Page 65 of Ensnared
Gideon’s trotting to keep up with me, and I realize that I’m practically running across the street. Somehow, having him here reminds me how far I am right now from where I ought to be.
“You seem upset,” he says.
I spin around. “I’m training an attack force.”
“Okay.”
“Of humans, so that they can attack other humans on behalf of dragons.”
Gideon blinks. “Is this news?”
My eyes well with tears. “How is this my life?” I haven’t cried often, but in this moment, it feels like I’m drowning in sorrow for what my life has become.
“Oh, hey.” Gideon hugs me.
I’ve spent a lot of time comforting my siblings. I regularly have to pet and calm Fluff Dog. But since Mom looked at me and ordered me to keep the rugrats safe, no one has comforted me.
Until now.
Gideon’s arms are strong, and they’re steady, and they’re utterly useless against the massive beasts who might kill us all. But it’s just what I need in this moment anyway, to help me remember what team I’m on.
“I have a plan,” he whispers. “I need to get you out of here before the nuke hits.”
“What?”
He doesn’t release me. “I know you have to be careful what you say and think, because of your bond with that guy.” He clears his throat. “But I’m getting you and your siblings out of here.”
I pull away. “You would have been killed with your friends if it hadn’t been for my intervention.”
“That was a gamble,” he says. “But I knew you were bound to an earth dragon, thanks to your note.”
“You did get it,” I say.
He nods. “Before they expanded the perimeter, we snuck in several times. I prayed every day that I’d find you, but even though we evacuated thousands, you weren’t among them.”
I’m suddenly acutely aware that we’re just standing still in the middle of the street. “Let’s get the training started.”
He follows me to the field behind the neighborhood that used to be a park full of soccer fields. “This is where we’re supposed to train.”
“What about weapons?” he asks.
“We have plenty.” I point at the storage buildings. “The dragons don’t care what we use—none of them work on them. They’re only effective against other humans. We’re loaded up with guns, knives, and plenty of bullets.”
“They really trust you with all this?”
“I think you dramatically underestimate what I can do.” I tap the front of my visor to give him some context, and then I push the humans in my group a command to come out for training.
Like good little automatons, they all march out and form into perfectly straight lines in front of me.
“That’s creepy,” he says. “So you just magically lobotomize them?”
I shake my head, and I push the command to rest at ease, but not to leave the field. The men and women’s posture immediately changes. They’re chatting and talking and moving around freely.
“What just happened?”
“I released them,” I say. “It’s really that simple. It might be scarier than the dragons. Something about my brain and that bond has made me some kind of horrible puppet master. I can tell them what to do. What not to do. How high to jump. Whatever I order, they just do it. Or I can release them, and they revert to their non-controlled states.”
“But surely they can refuse some of your commands.”
