Page 76 of Reverie

“I want you to know that we will keep you safe if you help us. Okay?”

“Um, okay.” Ella nods, her eyes still wide.

“Here’s what I—we—propose.” Misha sticks his hands out to gesture to the entire room. “We want to give you to them, just for a little bit. Because we know when they have you, they will take you to their leader, who is a person called The Architect. Are you following me?”

Ella’s eyebrows furrow. “Yes, but…these people are dangerous. Terrorists, right?”

Misha nods. “Yes, they are dangerous, but we will place trackers on your person so that we can retrieve you when you are with The Architect. Once you’re inside, we’ll be in range to tackle any technological defenses they may have. Max can mask the signal and keep an eye on you at all times. We havesomeone on the inside who will keep you safe. Then we’ll come in with an army bigger than the one I sent to rescue you all at Amelia Manor,” he says. The last few words are a bit sharper and pointed in my direction. A dig at me.

“Why do they want me?” Ella asks.

It’s a perfectly reasonable question that I want the answer to. My face tightens with foreboding.

Misha sends a look to our mother.

Our mother.

With a deep breath, Misha starts to speak, but Amelia butts in.

“You are important to them, Ellie. That’s why we’re confident they won’t harm you. They need you alive and…intact.”

Ella’s brows furrow.

“Okay, but why am I important?” she presses. Amelia drops onto her haunches and grabs Ella’s hands.

“Your father…my father…they were part of The Legion. They are—they were evil, Ellie. I’ve been caught up in this world for so long. I knew I wanted to, needed to get out when you were born. The day I took you home, I was told that you would be handed over to The Legion by your twenty-third birthday. I…” Amelia bows her head, but I track the movement as her hands flex against Ella’s.

I’m frozen. Rooted. Helpless to stop this trainwreck in front of me.

“They forced me to conceive you so that you may be one of the chosen to birth their next generations once Elysium was enacted.” Amelia’s lips tremble as she delivers the clear words, and it’s like a marching band decided to take up residence between my ears.

I’d suspected something similar, drawing conclusions from the information I received when I first arrived…but this?

I want to vomit.

Ella stares at Amelia as if she were an alien, and after a few heartbeats, removes her hands.

“I see,” Ella says, her voice sounding far off. She looks thoroughly overwhelmed by this information—as much as I am.

“What the actual goddamn fuck?” I shout, seething. No one except Leo acknowledges my outburst.

The feeling of icy anxiety beneath my skin demands that I move, run, get far away from all of this shit with Ella and the rest of my family.

I try to breathe in, but it feels like chains wind around my chest, pulling tighter, tighter….

“They won’t hurt you because they need you, Ella. Your blood—your DNA is too precious to them. But if you face this for a little while, prayerfully not even a full day, then we can end all of this for good. You’ll be free.” Luna delivers the words with more passion than I’ve heard her use toward any of us thus far.

“And if you don’t, which…is your choice,” Misha begins. “You will have to live in hiding forever. They will hunt you until they catch you, Ella.”

Ella’s face goes blank, and she goes very still. Impossibly still.

Amelia still crouches in front of her. “You do not have to do this, Ella,” she says, her voice fierce.

“If you agree, you’ll help us get rid of some serious evil in the world. I want to give you time to decide, but we can’t delay any longer. We need to act now. So what do you say?” Misha says and waits patiently.

I hold my breath, and with a glance toward Leo, it looks like he’s doing the same.

I find my voice. “You don’t have to do this, Ellie. In fact, I don’t want you to?—”