The next evening I decided to go outside and see the gardens one last time before tomorrow, likely my last day ever at the Estate. At least I’d go out with a bang, with a ball, time-travel, and a mass rescue mission.

  The halls were still decorated for the Triumvirate families’ stay, bronze suns with faces on them watched me as I walked down the stairs, the rough diamonds encrusting the banister scratching at my skin.

  I continued towards the garden until a maid passed by pushing a trolley adorned with steaming pots of tea and pastries, their sweet smell wafting through the air.

  The smell alone carried me across halls I didn’t recognise. These halls contained guest bedrooms but they were almost as far away from the guest wing where the Relegates were staying as possible. I wondered who could possibly be staying in this part of the Estate until I saw the red banners with the creepy suns on them.

  The Hammertons.

  The maid paused as muffled voices got louder and the door burst open. I peaked round the corner.

  “Father,” came Ariadne’s melodic voice. “Could you get me on the radio station tonight? I want to publicise my fight for the Relegates.”

  “You mean the fight to get them sitting among us? I’m not sure that’s what they want, dear.”

  “Maybe not but with the way the wind’s blowing we need to think of our family. We can rebrand ourselves as modern thinkers supporting freedom for Relegates.”

  “I suppose it couldn’t do any harm,” he considered, “But don’t take too much notice of this Relegate business, things will go back to normal soon enough.”

  They both went deadly quiet as the maid rolled forward with the trolley.

  “I’ve come with the afternoon tea you requested, sir.”

  Atticus Hammerton waved a tired hand.

  “Place it on the table inside, we’ll be there shortly.”

  She went in, and he closed the door behind her.

  “This passion project of yours is admirable, don’t get me wrong, but they’re happy and safe in the institutions. They don’t need saving.”

  “Really? So you’re just hiding Soleil for the fun of it?”

  The man’s face fell.

  “I don’t know what you heard but–”

  “Don’t worry father, I would have done the same. What’s the point in having power if we can’t help the ones we love?”

  “Do not mention that girl again, do you hear me?” He looked around him then lowered his voice, “Especially not here.”

  The maid reappeared, noticed she’d interrupted something, quickly curtsied, and rolled the trolley back where we both came from. Right towards me.

  In a few short seconds, she’d round the corner and find me snooping. It wasn’t exactly a crime, but it was a good way to get on more people’s bad side. Powerful people who were rich enough to control all the media in the country.

  I ran back down the hallway, looking for an unlocked guestroom I could hide in.

  I rattled the first doorknob. It didn’t budge. Then the second. Also locked.

  Then the third.

  With a twist, the door swung open so fast I stumbled inside, but I managed to quickly shut it as softly as possible before the maid and trolley’s shadow crossed the tiny gap beneath the door.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I waited to see if the Hammertons would follow, and when they didn’t, finally came out with a deep sigh and went for a walk.

  The Estate gardens looked different in the fading sunset.

  All the flowers had taken on an orange hue, the sun’s light bending around their petals to make them glow, even the dark red roses sneaking up the garden wall. Maybe I could steal one, a little reminder of this short time I’d cherish forever.

  “Good evening, Ayla,” a familiar, chilling voice called from behind me, and my blood ran cold.

  Words choked in my throat and my heartrate soared higher than the skyscrapers of Langlia.

  No. Not here.

  Why would he come here?

  I turned around to face Galton.

  “Don’t say you’ve forgotten me already?” He laughed and something pricked my back.

  Thorns.

  I’d backed myself into the wall without even realising.

  I stared at him for a while, not sure if he was even real. He haunted my nightmares so often I couldn’t tell anymore. But when I closed my eyes and opened them again, he was still there. The monster in the flesh.

  When I didn’t say anything, he raised an eyebrow.

  “What? No retort? Goodness! You have changed.”

  Finally some words came out, quiet shakiness perforating every syllable until my voice grew stronger, falling back into its old rhythm.

  “That’s what happens when you have new experiences, doc. What are you doing here?”

  “Business with the Chancellor. Strictly need-to-know I’m afraid.”

  “Well, I need to know, so you’re in luck.”

  He smothered a laugh.

  “I’ve missed our little games.”

  “Is that how you see the experiments you ran? Games?”

  My voice broke at the last hurdle. Instead of looking smug, the man tilted his head.

  “You think I’m a monster, that’s understandable. But did I not always promise everything I did was for the greater good?”

  “I don’t see how any of it could possibly be for the greater good.”

  I crossed my arms.

  “You’re lucky.” He gestured to me. “Despite your faulty genes you are still able to walk and talk and act almost normally, for a lot of patients at the institution that’s not the case. If it weren’t for the institutions, they wouldn’t get the care they need to survive.”

  “That’s the problem. Survival isn’t living. I’m sure there’s a way for us to get the care we need without being locked away.”

  Galton sighed.

  “I’m not here to debate with you. All I know is that this is the best system we have.”

  “Then come up with a better one.”

  He simply shook his head and exited the gardens, up the terracotta stairs to the main entrance of the Estate, where the Chancellor waited to greet him.

  They shook hands like old friends, laughing and talking as old friends did, a man and a monster side by side, and even when the door shut behind them their laughter echoed through the walls of the Estate.

  Galton’s absence should have been a relief, but instead it provided a free pass for my senses to go into overdrive, like lifting the lid off a boiling pot and getting scalded by steam.

  My thoughts were going too fast. Institutions, the Estate, Galton, the Lion Legion, Elian, Niva, Niles, Ramya, Shirley, the Relegate Project.

  There was cold and the sound of heavy breathing barely audible over the thundering in my ears. My heavy breathing, I realised shortly after it started. The air scraped my throat as it raced in and out of my lungs. My hands clawed at the dirt but I felt nothing in them save for the faint tingling sensation of pins and needles indicating they’d gone numb. I wanted to vomit. My heart felt like it was drilling into my core, making my whole chest ache. I was shaking too much to stand. Everything was blurry. I felt nothing and everything at the same time.

  At some point I fell into the roses, not feeling the thorns as they drew blood, and stayed there for hours. Or a few seconds. Honestly I wasn’t sure, the whole thing was a hazy mess.

  When I could finally walk normally and breathe again, I stumbled around the garden, finding myself by the archway where Elian and I met to go to Vocafeum. Except instead of Elian being there, Estrella was using a cyb-screen to take pictures of the roses.

  “Oh, hello Lady Estrella.” I greeted her as best as I could.

  “Please, just Estrella,” she scoffed, then glanced at the tattoo on my forearm. “VC2104. Ayla right? Can I help you?”

  I opened my mouth to ask how she knew my name but realised fairly quickly.

  “No, thank you. I just… had a run in with someone I didn’t think I’d have to deal with for a while.”

  She smiled softly.

  “Ariadne?”

  “Sure.”

  “Don’t let her intimidate you. Raised in a family like hers it doesn’t surprise me she’s learnt to play the game a bit. Did you know there’s a rumour that Lady Hammerton’s sister had a Relegate child?” She crossed her arms. “Not that you heard that from me.”

  “Of course.”

  “For what it’s worth, I think she’s just frosty because Elian’s not paying attention to her.”

  “It’s early days yet.”

  The Chancellor’s daughter smirked.

  “That’s true. Well, good luck for tomorrow, I hope to see you around.”

  I left her and made my way to my room, and took out Niva’s device, typing out three words that illuminated back to me in bright green letters against a black screen.

  Galton is here.

  And I remembered monsters and men had one thing in common. They only had the power we gave them.