D E L P H I N I U M

I had the horrible feeling we were being watched as we strode through the modern-looking hotel lobby. None of us carried luggage, which was suspicious on its own. Aside from that, most of us wore the black clothing of agents, and assassins, in both Benton's and my case, to hide the fact that we carried weapons on us—and because it was all we had. Jaxon also needed to wear gloves to cover up the fact that he had a metal hand. Needless to say, I was anxious and wanted to get out of the public eye as soon as possible.

Feeling as though everyone in the entire place was watching, I went with Jaxon to the front desk. Giving a fake name and information, I connected our lodgings to my grandmother's funds. There was a moment in which the woman behind the desk was silent and my heart was pounding. What would we do if we were caught giving fake information? It would be a trail that Krasowski could pick up on.

As the woman was typing on her computer, Jaxon must have sensed my fear because he slung a casual arm over my shoulders. I had to resist the urge to flinch away from the sudden contact when the memory of Orion's hands on me flashed through my mind. I hated myself for it.

Our information was miraculously cleared and we were permitted to go on upstairs. Jaxon and I turned to see the others—looking awfully threatening—near the fountain in the center of the place. I took in Riley's dark seductiveness, Benton's scarred face and shifty eyes, Kane and Jake's scowls and Arlo's eerie smile. At least no one in their right mind would approach us. But that also meant nobody would assume we were normal.

When we went upstairs and entered into the room, I let loose a shaky breath. We were far from safe, but at least we were away from prying eyes. As soon as we were inside, everyone began getting to work. Jaxon and Jake did all they could to help Kane hack into the ONNT's database, Arlo and Finn scoured the news for any sign of more deaths of important officials and Riley sharpened the knife I'd given her, the sound of metal on stone filling the room.

That left Benton and I sitting across from each other. I didn't meet his eyes. Instead, I checked the straps on all my weaponry, making sure the blades would slide out lightening fast when he inevitably attacked me. One flick of my wrist and the blades strapped to my forearms would be in my palms and ready for attack.

I needed him to know I was on to him. I needed to show him that despite being enveloped in smothering darkness, I could still eviscerate him. It would be difficult for me to slit his throat—the throat of my former friend. But I would be able to do it.

Benton was watching me; I could feel the weight of his gaze. He was reading my thoughts, I knew it. He knew everything—all the deepest parts of my mind. Things no one else knew. He knew how fast my heart was beating, how I was sick with fear, smothering in it—

"Delphinium."

I lifted my head to meet his brown eyes and made my face a mask of steel. "What do you want?" My voice was guarded. A ruse.

"You're suspicious. And scared." He didn't sound exactly caring or kind, just matter-of-fact. Exactly how an Imperium agent would sound. "I'm not who I used to be. Neither of us are."

"That's exactly what an Imperium agent would say." I leaned forward, ignoring how the fear made my chest tighten. "I know you can read my every thought. You won't trick me again."

"I hate that Orion made me do the things I did." He paused. This was the most serious I'd seen him since the accident and I desperately wished everything he was saying was true. "But he's my master no longer. If I wanted to take you back to him, I already would have."

Kane rolled his eyes from the corner and said, "Again, saying that doesn't help your case."

Benton ignored his brother. "I haven't read your thoughts ever since I snapped out of it. I'll admit, it was difficult with the way everyone practically shouts their thoughts into my mind. But I didn't." The way he phrased it made me realize my thoughts were the only ones he hadn't read. He turned to face Jake, whose face was illuminated by Kane's computer. "Evans will tell you. I'm not lying."

My gaze snapped to the crime lord, who was eyeing Benton like he was seconds away from breaking the assassin's neck. "He's not lying," he said slowly, eyes like pieces of ice. "As far as I can tell."

"Even if I wanted to attack you, do you really think they'd let me?" The assassin asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "I can hear their thoughts. You're all some of the most violent people I've ever met, and I spent five years with Imperium."

"That's right," Arlo said, turning to give Finn a smirk. The bright boy simply rolled his eyes.

"Five years." I ran the words over my tongue. "Tell me everything—how you got to the fortress, why you were never an assassin when I knew you, how Imperium survived after I destroyed it." It would not only give me the information I wanted, but it would also help me know where he really stood with Imperium; in the interview with the ONNT, he'd still been under the notion that Orion saved him. But Kane had said he was stolen right from their home, as I was.

He just stared at me for a moment. The light hit his face and made his scars look even more gruesome. Then he began talking, choosing every word carefully. "I was stolen away in the night, as all Orion's children were. At first, I wasn't quite sure why he wanted me. Everyone knew he wanted you for your power, but I had no sign of enhancement back then. Of course, he knew something I didn't. So as you were being trained as a killer and assassinating targets, I was being examined and tested by his men. They were trying to awaken my dormant power.

"He did the same with all the other children, but quickly realized the tests didn't work on everyone. Only me. So they became his trained killers, the best of the best despite not having enhanced power. I, on the other hand, eventually awakened my abilities. Once that happened, their thoughts rushed into my mind. Doctors. A machine. But I could never read Orion's mind, not with that mask he wears. I didn't know how to filter out specific thoughts back then," he clarified, still staring directly into my face. "I was then trained to use my abilities to leech information from Orion's victims and use it to destroy them. I didn't see you again after that. At least, not until the fire." His face went dark at the mention of that day.

"I saw you through the flames and knew you'd somehow escaped from the Mind Sweeper's grasp and done it yourself. You ran and I was left amongst the destruction. Eventually, another agent found me and ushered me out. Led by Orion himself, everyone was escaping out of a secret entrance, like the one in the Russian fortress. When I looked back, I was glad to see the fortress burning and crumbled in the distance. But then I was pushed forward by one of my superiors."

Oh, God.

Ever since that day, I'd been guilty about leaving him there and I'd assuaged my guilt with the idea that he might have been controlled by Orion then. But he wasn't. And I'd left him. I'd thrown him to the wolves and fled.

"We were transported like prisoners to the Russian fortress, which was still being built at the time. Though many had died in the fire, it still was barely enough to house all the forces. There was an uprising beginning within the ranks after they heard what you did. As soon as possible, I was dragged away and put inside the machine I saw in the soldiers' thoughts. No matter what I did, they were still able to overpower me. I was then turned into what you knew for these recent months."

At the mention of the Mind Sweeper, I dipped my head down to observe my hands folded in my lap. The familiar nausea swelled in my stomach.

"The uprising became a rebellion once they realized Orion had made another viscous attack dog: me. I'd taken your place. So the defectors destroyed the Mind Sweeper and took out as many guards as possible."

I hung on his every word; I hadn't known about this. A rebellion had began from my blood-soaked actions?

"They gathered all the ranks together, the rebels included. As I stood at his right hand, Orion himself slaughtered anyone who uttered a word against him. It was the most horrifying bloodbath I'd ever seen. Only the smart ones and those who believed in his cause still remained. And he used them to rebuild the Romanian fortress better than it was before."

My eyes closed. So the most recent rebellion when I'd slaughtered the rebels hadn't been the only one. But now Orion had rooted out everyone who didn't believe in him. The unbelievers paid his bloody price.

"The rest is familiar to you—the killing, the worship of his every move. And I was like that for nearly two years." He spread his arms in a wide gesture. "And now I'm free."

Two years. If he was to be believed, he'd spent two years as a murdering shell because of me. I should have saved him. I should have known.

"I left you," I whispered, hating the words as they came out. "I saw you too. You held your hand out to me. And I fled."

He gave a half-shrug. "I know better than anyone here what it was like living in that hellhole. Kill or be killed. Cutthroat. I would have done the same."

I only shook my head. No, he was the only one in that place who ever looked at me like I wasn't a weapon to be wielded. Like I was a person. He wasn't the same kind boy I'd known, that was for sure. But that child had to be somewhere underneath the layers of slyness and violence.

So I said, "I don't think you would." It came out so soft I doubted he heard.

"You seem unaffected by your time there, too unaffected for any normal person," Jaxon said from across the room, narrowing his eyes on Benton before glancing at me. I knew he was comparing how I was reacting to what I'd done to how Benton was acting now. I'd taken it much worse. But it did make me wonder... A twinge of the familiar fear gnawed in the back of my mind.

"I was imprisoned there for five years," Benton said loudly, boldly. "Five years of doing whatever that bastard wanted, killing his victims, awakening my power for him. I'm done worrying about what he made me do. I'm myself now. Orion taught me—taught us—" he gestured to me, "How to destroy himself without realizing it. He sharpened the daggers that will piece him through the heart. We will be his ruin."

The room went silent. His words were strong and gave me a flicker of hope. But it was soon extinguished when I remembered Orion was simply too powerful for us to compete with.

Jaxon seemed to feel the same when he said, "It's not that easy. You're new here, so maybe you don't understand. We're completely alone. The ONNT—our own government—wants to imprison us and run tests on our bodies. Though he broke away from Orion, Adiago Hundsen is still tracking us. And the rest of the world is realizing how small of a chance they stand against Imperium. All we can hope for is a miracle."

"That's right," Benton said, completely serious. "We're hopelessly outmatched. But every small victory against Imperium is still a victory, chipping away at their lead. We'll have to take small steps. But with our combined strengths, we may stand as a force against him."

"Small steps," I muttered, wondering what we could possibly do to take something away from Orion. I desperately wanted to.

I wondered if Benton heard my thoughts when he said, "It's the end of the month. You know what's scheduled to happen."

Biting my lip, I answered, "I couldn't forget."

"It will inevitably end in more blood and slaughter."

"If someone doesn't tell me what the hell's going on, I'm going to lose it," Riley said, dark eyes flicking between Benton and me.

"At the end of the month, a sort of draft was meant to commence. Imperium needs to make up for the loss of the Russian soldiers so they're taking people off the streets and enlisting them into their army," Benton explained. "It's another sign they're building for something bigger."

"The point where they're going to be gathered is close," I told them, tone grave. "Here, in New York. Imperium will add the new recruits to build their army. Each day, it grows stronger."

"Then we need to go there," Jaxon declared, looking very certain. "We need to take away their chance for an even larger army."

"I'd much rather get a chance at killing Orion than help people in need," Benton said. "But for once, I agree. And..." He gave me a sidelong glance. "Maybe then you'll believe me when I say I'm more than just an Imperium terrorist. What do you say, Delphinium? Don't you want to hurt the people who hurt us?"

I didn't say anything; I wasn't sure of my answer. There were too many things happening too fast. I'd known we'd be thrown back into it the second we left my grandmother's house, but now I was second-guessing myself, wondering again if I could handle it.

"What's the situation with the ONNT?" Finn asked Kane and I was thankful for his wise subject change.

"I wasn't able to get inside their database because there's a few levels of—" He paused as he realized none of us would understand his technological terms. "Think of it as a shield around their information—a shield I can't get through unless someone deactivates it."

"Tell them the best part," Jaxon urged him, leaning back in his chair. His metal arm caught the light.

"However, I was able to get into Marcella Krasowski's emails," Kane continued at Jaxon's request. "She's meant to have a technician come into headquarters and check their software, make sure it's secure." He paused. "She's onto us. She knows what we're after and is trying to protect herself from attack."

"Someone needs to pose as the technician then," Riley said and then shook her head when all the eyes went to her. "Don't you all look at me like that."

"You used to be our spy," Jaxon said to her. "And a damn good one at that."

"Don't worry," Kane told her in a soft tone. "I'll tell you everything you'll need to do." I looked away when I saw how his eyes lingered on her. There was deep longing there. He wished she would remember him in the way she used to.

Benton addressed the rest of us. "Suit up, losers. We're going after the new soldiers and we're going to give their captors hell."