Free Escape to Eden by Rachel McClellan Page A

was okay.” My body loses some of its strength. I lean into the wall to keep me upright. “When I opened the door to his lab, my father was escaping behind some secret wall I didn’t even know existed. It closed. I was calling my father’s name, and he still closed it without a single word to me. That’s when we were captured.” I look up at Colt. “That was about a month ago. The raid you talked about, someone was captured: me and my brother.”
    Colt clears his throat, but doesn’t say anything. He still won’t meet my eyes.
    “My father,” I say, “do you know where he is?”
    Anthony stands. “Your father is fine.”
    “Where is he?” Pieces of a puzzle I don’t want to solve are slowly coming together.
    “I believe he’s in New York City.”
    “Did he say anything about his children being captured?” I ask the question, but I already know the answer. The puzzle has come together. It is ugly and something I don’t want to look at.
    The room is quiet until Anthony says, “I’m sure he had his reasons why he didn’t.”
    A little color returns to Colt’s face. “What reason would that be? Had we known, we could’ve grabbed them on transport or at least used our connections inside the Institute to make sure they were okay.” He shakes his head. “But what’s even dumber is why they were in the forest to begin with. They should’ve been at Eden, not in the woods all alone without any protection.”
    This was something I had also debated with my father for the last two years. “He didn’t feel the time was right.”
    “You knew about Eden?” Anthony asks.
    “I wanted to go there. I asked all the time, but my father always said it wasn’t safe yet. He never said why.” Because I don’t want to think about my father’s decisions, I quickly change the subject.
    “When did you meet him?” I ask Anthony.
    His gaze drifts above my shoulder as if he’s seeing through to another time. “Years ago his medicine gave my wife three more years to live.” He blinks and clears his throat. “I better wake up Jenna,” he says, and pauses. “Patch, don’t worry. We’ll get Max and get you to your father.”
    “My name’s not Patch.”
    He and Colt both look at me.
    I lift my chin. “It’s Sage.”

G et up now, Jenna,” Anthony says inside the darkened bedroom.
    Colt and I sit on the couch. Colt is quiet, lost in his own thoughts, and I’m lost in mine. I’m thinking of how I can get back inside the Institute to get Max. My brain, no longer trapped in a fog, is working quickly, calculating different scenarios. None of them are promising.
    “Why is it I never get any sleep when I work with you?” Jenna says. “Give me five minutes and I’ll get up.”
    “You better or I’m coming in with a bucket of water.”
    “Ugh. You’re so cliché.”
    Anthony closes the door. “I don’t know why I put up with her.”
    “So what’s the plan?” I ask.
    “I’m going to meet Bram soon. When I get back we can discuss what to do.”
    I stand and pace the floor. “I can’t just wait here. I have to do something.”
    “The safest place for you is here. Just be patient.”
    “How? Max is surrounded by strangers in a world he doesn’t understand. And who knows what they’re doing to him? I have to go.”
    “Listen to me. You can’t help him if you get captured again. Just wait. We’ll come up with a plan. We’ll save him together, but we have to know all the facts.”
    The door behind him opens.
    “Save who?” Jenna yawns. She’s combing her tangled hair straight.
    “Her brother, Max. He’s the boy that’s at the Institute,” Anthony says.
    She removes some stray hairs from the comb and says, “You left your kid brother with Techheads? That’s cold.”
    I cross the room in three steps and slap her hard, surprising everyone in the room, especially myself. “I am tired of your insults,” I say, my face only inches from hers. “You know nothing about me or what I’ve been