The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (26 page)

“
I never saw your
brother,” he said to Haven. “Or anyone else besides the people that
attacked you near Bozeman.”

Haven looked down at him, her
expression a mix of fear, rage, and sadness. Her eyes glassed over
with tears and she hurried past Colton, through the swinging doors,
and into the dome.

“
I—I’m sorry,” said
Colton.

The man and woman looked down at him
carefully, as if deciding what should be done with their
prisoner.

“
The old woman was Elena?”
asked Colton. “Is she here? Could I see her?”

“
No,” said the woman with
white hair. “No, you cannot ‘see her’.” She clenched her fists and
followed after Haven into the dome.

The Russian man sighed and shook his
head.

“
They don’t like you very
much,” he said.

“
I can’t say that I blame
them,” said Colton. “I made a mistake when I joined Bernam. He
promised me that—” Colton stopped and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I
still should have known it was wrong.”

The Russian grunted. “Did you know
about us, here in dome?”

Colton shook his head.

“
Then don’t blame
yourself. It was like winning the lottery ticket, yes? You didn’t
know there was a choice, so you went with the bad man. He makes
things look very nice. All new toys and cars. Sometimes Marius
wishes he had those things.”

“
Your name is
Marius?”

The man nodded.

“
I’m Colton.”

The stocky Russian hesitated a moment
longer, then offered his hand. Colton gripped it and allowed
himself to be pulled up to his feet.

“
Look at me,” said
Marius.

Colton looked. The man was tired. Dark
circles drooped under his eyes, but it wasn’t just sleep that was
weighing heavily on his serious face—there was also sadness, anger,
and a small amount of fear.

“
We are not friends,”
continued Marius. “No one here is your friend, and they probably
won’t be for long time—if you stick around. Elena had rule that we
allow anyone like us to stay here, no questions asked. But that
doesn’t mean we are always happy about it. You have to earn our
trust, understand?”

“
Look,” said Colton, “not
that I don’t appreciate the offer—if that’s what it is—but I
don’t
want
to
stay here. Bernam told me that you guys were keeping my mother as a
hostage, which I realize now was just a lie to get me to follow
him. When I wouldn’t do what he wanted, he took away my ability.
I’m empty. I’m not like you anymore. I don’t belong here.” He
thought about his father in Pittsburgh. “I don’t belong
anywhere.”

Marius frowned. “Young
people,” he said. “So
serious
. Always jumping to wrong
conclusions.” He gestured for Colton to follow him away from the
entrance. “Come.”

They walked between the trees and
ascended a large hill. At the base of the hill that sloped away
from the trees was a small pond and an old willow tree, its
branches tickling the surface of the water.

The old woman sat against the trunk of
the tree, her eyes closed peacefully and a faint smile on her face,
as if she were in the middle of a pleasant dream.

“
Elena,” said Marius,
nodding toward the woman.

“
I’m sorry,” said Colton
quietly.

“
She was very nice woman.
Strong and stubborn, but nice.”

“
Did Bernam kill
her?”

“
He took her power. We
cannot live without it. Yes, he killed her.”

Colton looked down at his body. His
skin was ashen and his knees shook with the strain to keep him
upright.

Marius must have seen the look of fear
on his face.

“
You are strong, too,” he
said. “Don’t give up hope.”

“
What are you going to
with…with…” Colton swallowed thickly and tried to force himself to
finish the sentence, but could not.

“
We will bury her next to
the tree, the way she would have wanted.”

“
This place is beautiful,”
said Colton.

“
What does your mother
look like?”

Colton turned to Marius, surprised by
the abrupt question.

“
She left when I was
nine.” He tried to remember her face, but was ashamed to realize
that the memory of her appearance was blurry—she existed in his
mind as a grouping of emotions and sensations, the strongest of
which was happiness that he felt when he spent time with her. “In
the few pictures I kept that my father didn’t burn, she had light
brown hair, shoulder-length, and light brown eyes. She was thin.
There was a small mole on her left temple, like a beauty
mark.”

Marius’s frown deepened.

“
What is it?” asked
Colton.

“
Bernam was right and
wrong about your mother,” said Marius.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
She is here, with us, but
she is not a prisoner. She stays with us because that is what she
wants—because it is too dangerous for her to be anywhere
else.”

Colton stood atop the hill,
speechless, his mind a torrent of different thoughts. He took a
deep breath and tried to think clearly.

“
Do you want to see her?”
asked Marius.

Colton expected to answer
immediately, but instead the word
yes
caught in his throat.
What if she’s different?
he thought.
What if she doesn’t
remember me?

“
You don’t have to if you
don’t want.”

Marius turned and walked down the
hill, toward the doors.

“
Yes,” said Colton
suddenly.

My power is gone, and I’m
going to die,
he thought. His body
shuddered and he tried to force himself to accept that inevitable
outcome.
I’m going to die.

He took a deep breath. “Yes, I want to
see her.”

“
Very well,” said Marius.
“But it’s too dangerous to go alone.”

32

C
olton and Marius met a tall, thin man near a large metal box
that looked like a sealed refrigerator. In the wall next to the box
was a weathered steel door with heavy hinges and a chrome
steering-wheel for a handle.

Marius scowled at the tall
man and orange light flared briefly in his eyes, then faded. He
sighed. “Okay,” he said, turning to Colton. “Dormer go inside with
you. I’ll help Corva with the body—
nyet!
” He slapped his
forehead.
“
I
mean, I’ll help her with Elena.” He walked away, shaking his head
and whispering curses at himself in Russian.

Dormer watched him go and blinked
quickly. His movements were jerky and erratic, like a bird’s. He
sniffed quickly and wiped his nose, and his hands shook slightly as
he reached for the box. He twisted a handle on the front and the
side panels slid down to reveal a compact cube of machinery. He
flipped a small switch next to a thick pipe and the box shook to
life like a car engine.

“
What are you doing?”
asked Colton.

Dormer reached into the
machine and grabbed the pipe firmly with both hands. The machine’s
quick, powerful chugging instantly slowed to a struggling
wum…wum…wum
as the motor
fought to stay alive.

“
Since your ability was
taken,” said Dormer, “I have to go in with you.” His tense
shoulders visibly relaxed as he let go of the pipe and switched off
the machine.

“
I want to see her
alone.”

“
That would be
unwise.”

“
I don’t care.”

Dormer smiled without
humor and punched a sequence of numbers into an electronic wall
panel next to the large door. With a loud, metal
CLUNK
, something in the
wall released and the door swung inward on oversized
hinges.

Dormer gestured dramatically at the
doorway, offering a small bow as his hand swept through the air.
“After you.”

The next room was shaped like a
shoebox, its longer end stretching away from the dome. The space
was empty except for an old aluminum table and chair that were
pushed to one side. A dim fluorescent light in the ceiling cast a
sickly green glow over the room. It buzzed loudly and flickered as
Colton entered the room.

There were no windows or any other
kind of decoration in the room. On the far wall was a single,
ordinary wooden door with a dull brass handle.

A pneumatic
PHOOMP
came from behind
and Colton turned quickly. Dormer spun the polished handle on the
closed door and tapped another sequence of numbers on the interior
wall panel.

“
Why did you do that?”
asked Colton.

“
House rules,” said
Dormer. “Hope you’re not claustrophobic.”

Colton looked at the wooden door at
the far end of the room and sensed it was moving farther away from
him. His stomach lurched and his legs shook.

“
Do you feel it?” asked
Dormer.

Colton stumbled to the wall and leaned
against it heavily. “What—what’s happening?” The small amount of
energy he had in his body was slowly being drained away.

“
It’s your mother. She no
longer has control of her abilities. She is a living black hole,
pulling in everything around her, unable to stop her body’s energy
accumulation.”

“
She’s a Conduit?” asked
Colton. His chest tightened and his breaths were quick and shallow.
“Is that why you keep her locked up?”

“
She is here because she
asked me to help,” said Dormer. “She came to us three years ago,
after she—”

He stopped.

“
After she what?” said
Colton.

Dormer shook his head. “She will tell
you, if that is what she wants.” He walked over to Colton and
rested a hand on his shoulder.

Colton immediately felt warmth flow
over his skin and sink down to his bones. His legs stopped shaking
and his breathing slowly returned to normal. He stood up straight
as Dormer removed his hand.

“
That should last you a
few minutes,” said Dormer. “I’ll be out here if something
happens.”

Colton looked down at his hands.
“Thank you,” he said.

Dormer gave a slight nod, then pulled
the aluminum chair away from the table and sat down. He crossed his
arms and closed his eyes.

Colton approached the wooden door
hesitantly. He reached for the handle, and just before his palm
touched the brass knob, Dormer spoke.

“
If it gets to the point
where you can’t shout for help,” he said, “try to pound on the
door. I’ll assume that means things went poorly.”

Colton swallowed thickly and grabbed
the doorknob. He pulled open the door and stepped into a small
room.

His mother sat on a bed to one side,
reading a book. She looked up at him and smiled. Her skin glowed
with soft white light that lit the room evenly—there were no lamps
or flashlights; no machines in the room of any kind.

Thick pipes ran along the ceiling and
hummed softly. It was a cozy room, filled with books and quilts. A
wooden writing desk stood next to the bed, piled high with loose,
hand-scribbled pages.

Colton’s mother closed the book she
was reading and set it next to her on the bed.

She looks too old,
thought Colton. His father was forty-five years
old, and Colton knew that his mother was a couple of years younger.
The woman sitting on the bed looked to be at least sixty. Small
wrinkles lined the skin of her once-pretty face. Her hair was grey
and pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her body was smaller than
Colton remembered—she looked to be no more than five feet tall, but
in some of her older pictures she was nearly the same height as
Colton’s father, who was almost six feet tall.

“
Colton,” she said
quietly, her eyes glowing brighter with soft white
light.

“
Mom?”

He walked farther into the room and
the door closed behind him. She scooted to the edge of the bed, her
feet dangling a foot off the floor, and patted the mattress next to
her.

Colton walked over and sat, never once
taking his eyes from her. Despite the changes, she was the same
woman he remembered seeing for the last time nine years ago. He
reached up to touch her cheek but she leaned away.

“
No,” she said.

“
Mom, what happened?”
asked Colton, his eyes searching her face. “Why did you
leave?”

“
Oh, Colton,” she said,
looking away.

“
I missed you.
Dad
missed you!” Colton
felt anger building within him—the desire to unload years of blame
on the woman who was supposed to have loved him and raised him for
his
entire
childhood and not just a small portion of it. “You don’t know
what he’s like now—how he treated me after you left—how he
treated
himself
…”