure up to her plans for me. I let the silence speak for me. Not willing to give her an inch. Her expression turned very serious.