Phantom Universe (18 page)

A painful, achingly silent second goes by before Gage yanks something black from his belt and slams it into Paige’s neck. She jerks behind Summer as the blow hits Paige, but she doesn’t let go. Summer’s eyes are still wide with shock and fright. Her body shakes with uncontrollable tremors, and her blood freezes in her veins.
I should’ve known my good luck wouldn’t last long
.

“
What do you think you’re doing, Brooks?” Gage’s tone is bitingly cold as he regards the situation. The light angles from behind him, and his blonde hair and beautifully angry face are framed like a painting. “Let go of her now. That’s an order! And I won’t repeat it.”

“
Or you’ll what? Knock me out? Oh, I’m shaking in my boots,” Paige sneers, goading him. A strange, delighted smile creeps up her face. “She’s just a blue-eyed savage, just like the rest of them.”

Summer’s arm and shoulder begins to tingle with a pins and needles sensation, her fingers already numb.

“
If you aren’t going to follow the orders of your commanding officer, I will do what is necessary to obtain order again.” Gage’s teeth grit, his green eyes hardening into bright, intelligent emeralds. “Your name is Paige Brooks, not fate, therefore you have no right to decide anything about Summer’s life!”

When Paige doesn’t let go, there’s a second of buzzing, and then she almost collapses on top of Summer. Gage’s arm snaps forward and pulls Summer out of harm’s way as Paige’s body hits the ground with a thud, her jaw hanging slack. There’s a collective intake of breath as Gage replaces the device that just knocked her out into his belt.

“
All of this for an Outlander, Appleton?” Max shouts as he bends down to check on Paige.

“
I’m pretty sure neither of you own a soul, Everfast,” Gage says with not even a tinge of emotion. He pushes Summer behind him, and Jaden pulls her into her arms. “If this was your sister, wouldn’t you want her to be given the proper medical care if she was in this condition?”

Max jumps to his feet and stands only inches away from Gage’s face. “My sister isn’t some scarred, dumb slave who’s malnourished. Even in the past no one wanted Summer badly enough to keep her safe!”

Gage takes two steps back, deeply inhales two breaths, and swallows twice compulsively. “You’re right, you’re sister’s busy selling her body for food and shelter. How old is her most recent husband? A hundred and twenty? Kind of young for her.”

Max flies at him, face ashen grey with fury. His fists are held high, punching wildly at the air. Gage ducks and punches him in the gut, suddenly throwing his elbow out to catch him right under the ribs, too. Max, on the verge of collapsing to the ground, grasps his stomach with a sharp intake of breath. “Splash,” he curses, breathless.

“
Shut up you babbling idiot! If you ever come after me again, Everfast, you will be suspended.” Gage’s voice is robust with authority and power. “And you know what that means? Another year in the Canadian League, soldier. I can make your life a living hell, Everfast. I can make you a Lifer if you don’t clean up your temper.” He points his finger at Max, the gesture threatening. “And if you ever touch Summer, or go after her in any way, being suspended will be the least of your problems. You got that?”

Max coughs and nods.

Gage pivots around, his face a mask of outrage, and strides straight to the sliding doors at the front of the hovercraft. He raises his hand and wipes it across the air before him. The doors glide away and Gage steps through.

At the far end of the hovercraft, Summer finds a seat and tries to fold into herself. With Paige slack-jawed on the ground, and Max still gasping for breath, Summer feels a sort of queasy relief.

“
John and Casey! It’s so good to see you,” Summer hears Gage greet the men on the other side of the door. She can hear laughter as the men joke around. “Listen, men, I just want to make sure we’re headed to the right place. We need to drop off two patients at Phantomship Medical Institute. These other two bozos need to be taken home—they are taking the day off. No exceptions!”

“
Yes, sir!” they say nervously, their joking laughter gone.

“
What’s our ETA?”

“
Twenty five minutes, sir. Communication has been up and down all week, so we might stay airborne for longer if we don’t get permission to land.”

“
Thank you, men.”

Gage exits, and the door slides shut behind him. He immediately locks eyes with a frightened Summer who sits in the farthest corner with her legs drawn up, arms around her knees. Jaden perches next to her and Cameron relaxes in the other corner. Gage wavers for a second, barely taking time to glance at the other two, before he goes straight to Summer and crouches down so she is higher, making him less intimidating. He rubs his temples in frustration. The tension still arcs in the air like tendrils of zinging electricity.

“
One step forward, two steps back,” he says with a sigh and drops his hands.

Summer stares back through her brilliant blue eyes, not knowing how to react.

“
You always look at me with all the profound sadness in the world.” He reaches for her hand, and she flinches just slightly before she grips his hand with all the intensity in her. The tension dissolves in the air like fine mist.

“
I had no idea they’d be aboard—I guess I should have assumed since we would all be in the same area. It would be ridiculous to send two transports all the way out in the middle of nowhere when they could send just one. Anyway, I’m sorry. I should have stopped Max before he got to you. Those two seem to foul up everything they touch.”

She squeezes his hand reassuringly. Gage takes the open seat on her right, and Summer immediately seizes his palm, ready to change the subject. “Are you a faerie?” she writes across his palm with a calm she doesn’t feel inside. She’s still not convinced they aren’t real.

He coughs a laugh.

She writes, “This hovercraft just wouldn’t work if you weren’t a faerie.” Logic.

“
You’re unfathomably precious, you know that?” His eyes shine with reluctant amusement.

She shakes her head, a grin capturing her immediately.

“
But no, I’m not one.” His grim expression smoothes, and the wrinkles on his forehead disappear. “This hovercraft practically negates magic. It’s purely scientific, no magical spells.”

Before he can continue, she glides her fingers softly against his palm again, not writing anything. The wrinkles appear on his forehead again, and she reaches up with her thumb and smoothes them out for him. “I’m only playing,” she writes, and then continues her graceful movements across his palm.

Gage smiles, his head lain back, and closes his eyes. “It feels nice.”

“
I’m going to wait until we get to the hospital to check you out, Summer,” Cameron interrupts. “Just relax until then.” Cameron glares over at angry Max and the unconscious Paige on the other side of the hovercraft.

To the left of Summer, Jaden bounces excitedly in her seat. It’s one of the qualities Summer really likes about Jaden: she doesn’t let anything bother her. While Summer’s scanning every room she walks into for threats, Jaden’s running through the hailstorms head on. Yet Jaden stands triumphant, smiling and giddy at everything she sees around her. It’s not the same for Summer. She’s jealous of Jaden’s sense of adventure, but she wonders if deep down Jaden is just as jaded as she is. It’s a black thought, really. If not—and she hopes not—she considers Jaden one of the greatest mysterious of the universe. And more importantly, her friend.

CHAPTER 19: INSTITUTE

16 years old

As they fly over the city, Summer is captivated by the sheer size of it. There are only a few tiny windows for her to peer out of, but she plasters herself in front of the closest one, along with Jaden.

“
How cool is that?” says Jaden excitedly while pointing at the top of a tall building where people are gathered. “And that!” She points at a line of hovering cars. Or at least that is what Summer thinks they are—she has never seen much of cities before, so it is harder for her to tell the difference.

As the hovercraft slows down and lowers in the sky, she notices a large line of people being ushered into a gated building. The green and black uniforms of the Canadian League stick out from the crowd, and she can’t help but notice that the people are being forced forward. Behind her, she finds Gage and pulls him toward the window, pointing to the people questioningly.

“
Ah, yeah. Those are Outlanders being rounded up. They are tagging them and assigning them to their camp,” he explains.

Jaden and Summer turn to face him and sink into their seats. “Tag us?” asks Jaden.

A dark chuckle comes from Max, though he says nothing. It sends chills down her spine. Gage and Cameron also stay decidedly quiet. This only makes the anxiety in Summer tighten until she feels at any second the strings to her nerves will snap and lash out. The memories of how she ended up here, in this hovercraft with people she doesn’t know, make her head spin (or that could be her head wound). She’d come to terms with her slavery, and then Jaden just comes waltzing back into her life and everything changes. Though she’s more comfortable with Gage than is normal for her, she is still incredibly weary of him. To her, everyone is a stranger and a threat.

The hovercraft jolts, and the door to the outside slides open. The whirring engines turn off, and the noises die down slowly. Gage and Cameron immediately stand and start to gather their packs. Summer and Jaden stay seated, wondering what they are supposed to be doing. A woman with bright red hair tied into a knot at the nape of her neck boards the hovercraft. Her cheekbones jut out, and her sharp, black eyes skim the scene like a hawk.

“
Doctor Rose, what are you doing on the landing pad?” asks Cameron in concern. “Is everything okay?”

“
Not exactly,” Doctor Rose says, straightening her white lab coat. “It’s chaos on the streets, and guards have been placed at all the entrances and exits to the hospital. You have to provide an official pass to get past the doors, so I’m here to assign you passes.”

Cameron and Gage turn sideways, and Doctor Rose pulls out a slim, black metal slab with a screen on it. A thin piece of metal ejects from the device, and she sticks it into Cameron’s ear, waits for a beep, and then removes the long device. She repeats this on Gage. It looks painful, but neither of them shy away.

“
These two have been ordered to go home for the day,” explains Gage as he points his thumb over his shoulder at Paige and Max. “Neither of them are allowed near our patients.” Max shows his teeth in a snarl, but keeps his mouth shut when Gage shoots him a nasty glare.

“
And these two are the patients?” Doctor Rose nods her head in the direction of Jaden and Summer.

“
Yes,” says Cameron. “This is Summer and Jaden. Summer needs fluids immediately—I didn’t have the right equipment in the field for an IV. She also has a head wound that needs to be attended to.”

Suddenly, stretchers roll into view—or float, because there seems to be nothing holding them off the ground—and stop just outside the hovercraft’s door. Two men and two women in white scrubs wait with the stretchers and have what appear to be high-tech clipboards in hand. Summer’s eyes are wide at the change in atmosphere, and she shakes slightly. Her body is weak, and her nerves are shot. All she wants to do is curl up in a corner and sleep for a week. Or two. Gage approaches her carefully, his eyes appraising her, and then she can see resolution solidify in his eyes. He leans over and lifts her from the seat with no effort, as if she is a bag of feathers. This stuns her, so she doesn’t even try to struggle with him. Plus, struggling can lead to punishment. He places her on one of the stretchers with such tender care her thoughts waver.
Gage won’t punish me. Right?

“
I feel silly asking this, but what’s your last name?” asks Gage as he holds out his palm for her.

“
Waverly,” she writes.

“
Doctor Rose,” Gage calls out, and the doctor comes to his side. “This is Summer Waverly. She’s an Outlander found dehydrated and starving on the beach—ship wrecked.” His voice lowers, and he turns away from Summer. “She’s been tortured for years. She was a slave in the past, so please be careful with her.”