Deluded Soul

five - beating hearts

chapter five | deluded soul

“After the war we said we'd fight together.”

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Instinctively, I turn toward the source of the sound. At first, I see nothing. A horizontal stretch of black greets me from the other side. A figure moves into the light of the moon and somehow, I can match the voice to his face. He is tall, much taller than me, even Noah. In the little light that we have, I can see that his tawny skin is rubbed down with dirt and a thin film of sweat. His hair is as black as the night surrounding us, standing up slightly in the front. The tips of his hair sway back and forth in the breeze.

 “This her?” he asks Noah, as if I’m not standing right here in front of them.

“If you mean the defect that Noah recruited, then yes. I’m her,” I snap, irritated at his lack of proper introduction. “You can call me Lira.”

The boy simply raises his eyebrows. Another figure moves in behind him, flanking him. It’s a girl and she wields a long, sharp knife. It glints under the luminescence, throwing a beam of light across the ground. At the sight of me, she brings the knife to a rest at her side. She lowers only her weapon, not her prying gaze. She takes me in all at once, not bothering to use subtly to her advantage. I stare back.

“These are my friends, Ray and Kylie.”

Kylie gives a short nod, whacking a chunk of dirt and grass into the air with her knife. Pleasant, I think.

“Ray? The same Ray who killed a Guard for you?”

Noah grimaces, looking uncomfortable now. A vile of ice injected itself into my tone—involuntarily. Kylie’s lip lifts into a smirk. I can’t tell if she’s silently laughing at me—or if her facial expression is one of approval.

Ray directs his attention toward me. “There’s a lot of killing involved in running away. Better get used to it if you want to be one of us.”

“With you or not, I’m still a defect. That ship sailed a long time ago,” I say coolly. Beside me, Noah lets out a sigh.

“The sooner we get moving—,” he begins, only to be interrupted by Kylie.

“She’s right, y’know.” Then, to me, “Watch yourself. Ray is a man of his word.”

Noah moves onto the pathway so that he is between us. The road cuts down the field of green, dividing the fields into two halves. They’re on one side, I’m on the other.

“This needs to stop. We don’t fight—never have. And as of now, we’re not going to.” He looks first at me, and then at the other two. “Got it?”

Finally, Ray relaxes his predatory-like stance. His shoulders slump and Kylie’s knife is put away. I relax, too, worried for a moment that they’d reject me on the spot. I offer Ray a timid smile, crossing the pass to join them. Noah closes up our foursome, looking hopeful.

“Apologies,” Ray says, so quiet I almost don’t hear him. Without waiting for a reply, he turns and heads back toward the shadows. Kylie falls into step with me as Noah leaves us in the dust to catch up with Ray.

I keep quiet for a while, unsure if Kylie’s really the one I should worry about—or if Ray is. They’ve been in this together for God knows how long, whereas I’m the newbie. Their personalities are puzzles I’ll have to figure out. In the middle of the night, though, we aren’t going to accomplish much. It’s obvious that Ray is not easy to please. On the flipside, Kylie immediately came to Ray’s defense. That shows that she’s not very open to recruited defects, either. My lips deepen into a frown at this. At one point in time they’d been recruited, hadn’t they?