Juan’s beautiful instrument was gone, replaced by a cloud of dust that filled the air and filtered down like ash above our heads. Silently, all heads turned in my direction, their mouths forming the same perfect O.
“I’m so sorry!” I said, stumbling to my feet, still disoriented by being back inside my body. It felt too small, like my skin was on too tight.
Juan coughed a few times and wiped the dust out of his eyes. “I should have seen that coming,” he said. “I could feel the intensity coming off you in waves.”
“I’m so sorry,” I babbled again, tripping over my own words. I hurried over to his side. “It was just that the music was so beautiful and I lost control of my telek, I didn’t know where I was—”
“It’s okay, Zoe,” Juan said. He tried to smile, but I could see he was upset.
“Everyone’s fine,” Jilia announced. “Lights up,” she said and the lights slowly brightened around us. The dust that had been Juan’s cello covered the floor. A couple of people coughed.
“She ruined your cello!” Molla said, rising to her feet and speaking up for the first time since I’d come to the compound. “Just like she ruins everything else!” Her high-pitched voice echoed around the small space. “She’s dangerous. What if that—” she pointed at Juan’s ruined instrument, “had been one of us?” She put a hand on her stomach, took one more searing look at me, then stomped out of the room.
Rand let out a low whistle after she left. Everyone else was staring at me. Once again I felt the weight of all their expectations and, even more crushing, their disappointment. Adrien steadied my arm as I stood there.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, feeling that empty space at the bottom of my stomach widen. I’d thought today was a new start, that maybe I’d be able to finally get control. But Molla was right. Here I was again, ruining everything I touched.
“Well,” Rand broke the stunned silence, dusting himself off and cracking a grin. “At least we know if the Chancellor tries to kill us with stringed instruments, Zoe’s got us covered.”
Chapter 10
I SCOOTED A LITTLE CLOSER to Adrien as we watched Tyryn and Rand demonstrating some attack moves. It was four days later and the air-filtration system had finally gotten finished this morning. I’d been able to get out of the suit and change into a normal tunic. I took Adrien’s hand, marveling at how amazing it was to be able to touch his skin again.
Tyryn aimed a swift punch, but Rand’s forearm shot up and blocked it.
“Good,” Tyryn murmured, then turned to the rest of us sitting in a circle in the training center. “It’s all about repetition and building muscle memory, so that in a fight it just comes naturally and your reflexes are lightning quick.”
I was trying to pay attention to the lesson, but I kept wishing Adrien and I could have stolen away somewhere to kiss for hours. Adrien glanced over at me and shared a secret grin as if he knew exactly what I was thinking about. We’d only been able to share one quick kiss before class and I could still feel the heat of it on my lips.
“This is ridiculous,” City said, standing up. “I can electrify anything in a fifty-foot radius. I’m never going to need to know this.”
Rand, who hadn’t sat down yet, crept up behind City while she spoke. In a blink, he’d swept her legs out from under her and had her back against the padded floor. “Oh yeah?” he said with a sideways grin, one hand a little below her neck, holding her firmly down.
She let out an infuriated sound and tried to get up, but Rand easily kept her trapped. Then her face turned to a sweet smile. She raised her hand and touched a pinky to Rand’s forehead. I didn’t see the spark, but he jumped off her, swearing loudly.
“Crackin’ hell, Citz!”
She smiled and stood up, smoothing down her hair in the same motion. “My point exactly.”
“Enough,” Tyron barked. “Filicity, take your seat.”
Rand grinned.
“You too, Rand. That kind of cockiness can get you killed in a fight. You can’t always see the threat before it’s on you.” He walked back and forth, making eye contact with each of us. “The Chancellor is building her own army of glitchers, and you can bet they’ll fight dirty. You have to be smarter. You have to be stronger. And most of all, you have to work as a team.”
“But it’s not just glitchers we’ll be up against,” Xona said. “We have to learn how to take down Regs.” She glanced over her shoulder at the four ex-Regs who stood silently along the wall.
“That’s why we will also be spending an extensive amount of time with weapons training,” Tyryn said. “There are a few ways to disable a Reg.” He clicked on a 3-D projection cube at his feet. The illuminated projection of a Reg filled the space, taller and bulkier than Tyryn.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the ex-Regs shuffle uncomfortably. The sandy-haired boy, Cole.
“But how do you kill it?” Xona’s voice cut across the space.
“There are a few weak points in a Reg’s armor, but a kill shot is next to impossible.” Tyryn waved his hand and the illuminated Reg swiveled around. “Aim at the joints, especially the knee caps. If you’re lucky enough for a Reg to turn its back to you, aim at the small of its back, right here at the waist.” Tyryn shone a laser at a small area to indicate where he meant. “The armor here is thinner, to allow full dexterity of movement. This is the one place that, with repeated fire with the highest velocity laser weapon, a Reg can be killed.”
“Stop it!”
We all turned at the sound. Cole stepped forward. Usually the ex-Regs’ faces were completely placid, but Cole looked visibly angry. Heat flushed his cheeks.
“We shouldn’t be training to kill Regs,” he said. “We should be trying to save them.”
Xona let out a disgusted noise. “The only safe Reg is a dead one. Look at its arm—it was made for killing.”
Cole dropped his arm, hiding the double-barreled weapons embedded in it behind his back as if he was self-conscious.
“It’s not our fault,” he said, his face flushed. I was shocked to see an ex-Reg displaying so much emotion. “You have no idea what it was like when our V-chips were destroyed. We woke up to find that our lives had been stolen from us and that hardware invaded every inch of our bodies. But underneath all this,” he pointed to the metal plate on his chest, “is still something that deserves saving. We deserve as much of a chance at a normal life as you do.”
“You could only be rescued because you were young enough to handle the destruction of your V-chip architecture.” Tyryn’s voice was calm, gentle even. “Unfortunately, that’s not possible for full-grown adult Regs. We can’t save them. In a fight, they’ll be coming at us to kill. Deactivating them is the only option, getting a kill shot if possible.” He continued his presentation with the laser on the 3-D model. “Now, like I was saying, if you hit here at just the right angle—”
Heavy footsteps interrupted him. Cole strode from the room, slamming the door button with his heavy fist and stomping through it when it opened.
“Good riddance,” Xona said under her breath.
I looked back and forth between the door and Xona, then over my shoulder at the three other ex-Regs. They didn’t looked fazed by Cole’s anger. Their blank expressions gave me a chill.
“Now line up,” Tyryn said, ignoring the interruption. “You’ll each take turns with the laser-round and continuous-fire-stream weapons.”
Adrien wasn’t at dinner that night, but as we were finishing, he sent me a message over the com in my arm panel.
Ginni held her hands to her chest. “That’s so romantic. I wish I had a boy to send me messages to meet in the middle of the night.” She sighed dramatically.