The Taking 02: Hover Read Online Free PDF Page B

feelings. You were taught to ignore pain, yes?”
    I don’t respond, though of course he’s right. Dad taught me at a young age to release pain from my body, especially when exposed to it for long periods of time. He used to place weights in my arms and make me hold them out to my side, like a T , until my arms shook from the burning. If I admitted to the pain, I had to hold them for thirty minutes longer. If the weights dropped from my grasp, the time doubled the next day.
    I focus on Zeus.
    “You do the same with this. Learn to shut it out, commanding it to the surface when you want it to work, silencing it when you don’t. Otherwise, you will become a statistical void and will be handled. Superior minds are my specialty. The mind is beautiful and complex. It must be shaped into form like a muscle.” His gaze rests on mine, the hate now doubling, swarming through me, threatening to pull me under. “Have no doubt, Commander Alexander , I will shape you, too.”
    Jackson straightens, anger coiling from him into me. “That’s enough.”
    Zeus smiles. “Very well.”
    I close my eyes as he leaves, allowing the hate to dissipate from my mind before I reopen them. “I have the implant now, don’t I? The one that detects feelings and stress.”
    Jackson’s eyes turn cold, never leaving the door where Zeus just left. “Yes. You’re officially an RES now.”
    …
     
    An hour later, Jackson helps me find my clothes and after I’m dressed, we leave, him telling me we’re going home. Thankfully, there is no one on the streets outside. I’m not sure I could walk if a bunch of Ancient emotions hit me all at once. Jackson’s are enough, though I find he’s shadowing some of them from me, controlling them in my presence—or maybe in everyone’s presence.
    We head down the main central road, brief flutters of emotions hitting me as we walk. I’m guessing the closer someone is the stronger the sensation. Here, with no one in sight, I feel curiosity hit me—light blue. Happiness—pink. And an emotion I can’t put my finger on, though the shade is a deep gray. Something so ugly can’t be pleasant.
    “Are you okay?” Jackson asks.
    I shrug, unsure of what exactly I am. “It’s just…different.”
    “Triad or your new gift?”
    I almost laugh at the word “gift.” Is that what they call it here? As though it’s a privilege to know the feelings of everyone around me. I think it’s a punishment, and it isn’t lost on me that Zeus wanted me equipped the moment I was healthy enough to sustain it. There has to be a reason for that, too. I glance sideways at Jackson, realizing he’s waiting for me to answer.
    “Everything,” I say and stare out over the bridge as we cross over it. Everything is odd here. The materials similar, yet different. The bridge is some combination of stone and wood, hard and smooth like stone, but with long lines of texture that remind me of wood. I don’t know what it really is and I’m not in the mood to ask.
    “When did you find out that Zeus manipulated the strategy against us?”
    Jackson looks directly at me. “Right before I came to get you. I wanted to tell you immediately, I did, but not there, where everyone was listening. You’ll learn here that almost everyone reports to Zeus. It isn’t safe to talk openly about things like that. I would have told you the moment we got home. I should have known you would ask.”
    I nod. I can tell from the bright white that slips into my mindthat he’s telling the truth. “So what do we do?”
    He shakes his head and lowers his voice. “Not here.”
    The bridge ends at a road that’s again a new material, this one black with specks of silver in it, that curves around a large building into the first section of homes. We cross over into a neighborhood, all small white homes with yellow roofs. Each home has a front porch with benches on it like everyone sits outside and chats at night. I’m preparing to ask my first question, when