Winters Rising Read online

  “Gabby! The baby!”

  Gabrielle was already sliding down in front of the baby, and Jax stood, bolting toward the fence.

  The Rogue was gone.

  Jax gripped the top of the fence and pulled himself up, crouching on the top board, searching the perimeter for the Rogue.

  Nothing.

  Damn it! Not another one.

  “He’s gone!” he shouted to Gabrielle.

  “But we have the baby,” she replied, in a softer voice.

  Jax considered leaving Gabrielle to return the baby alone and chasing down the Rogue. Had they been in any other time rip, he wouldn’t have considered it and done it. But they were in Lexcon and he didn’t want to leave his sister alone, not knowing what type of danger could be lurking around each corner.

  Jax climbed off the fence, stomping his frustration out back to his sister.

  “Let’s get this little fellow back home,” she said.

  “That’s the second Rogue we’ve lost in two days,” Jax grumbled, as they started back toward the road.

  “I’m more concerned about getting home,” Gabrielle said. “We may have found this baby, but we still don’t have a gateway home.”

  She was right. One job down and one to go.

  WHEN THEY RETURNED, Declan greeted them with bad news. “I haven’t found the gateway.” He passed books to each of them in order for them to help. Jax didn’t see Brea so he asked where she was.

  “She hasn’t come down,” Declan said, looking up to where Jax had left her.

  Jax walked to the bottom of the stairs, considering talking with her. And what? Explaining to her that she might be an Unborn? That all signs pointed to her being one? Then what would follow? Her meltdown and him trying to ease her worry.

  Looking down at the book in his hands, he realized their time to sort out the possibilities was at home. Right now, there was only time to find a way out of Lexcon.

  His siblings, although not showing it, were on the edge of freaking out. Jax wasn’t that far away from following them. They needed a gateway.

  Hours later, still with no clue on how to get out of Lexcon, they heard a scuffle above them, and then Brea’s voice floated down the stairs.

  “Jax?” Brea’s troubled voice sent chills up his spine. He dropped everything, ran to the stairs and took them three at a time. The chills quickly dissipated into fury when Jax saw a man holding Brea at knifepoint. Where in the hell had he come from? It didn’t matter because Jax planned on drilling the bastard into the ground.

  Declan and Gabrielle came up behind Jax, giving the advantage of three against one...only the other guy had a knife to his wife’s neck.

  “Let her go,” Jax warned, taking a step.

  “Stop,” the man growled. “Or she’s done.”

  Jax froze, but his eyes locked on the grey eyes of the assaulter, silently promising he would regret ever going near Brea.

  “Can you die in Lexcon?” Gabrielle whispered.

  “Do you want to find out?” the man snarled, a wicked half smile sweeping across his dry lips. One punch to his mouth would split those lips and draw blood redder than the angry color burning Jax’s skin.

  “Everyone, at peace,” the soft sound of a woman wisped around them, bringing no ease to Jax or his siblings, had that been her intention.

  A tall, slim woman wearing a white flowing dress made her appearance to the siblings’ right. She moved in slow, deliberate movements. Her hair was white as snow and her skin a translucent pale. She walked between Brea and the Winters, her eyes trained on Jax and his siblings. Although Jax caught a glimpse of the woman in his peripheral, his eyes never left Brea’s

  I will help you, Brea. I promise. If only she could hear his thoughts.

  “The Winters,” the unknown woman declared, her blue eyes taking time to look each one of them over. She seemed to be memorizing every last detail.

  “You know who we are?” Declan asked, sounding as surprised as the rest of them. “How?”

  “You’re in Lexcon, which I’m sure you’re already quite aware. A beautiful place here...” Her hands rose into the air, waving around the library. “Don’t you agree?”

  No one answered.

  She dropped her hands gracefully to her side, reminding Jax of his mother. “Welcome to Lexcon, where very few have ever entered and most who have haven’t survived to tell the tale. This is a magical place, where mirrors don’t exist and neither do the facades of your presence.” Her cynical partial smile dropped and as she waited for them to grasp her words. “You’re visible in Lexcon,” she clarified. “Everyone here sees the real you and not the body you possess.”

  They’d known all along? The nurses? The security? Everyone? Why?

  “In Lexcon, there is no possessing bodies.”

  “And how would we know that?” Brea said. “We know so little about Lexcon, that some believe the elders’ rip is a myth.” Jax could hear the fight in Brea’s tone.

  That’s it, sweetheart, bring back your fight. He would rather her struggle an impossible battle than give up.

  “Who are you?” Brea demanded.

  The woman’s thin smile remained lifeless. “My name is Melora. I am one of the elders you chose to defy with your lack of respect to the rules we have placed on earth.”

  An elder? Holy shit.

  “Why do you have a knife to my wife’s neck?” Jax demanded.

  She gave him a no-nonsense look. “You know why, Mr. Winters.”

  Jax endured another round of sickness as everything began to make sense. In a gust of wind to his senses, the pieces of the puzzle blew together in his head, opening his mind to the truth.

  Unborns were brought to Lexcon at birth to never age. If Brea was an aged Unborn, then that meant they were tricked here to eliminate Brea who had somehow escaped them...

  Jax had a flashback to yesterday’s rip and the twin Unborns that had been separated at birth and their mother killed. The Rogue had known who they were. He’d said their names and tried to kill the baby...the Unborn...Brea?

  A wave of nausea threatened Jax. It couldn’t be, could it? Was Brea the Unborn they’d rescued on the last rip? Had Melora brought them here to trap Brea and do to her what the trio had stopped the Rogue from doing yesterday?

  Like hell and over his dead body.

  Brea’s confused eyes flickered from Melora to Jax.

  Melora flicked her wrist and Jax heard a rustle behind him. He was quickly overpowered by more than one man and his wrists bound behind his back. With strong hands on his shoulders, Jax was forcefully slammed to the ground. The sound of his knees thumping against the floor echoed with Declan and Gabrielle’s cries of surprise and pain as more men did the same to them.

  “I wanted to prevent this drama, so to speak. Tried to prevent it, but you Winters and your strong bloodline have been difficult to outsmart.” Melora spoke with grace and ease, without an ounce of distress over the intrusion.

  If Brea wasn’t in immediate danger, Jax would have turned and nailed all the men behind him to the ground, and stabbed the knife through the man who held him. The longer he was confined with Brea’s life at risk, the further his fury built.

  “Brea doesn’t know. Does she?” Melora glanced at his wife. “Did he tell you what he discovered in the nursery?” The woman glanced at Jax over her shoulder and said, “I have eyes everywhere. This is my world you are in.”

  Damn her. Damn him.

  Jax should have been straight forward with Brea when he suspected she was an Unborn. Hell, he didn’t suspect it, he knew it and his wife should have been the first person he’d told.

  Instead, he had kept it from her and hoped he could figure out the truth without hurting her. Now there was a knife to her throat and Jax was sure the emotional damage from his secrecy would cause more injury to her than the knife.

  BREA WATCHED AS REGRET, pain, and sorrow trickled into Jax’s eyes.

  What was going on?

  Melora traced B
rea’s cheek with her long sharply pointed fingernail. She would have pulled away if the woman’s thug hadn’t been holding her in a death grip. The cold blade pressed against her throat to the point she believed it had already pierced her skin. She remained motionless, but could still use her voice.

  “It’s no wonder your council is a mess. If you’re their leader, they haven’t a chance,” Brea said.

  “I maintain order,” Melora said, with the right amount of vain finesse.

  “You call this order?” Brea spat. “Trapping members from your own society? Teaching Seconds nothing more than how to bow down to a Gatekeeper? Making every last one of us, Gatekeepers and Seconds, pawns in your sinister society? You call that order?”

  Brea half expected the blade to follow through the path already begun. This was an elder she insulted after all.

  “Isn’t she cute? How she calls herself a Second?” Melora’s amused smile only infuriated Brea. This woman was worse than a Gatekeeper, possessing more power in her superior position and using it, again, to her warped benefit.

  “All of this over bonding?” Brea saw no other reason for the drama. If Melora no longer thought of Brea as a Second, then it was because she was about to be forced into bonding with her Gatekeeper. The entire situation seemed a little theatrical when a visit from council at home would have sufficed.

  “One person contradicts your ways, and you press a knife to her throat. Threaten her. Was this whole rip just to get me here? To teach me a lesson for questioning you? I’ll tell you right now, I won’t bow down to you. I’ll fight you and I will win. You think your system is flawless, but the Seconds outrank you. The Seconds will come together, will learn and teach. You can’t hide us.”

  Brea spoke the words she’d once believed powerfully, and wished she felt as convinced now as she had once.

  “And, there she goes with the Seconds again. Adorable if she wasn’t such a threat.” Melora looked at Jax. “Tell her what she is.”

  A threat? What was this woman talking about?

  Jax clenched his teeth and said nothing. His silence landed him a punch in the jaw from a man standing in front of the three siblings.

  Declan struggled to pull away and Gabrielle cried out.

  Blood pooled and dripped from Jax’s mouth.

  Melora walked over to Jax and bent down on one knee. Her smooth white jacket grazed the floor like a flower around her, her long pale fingers gripped his chin. “Tell her what she is,” she repeated.

  Jax squared a look at Melora, wearing no fear. “My wife.”

  The woman stood and another punch landed across his face.

  Brea grimaced, but the blade only pressed harder, not allowing her to swallow the horror she witnessed.

  “Try again,” Melora said.

  Jax looked up at Melora with hatred in his dark eyes. “My soulmate.”

  Melora laughed a wicked laugh and waved for another beating.

  “She’s an Unborn!” Gabrielle cried, before the fist hit Jax, settling in the air inches away from his face.

  Brea felt her world shift underneath her.

  What was Gabrielle talking about? There was no possible way Brea was an Unborn. Unborns didn’t exist. Only, they did. No, she couldn’t be...could she? Why would they even think such a thing and why did they think Jax knew? He wouldn’t keep something like that from her. Lie to her...would he?

  Melora waved her hand and the large man’s fist proceeded to pummel Jax’s face.

  “Stop!” Gabrielle screamed.

  Jax spit blood. “Gabby, I’m fine.”

  He looked at Brea and she saw his guilt. He thought she was an Unborn. Thought had to be accurate, because there was no way she could actually be one.

  “There’s an army of dangerous Unborns growing, starting with you my dear,” Melora said, as if understanding Brea’s reluctance to believe her new title. “You were the first Unborn who was taken away from us, and placed in the real world to be raised with a family.”

  “I don’t understand,” Brea said, hearing Melora and aware of the meaning behind her words, but not comprehending how they related to her. This wasn’t possible. Melora was mistaking her for someone else.

  “I have a family, a mother, and sisters...” Brea said.

  “They might be your bloodline Brea, but they are not your parents.”

  Brea’s eyes found Jax. Blood oozed across his bruised and swollen face, but his repenting eyes remained locked on her. He believed what this elder was saying.

  “You knew?” Brea asked him.

  “Suspected,” he answered.

  Suspected? That she was an Unborn?

  “What does that mean?” Brea demanded.

  “At the nursery your birthmark was glowing when you touched the Unborn baby,” Jax said.

  Brea’s eyes fell shut at his admission. She could sense Melora at her side before she whispered, “He knew in the library.” She said it loud enough to trail through the room like a bad melody. “When you begged him to bond with you, he didn’t...because you are an Unborn and he knew it to be true.”

  Brea’s eyes snapped down to Jax.

  “Release her,” Melora said.

  The blade was removed from Brea’s neck but she felt like it had stabbed her heart.

  “Your birth mother died,” Melora explained.

  “You mean you killed her,” Jax said, and the interruption gifted him a kick in the stomach. Even his lies couldn’t keep Brea from wincing at his pain. Being free of the knife, her soul urged her to cross the room to him, drop to her knees and support his head in her hands. But she’d given him the chance to share her soul and he’d rejected her. With the truth of her life unfolding, and everyone around her aware of the secrets she was oblivious to, Brea stayed planted. It was the hardest decision of her life.

  When Jax caught his breath, his swollen eyes lifted, and trained on Melora as he continued to talk. “That was Brea, wasn’t it? On our last rip where Amy, the Gatekeeper, gave birth to twins. One baby was brought to you, as all Unborns are, while the doctor snuck away the twin. Amy was Brea’s mother and your people brutally murdered her under your direct order.”

  Brea felt sick. Her body felt numb and she didn’t understand how she could still be standing. Her legs trembled. Her heart broke. And when Jax was rewarded with another punch, tears slipped down her face.

  Jax’s head dangled from the continuous beatings. When he looked up, through the blood oozing from the cut above his eyebrow, his eyes silently apologized to her and she felt her soul reacting, wanting him, forgiving him, loving him...

  “I was there. I saw the way mothers of Unborns are dealt with. I fought the Rogue you sent to kill Brea that night...” A snicker crossed Jax’s face, barely able to keep his head lifted. “...and I won.”

  “Rogues have manipulated our system,” Melora said, her voice raising, her arms swinging. “They snuck Unborns to earth where we couldn’t locate them. They will not get away with this. Death will be the punishment for those who have broken our laws.” The elder made her way back to speak to Brea. “Unborns are dangerous and you, Brea, should have stayed an infant, upstairs with the baby that drew you to him...”

  Brea had felt it. Couldn’t explain the pull or connection she’d had with Brent.

  “...your twin,” Melora said.

  Brea’s hands shook so hard, she had to press them against the sides of her legs, but they only vibrated beneath her sweaty palms. She was an Unborn and was supposed to be stowed away in a nursery where she would never age, along with her twin brother.

  “It’s alright. We will right this threatening wrong. We will take the opportunity of the Winters being here and go back to your mother’s birthing room and fix history. We will take you, kill the doctor and end this war before it begins.”

  “Over my dead body,” Jax said.

  Why did he care now? Brea would soon be nonexistent. Why was he arguing? Jax hadn’t bonded with her earlier because he had chosen the laws of Le
xcon over her. He feared her as Gatekeepers had been raised to do.

  Was she a threat? To Lexcon? To mankind? To her soulmate?

  “Debate,” Melora said. “Do you see it on her face, Jax?” She made her way over to him, bent down and again her whisper was loud enough for everyone to hear. “You didn’t bond with her.”

  Melora grasped a fistful of his hair and yanked up his head. Blood dried down his neck and his adam’s apple bobbed.

  “In the library, after discovering what she was, you had the chance. Mind you, I would have stopped the bonding before it got to that point, but you did that all on your own. You understand why she needs to be destroyed. Brea aging is a threat and bonding with you will only make her more hazardous. She can’t bond with you. You know it’s true. You’re a Gatekeeper and she’s an Unborn who should have been killed the moment she was born.”

  “You mean, who shouldn’t have aged,” Jax spat at her. “She was born, but you take Unborns lives. Why? What are you afraid of?”

  “The demise of our society,” Melora said like it was obvious. “A society elders have built to excellence. Unborns turn on themselves and against others. It is only a matter of time before Brea turns on you, or your children.”

  “She would never−”

  “Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Brea yelled at them. “What do you plan to do with them?”

  “We will change today’s rip and send the Winters home, unharmed. This rip will never hit the track,” Melora said. “You can come with me willing or...”

  Defeat had consumed Brea, but in no way had it felt like she did now−crushed, dead. There was nothing left for her back home. Even if Jax managed to save her, it would be because he’d promised to do so, and only because he’d promised. Brea was an Unborn, a threat, and without Jax bonding her, she would be on her own. A danger to everyone and with no clue how to keep from destroying the society Melora claimed she would.

  There was the off chance that Melora was lying, but even so, with nothing left, no hope, no faith, no Jax, she saw only a future of fighting to stay alive, but fighting alone.

  “I’m ready,” Brea said.