Reap (The Harvest Saga Book 1) (24 page)

“Yes,” I croaked.

“Good. I’ll also have to examine your female anatomy.” I tensed up. “Don’t worry. It will only take a moment and you won’t feel any pain, only perhaps a bit of discomfort. Okay?”

I nodded. “I need you to place this on your tongue, dear.” He held out what looked like a small, gray square of paper.

I looked at Gray, who was staring at the wall across from him. The square was thin, almost transparent. Opening my mouth, I placed it on my tongue, feeling it immediately dissolve. I began to feel warm and happy. My body felt lighter somehow, as though I were floating above the bed upon which I lay. I could almost feel the cot beneath me when I sank down onto it, the world swirling away into a peaceful blackness. Before I lost all touch, I heard a familiar voice roaring, “What the hell did you do to her?”

Gray.

Everything was dark and someone
was trying to pound their way out of my skull from the inside. Lying flat on my back, I blinked until my eyes finally focused on the ceiling above me. Exposed wooden beams crossed one another in an intricate pattern. Dingy gray walls stretched to dirty wooden floors.
Where am I?
My neck was stiff and I wondered how long I’d been lying on my back.

My abdominal muscles were stiff. No, that wasn’t it. My entire stomach was sore. I tried to sit up twice without success. It felt as if someone had repeatedly kicked me in the abdomen from just above my belly button down. Using my arms, I finally pulled myself up, panting from the effort it took just to sit up. Sweat beaded on my head, but I shook with cold chills. Not normal.

A frosty gust of wind rattled the warped window panes that were settled in wood that had long since turned gray.  The breeze entered the room and fluttered a few pieces of my hair. Goosebumps pebbled my arms. I grabbed the blanket behind me and pulled it around myself as carefully as possible.

My stomach throbbed. Pressing my fingers into my lower abdomen, I could tell I was bruised, sore inside and out. A small oil lamp sat beside the bed on a small wooden table, providing a little bit of warm light in the tiny space. Focusing on trying to regain the strength in my legs, I tried to put a little weight on them every so often to get them used to holding me up again. It felt strange that they wouldn’t work. Shuffling outside the door frightened me and I clutched the blanket to my neck, hiding the loose white nightgown into which I’d been placed.

The doorknob slowly turned. Inch by inch and then the door crept toward me revealing a large, dark shadow. Burnt orange eyes met mine. “Gray?” My voice was raspy and strange and I was sure the desert had taken up root in my throat and on my tongue.

“Oh, hey. I didn’t think you’d be awake yet. They said it would be awhile.” He looked at me from the corner of his eyes.

“Where am I? Are we still in Olympus?”

“Yes. We’re in the Lesser section of the city. You probably saw it from the train.”

“Where the factories are?”

“Yep.”

“Why are we here?”

“Do you remember what happened at the physician?” He sat down on the bed beside me, making the soreness in my stomach bite at me. I winced. “Sorry. I know you’re sore.”

“I’m okay. I remember the doctor and the paper he made me eat, and then I don’t remember anything. It’s all black.”

Gray muttered a curse. “They drugged you. Hell, they drugged me. Then, when we were both out, they performed some sort of test on you, on your...um, lady parts.”

My eyebrows lifted in unison. Hearing Gray say the words ‘lady parts’ any other day would have me in a fit of giggles, but the gravity of the situation weighed me down. “What did they do? Did they take my eggs? Will I still be able to have children one day? Why did they send me here?”

“Shhh. I think they tested them. They sent you here because of the results.”

I gasped. “Does this mean what I think it means?” My fingertips searched for the collar. It was still there. “I don’t understand.”

“Only Crew can release you. His fingerprint sealed the ring. But, I was told that your test revealed that you are infertile. President Cole ordered that you be brought here with the other Lessers and announced that you are no longer Crew’s intended. The union was dissolved. Officially, I guess. I’m sorry.”

Tears flooded into my eyes. To say that I was overwhelmed was an understatement. “Can I go home?”

Gray’s hand fell upon mine and held them with their warmth. “I don’t think so, but I really don’t know what they plan to do at this point.”

“I just want to go home and pretend that this nightmare never happened.” I sobbed and Gray pulled me into his shoulder and then into a tentative embrace. “Why are you still with me?”

“Because I want to be. I didn’t want you to wake up alone and afraid.”

I shook my head. “But you’re in the Lesser section. You hate Lessers. Especially here.”

He smiled crookedly. “Not everything is always as it appears on the surface.”

Sniffing, I asked, “What does that mean?” My eyes search his. His hands softly fell on either side of my face, pulling me close. At first I wondered if he intended to kiss me, but he held me still, his smile fading quickly away.

“Abigail.”

“What?”

“I never noticed before.”

“Never noticed what, Gray? You’re freaking me out.”

“You’re not a Lesser. Your eyes...the pupil is ringed in gold. It’s such a tiny ring, but it’s there.”

“I know. Crew showed me in a mirror on the train.” I told him about my parents, about how they couldn’t raise me and sent me to Lulu. Pouring my heart out to him, I explained how she raised me, about my childhood and of the village in which I grew up. We laughed and a look of wonder and amazement never left Gray’s face.

“Why did they send you here? You don’t belong with the Lessers. You
are
most definitely a Greater. I don’t understand.”

“I’ve never received the vaccinations. That’s why the ring isn’t very noticeable. The medicines didn’t make it spread.”

“This makes no sense. They said you were infertile.”

I shrugged. “Maybe it’s a natural occurrence.”

Shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, Gray said, “No. I think it was a ploy, a way to get you away from Crew. I wouldn’t put it past the President. He always gets his way.”

My stomach dropped and I tensed all over, making deep pain radiate through my abdomen. “He told Crew he could have me if I was fertile.”

“Maybe he lied.”

“Maybe.” I conceded. I knew he was trying to be sweet and supportive, but I wondered if I really were infertile. Barren.

“Thanks for being here for me. I know you don’t have to be.”

“I want to be. Besides, you need someone to be with you when Crew shows up. He’s... Gretchen said something to me the other day before your stroll around the palace grounds.” His eyes locked onto mine. “The President ordered that the cooks sprinkle a substance on Crew’s food. They’ve also put the mixture in the salt shakers that he uses. President Cole told them it was a vitamin mineral mixture to help promote virility, but Gretchen thinks it might explain his mood changes and aggression. She thinks it may be a steroidal drug.”

I must have looked lost. “It makes a person much more moody, hostile, and more violent. Men become quick-tempered and sometimes angered to the point of harming another.”

It made sense. That was exactly how Crew had acted. Perhaps he
was
being drugged. If that was the case, I was glad that Gray had chosen to stay with me.

“You don’t think Crew would hurt me, do you?”

“I don’t know.” He stood and paced the floor. “If Gretchen is right, he could be angry about your infertility—that you were taken from him. He could act out. I just want to be here when he comes–just in case.”

I spent the rest of the evening napping on and off. Gray brought me some sort of chicken broth and made-from-scratch bread. It was both salty and sweet, delicious.

Two days later as I
dressed in the stained dove gray dress begrudgingly borrowed from another Lesser, a ruckus began outside the small house at which I’d been staying. Gray’s voice and then Crew’s bounced back and forth outside the rickety front door. I opened it and peered outside at the two men, who were now nose to nose and boot to boot, spitting venom at one another like two coiled snakes, both ready to strike. Easing out onto the tiny porch, I tried to decide how to diffuse the situation. Better to dive in now and beg forgiveness later.

“Crew.”

He turned his attention to me. “Abby!” Running at me, he caught me by the waist and lifted me, spinning me in a half-circle. “I was so worried about you!” I cried out in pain. The soreness had worsened, not subsided. He must not have noticed, so I didn’t say anything.

“Worried?” The old Crew was back.

“Of course. I love you, Abby. Look, I know what my father said about you, but I don’t care. We don’t have to have kids. I just want us to be together.” His eyes darted back and forth searching my own, squeezing my hands with his.

“Crew, your dad will never let us happen. He sent me away. It’s more than clear that he doesn’t approve.”

“I don’t care. It’s my life. I’m sick of him telling me what to do,” He raged, and then began pacing, chest heaving.

“I want to go home. I want to go back to the village.”

“You don’t want to be with me.”

“I want to go home. Please, help me get home.”

Crew’s face contorted in rage. His golden eyes smoldered. “I can’t believe you, Abigail. After all I’ve done for you!”

“All you’ve done for me? What? Take me from my home? Claim me in front of everyone with this,” I motioned toward my neck, “ring! Lock me in a room? Have physicians run a battery of tests so horrible that I can still barely walk days after the procedure! What have you done for me, Crew?”

He ticked his head back. “What are you talking about? Is this more of your lies? Father said you would lie. He said you would want to avoid embarrassment of having been found wanting, infertile—no better than the other women who have been subject to this plague. He said you would say anything to get out of the Greater city. He told me that you’d threatened to expose the vaccination program to the citizens. He said that you chose your guard, over me!”

Crew glared at Gray, his nostrils flaring and face red with rage.

“Your father is a liar and I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He taught you well, huh, Crew? How dare you accuse me of lying when that’s all you’ve done since the first time we met! Does this look like I’m lying!” I pulled up my skirts and yanked down my undergarments so that he could see the purple, brown, black, and green that mingled together on my lower stomach. He took it in, his mouth dropping slowly open.

Gray’s warmth radiated from behind me. “Shh. It’s okay, Abby,” he said. “He sees it now.”

I looked to Crew. His eyes were wide and moist. “Abby. My God, I’m so sorry.”

I couldn’t even speak, so I just nodded and sniffed. “I’m not lying.”

His arms folded around me. “I know. I should have believed you. I’m so sorry, Abby Blue. I feel like I’m losing my mind. What the hell is wrong with me?”

I sobbed into his chest. “What did they do to me?”

“I don’t know,” he said into my temple. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Okay?” He pulled back and his eyes found mine. They were filled with determination, with resolve and an amount of well suppressed anger.

To Gray, he said, “You’ll go with her.”

I looked behind me. Gray nodded. “Go where?”
I’m confused.
Crew nudged my chin back toward him
before placing a soft kiss on my lips. I was taken aback. His hand slid around my neck and into my hair. He kissed me again, pinching his eyes closed. His thumb moved down the back of my neck and brushed my collar, my ring. I could hear the moment the metal separated and a piece of my heart broke along with it. This was goodbye. He was letting me go.