The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

several degrees. Viggo was there, helping to brace me, but it didn’t stop the feeling of the world suddenly becoming too heavy to even try to hold up anymore. Even though she was dead, I suddenly hated Desmond beyond comprehension. She had caused so much pain, and now, after all of the torture and heartache, her last living son might not ever walk again…

“It’s not fair,” I breathed, unable to stop a tear from escaping. “Surely there must be something we can do… Maybe… Maybe…”

A random thought occurred to me, and before anyone could stop me, I reached up and began pulling on the tab of the cast they had given me, yanking the plastic off my arm.

“Violet!” Ms. Dale gasped, her hands moving to stop me, but I sidestepped her and held it up.

“Give this to Dr. Tierney,” I said. “It’s supposed to be used for twenty-four hours, but I’ve had it on for less than half that, and it repairs injured bones – maybe she can use it for his back. He’s got to… I mean… He’s too young. It’s just got to work.”

Ms. Dale sighed, reaching out and taking my hand with her own. “Violet, I have no idea what this flimsy piece of plastic is supposed to do, but I do know that if you remove medical technology designed to help one thing, it might not be the best for another injury.”

“But Jay… His back…”

“We don’t know anything yet, Violet. The bullet is lodged there, but his spine was not broken. He’s young, and also enhanced. Who knows what his body is capable of healing? You can’t fix him. You can only be there for him. Okay?”

I nodded, although a dark part of me hated her for saying it. Jay deserved to walk and run and jump and be able to play—he shouldn’t be in a hospital bed wondering if he’d ever get to do those things again.

“Let’s go check on him right now,” Viggo said softly. “It’ll be good for him to see you. He was really worried about you.”

I let him guide me off the ship, Ms. Dale beside us. The men carrying Solomon had exited at some point when we were talking—I had been so upset by Ms. Dale’s report of Jay that I really hadn’t seen them leave, and now they were carrying him between them as they entered the red brick building in front of us.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“It’s a warden training center,” Viggo replied, surprising me. He looked down at me, a corner of his mouth rising up a little. “It’s where I was trained when I was a cadet.”

“Originally Elena had conscripted it as a place to keep her forces,” Ms. Dale said. “But when she had her people pull back and trap everyone inside the city, a few Patrian wardens came here and locked it down, securing it. I stumbled across it after I got into a shoot-out with some Porteque gang members earlier—I hopped the wall after they cut me off from the rest of our team. The wardens inside took me prisoner, I escaped, Henrik showed up, and we talked it all out. They’re letting us set up shop and basically take control—pretty much all because we had Maxen, but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

I chuckled. I was surprised I could find any humor left after news of Jay, but Ms. Dale talked about securing this place for our group so dismissively, as if it hadn’t been an impressive feat for what seemed like less than twenty-four hours. But there was also a gem in that story too golden to pass up. “So you’re saying that Henrik rescued you?” I teased.

Viggo bit back a smile as Ms. Dale arched an eyebrow. “I escaped first,” she corrected me in a firm voice. “He just happened to show up while I was escaping.”

I smiled, and the smile faltered and then grew when I saw a familiar lanky shape exiting the building and making a beeline right for me. I opened my arms and was almost knocked over from the force of Tim’s arms coming around my waist. He held me tight—I knew it must be hurting him a lot, but he didn’t complain, and I held him too, keeping my touch as light as possible.

He pulled back, and I frowned when I saw the bruises all over him. “Tim, are you okay?”

He ducked his head and nodded, his mop-curls bouncing on the top of his head. “Okay,” he repeated. “You okay?”

“I was only gone for a day!” I protested.

“To Outlands! No one come back!”

“Well, your sister isn’t like anyone else,” Viggo said. “She’s unique.”

I felt my cheeks blush as a burst of love came over me. I needed to marry Viggo, just like Belinda had suggested, but this wasn’t exactly the right time to bring it up. There was so much to do tonight, and… Well, I was going to take the first chance I could get. I’d bring it up after we got through this meeting. First, though, came Jay.

“Show me where Jay is?” I asked, and Tim gave me a grave look, and then nodded, pulling open the door to the building the men carrying Solomon had entered. The door led to a wide atrium where a picture of King Maxen hung from the opposite wall along with several other pictures of men, a plaque underneath each. There was an office to the right. The door was open, and a few men were inside, playing cards and watching the door. Their guns leaned against one of the walls, and their eyes looked up to check who we were. Ms. Dale raised a hand, and one of them raised his in response before going back to their game.

“Guard duty. They walk the perimeter and then sit inside, in case we have a security breach. Left hallway.”

She moved past us, leading the way down a long hallway. “These are the cadet quarters,”