FREE SAMPLE (Ch.1)

The last person I wanted to see was my mother.

She wasn’t my biological mother, of course; that woman had been dead for years. No, Mrs. Nolan was my mother in name only, and not by choice. I hadn’t wanted to be adopted. I hadn’t wanted to change my name and use the file Thames—Mr. Nolan—had forged for me.

But I’d had no choice. I’d had no choice, because Thames had forced me to record videos taking responsibility for the destruction of the factory on Rott. He’d sacrificed me as a scapegoat so that the United wouldn’t know he’d been manufacturing a world-ending superweapon. He’d let me take the blame and turned my whole family into public enemies.

That’s why I recorded a video and revealed his identity to the government. That’s why he killed himself. That’s why I altered my fingerprints, assumed the identity he’d created for me, and ran.

I never wanted to see Mrs. Nolan again, but now she stood at the end of the hall, between me and the only exit. Why was she here? She had no reason to be here. We were in an office building on the fringes of downtown Boston that had been converted into a base for the underground. It was supposed to be a safe place, or at least that’s what my old classmate Stanyard had said when he’d brought me here.

Now I was beginning to wonder if I’d walked right into another prison.

I scrambled up from the floor and braced myself, feet apart. Mrs. Nolan didn’t move. She studied me, not saying anything for a cold minute. She looked exactly the same as she had the last time we’d met. Her hair had been flat-ironed into submission, and her lips were a perfect shade of pink.

Only this time, she wasn’t smiling.

“Andromeda,” she said, using my adopted name. There was no emotion attached to it.

I clenched my fists. “What do you want?”

She took me in once, twice; I swore I saw her grimace in displeasure. “We need to talk.”

“No, no—you need to leave me alone.” I’d spent the last several weeks fighting to get away from the Nolans; I wasn’t going back.

“Philadelphia,” my older brother Ephesus called to me from where he sat on the floor.

I glanced back at him. He met my eyes and spoke slowly. “It’s okay. She’s with me.”

The hallway flashed out of focus as the universe shattered around him.

No. Don’t do this to me.

“She’s with you?”

He nodded.

My heart throbbed in my ears. I glanced at the others in the room, willing them to discredit the story.

Jayde, the soldier who was supposed to be in charge of this place, just shrugged.

I turned to Stanyard. His dark eyes were guarded as he said, “She helped us find you.”

I sucked in a breath but didn’t get any air. “You led her right to me.”

You betrayed me. Again.

“Phil, it’s okay,” Ephesus repeated. “I promise you can trust her.”

His words pierced my chest like a needle. “Trust her? You have no idea what she’s done!”

“What did I do, Andromeda?”

I spun around. Mrs. Nolan crossed her arms, expression calm and pale. “What did I do to you?”

I gaped at her as the rejection filled my lungs like water. “What did you do to me? Do you have any idea how much hell your husband put me through?”

“Phil!” Ephesus exclaimed.

“Wow, someone’s upset,” Jayde remarked.

“They kidnapped me! They drugged me and took me to another planet,” I screamed, as if I had to justify it. Why did I have to justify my feelings? Why didn’t anyone understand?

Why doesn’t anyone care?

Mrs. Nolan was unmoved. “Sweetheart, you know it was for your own good.”

The butter—the sugary compromise that I knew all too well—slipped back into her voice, and my stomach hurled. “My own good? You used me as blackmail, and now the government wants to kill me. It’s your fault I had to change my name. It’s your fault Philadelphia’s gone.”

You planned this. You planned it this way all along, and you know it.

She shook her head. “And you would be dead if it weren’t for that file my husband forged for you. We only did it to protect you.”

“Protect me?” I screeched, but my voice broke at the end. My throat burned, and every breath made my bruised rib hurt. It didn’t matter anyway—no one was listening to me.

Ephesus grabbed my hand and tried to drag me back down to the ground beside him. “Phil, please, I promise I can explain everything.”

I wrenched my hand from his grasp. “No, you can’t.” There’s nothing you can say that will fix this.

The realization hit me like a fresh kick to the ribs. There was a time when my big brother could have fixed anything. Now he sounded just like one of them.

I started to cry.

Stanyard put his hands up. “Hey, it’s okay. You need to sit down, breathe.”

He took a step towards me. I backed away—right into the wall. My pulse shot to my throat.

I don’t trust you. I don’t trust any of you.

“He’s right.” Ephesus pushed himself to his feet with his good arm, and suddenly the hallway seemed a lot narrower. “Let’s all step back and regroup.”

He touched my shoulder, and I threw him off. “Don’t touch me!”

Jayde reacted. “All right, that’s enough.” He reached forward to grab me, one muscular hand sliding reflexively towards his holstered gun.

I ran.

I turned and sprinted down the hall. Someone shouted my name, but I wasn’t sure who. I heard heavy footsteps behind me and willed myself to be faster.

At least Mrs. Nolan had the decency to get out of the way.

I’d never make it on the elevator. I turned the corner and followed the exit signs to the nearest stairwell. I threw the door open and slid down the stairs, taking them three at a time. I had to get out of sight before they figured out which floor I was on. The building was huge; surely there was some place to hide.

I descended until I reached the basement. I slid around the door and shoved it shut behind me, pausing to listen. Shouts echoed from further up the stairwell, but they were several floors away.

The corridor was dark except for a lone security light. I stumbled around until I found an alcove out of sight of the stairwell and collapsed on the ground.

The adrenaline broke, and in its place rolled waves of pain. My injured side was screaming. It wasn’t the first time I’d been kicked in the ribs, but the pain was infinitely worse than I remembered. Ambrose’s kicks had been fat and clumsy. Carnegie wasn’t strong, but he was cruel. He had known exactly where to kick to make me bruise.

I braced myself against the wall and struggled not to vomit. I was shaking and sweating and saw flashing colors, even though the hall was dark.

Oh God, help.

What was I going to do? I was stranded on Earth with a dozen enemies. The government was hunting for me; the underground had compromised my position and almost gotten me killed; and my own brother was partnering with the one woman who could reveal my identity and condemn me to death.

Meanwhile, my dad, the person I had come back to Earth to save, was cryogenically frozen, and the one man who could probably fix everything was on another planet.

You should have stayed on Mars, sweetheart.

“Philadelphia.”

I screamed. Ephesus stood over me. He looked terrifying backlit by the weak security lighting, with his shaved head and bandaged nose and everything that was strange and unfamiliar.

I hid my face. “Leave me alone!”

He knelt beside me. “What’s wrong? You’re white. Are you hurt?”

He reached towards me. I jerked back and winced. “Please don’t touch me,” I whimpered. It was a plead this time, not a command. Everything hurts so bad.

“Phil, please, you need to see a doctor. Let Mrs. Nolan look at you.”

“No!” She was the last person I wanted to touch me.

He sighed. He sounded annoyed, which just made me want to cry. “Phil, I promise she won’t hurt you.”

You don’t know that. I tucked myself further into the corner. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re right—I don’t.”

I stopped and looked up at him.

He searched my face. “I have no idea what you’ve been through—because I wasn’t there.”

The statement held no accusation, only heartbreak. He sat cross-legged on the floor next to me. “I have no idea what happened between you and Thames. Cynthia—Mrs. Nolan—told me what she knows, and I saw your videos, but I know that’s only half the story. I know you’ve been through a nightmare, and I wasn’t there to help you.”

His voice cracked. “We’ve barely seen each other these past two years, and that kills me. Honestly, Phil, when you came around the corner back here,” he gestured at the floors above us, “I didn’t even recognize you.”

I grimaced, but I wasn’t surprised. In the process of becoming Andromeda, I’d chopped my long, dark hair and bleached it nearly white. I wore blue contacts and had three piercings in my ears; not to mention, my new aesthetic of ripped jeans and angsty t-shirts was a far cry from the industrial skirt and jacket I used to wear. I didn’t look anything like the girl he’d left behind.

You aren’t the girl he left behind. That girl is dead.

Ephesus’s eyes glistened in the dark. “I don’t even know you anymore, and it’s my fault. I feel like I failed you. You had to fight for your life, and you had to do it alone.”

But you weren’t alone, the Holy Spirit reminded me. Nic had been there for me—or at least he had been until I’d run away to Earth because I thought I could fix everything.

A fresh sob ripped out of me.

“Oh Philli.” Ephesus gently took my hand. “I know I wasn’t there for you, but I’m here now. You don’t have to do this by yourself. We’ll get through this together. Just please, let me—let us—help you.”

I flinched. That was the exact same thing Thames had said to me.

Let me help you.

I took a deep breath and tried to steady my thoughts. I didn’t trust Mrs. Nolan. I had no idea what she expected to gain by partnering with Ephesus, but it couldn’t be good. I also didn’t trust Jayde or the underground; they’d already lied to me more than once. And Stanyard—he’d saved my life today, but only after he put it in danger. I still didn’t know where he stood.

But even if I couldn’t count them as friends, I knew I could trust Ephesus. He’d made mistakes, but he was still my brother. And that was something even a name change couldn’t take from me.

I opened my mouth to respond, but approaching footsteps interrupted me. Stanyard rounded the corner.

“I’m sorry,” he panted with a nervous glance at me, “but they’ve brought your dad in.”