Ablaze »»DARKEST MINDS««

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KEEPING TABS
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While Cole and Dane discuss our next moves, I stare blankly down at the table we're standing around. I hear snippets of the conversation—I nod along after I catch a fragment of whatever is being said—but my mind is too far away to focus. I couldn't go back to sleep after the incident with Clancy. Could I really risk the safety of my friends, my family, or would it be smarter to join Clancy to keep them safe? What was the worst Clancy could do to me, anyways?

I glance up and study the faces around the table. Dane is sitting to my left. His hand is resting on the table dangerously close to mine. Marcy is standing in the doorway, picking at her nails. Bo and Jude are outside playing with Falcon in the little yard. Every once and a while they run past the window, which was open for now, and give everyone inside a glimpse of their laughing faces as they wrestle around.

I look back down at the table. I would put myself through anything to protect them. Maybe my next move won't be the same as the others', and maybe this would be one of the last times I would be with them.

"—right, Freckles?"

My head shoots up. "Huh?"

Dane gives me a look as Cole stares at me inquisitively.

"Are you okay?" Dane asks. I clear my throat and mentally put off my thoughts until later. With a nod, I fold my hands in front of myself on the table, urging him to repeat himself. "Cole and Conor were saying how the League eventually wanted to be able to free the kids at the camps, so I told them about the Zone," he informs me, waiting for my reaction. Surprised, I look to Cole.

"It could be a good way to train our people, give them a little taste of what it would be like to hit the smaller camps. Hopefully, after heavy training, we'll be able to move from infiltrating the smaller, less-guarded camps to the bigger ones," Cole explains.

"Like Thurmond?" Marcy asks.

Cole hesitates. "Thurmond might be a little too big. But, first things first, we're going to get the Zone," he announces with finality in his tone. He turns to me. "Princess, we're gonna need to know everything you know about this place."

I give him a hard look at calling me "Princess." He just smiles cheekily.

I resist the overwhelming urge to roll my eyes, but I ignore it and try to be as helpful as I can. At times I still feel the guilt of leaving those kids behind at the Zone, so I'm going to do everything in my power to help them out. "It's kind of a community made up of a motel and the surrounding area, bordered by a creek and a woods," I say, picturing the place in my head. Because of my Green abilities, or just because I have a good memory (I couldn't tell sometimes between my Green brain and my normal brain), I can remember everything I have seen in my time at the Zone.

"Any idea where it is?" Cole asks.

I rack my brain for all the information I can, but I come up empty. I never knew where exactly I was being held, nor did I catch what road was nearby. "I'm . . . not sure. I know there's an interstate nearby, or a highway or something, but that's it. Sorry."

"Do you know what kind of motel it was?" Conor asks.

I nod. "Motel 6."

Cole soaks in this information and raps his knuckles along the tabletop. "Ok," he breathes, "I'll contact someone at the League tonight and see if they can find all the Motel 6's around major roads and a woods. For Ohio, it might be tough to narrow it down to one."

"But we can do it," Conor says. His confidence fades a fraction as he looks to Cole for confirmation. "Right?"

"Right."

The table is engulfed in a silence that leaves us all wondering what exactly to do next to set everything in motion. The second I glance up and meet Cole's eyes I'm thrusted into the inter workings of his mind. I see every thought like it's laid out before me in a book. He wants us to join the Children's League and have us train to fit in. I see flashbacks of people who come to mind as he thinks: mostly someone with similar physical attributes as him. His name flashes before my eyes. Liam.

I don't want this, I think to myself, panic starting to rise as I try to pull myself out of his mind. When I do finally resurface, and I'm back to sitting at the table, I meet Dane's eyes, and then for some reason I accidentally slip into his thoughts as well.

No, no, stop, I don't want this, I don't want to know any of this!

But when I finally pull out of his mind, it's too late. I've seen every thought he had during the talk. He was mostly an open book during the talk, but what I saw in his thoughts was that he didn't say everything. He was planning on taking Bo, Marcy, and I, and running away from the Children's League after helping them infiltrate the Zone. It wasn't bad, and I don't mind his "secret" plans—that's not what worries me; what worries me is that my Orange abilities are getting out of hand. I need to get ahold of myself before I accidentally cause permanent damage to someone's mind.

I stand shakily to my feet, ready to leave and find someplace to get some fresh air. Everything feels to be suffocating me, and the fire in my veins feels more rampant than normal.

But, before I can leave, I freeze. Something tickles the back of my head, like a warning.

"Help!"

"That was Bo," Dane mutters, and without another thought, everyone races around the cumbersome table and chairs to get outside as fast as possible.

"He went that way," Jude says, one arm clutches to his chest tightly and the other outstretched towards a quickly retreating form with black hair. 

I would recognize that hair anywhere; it belongs to the same person who's been haunting my thoughts.

Clancy.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Dane questions, trepidation making his voice jump as he holds onto Bo. The young boy shakes his head and clings to Dane until he picks him up. Cole grabs ahold of Jude and pulls him away from Clancy's retreating form. I watch, eyes narrow, as he disappears behind a house.

"He–he kept asking questions about Freckles," Bo murmurs into Dane's shirt. Dane looks up at me, worry lining his eyes.

"What kind of questions?"

"If she was more than just a Red."

"Okay, who the hell was that?" Cole asks loudly.

"Clancy Gray," I reply in a dead voice. He took it too far this time—I was fine with him cornering me and threatening me, but now that he brought Bo and Jude into this, he brought this upon himself.

Nobody has the chance to utter their disbelief before I sprint after Clancy. I ignore the screaming in my legs and the fire in my chest and pump my legs as fast as they can go. I need to catch up to that monster before he gets away. He will not get away with this–not on my watch.