Stolen

Chapter Eleven

Knox

We were walking back towards Ember's room when Carrson grabbed my arm. He'd been trying to convince us to head to the barrier since we met up with the scouts but I wasn't going to listen to him. Everything that had happened so far had been his fault and now two people that I loved were in danger. Anger was boiling dangerously high inside of me and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to contain it much longer. I turned on him, coming face to face.

"We are searching her room," I growled at him. We'd already been over this a hundred times and each time he'd insisted that there would be nothing to find there. At this point, even Rhett seemed to doubt Carrson.

"You don't have to come with us..." Rhett said as a whisper.

Carrson looked almost offended at this but shook his head. There was a small laugh rising in his throat. The sudden sound of it caused me to jerk my arm away from him. If the bracelet had not been enough, the laugh confirmed every suspicion I had about him.

"You just don't give up." he mused.

I pinned him against the wall quickly, my knife at his throat. "Where is she!" I demanded.

Carrson's lips parted in a smile, "You'll never find her."

"Tell me or I'll cut it out of you!" I threatened. Carrson should know me well enough to know that the threat was not empty. Rhett stood close by watching the events play out. He was piecing together the new information but he never moved to stop me.

"Do it." Carrson taunted, "either way you'll never see her again." He was laughing again but this time there was something so heavy in his words.

"Why her?" It was Rhett who said this, his voice shaking.

Carrson's eyes glanced momentarily at him before he responded through gritted teeth, "They hid her for a reason, Rhett. Her parents created the barriers. Use your brain, did you really think the academy would take in someone at twelve? They needed her heavily guarded because she's the light bearer."

Rhett nor I showed any indication that we knew he was wrong. Ember was not the light bearer. She was special and she had gifts but she wasn't the savior of the human race. I had a gut feeling that for Carrson this was so much bigger than just trying to sniff out the light bearer. This was personal.

"And you? What role do you play in all of this?" I kept myself silent as I listened to the exchange between the two of them, but I never moved my knife from his neck.

Carrson almost looked sad at the sound of Rhett's voice, "They put me in the academy when I was six. My parents threw me away like I was nothing. They didn't care if I lived or if I died. They sold me to the war so I chose the winning side. Monsters aren't born, Rhett. They're created. It's not too late, you can join us."

Rhett backed away from Carrson in horror, "That's not the winning side." he breathed.

"That's enough!" I growled, pushing the knife a little deeper into Carrson's throat. A small trickle of blood pooled under the blade as it severed the tender flesh on his neck. "Where is she!"

"It's too late for her..." Carrson's laugh echoed around us in the empty hallway. From around his body a shadow emerged. It swallowed him until there was nothing left but the lingering of his laughter. I drew away from him quickly before I fully realized what was happening.

"No!" I screamed, plunging my fist into the brick of the wall that Carrson had been against just a moment ago. How was this possible? How could Carrson do this? Where was Ember?

Carrson

I sauntered through the dilapidated building that Ember was being kept in. The idea that Knox thought he could intimidate information out of me was comical to say the least. Ember's memories would prove to be useful, I knew that much, and if he ever found her again, she would be useless to him. I pushed the door open to the room where the memory thief I'd hired was pulling a fresh memory from Ember's skull. There was a small tear leaking from her closed eye and I brushed it away with my finger tips slowly, savoring the feeling of her skin against mine.

"What is she thinking about?" I asked the thief quietly. I had not gotten to see any of her memories yet but I hoped she was thinking of me. That the memory he was watching, the one her subconscious was crying over, was of our time together. Who else would it have been about? I was the only person in her life who truly loved her. When our job here was done and it was confirmed that she was the light bearer, she would join us. Work with us to bring down those insistent wards surrounding the city. Together we would wreak havoc on those who ever dared to think we were not good enough.

The thief shook his head pulling my attention back to him, "I can not control what she chooses for us to see. These are her most important memories..." It was a warning and suddenly my blood was turning cold.

"Show it to me." I demanded as my patience began to run thin.

The thief withdrew one hand from Ember's temple and she subconsciously whimpered from the pain. He took that same talon with her blood on it and inserted it into my own temple. When I opened my eyes again, I was a ghost standing in Knox River's bedroom.

Ember was standing with her back towards Knox, staring through me at the wall. Knox was speaking to her softly as he pulled the neck of her shirt down over her bare shoulder. Ember swept her hair to the side and winced as Knox inspected the skin on her shoulder. Even from this distance I could see the dark purpling of a bruise. I remembered the day she'd gotten that bruise. The beating that Knox had inflicted on her.

"I never should have gone that hard on you..." Knox's voice trailed off in regret.

Ember turned and reached for him, placing her small hands on his face and forcing him to look her in the eyes. "I'm okay." she whispered.

Knox shook his head, "Ember, I can't spar with you anymore. I can't be the reason that you're in pain. You are a damn good fighter, better than half of the recruits here, you don't need me anymore." There was pain in his voice that caused a ripple of anger to coarse through my body.

Ember shook her head softly, "I'll always need you," she admitted. Her voice was small and shaky.

Ember had never spoken to me that way. Never looked at me the way she was looking at Knox right now. If I wasn't a ghost in her mind, I would have ripped her away from him.

"Do you remember what you said to me that night I tried to run away?" Ember whispered, her face just inches from Knox's. He looked at her in anticipation, hanging onto every word that came across her soft pink lips.

A smirk flashed on Knox's face as he recalled the night she spoke of in his mind, "I told you I'd help you get better, that all you had to do was choose me."

"Knox, I've chosen you everyday since then and I'll continue to choose you. I understand if you don't want to spar with me anymore but I'm not going anywhere. Staying here with you was the best choice I have ever made." Her hands found their way into his hair. I watched as his hands moved up the side of her body. He kissed her with every ounce of longing he had and Ember reacted immediately, giving herself to him. My breath was ragged as I watched this man leave small kisses down the length of her exposed neck. When his hands slipped under her shirt and pulled it off over her head, my heart stopped all together. I fell to my knees as a silent scream erupted from my lungs.

How dare she allow him to touch her like this? How dare she allow anyone to be this close to her! HOW DARE SHE!

The thief withdrew me from the memory and I found myself standing in front of Ember as she blinked hard, trying to find her bearings in the space around her. Before I could stop myself I reached out and slapped her hard across her face with the back of my hand. I would kill him for ever touching her. I would erase him from her. She would never love him the way that she thought she did again. I would take everything from her until there was only me. I would be the only man she could ever love and when that was done, I would spend the rest of her life punishing her for her mistakes.