Emergent (A Beta Novel) (13 page)

Tawny says, “She wasn’t so innocent. Your clone was a consort also, you know.”

“There’s a big difference between being a willing consort and being raped by your owner’s son.”

“I’m not talking about Ivan. I’m talking about the other boy.”

“What other boy?”

“The rumor on Demesne was that the Beta had become the consort of the most prized prince on Demesne. Ivan was the boy whose companion Elysia was bought to be. The boy they say she loved
was Tahir Fortesquieu.”

Is it possible that Elysia may have had some moments of happiness on Demesne? That she experienced love with someone other than the Aquine she stole from me? Is he the surfer Elysia mentioned
that she hoped was on Heathen? “No way,” I say, connecting the guy’s first name to his last name. “Was Elysia’s Tahir related to Tariq Fortesquieu?” The
Fortesquieu family is, like, one of the richest families on earth! Tariq Fortesquieu’s cloud technology was one of the main reasons the Water Wars ended. Thanks, dinnertime history with
Dad.

Back in her comfort zone, describing luxury, Tawny sounds like a brochure. “Yes,
that
Fortesquieu family. Every house on Demesne is a masterpiece, but their compound was the jewel
in the crown, a palace beyond any others on the island. The Fortesquieus are the best and most envied family on Demesne, obviously. They ‘borrowed’ Elysia for a period so that they
could try out their own Beta as a companion for their son Tahir. The Governor’s wife allowed it because she wanted to impress the Fortesquieus. Elysia did her job too well. She impressed the
Fortesquieus so much—and especially Tahir—that the family offered to buy her from the Governor. He told me it would have been the highest price ever paid for a clone, which was even
more shocking, since Elysia was a Beta, a totally unknown commodity. But then the Fortesquieus suddenly disappeared from the island the night after the Governor’s Ball. And Ivan’s
jealousy of Tahir got the better of him.”

I need to find out more about Elysia’s Tahir. How could she possibly have loved him and then Xander so soon afterward?

There’s only one answer. She couldn’t. She hasn’t lived long enough to love—truly love—two guys in such quick succession. And if her heart truly belonged to this
Tahir, it’s possible she doesn’t love Xander at all.

He’s mine to take back.

Now.

I’m tired of being a distraction. I’m ready to take action.

JUST DO IT, Z-DEV.

Jump already
.

I stand at the slippery top of Heathen’s most jagged cliff on the island’s remote northern end, looking out over the ocean churning in ominous dark grays. The tremor trials have
ended for the day, and the big storm has passed, but I can see smaller ones in the distance. From my high perch, I see the white crests of the
gigantes
, the huge waves in the distance.
Surfers who’ve ridden those waves claim the
gigantes
sometimes go up to eighty feet tall. The waves are the result of the creation of Io, the bioengineered sea that rings Demesne, on
the other side of the
gigantes
. Io is so tranquil because it pushes ocean turbulence away from its ring, creating huge and extremely dangerous waves farther out in the ocean. The oceanic
result—the
gigantes
—offers rough passage for ships but awesome thrill rides for the surfers who tow out to dare the monster waves.

The beach on the ground below me is prime, with acres of white sand and coconut palm trees swaying hard on the dunes, and stray branches and limbs strewn across the sand from the recent storm.
Far out into the distance, waves spit high and white-tipped as gray clouds hover and a purple thunderstorm batters the distant water. The storm that just passed over Heathen, and the one
approaching in the distance, have caused the waves below to rage onto the beach, loud and thundering. The waves rise about twenty feet high, nowhere near
gigantes
height but still
intimidating, their velocity announced with each angry crash to the shore.

I know these storms well by now. I have at least thirty minutes until it’s time to take shelter.

I inch my toes slightly over the ledge, in a competitive dive stance. Down below, the man I seek bobs over the turbulent waters. The only person on this island who would seek the best spot for
storm waves is Xander. I’ve been avoiding being alone with him since he and Elysia arrived on Heathen; it hurts too much to be around them. But the water is my safe haven. Here, I can gather
my courage.

“Jingjing.” I whisper my good luck charm words to myself, and then I leap down to join him, a straight vertical dive that I don’t think about or anticipate and therefore ruin.
I just do it.

The water feels like I feel today, super cold and angry, and I love it. When I come up for air, I see Xander a short distance away. The ocean is giving him a good battering, which pleases me. He
sees me, and waves. I wave back. He attempts to catch an eight-footer to bring him closer to my position, but he is too late for its rise, and it gobbles him, tosses him, and sends him crashing
toward the shore. I follow him to the shallow water near the beach.

“Not so Jingjing out there today,” he says to me.

“Good ride?” I tease.

He looks dizzy, confused, and shakes his head. “Intense.”

“I heard you were out here surfing today. Kind of a death wish in weather like this, you know?”

“I know. But the Uni-Mil’s trying to take me out of here, dead. Didn’t you hear? So I might as well enjoy some rides while I still can. Come on,” he beckons me, cocking
his head in the direction of the deeper sea. We’ve 
both acclimatized to the stormy sea now, so stepping fully out of it and into the harsh, cold air feels worse than staying in the
water. “Like old times.” He dives back under the water, his beautiful body descending into a graceful vertical line.

I follow him across the rough water, out toward the tumultuous waves. As I swim in pursuit of him, I remember how Xander preferred cold ocean water over warm, because that’s what
he’d grown up surfing in. The Aquines’ territory, called Isidra, is filled with fertile mountains and valleys. Its terrain is rough, and the ocean on its western boundary even rougher.
The ocean there is cold and moody, swimmable only by the strongest athletes; few of them even bother with it. Just like this spot we’ve found now.

I try chasing Xander across it, but I can barely keep up with him in this stormy surf, and I am a strong swimmer. I struggle across the distance, eager for the game to end. Before when we
performed this water dance, our lives were carefree. Our only responsibilities were to our own bodies, to training our bodies to be the best they could be. Surviving in the wild, clones’
rights, death, destruction, betrayal—these did not matter then. I never realized before how
easy
my life in Cerulea was. I only remember complaining about how boring it was. How much
of a jerk was I?

Xander retrieves his floating surfboard, and I reach him there about a minute behind. Breathless, we hold on to opposite ends of the board as incoming waves raise and lower our bodies through
the water.

Finally, something feels right, like we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be, stranded in this stormy sea that feels like our one common ground. Here, I’m ready to finally get
some answers from him.

I dive right in. “How did an Aquine, who shouldn’t even be in the Uni-Mil, suddenly become the defender of clones?” I say. “I thought your purified people looked down on
cloning. I never knew you to care anything about clones and their rights back in Cerulea.”

“Maybe you weren’t paying attention,” says Xander. He’s right, I realize. I was always admiring his beautiful body and obsessing about wanting to be the mate of the
gorgeous Aquine, but only now do I clearly see how I never bothered to get to know him well—outside of the water, at least. “Your dad got me involved in clones’ rights.”

I could almost drown from disbelief. “Yeah, right. Drill master never cared about clones’ rights. Especially after the way my mom died.”

I think of my dad showing up to all of Xander’s swim meets, and I remember him HarleyHovering Xander out to surf contests at the beach, because Xander had no family in Cerulea and no means
to provide for long-distance transportation. I always thought their time together was Dad indoctrinating Xander into applying for the Uni-Mil, trying to make Xander into the son he never had, who
would follow in his leather boot steps. It never occurred to me that any topic related to cloning would be part of their discussions.

“Not true,” says Xander. “There’s a small group within the Uni-Mil who’ve been covertly supporting clones’ rights. Your dad brought me in to become part of
that.”

It feels bad enough to realize I hardly knew Xander when I thought I was in love with him. It feels worse to realize I never really knew my own father—and rarely bothered to try.

“How do you think super-clone-supporter Dad will like his own daughter’s clone?” My voice is sarcastic, but my heart hurts contemplating Dad’s reaction. What if he likes
Elysia more than me too? How will he feel when he finds out she’s going to make him a grandfather…sort of?

“I think your dad will be so grateful you’re alive he won’t even care about Elysia.” Xander’s words comfort me, and yet absurdly offend me on Elysia’s behalf.
“Tell me what happened, Z.”

“When?”

“When you died. I know the result—you ended up on Demesne and were cloned. I don’t know what led you there. Tell me.”

A bolt of fire-red lightning cracks far out in the distance, a message that we should take cover before the approaching storm gets any closer. “I promised them glory,” I mutter,
remembering.

“Who?”

“The other two kids. The ones who drowned. I encouraged them to steal a boat from the wilderness camp and sail away with me. I told them we’d get to Demesne. That was ’raxia
logic dictating my game plan.”

“I heard from your dad that ’raxia had become a problem for you. Is it still?”

“No. Death seems to have cured me of that addiction.”
’Raxia could have been a problem again, after you and Elysia arrived, but Aidan wouldn’t let it.
It’s
Xander I’m drawn to. But Aidan who seeks to protect me. To save me from myself. Why, then, does my heart have to still yearn so badly for Xander, who betrayed me?

“What happened on the boat?”

“We fell asleep. It was just drifting, felt peaceful even. But when we awoke in the morning, it’s like we were crazed by sunstroke. It was like the ’raxia didn’t just
calm our bodies, but actually burned through our brains. I literally thought the boat would sail itself to Demesne.”

“And then?” Xander asks, looking to the storm not so far in the distance now. Holding on to the board, he swims us over a wave to move our position closer to shore.

“And then the nightmare storm came in. The boat nearly capsized. The guy and the girl drowned. The ocean killed me too. For a little while, at least. Then Aidan woke my heart back up, on
Demesne.”

My heart woke up.
Without any help from Xander.

No longer able to avoid the storm, Xander and I swim back to land as thunder, lightning, and rain arrive on the north shore, battling our way through vicious waves that hammer
us relentlessly. Finally we straggle ashore, but then the hail starts. We hide inside the hollow opening of a set of large black boulders situated just past the dunes. The cavelike opening offers
just enough ground space to take cover until the storm—milder than the earlier one today—passes.

As we crouch shivering on the cold ground, Xander shouts over the sound of the thunder, “We need to get a message to your father. He was beside himself with grief after your
disappearance.”

He was? All I ever thought about was my grief in losing Xander when he left for the Uni-Mil. I never considered Dad’s in losing me. “If we alert him now, it would jeopardize the
Insurrection,” I say.

“Agreed. But as soon as we can, we need to let him know you’re alive.”

“Yes.”

For the first time since the death party that landed me on Demesne and then on Heathen, to this nowhere that became my everywhere, I want to go home. I just don’t know what home there is
for me to go back to.

A hard, driving rain pounds our shelter, whipping wind and sand, but we have nowhere else to go. With lightning strikes all around us, it’s better to wait out the storm
right where we are before returning to the Rave Caves.

Xander and I sit side by side, saying nothing for a while, until I break the silence.

“Did it mean anything to you?”

“What?” He knows what I mean, so I don’t bother to clarify. He pauses, then: “That night meant everything to me.”

“That night?” I cry out. “It happened during the day!”

He shrugs, like that huge detail is meaningless. “I guess I remembered it wrong.”

Another betrayal he’s foisted on me. How well did I really, truly know this guy? He doesn’t remember the
when
of the most defining moment of my life? Then, it occurs to me:
Why do I still let that day (not night) when Xander loved and then rejected me even be the defining moment of my life? I survived
death
. How’s that for a defining experience? Why do I
give him such power over me? Especially when he doesn’t want it?