Page 68 of Pulse Zero
Oh no.
The rage in his voice finally makes sense.
It washim?
My mouth goes dry, and even if I could speak, I don’t know what the fuck I’d say.
The shadows move again, and now I know I wasn’t imagining it. They stretch along the wall, long fingers of darkness creeping across the concrete like they’re listening too. They ripple across the floor like dark water pooling toward him.
I keep my back pressed against the wall because I fear I’m at risk of passing out.
“You’re controlling those.”
He doesn’t answer. Which, for him, is absolutely an answer.
“Okay,” I say weakly. “Cool. Sure. Shadow powers. That’s…new.”
His gaze stays locked on me. “The Institute calls me Ascended.”
“You’re going to have to start giving me some fucking explanations here, Reese.” I hate the way my voice shakes. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on or what the hell that means.”
It still feels as though my brain is buffering, like understanding isn’t coming fast enough. I didn’t even feel this way when Harrison told me reincarnation is real. I suppose superpowers aren’t much more of a stretch, but it’s still asking a lot for me to wrap my head around.
“I died in that basement. I flatlined, was resuscitated, and came back Ascended,” he says, still so much calmer than I could ever hope to be right now. “A Pulse Zero Event is what your uncle calls it. A P0E. After living most of my life in the shadows, now I control them.”
A chill slides down my spine.
I remember the man who used to sit across from me in his basement chair, gun in easy reach, eyes sharp. He was harsh but human. This version of Reese feels like something carved out of night. Haunted and chilling.
He died and came back with powers. He waskilledand came back changed.
I swallow. “He did this to you?”
“It was his plan from the beginning. To hire me to kidnap you so he could use that as a cover for my death, my P0E. To turn me into his first Ascended soldier, nothing more than a pawn who had his whole life stripped away from him. That’s what I was for two years before I was able to build something outside their reach, something you tore down in a matter of minutes. Exactly the way Malcolm needed you to.”
I screw my eyes shut and lean my head back against the wall. There are still so many missing pieces, but I’m slowly starting to put them together.
This piece?
Malcolm made a fucking fool out of me.
“Reese,” I say carefully without opening my eyes. “What exactly did I destroy?”
“A resistance.”
I look at him now to see his expression harden.
“A resistance of Ascended who slipped through the Institute’s net. People who crossed the veil of death and came back wrong, but powerful and dangerous. The Institute hunts them. Owns them. Erases them. We were putting up a prettygood fight before you destroyedeverything.”
The way he snarls the last few words makes me flinch. I shake my head as though I could deny it.
“No. I didn’t…I was trying to—”
“You were doing your uncle’s dirty work, taking down the one thing that dared to defy him. You got people captured and tortured. People I was trying to protect got exposed.Killed. That is onyou.”
The words feel like they’re splitting my skull open. There’s a vise around everything in my chest, constricting my lungs. My hands feel numb.
“Why?” I swallow, but it doesn’t get rid of the knot in my throat. “Why would he do this?”
