As Cade got back in line to be escorted back to their dorms, he had even more questions than before.
Had I been flirting? How did she know? Why did she care?
He also remembered Devin’s words about Deianira’s family. He’d never been this curious about anyone before and if he was going to understand her motives, he needed more information.
Filing into the dorms, the inmates moved to stand in front of their bunks and stayed there until all the enforcers had exited. Not wanting to waste any time, as soon as the door closed, Cade turned to Devin.
“Hey, Devin?”
Devin turned to look at him but didn’t respond. Okay? Not too talkative.
“Devin?” Cade called again.
Again, Devin didn’t respond, just stared into his eyes. A bad feeling brewed in Cade’s stomach. Opening his mouth to call him again, Cade noticed Devin’s skin. His smooth chestnut brown skin was a sickly pale color. His short dark curls were drenched in sweat too. Something was definitely wrong.
“Hey, are you feeling okay?” Cade asked, concerned.
Eyes glossy and locked onto Cade’s, Devin slowly shook his head, his normally amused face contorted into a pained expression. Before Cade could ask anything else, Devin slowly sank to his knees, clutching his throat, heaving. Cade immediately dropped to his knees beside him, placing a hand on his back.
“Devin!”
“I can’t breathe,” Devin rasped.
Panic. Pure panic set in. The fear coming off of Devin must have been making its way through Cade too. Cade pulled Devin onto his back and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“I…I can’t…” Devin’s mouth kept opening and closing, his words beginning to blend into one another.
He needs help. Thinking quickly, Cade told Devin to hold on and rushed over to the dorm entrance. Looking for some sort of handle or button, Cade noticed a red switch next to the door. Behind him, he could hear the others start to catch onto what was happening, but he kept his mind focused on the task at hand. To get help.
Not knowing what else to do, he tensed and flipped the switch. Then he waited for something to happen. He waited, and waited, and waited some more until it felt like he had been standing at the door for an eternity. Just as he was about to return to Devin’s side, the door slid open and enforcers were spilling through the entrance, guns up, shouting commands.
“Stand back!”
“Hands up!”
“He needs help! Something’s wrong with Devin! He needs help!” Cade shouted over them, trying to draw their attention.
Hewn, who he recognized, stepped out from the group of enforcers and lowered his gun.
“Where?” he asked, eyeing Cade.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Cade started to jog back to his bunk, waving for Hewn to follow. They had to push their way past where the inmates had been gathering and as they broke the circle, there lay Devin, on the floor, lips pale. He wasn’t gasping for breath any more. In fact, he wasn’t moving at all.
Cade felt like all the oxygen had left his lungs. Devin was fine just an hour ago. He already knew what Hewn was going to say as he locked eyes with him, a dark expression on his face. He also knew what he would feel if he reached out, but he tried anyway. He searched far and wide as he let his eyes fall on Devin’s still figure. And he felt nothing. Not even the fear that he had been emanating only minutes ago. Absolutely nothing.
Hewn put a hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his daze. “Sorry, son.”
What? That’s it?
Cade was still reeling as the other enforcers slowly lowered their guns and walked to either side of Hewn to help lift Devin. At that moment, a thought occurred to Cade.
As soon as his gift presented itself when he was a young boy, he began researching. There weren’t many books outside of the Dome and those that were available were not very detailed. But Cade read, and read. He knew he couldn’t tell anyone what he could do, so he taught himself the full extent of his abilities, and that knowledge only grew when Lia presented. They set out to learn all they could about their gifts and gifted people as a whole.
It might have been a long shot, but if there was a chance he could do something, he would run for it. So he did. He ran.
Cade broke into a sprint towards the dorm’s entrance, not looking back, even as he heard the enforcers shouting and starting up to chase him.
He passed room after room and still didn’t find what he was looking for but undeterred, he kept his pace. Darting through the corridors and hallways, he realized that he didn’t even know where he was going, but he kept running, looking for a sign, for anything.
The shouts grew louder and Cade pumped his arms harder. He was glad that he did too, because as he rounded a corner and smacked into a small figure, he looked up to meet a face of pure fury and he knew that he had found it.
