Page 26 of Bonded Ever After

Oh. No. Oh. Fuck no.

Teth turns to me, and when our eyes meet, I know he sees the truth. The color drains from his face, and we both know. Elora and I are in trouble.

“This cannot be true!” Council Member Runo says, standing up and slamming his fist onto the table, which is shocking to see from the mild-mannered scientist.

“All our plans are ruined,” Council Member Prisma says, angrily turning a gaudy ring on her finger.

“We cannot allow our plans to be pushed off for nine months.” Council Member Abraxas runs his hands over his face.

Fiodee seems to completely miss their distress. “I’m still going to be taken care of by Paradise Falls, right? This doesn’t affect my position?”

My mom looks pissed for a moment before her calm mask slips back into place. “Of course. Now, I think the Council needs to discuss what to do. You may leave.”

Fiodee hesitates. “She’ll be okay, right?”

Councilman Vyn flashes a smile. “You may leave.” And the way he says it chills my blood.

My hands are clenched so hard my knuckles are white. I watch her stepmom leave, and then the council members sit back down, silent. A sense of horror settles over all of them.

“What do we do?” Councilman Runo says. “This will destroy our plans, setting us back months. Hell, all our research suggests that each of the families can only carry one healthy child to term. This may be it. The only child of the two families.”

Council Member Oliva combs her long blonde hair back from her face. “We have worked so hard to save up enough goldarium for when Elora and Callum weren’t able to go to Neverwood. Was it all for nothing?”

What? Why wouldn’t Elora and I be able to go to Neverwood? And why the hell would they let our city go into darkness if they had enough goldarium to keep the power on?

Councilman Vyn lifts a hand to suggest everyone be quiet. “Our initial plan was to tranquilize them, get them restrained in their cages at the science building, and start harvesting their sperm and eggs. We estimated that we’d need a full year of them being restrained to run our trials and see if we could successfully grow their offspring in test tubes, as well as to mix their genetics with other members of our society to see what would produce the most superior offspring. This plan clearly can’t take place with Elora pregnant, so the solution is simple. After we havethem properly restrained, we abort the baby, and continue on with the plan.”

What. The. Actual. Fuck?My stomach turns and the world drops out from under me.That torture room, that was intended for… us? And the nursery is for all our babies? They’re planning on using us like animals they want to breed for the best genetics, against our will?

This can’t be actually happening. No one could actually be okay with this.

And they’re willing to kill our baby?Just throw it out like trash because it interferes with their plans?

I look at my mom. Something shifts inside me. She looks pale. Worried. Not at all like the unshakable force I’m accustomed to.Is it possible she really was trying to stop this whole thing?

Councilman Vyn claps his hands together. “Relax, everyone. This little bump in the road changes nothing. Soon, we will produce dozens of Gold Keepers, who will bring us so much goldarium that we’ll have no idea what to spend our money on.”

“I don’t know,” Councilman Runo says quietly. “Last time everything seemed on track, and then those fools burned down the science building.”

Councilman Vyn gives a cruel smile. “This time, Elora’s mom and her traitors aren’t here to burn down the building, and we won’t have to spend our evening rounding them up, killing them, and covering up their murders. This time, no one is here to help Elora and Callum, not even their cowardly fathers. The building is made out of pure goldarium. Once we get them imprisoned, they won’t have the strength to break free. They’ll be completely at our mercy, and we’ll get exactly what we deserve.”

“We should act quickly,” Councilman Runo says, “just in case they try to escape to Neverwood like their fathers.”

Councilman Vyn’s smile only widens. “If they try it, this time we have enough goldarium to force our way in after them.”

Force their way in after us? Is that even possible?

“That’s just a theory,” Councilman Runo warns.

“A theory I won’t hesitate to test should they try it.” Vyn stands. “Our time of having to bow down to the Gold Keepers is over. We’ll own them soon. We’ll run their lives soon. And we’ll produce a whole army of them to do our bidding, raised to be the perfect Gold Keepers.”

Everyone except my mom seems happy. They start chatting, talking about everything they’re going to do once they have us imprisoned. Like we’re nothing. Not even people. And it’s all for their own greed, when they already have so much.

It’s sickening.

“Let’s get security,” Councilman Vyn says. “We’ll get them tonight.”

Teth and I exchange a quick glance and then we carefully crawl our way out of our hiding place, hit the service stairs, and just keep running.

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