The Inception (Book #1 of The Inception Trilogy)

chapter twenty-one

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

EVELYN STRIDES BESIDE HARRY with her lips pressed thinly as she contemplates her best shot at getting answers. Now may not be the most strategic timing considering they just abandoned a bunch of psychopaths running a gladiator business. She's antsy, though, barely able to bite back each question as they surface. She dares a glance over at him, but he's staring straight ahead with his eyes narrowed. Evelyn knows that look by now.

"What is it?" she asks, slowing her pace which makes Robbie bump into her.

Harry stops abruptly before her sentence is even completed. His fingers twitch at his sides, setting Evelyn on edge. She quietly grips the hilt of her dagger, angling Robbie and Sasha behind her while the new girl curls back into a tree with wide eyes. Like a guard dog warning a trespasser, a low growl rumbles in Harry's throat.

"Don't hurt me," a voice says hurriedly yet quietly. He steps out from the trees with his hands in the air, red hair sticking to his sweaty, freckled face. Nick, the guard who showed her a bit of kindness and carried Nive to the clinic.

Evelyn doesn't let her guard down. "Quincy send you?"

He shakes his curls rapidly. "No, no, I swear. He--the camp--"

"Spit it out, will you?"

"We were attacked again."

Harry raises his eyebrows at this, staring at Nick so intensely that the poor guy shrinks back. He raises his hands higher and reiterates, "I swear, I came on my own."

Evelyn cautiously lets her hand fall to her side. "Why did they attack again?" She turns to Harry for the answer, figuring Nick wouldn't have the slightest idea.

But Harry does. He clenches his jaw. "The others," he mumbles, glancing over Nick's shoulder before meeting his gaze. "What did you see?"

Nick swallows. "I-I think you're right. I managed to get away before the massacre, but they were freeing the monsters." Nick's face flushes at this and he looks to the ground. "S-s-sorry I didn't mean--"

Harry ignores him, seeming used to such insults. The thought makes Evelyn cringe. She had called him a beast to his face before. At the time she hadn't felt bad; now there's a twinge of remorse.

"Massacre?" Harry says instead, tilting his head.

Nick nods fervently. "They came so fast, we couldn't even ready ourselves."

Harry appears annoyed for the briefest of moments, then he sighs heavily and rakes a hand through his hair. He doesn't say anything else and turns around, beginning to walk away. Evelyn stares at his back, confused, but she doesn't follow him. He stops a few feet from them yet keeps his face hidden.

She gives him the space he obviously wants, turning to Nick. "We should've heard them," she says, more to herself than to him. "Did anyone make it?"

He shrugs. Humiliation settles in his eyes before he darts them away from her. "I... I didn't stay around long enough to know. A few are with me." He rubs his hands together, a nervous tick. "Anyways, you wouldn't have heard them anyways. I told you they were fast. No one had time to scream.

"Liana made it," he adds quickly, as if he had forgotten and the thought just occurred to him. "She has the baby."

Evelyn's tension melts a bit with the relieving news. "She's with you?"