Chapter 7

Break the bond

Break the heart

Break the soul

Hollow, hollow, hollow

—“Steps to Cruelty” by Adina Mercant, poet (b. 1832, d. 1901)

Twenty Years Ago

THEO FELT SMALL and weak as she stood in front of her grandfather’s desk while he sat behind it and stared at her with his ice-colored eyes. He was powerful. A Councilor. She wasn’t sure exactly what a Councilor did, but she knew they were the most powerful people in the whole world.

“Colette tells me you’ve been behaving,” he said at last.

Theo’s heart filled with light and warmth. “Yes, Grandfather.”

“You’ve completed your required educational modules to date, I see.” He glanced at a tablet on his desk.

“Yes, Grandfather.”

Putting down the tablet, he steepled his hands on his desk. “Unfortunately, you continue to fail your Silence tests.”

The lump in her throat returned, her eyes all hot. “I’m working very hard, I promise. I’ll pass next semester.”

He made a grunting sort of sound. “That’s not good enough. Pax has already achieved near-perfect discipline over his emotions. That was why we had to separate you—you were a weight on him, pulling him down.”

Theo gulped back the tears that wanted to escape. Pax would never think she was a weight. He was her best friend. He’d always been her best friend.

“As it is,” her grandfather continued, “we’ll need to find you something to do that keeps you out of the spotlight. Our line does not birth Gradient 2s.” His eyes were like a cobra’s.

Theo had only ever seen pictures of cobras during her biology lessons, but she thought that if she saw one in real life, it would have eyes like her grandfather right then.

“I am, however, pleased at your facility in hacking.”

The words were hammers smashing into her brain. She just stared.

His smile wasn’t a real smile. She knew that. Her grandfather’s Silence was perfect. His smile was a pretend thing . . . and it made her back go cold, her chest so tight she could hardly breathe.

“Oh yes, I know,” he said with that scary smile still on his face. “You should grasp by now that nothing happens in this family without my knowledge.” Leaning back in his chair, he said, “Did you really believe we didn’t have alerts on your entire system? You’re such a pathetic power that the alerts were to ensure you didn’t embarrass the family. But this . . .”

Another one of those pretend smiles that were worse than the cobra eyes. “I wasn’t expecting this level of expertise from someone so young. I wonder if it’s a side effect of your particular ability.” He waved that off. “Regardless, at least you show promise in the area. I’m adding a computronic coding and hacking module to your educational requirements.”

Stunned, her mind abuzz, she stood there dumbly.

“Theodora.”

She snapped up her head at that cold tone. “Yes, sir?”

The cobra eyes held hers again. “Pax doesn’t exist for you now. As you don’t exist for him. He is going to soar, while you’re so far below the surface as to barely exist. No one will even know you’re part of the Marshall family. Forget Pax. I assure you that he’s already forgotten you.”