The Gender Game 2 by Bella Forrest (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📕

how mad you got when I mentioned the queen’s name. In your argument. In how you comport yourself.”

The first twin’s face watched me passively. “That’s a lot to assume, with just pieces of information,” she stated calmly.

I nodded my head toward her sister. “She just confirmed it,” I replied dryly.

The second sister’s head swiveled around and she shot her sister a look of warning. She then turned her gaze back to me. “It doesn’t matter that you know who we are. You’re going to be dead soon.”

I shrugged. “What are your names again? I had them memorized, but I’ve forgotten them. It’s like… Elena, Tabitha, Sarah and Mara?”

“Selina and Marina,” hissed the second twin, her eyes flaring.

I gave her a smile. “Sorry. You have a lot of sisters. Are all of them as freakishly strong as you are? Also, which is which?” The twins remained silent, and I shrugged. “I guess I’ll just pick one. You, calm one—you’re Marina, and the angry one is Selina.”

The angry one rolled her eyes. “I’m Marina, you idiot.”

I shrugged again. The edges of my vision were going dark—I was going to be unconscious again soon. “I don’t think it really matters at this point,” I slurred. “All that matters is you hear me out about Violet before you kill me.”

Selina squatted down in front of me, her eyes flicking all over my face. “Your left pupil is blown,” she observed. “You’re losing consciousness.”

“You think,” I snapped back sarcastically. “I was thrown into a wall, and Marina did a pretty good number with her super strength.”

I yawned then, suddenly feeling very tired.

“Should we repair the damage, Marina?”

“Why? He’s not going to tell us where the girl is. He’s also too smart—look how he figured out who we were.”

“I warned you he was observant,” came a voice from the door.

I angled my head toward the door to see Ms. Dale leaning against it, her arms across her chest.

“Melissa,” chided Selina, stepping over to the older woman. “You need your rest. I told you we would handle this.”

“Don’t speak to me as if I were a child, Selina,” said Ms. Dale, her eyes widening. “I trained you both for years. Just because you aren’t in my class anymore, doesn’t mean you get to act like you are superior.”

Marina huffed. “We are superior,” she declared, flopping down heavily on the table.

Ms. Dale smile. “Oh really?”

Without any warning, she pulled a gun out and shot Selina square in the chest. Marina roared, and rose to her feet, but Ms. Dale calmly angled the gun toward her, and pulled the trigger twice.

I flinched, expecting a loud bang, but the gun only emitted a hissing pop.

“What was that?!” I wheezed, my voice thick and heavy.

Ms. Dale crossed over, and pressed something against my neck. Instantly my heart beat increased, and I felt a surge of energy. I sat up, instantly aware.

“What was that?”

She held up a patch with a red cross through it. “Adrenaline,” she replied, taking a step back.

I frowned deeply at her. “What are you doing?”

“Look, I don’t know how long those tranquilizers will last, and I need to talk to you, Patrian.”

“My name is Viggo, Melissa,” I grated out. “And fine, you want to talk? Release me from my cuffs, and let’s go.”

“No. I’m going to talk first, and then you’re going to dart me.”

“Won’t they remember?”

She shrugged. “Unlikely. The tranquilizer has an effect on short term memory. I’m not sure how long it will keep them out though.”

“What are they?”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I’m here to talk about. Are you willing to listen?”

I looked at the two women lying unconscious on the floor. “Okay. Talk.”

32

Violet

It was hopeless. I had checked dozens of cells, but had found no sign of Tim. Of course, it didn’t help that the room was massive. I kept searching for an end to the rows—a wall where I could finally see an end to all of the madness, but I still hadn’t encountered one.

Each row had twenty-six cells—thirteen on each side, with a corresponding letter of the alphabet. The rows were differentiated by numbers. I had entered in the twenties. I had assumed that meant there were forty rows from start to finish. I quickly realized there were far more than that once I reached forty, with no end in sight.

Every cell I had seen had a boy in it. Every one. Some were older, some were younger, and all of them seemed to be suffering.

Much like the first boy I encountered, many of them attacked the window when I peered in. Others sat in corners, crying and hyperventilating. Some just stared at me, their faces slack, their eyes out of focus. They had been standing in that same spot for a very long time as evidenced by the defecation on the floor.

It broke my heart seeing all of Matrus’ young boys there. A part of me wanted to release them. However, I had taken a closer look at the mechanism holding the cells over the void, and it seemed that it was designed to detach from the ceiling above, dropping however many feet below. Fiddling around with the control panels on the cells could kill them.

So, I just kept on checking, thinking that somehow, if I found Tim, I could find a way.

But time was running out on me. I felt its press on the back of my neck. Viggo was in very real danger, and I had just wasted time down here. I was torn, yet again, between the two people I cared about most.

My foot swung out, kicking one of the metal posts with a resounding clang. I gripped the handrail in frustration and I longed to scream out my rage. In the stories, it was never this hard, but choosing between Viggo and Tim was an impossible task.

I needed to think logically. I had wasted a lot of time already checking cubes, and there were countless others. If I kept looking, chances were that