Prologue
January 16, 2074
They knew the war was inevitable, but they didn’t know it was this close. Ezekiel Ashford led his team of unnaturals into the battle, allowing them to kill the soldiers. He himself turned and observed the minds of people, what they were thinking. Their thoughts were vital for him and his people, because it was the only thing keeping them alive. They needed to know what the enemy was thinking, planning, so that they could avoid it at all cost.
The team had suffered a great loss a couple of months prior, when the government attacked them out of the blue, without even Ezekiel knowing. He cursed himself after that for being a bad leader, for bringing his team into a blood shed. Since that day, he vowed to always be ahead of the enemy and know their plan in order to protect the ones that were left. There were just seven of them remaining after the great massacre and Ezekiel was not planning on letting either of them go, especially not by the hands of horrible people, who hunted them down simply for existing.
Beatrice and Luca fought side by side. They were always together no matter the circumstance. He loved her to the core. Their feelings were mutural. They seemed to be so good with each other, Luca always caring. When the battle began, they fought together, because it was what they did. But lately, Luca was acting weird. He was distant from the rest of the group, even barely speaking to the love of his life, but it didn’t stop him from caring about her well-being.
“Watch out!” Luca yelled as he uprooted a tree and threw it at one of the enemy that was going to stab Beatrice. She turned to him and muttered a thank you. Luca nodded and jumped to take care of another soldier.
The battlefield was packed. The enemy didn’t want to give up until they slaughtered every single unnatural. Freaks, they sometimes called them. Beatrice got her heavy hair away from her face and continued fighting using her sword. She occasionally turned invisible to confuse the enemy, her skin fading flawlessly. When she reappeared, the skin was smooth and glass-like. That was one of the features Luca admired her for.
“Hey, do you lovebirds need help over there?” Remy Mitchel picked up a discarded car piece and threw it away.
“No, go help Ajax, he is struggling.” Beatrice pointed at a man with pale skin and strawberry blond hair, who was knelt down and was placing a hand on his wound.
“Boss is going to destroy us, we must save him!” Remy called out and dived in for a rescue. Beatrice watched as Remy sprinted fast to help a team member. The one creditable fact about Ezekiel's team of freaks was that they never left one of their own behind. Beatrice felt proud that she had found herself with them, in the wings of Ashford, who did everything to make her feel like home.
The sky became gloomy, rain started pouring. Beatrice looked around and noticed Luca carrying Gabriella Valentine in his arms. She seemed injured. Gabriella was not supposed to be out on the battlefield, she was needed back at the base in case healing was needed. She insisted on coming out and fighting, which was admirable, but stupid. Beatrice called out to Luca for him to notice her, but he kept going forward into the unknown.
“Luca! Love, over here!” She yelled again, waving her hands at him. Luca turned and for a split second she saw something different in his eyes, something unseen before. He continued walking like she didn’t exist, like the relationship of eight years was nothing.
They met when they were still in high school, junior year. Both of them felt different from the others, which was the main reason they clicked and ended up together. There was a brief period, when they had to fend for themselves after high school, because people saw them as freaks. They were found by Ezekiel and offered a lifetime of sanctuary. Despite all the struggles they have been through in their years, they never gave up on each other.
Remy appeared next to her, holding Ajax over his shoulders.
“What is your boyfriend doing?” He pointed at Luca, who was now being yelled by Ezekiel to stop. Beatrice shook her head.
“It can’t be.” She saw a plane landing near Luca. Luca dropped to his knees, still holding Gabriella.
“Luca, what the hell?” Indigo Sanchez asked, who was holding Ezekiel back before he tore himself apart.
“I am sorry.” Luca yelled, mainly for Beatrice. “I don’t deserve this team.”
“Damn yes you don’t!” Athena Stapledon flew forward and landed on debris. “What the hell is that about?”
A man stepped out of the plane. He was dressed in formal clothing and had his hair brushed neatly. That was the president of the country, someone everyone feared, even Ezekiel.
“Is she the healer?” He looked at Luca. He nodded. “Take them both.” The president looked at his men.
The war around them stopped. Everyone became a statue. Beatrice stared at a soldier as he grabbed Gabriella from Luca’s arms, who was still knelt. Ezekiel was begging for him to not do it, but he closed his eyes and went into oblivion.
“I am sorry.” He said before someone injected him with a strong drug.
“No!” Beatrice yelled, charging at the president, who dodged her sword and she fell face forward onto a debris.
“Foolish girl, you are lucky I just need the doctor.” The president looked down at her. “But remember, time will come when you wish you had better target.” He got back on the plane, his people carrying unconscious Luca.
Beatrice sat up, watching, trying to realize what happened. Luca, the love of her life, the person she trusted the most despite everything, had just betrayed their team and took their only healer, joining the enemy, the government. She shook her head in disbelief as the battlefield was slowly turning into an eerie place.
“We have to go!” Remy yell at her. “Move!”
“No.” Beatrice replied, still not fully understanding what happened upon herself. “He would never do that to us, that’s not Luca.”
“Bea, we have to go.” Indigo reached out to her. “Ajax is losing a lot of blood, we need to find a way to help him.”
They were left without a healer and without a shelter, because they couldn’t go back to their base. It was already exposed. They had to run off somewhere else, somewhere where they would be able to hide from the grimaced faces of people. Somewhere far away from their city. They had to start new lives as people who weren’t accepted into society, because that’s what they always did, but this time, it would just be the five of them and Ezekiel, their leader, who was completely devastated by the recent events.
The group was left with even less members than those that have arrived to the base, in a junkyard. A junkyard was their base, their sanctuary, a place keeping them safe and sound, but it was traded by Luca. Now they all understood how the enemy found out about their secret hideout. Luca Sterling, an orphan boy who came from having nothing to having family and Beatrice, who would risk her life to save him. But after that, he wasn’t worth risking a life for.
