“Moira, hey, wake up,” an unknown voice said, and I forced my eyes to open. A guy was standing next to my bed, and I realized we were in a small windowless room with pale yellow walls.
“Who are you?” I frowned at the guy, who had dark brown hair and green eyes.
“My name is Nick. We used... We used to know each other,” he said. “When I heard what happened to you, I had to come see you. My sister, Kenna, and I had been mind-controlled and you managed to help us.”
“I did?” I’d never heard of him before, and I wasn’t sure if I should believe anything he said.
“I know you don’t believe me, but you can check. Get inside my mind, and you’ll see I wasn’t mind-controlled by anyone to come here and tell you this, and that I’m telling you the truth.”
“You’d let me do that?” Trusting someone enough to let them inside their head was a big deal.
He nodded. Just in case he was bluffing, I let my air out of me and got inside his mind. All of his brain signals looked fine, and they weren’t blackened. I immediately slipped out, and Nick winced.
“I wish I was strong enough to help you out,” he said. “But I can’t do what you can.”
I sat up, surprised that I wasn’t tied to anything or that my elements weren’t blocked. “Where are we?”
“In one of Lily’s safe houses. We couldn’t exactly bring you in. The government wants your head for everything those rogue elementals and you have done. Lily is trying to negotiate some kind of a deal, but I don’t know how that’ll work out. You’d have better chances if you regained your memory.” His brow furrowed. “And that guy who was with you...”
“Jaiden?” I asked.
“No, the other guy. The one who probably mind-controlled you, judging by the fact he was powerful enough to escape at the last moment,” Nick said. “Would you happen to know where to find him? If you handed him over, you’d have better chances of getting out of this.”
“Blake?” So Blake had managed to flee. I didn’t even know how I felt about that. Nick believed Blake had mind-controlled me, but how? He wasn’t that strong, or was he? I bit down on my lip. I had to figure this out. I couldn’t stay like this and not know who I really was.
“Oh, so that’s his name? His real name?” Nick asked. “It’s been hard to track him down. There’s absolutely no record of his existence, only blurry surveillance images.”
“Is there any way... to fix what’s been done to me?” I needed to know if anyone had come up with a reliable method that I didn’t know about yet.
Nick averted his gaze. “Unfortunately, no. You’re the only one for now who knows how to heal brain signals and fix the damage, but I don’t know if you can fix your own mind.”
My heart skipped a beat. That didn’t sound promising. How could I dig around my own mind? I didn’t even know if that was possible. But even if I found another person to do it for me, how could I trust them? Maybe if they let me mind control them first so they wouldn’t harm me intentionally. “Where’s Jaiden?”
“He’s here. In a cell. Waiting for execution,” Nick said.
“What?” I gaped at him. “But they can’t just kill him! He...” Well, I didn’t really know what he’d done. Maybe he was dangerous, but he’d been helping me. “Can I see him?”
“Yeah, I guess. He’s in the only element-proof room here.” Nick shrugged. “Do you think he could help you? I mean, I wouldn’t really trust him, but he seems to care about you, so...”
“Take me to him.” There was a sour taste in my mouth, and I got to my feet, running a hand through my hair.
“Okay, come with me.” Nick opened the door for me. “Just don’t try to escape. If you do, the team has an order to kill you immediately.”
“Great.” I knew Lily wouldn’t let me get out of here so easily. There had to be some other form of protection around the house or wherever we were that Nick wasn’t telling me about. Maybe there was only one way in and out of here, since I couldn’t see any windows or openings, which meant the house might not be a house at all but some underground hideout.
As we strode down the hall, I could see various armed guards watching me carefully. Nick and I stopped in front of a big green door, and he punched in the code. The door slid open, and Jaiden looked up at me. He was sitting on the floor in an empty room, his hands in chains.
“Hi,” I said softly as the door closed behind me. As I came closer, I could see his sweaty hair was plastered to his forehead, his eyes a little bit too wide. The room. There was something wrong about this room; something related to Jaiden. His shoulders relaxed as I settled on the floor next to him.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.
“I’m not okay.” I met his eyes. “I heard they...” My throat constricted.
“Don’t worry about that.” He flashed me a weak smile. “You’ll be fine.”
“I need to know something.” I reached out and placed my hand over his. “Can you heal my brain signals? I know you’re powerful and...”
He looked away. “No, I can’t. I... I don’t know how to do it. I tried once and I messed up. I won’t try again. Not with you.”
“Do you think I can do it myself?” I needed to know who I was, who he was to me, and everything else.
His head snapped toward me, his lips parting. “What? No.” He shook his head. “You can’t do that. I know you want to remember, but it’s not worth the risk.”
“Don’t you want me to remember you?”
He offered me a sad smile, his chains rattling. “More than anything, but if I have to choose between you not knowing who I am and you losing your mind, then my choice is clear. And I... I won’t be here for much longer anyway.”
“Jaiden...” A tear slid down my cheek, and I leaned forward to whisper into his ear. “Maybe there’s a way to get out of here. Maybe we can mind control our way out. Nick wasn’t protected...”
“No,” he said urgently. “You can’t do that! There’s only one way out of here, and it has a shield programmed to destroy any person who goes through it.”
“What? But how do they get out of here?” I couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“They don’t. Not until someone from the outside disables it, and I’m sure that can’t be done by request of anyone in here. They have many ways of monitoring you, and they’ll know if you try anything. They need some information out of you and me, and that’s why they’ll keep us here probably for a week or two. Whatever you do, don’t give them a reason to take you out. This is a test. If Nick isn’t protected, that’s because he didn’t want to be or because he had a reason.”
“How do you know all this?” I frowned.
“Because I saw the shield when we were brought here. It was built based on one of my father’s designs. Lily must have taken it after Elemontera was attacked. If they created it right, the shield can’t be destroyed by force or elements.”
“Wonderful.” But that at least meant I still had time to find a way to help Jaiden. Maybe I could convince Lily to at least give him a fair trial and buy us some more time. I didn’t know why I wanted to save him so badly, but I did.
“You should go now. They won’t be happy to see you with me,” he said.
“I don’t care.” I leaned my head on his shoulder, not willing to leave him alone. Besides, I needed some time to think, and it didn’t matter if I was trapped in the four walls here or down the hallway.