Read Wilde's Army for Free Online Page B

they can do more than we thought.” She finishes Gavin and moves on to Dunn.
    “So you didn’t know?”
    Shaking my head, I follow her lead and untie Flanna. “If they’re shifters, why don’t they escape now that I know what they are?”
    Mom stops and looks at me over her shoulder. “I am not sure.”
    We continue releasing people; each time someone is freed, they turn and help the one next to them until all but Arland and Brit are unrestrained.
    “Why didn’t you release him then?” Mom asks, offering her hand to Enid.
    “Griandor sent me a message.”
    Everyone snaps their head in my direction—even the children.
    I look down myself. I’m glowing,
and
I’ve just told a cave full of people I spoke to a god. My power is no longer a secret, but then, the only person who I needed to hide from has always known who I am.
    The soldiers fall silent, as though I spoke a terrible joke in front of a bad audience.
    Mom glances around, then rests her eyes on me. “We will have to discuss this more later. We need to find the real Arland and Brit, and those two are the only ones who could know where they are.”
    She points to the shifters. “This is going to get hard.”
    “
Get
hard? When has this been easy? I’ve lost everything and gotten it all back so many times, I don’t even know how I’m standing right now. But we have to find them, and fast, because we have to rescue Perth, and there may not be much time for him.” I turn on my toe then march right up to the imposters. Using my sword, I slice through the ropes holding the gags in the fake Brit’s mouth, then Arland’s.
    “Kate, you must trust me. Look at my eyes and tell me I am not the man you love, tell me I am not the man you committed your life to last night.” Arland’s voice cracks.
    He needs water. I want to caress his face, tell him everything is going to be okay. He looks so much like my Arland.
    “They steal memories, too?” I ask.
    “Apparently,” Mom says.
    But the pain filling me from his words is too great. Just last night, while next to our bed, Arland said he wanted me to be buried with his people. I can think of no greater future than to spend my entire life with him. Closing my eyes to escape the torment, I see two forms of pulsing energy. Black strands looped around a solid white core stretch out like bands of elastic and snap back over and over.
    My flames burn out of control; I look at the shifters. “What did you do with them?”
    “Kate, please, it is me,” he begs, green eyes watering.
    “They cannot be far. Shifters must stay close to those they emulate.” The sureness in Mom’s voice startles me.
    I stare at her. “H-how do you know?” It’s not that I don’t trust my mom, I just don’t understand how she can have any knowledge of shifters … no one knew what they were capable of, and she didn’t live here.
    She wipes tears from her eyes. “My sister and I were telepaths. Like you and Brit, we could connect to each other. Our annual hiking trip was a way for me to gather information from her about things that were going on. We could connect any time, but the closer I was to the portal, the stronger our link was.”
    “
Was
, Mom?”
    “The night before our trip, when I got sick, it was because she was murdered.”
    Murdered
? My chest constricts, forcing all the air from my lungs.
    “We connected all the time.” Mom sucks in a sharp breath.
    “We were sharing information when she was killed. I felt her fear and her death as it happened. It was awful.
I
wanted to die.” She presses a trembling hand to her pale cheeks.
    “When I asked why you were sick, you said it was nothing! Why don’t you tell me things?” I ask, shaking my head.
    She covers her eyes, hiding pain she’s never shown before, truths she hasn’t been able to talk about. Yelling at Mom when she’s just told me her sister died makes me feel horrible, but I hate secrets. I want the truth. However, after what just took place between