Page 13 of Us Dark Few

Adan finally seemed to notice her presence as she moved.

“Who are you?” he asked, glaring at her skeptically.

She opened her mouth, but Serene beat her to the punch. “This is Khalani Kanes. First day in prison, so give her a break. She’s had enough trauma for one day. Khalani, this is my older brother, Adan.” Serene waved her hand in dismissal.

Khalani scrunched her forehead. “How do you know my name?”

“I stole the new roster sheet.” Serene shrugged. “It’s virtually impossible to steal from Takeshi Steele, but one of his new backups had his guard down too long.”

“Watch yourself, Serene.” Derek frowned. “One day, you’ll be caught, and the guards won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“Which is why I’malwayscareful,” she emphasized to Derek and turned back to Khalani. “So, what did you take?”

“Excuse me?”

Serene’s green eyes burned with curiosity, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “What did you take from the Archives? All it said in your file was that you stole an artifact from the Archives, but it didn’t say what…” her voice trailed off.

At the mention of the Archives, both Derek and Adan froze as if a steel rod was shoved up their spines. “You stole something from the Archives?” Adan forcefully swallowed as he studied her in dismay.

Khalani opened her mouth but hesitated. She was already a prisoner, but Douglas’ family would still be harmed if word got out that Khalani had shared any information with them.

“I guess I’m not a very good thief, seeing as I’m down here, and all it took was a surprise inspection for them to...” Khalani paused, her pulse quickening. “I didn’t take anything important. It was just a book.” She glanced away, attempting to downgrade the interest in her story and not unravel further.

Derek shifted forward, his focus fixated on her. “What did the book say? Did it talk about Apollo or any plans with Genesis?”

“N-no. It was poetry.”

All she received were blank stares. Khalani bit her lip and tried to explain. “Um, it’s stories about life but written with passion and emotion. Poetry is…beautiful.”

They all frowned like she was speaking a different language.

“As I said, it won’t interest you, and it doesn’t even matter anymore. It’s gone now,” her voice hardened.

Derek sat back, disappointed, but something in his calculating gaze caught her attention. She couldn’t put her finger on what the shift was.

“A bunch of dead guys wrote a book on the shittiness of humanity, and they threw you in here for taking that?” Serene frowned.

“Look around, sis. Apollo was always crazy. We just became desensitized to it,” Adan mumbled in a subdued voice, throwing a piece of slumpy food back on his tray.

Desensitized. That was the perfect word for it.

She’d always been aware of the Council’s ruthless actions but never spoke out against them. She held no power or influence. Her focus was on her own survival.

Ignoring the suffering of others had become increasingly easy over time, as if her mind had been trained to tune out things that didn’t directly affect her.

Maybe that was worse.

“Why did they throw you down here?” She gestured to Serene and Adan, trying to gravitate the attention away from her.

“Before Braderhelm, Adan was one of the best mechanical engineers in Apollo’s Surface Division,” Serene divulged.

Her eyebrows rose, shifting to Adan. The Surface Division created the material and maintained the Genesis dome and the few suits that could withstand the deadly radiation.

“That’s…impressive,” she admitted.

“Yeah. What an accomplishment.” Adan snorted. “They loved me until I refused to work at the Weapon’s Lab in Genesis.”

The lines in her forehead deepened. Anyone who turned down the chance to live in Genesis was either deranged or asinine.

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