A Controller's Destiny (Unit Matched #3) (15 page)

Chapter 18

Hello Again, Daddy

I feel the fog lifting and my eyes pop open, and I realize that I’m not where I should be. I’m on a small cot in a large empty room. The walls are crisp white and smells like it’s been freshly painted. The sun is shining through the picture window to my left. All I see out the window is green trees.

Where am I?

Who took me?

Where’s Graham?

“I see you’re awake, Daughter.” Zane appears in the room.

“Zane!” I scream, jumping from the bed and heading toward him. “What have you done to me? Where am I?”

He holds up his hands. “Calm down. You’re fine. I just want what’s mine and then we all have a happily ever after,” he sneers at me.

“Never.” I growl at him.

I am filled with so much rage I could snap his neck and not even think twice.

“How did you even know I was here?”

Zane smiles. “Let’s have some tea, shall we?”

“I don’t want tea.”

“Come.” He walks toward the door and holds it open for me. “Gia.”

I stand there, not moving an inch. I’m not going anywhere with him until he gives me some answers. We stand there staring at each other and I know that neither one of us will budge. 

“Fine.” I stomp through the room toward the door and stop dead in the hallway. There are three men, all dressed in black suits, and holding guns.

Guns?

Very large guns.

“They’re not going to shoot unless you attack me.” He walks past me and down the hall.

All the eyes are on me as I follow Zane down to the first floor of the massive house.

“Are we still in New Orleans?”

“Yes, this is one of my many homes.” He walks into a kitchen that is completely stainless steel. It looks like something from a futuristic magazine.

Zane goes to the cupboard and pulls out two cups. I watch him as he moves around and prepares our tea.

“Have a seat, Gia.”

I gingerly walk over to the table where he has just sat down.

“I want to leave.”

“Sit. Down.” Zane’s voice is firmer and I comply. The sooner I get him talking, the sooner I can find out what’s going on.

“You know what the end result is going to be, so why are you playing games?” The bravery comes to the forefront of my emotions.

“Gia, you’re my daughter. I don’t want to kill you and I think that if you listen to my new offer it will be most beneficial for all of us.”

I shake my head. “You’re lying. You want to use me and the baby as some puppet in your reality show. That’s not going to happen. I’ve read the prophecy; I know what is going to happen and so do you. Nothing’s changed in my book, literally.”

Zane stares at me for a moment and then looks around the room to make sure that we are alone. “You need to stop being so naive. That book is worthless. Absolutely… worthless.”

“What do you mean?” my mouth drops.

“I’ve met a lot of people in my time. Mainly, bad ones, but useful and resourceful ones as well. I’ve learned a few tricks and one was enchanted charms.”

I’m not sure what he’s talking about. Is the book I’ve seen all my life a lie? Is what he is telling me a lie?

“Gia, the timelines in that book are all fake. Every one of them. I wrote them. They mean nothing.”

My mouth drops. “That’s not true. I haven’t let that book out of my sight since I was given it at the age of eight. There’s no way you doctored it.”

Zane rolls his eyes, stands, and leaves the kitchen. A moment later he returns with a large box and slams it on the table.

“You think everyone in Unit is so perfect, so obedient to the rules, don’t you?” he flips the lid off. “You’re wrong.”

He dumps the contents of the box onto the large kitchen table and I gasp. It’s me. There are a ton a pictures of me all throughout my life.

He slams down a large binder in front of me.

“There. Read it.”

My hands shake a little as I open it up. There are pages and pages of me. Things I had done in school, life, and even to include all of Amaya and Xaviera, too.

“What is all this?”

“All part of my plan.” He sits back down. “The prophecy and book that you have aren’t
original
. I’m the only one that has that.”

My heart stops. “What are you saying?”

“When my grandmother finished writing the prophecy she knew it was about me.”

“I thought she wrote it before then.”

He shakes his head. “Nope, I was around five when this happened.”

“How could she have known?”

“My family aren’t the most honest people, but they remained in Unit. They had some dealings on the side. When she had this dream, she gave me the original book. Then she made another copy and gave it to the King.”

“I don’t understand.”

Everything in my life has been a lie to this point. None of it is true. Could any of it be true?

“Zane.”

We both turn to see Mrs. Roberts standing there.

“They’re here.”

“Great.” He turns back to me. “Looks like your Matched and your friends have come right on time.”

My heart pounds. “What?”

Mrs. Roberts puts a gun in my face. “Get up.”

I stand on shaky legs. I can fight just about anything but a gun. I knew that one shot would kill me.

“Follow him.”

I do as I’m ordered, following Zane to the front of the mansion. In the large front room, stands my Matched with a split lip. Oliver has a swollen eye, as does Thaddeus. Amaya’s shirt collar is torn, her hair is a mess, and her cheek is bright red. The only one not harmed is Xaviera. She looks fine.

“Where are the rest of my men?” Zane looks at the two men standing with guns.

“Maybe next time you won’t send boys to do a real man’s job,” Graham growls at him.

Pride swept through me looking at my Matched and my friends.

“Next time you may want to send a few more guys than ten. This is us just warming up.” Amaya places her hands on her hips.

“And don’t have them sneak up on us and try to kill us from behind like cowards,” Thaddeus adds.

Zane looks over at me and then back at my friends.

“I’ve had enough.” Zane stalks over to me and grabs a handful of my hair. I scream out and I’m about to fight him when he sticks the gun in my face. “I will kill you.”

His eyes have changed. He’s evil. I can feel it on me. It’s making my stomach turn and bile is creeping up.

“We’re done playing around.”

He lets me go and I stumble a few steps back, but I quickly catch myself.

“I want Xaviera and Gia to come with me.” No one moves. “Now!” he screams.

I quickly cover my Matched and friends in a protective blue bubble.

“You’re making this harder, Gia.” His jaw is tight and his teeth are clenched.

“Tell me the prophecy. The real one.”

His eyes bounce from me to my friends and then back to me. Zane shakes his head as if he doesn’t have a choice but to tell the truth.

“The first part of it is true. That’s my word,” he says.

“And…” I push him when he stops.

“The difference is that you and the child are connected. The powers that you have, the child will also have. That’s why I need you both. You can train the child as you were trained and help me build my empire.”

I scrunch up my face and look at my friends. I’m pretty sure that he’s drunk or high. There’s no way that we’re connected.

“How? Xaviera and I aren’t related. I have no ties to the child other than being his mother’s Controller.”

“You’re so dense, just like
your
mother.” Zane runs his hand through his hair. “Since the beginning of our kind, Mother Nature hand picks some of her descendants to restore balance to Earth. However, there have never been two of them at one time.”

“How do you know the child will even come into those powers?” Graham asks. “You don’t know for sure, do you? That’s why you need Gia. How do you even know that it’s this child? What if it’s Gia and my child? Or Amaya’s and Oliver’s? You’re just guessing, aren’t you?”

Graham’s words made me think that he might be right. It could be anyone of our children.

“It said the first of the six. That’s the first correct? I know that it is because I’ve been watching the girls all their lives. Even the guys.”

“How did you know about the guys? I can understand that you knew about me and the girls, but how did you figure out the guys?” I ask.

“Not everyone in Unit is loyal,” he reminds me again.

“When did you change the book? The one that I have.”

“Right before I met you the first time at the ice cream shop.”

“How?”

“I told you, not everyone is loyal, and I know a few people that can charm items. I had the book charmed. After I saw you all that day, I knew that you would go home and touch the book, which activated the charm,” he explains.

“The timelines never would change?”

“They’re all made up. I made them all up.” Zane yells at me. “I have no clue how many kids you’re going to have and all that jazz. All I know is what it says in my book. The correct book.”

My brain can’t process all the information that it has just been given. The child is going to save Unit. This child is going to save the world.

“You said that we’re connected. How?”

“The book says I have to keep you alive long enough for the child to come into the powers, and then have him trained up a bit, and then…” he trails off, but the smirk sets on his face.

I shake my head. This is like a nightmare. Everything I thought is wrong. I don’t know what I am thinking or feeling anymore. I have no plan. I have no backup plan. I have nothing.

Like a ton of bricks, a plan hits. “You said you had to keep me alive, right, to train the child?”

“Yes. Only you can train him.”

“That doesn’t make sense; I was trained by the Queen.”

“Yes, you were, but you suppress a lot of your powers. You keep your mind closed off, right? You don’t use any the Royal powers, right? You haven’t even begun to tap into the greatness that’s in your veins. I can help you. I can show you how the other side lives. The fun side.” Zane smiles at me.

“But you said I was connected to the child because the book said so. How am I? What does that mean?”

Zane stares at me for a moment. It’s as if he doesn’t want to tell me or he’s contemplating what to tell me.

“I have to keep you alive,” is all he will say.

“Why?”

“I have to.” He narrows his eyes at me.

“What if I die before the child is born? Will the child live?”

He says nothing.

I have to do something. I have to figure this out, right now. I connect with his eyes and push into his mind.

I need to know the truth.

I am pulled into a memory of his, something I’ve never done before. It’s clear, as if I’m watching an HD movie on a big screen TV.

It’s Zane and Mrs. Roberts talking in an office.

You’ve got a plan, Zane, or you going in guns blazing?” Mrs. Roberts ask, looking mad.

“I have a plan, but Gia and the child can’t be harmed.” Zane tells her firmly.

“Who cares about Gia? The kid is what you really want.”

“If Gia dies before that child is born, I’m unsure about the child’s powers because he and Gia were picked by Mother Nature.”

Mrs. Robert’s scoffs. “Mother Nature is a funny bitch, isn’t she?”

“Something like that. As long as she stays alive, we all live.”

I pull away from his thoughts and take a step back. I know now. I know the truth. It was right in front of me.

I did have to die to save Unit from evil.

Now, I need a plan. I scan the room. There are five men by my friends, Zane is in front of me, and Mrs. Roberts is behind him. I knew that we could handle them, but they all had guns except Mrs. Roberts.

I hate to do it, but it’s needed at a time like this. I push my thoughts to Matched and my family.

I have a plan. Listen to me. I’ll drop the orb and you attack the ones closest to you. Xaviera run to the corner and stay down. I can take care of Zane and Mrs. Roberts and disarm them as quickly as possible. Can we do this?

I see them all through my peripheral vison nodding.

On my count.

1.

2.

3.

I drop the orb and clock my dad in the jaw, making him stumble back, and drop the gun. Mrs. Roberts leaps for me, but it’s Amaya that grabs her and throws her against the wall, knocking her out.

Zane swings for me, but I easily block it and connect with his knee, causing it to hyperextend. He yelps in pain, but jumps toward the gun on the floor. I’m faster and I grab it and point it at him.