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Chapter 5

I hated how early I had to be up, and somehow stumbled into the bathroom to get cleaned up. I'd just gotten dressed in my room when there was a knock.

"I finished your dress for today," Mom was holding a blue sundress in front of her as she walked into my room. "I'll have your wedding dress finished soon."

"It's beautiful, Mom," I took it from her and laid it on my bed. "I hope Jace won't mind coming back here after the meeting this morning."

"I doubt it," Mom hugged me. "Speaking of Jace, he's waiting for you downstairs."

I met Kat in the hallway, and we walked down the stairs together. She was going to be helping mom with some food for the festival. All the ladies in the village got together to bake cakes, cookies, and pies. It was mostly just all of us that lived there gathering in the village square to talk to each other.

And I imagined they would make Jace apologize to me publicly since they would be announcing our upcoming wedding.

In a week and a half.

Jace smiled at me when I walked into the living room. He greeted Kat, then took my hand so we could walk to the morning Society meeting.

As we walked along the streets, I pointed things out. Like the bakery, which was in full swing to get ready for the festival, or the school that was out for the summer. I wasn't sure what the name of the state we lived in used to be, or even the little community we were in and the neighboring one, but it was now called Lofton.

As we walked in for the morning meeting, we were shocked to see most of the members at the front pouring over something they had spread out on a table. Most of them seemed rather irritated by something, and as much as I just wanted to read someone's mind, we went to the front of the room instead.

"What's going on?" I whispered to my dad and saw they were looking at some maps.

"Sit down," Dad looked at me. "Actually, come with me."

I looked at Jace, shrugged and followed my dad until we were away from the tables.

"Lance Worthington is missing. So is Willa. We suspect they've gone to join with the acknowledged settlement we're close to, and that they're telling them about us," Dad looked angry. "We've had Lance under surveillance for awhile now. His dad is actually the one that turned him in."

"Funny, we were going to be bringing him up in today's meeting," I said, and was glad that Jace gripped my hand tighter.

"At most, all they can tell is that we're Underground. Matteo has already sent communitcations to our contact, who is doing damage control," Dad began to pace. "The Gathering is going to happen in two weeks, which is why we're moving your wedding up so much. Our contact said that was the soonest they could logically do the Gathering."

I sat down rather heavily. I remembered the first Gathering I'd witnessed.

The Assertives had a train come to the acknowledged settlement close to us, and they took the children. All of the ones that had any kind of ability. I clung to Mom as the kids screamed, begging their parents not to send them away. They were crying, and it made me feel so bad for them. The Assertives were taking the kids to fuel their control over the new capital city. That was how they maintained their control. They'd figured out how to syphon it from the kids.

And they were gathered at age twelve, and burned out around fourteen or fifteen.

It was the most horrific thing I'd ever witnessed, and I'd had nightmares for months. I was so afraid they'd come and take me away and hook me up to their machines to take away my power.