Page 73 of Abducting Sarah

“But Kapok said you could takeanyone,” he countered.

I sighed wearily. “Since I’ve gotten to Halla, I’ve gotten stabbed by one conduit and almost died. I was abducted by another one and tossed around like ragdoll by the oldest conduit I have ever met. If you haven’t noticed, muscle and fighting skillsare not what it’s going to take to survive this. I don’t know if being dead makes the conduits faster or if it’s that they have nothing left to lose…I don’t know anything about them anymore. But what Idoknow is, we have to fight smarter.”

I heard Tiger do something in the dark. “My gauntlet driver won’t work. Yours?”

“Mine stopped working the moment we got here.”

The bones shifted around me, knocking into each other as Tiger dug around. “I can’t get Kapok’s to work, either. I could try to wire them together, amplify their callouts—”

“I don’t think it’s the drivers,” I told him. “It’s the conduits’ gifts. I’ve heard of conduits who can deaden electronics.” Truth was, I didn’t want to contact anyone even if we could. If they knew we were alive, then they would try to save us and they would end up dead, too.

“Fine. It’s not like I could do it in the dark, anyway.”

He sounded so defeated. I wished I could have offered him some kind of comfort, but I had nothing left to give.

Tiger kicked the bones. “Fight smarter, huh? Seems smart to me to start making knives. You?”

It was useless—there was no way we could fight our way out. But the kid needed something to do.And a knife will make it easier to do what I have to do.

“Yeah, let’s do it. We can use the flat rocks in the walls to grind the bones to sharp points. Feel around until you find something like that. I’ll try over here.” I reached around in the dark and kept finding Kapok’s lifeless body.

I will make my knife as sharp as possible, so it cannot be felt. I don’t want Tiger to suffer, and it will be easier to cut my own throat with a sharp blade. I won’t let us be traded for Sarah.

I found a femur and a flat rock and began to hone.

CHAPTER 20

Deacon

Asiren abruptly woke me in the conduit temple. I gave Sarah a few nudges. “Up, up, up!”

She lifted her head and glanced around groggily. “What—what’s that sound?”

“Allegiant’ssiren. Get dressed, we have to gonow!” We threw on our clothes and while we ran to the ship, I hit the comm and shouted, “Allegiantresponding, go ahead!”

“Deacon, is that you?” Silence asked, her voice breaking.

“Yes, go ahead.” After we reached the cockpit, I worked on getting the ship ready to fly. Sarah strapped into her seat next to me.

“Wave just got here and…Kapok is dead—”

“What?” Sarah gasped.

“Tiger and Jac have been taken by the conduits’ leader, Mother Portend,” Silence went on in a rush. “Wave says shewants to trade for our conduit. I don’t understand what she means—”

“Where is my father?” I demanded, cutting her off.

“We’re all in the house.”

I headed the ship in that direction. “Has he called anyone for help?”

“Yes, a few—”

“Call more. I’ll be there shortly.Allegiantout.”

“The fuck is going on?” Sarah hissed, looking just as panicked and worried as I was.

I pushedAllegiantto its limits. “You know as much as I do.”

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