Free The Wandering (The Lux Guardians, #2) by Saruuh Kelsey

it.”
    “You were part of a
project.”
    I shake my head, still
waiting. “What kind of project?”
    “A biological
one.”
    There it is: the acid
rising to the back of my throat, the sluggish comprehension. My
eyes seek Branwell, but he won’t look at me. “ A biological
project,” I repeat. I take a breath, then another. “Run by who?
Officials?”
    Marie nods once.
“States.”
    “So they …. The
Officials altered my biology or something? Messed with my mind? My
memories? Why?” I can’t sit any longer. I get up and pace. “Why the
hell would someone do that to me? If they wanted super soldiers,
you’d think they’d have picked someone buff, someone with actual
training. Wait—”I cover my mouth with my hand. I need to get off
this boat. I need to get off this island. “Tia—my sister—did
they—?”
    “We don’t know what
they did.” Marie is infallibly calm. It doesn’t help. “They might
not have done anything bad. All we know is you were in Underground
London Zone when you were younger and according to this file you
were part of a ‘program’.”
    “And that you don’t
remember it,” Priya says, standing. “At the least they altered your
memories.”
    “Why? Why the hell
would they do that?” I close my hands into fists, itching to punch
something. The wall. An Official.
    Bran
finally meets my eyes. I only know I was expecting him to give me
some kind of hope, a shining ray of light in this fucked up
darkness, when his indifferent mask shatters to reveal heartbreak,
stark and hopeless. “I think,” he says, so so quietly, “it was to
make you a carrier.” My breath hitches. This isn’t happening. I’m a
carrier because of my DNA . It’s shitty and it’s made me an
unwitting killer, but I can’t help what I am. I was born with
it.
    I can’t handle what
Bran is saying.
    That I wasn’t born a
carrier.
    That someone made me
this way. Made me a killer.
    He says, “I think they
changed your biology so you carry infection.”
    “What? ” Marie and Priya ask at the
same time. Bran didn’t tell them his theory. He saved it for me
because it’s about my life, my killing genes. That takes the very
edge off my rage. My next words emerge furious, instead of
murderous as they would have been.
    “So they—they fucked
with my DNA to make me kill anyone I meet? What do they get out of
that?”
    “No,” Priya gasps. “Oh no.” My eyes pin her with demands, but
she’s staring intently at Marie. “I said it made no sense. I told you. ”
    Marie picks up Priya’s
train of thought, explaining it to me with careless insensitivity.
“Why would the Officials want you killed so badly? It was never
because you breached the border. It wasn’t even because you were
the Unnamed’s son. How would that make you dangerous—when you never
even knew him? It was because they engineered you to be useful to
them and you got away. The President didn’t want to lose his
tool.”
    Sharp laughter bursts
from my lips. It’s not funny but for some reason I can’t stop.
Before long I’ve dissolved into detached, hysterical laughter.
    Everything makes
perfect sense now. Why things go badly when I try to be good. Why
I’m responsible for so many people being dead. Why I’ll never be
anything more than a bad omen, a curse on everyone I love.
    I’m not The Unnamed’s
son. I’ll never be a rebel, or a motivator, or a bringer of
change.
    I’m The President’s
weapon.
     
    ***
     
    II
    The Uncertainty of Now
     
    ***
     
    Bennet
     
    10:35. 14.10.2040.
Bharat, Delhi.
     
     
    I exist in the
future.
    My life has changed
more dramatically than I could ever have imagined when I lived in
London. Not only have I travelled halfway across the world but I
now live some hundred years in the future, in a world in the midst
of ending. I’ve seen the apocalypse right in front of me. The
earth, furious at the injustices wrought upon it by these people
and their advanced machines, has swallowed cities