I awoke suddenly the next morning; nightmares had gotten the best of me that night.

      After I'd escaped, I had hoped that they would stop terrorizing me during the nights. But my hope had been squashed by the reality that they might never cease altogether after everything I had seen.

      I sat up in my bed, going over the events of last night in my head, like I'd done so many times before finally going to sleep. I told myself that I would learn from it and move on. I'd just have to be even more on guard now because of it.

      When I walked downstairs, all the eyes went to me, watching my face to gauge my mood and see if I'd finally cracked under the pressure of what had taken place at the party.

      Growing up in a family that was constantly in the spotlight, I'd gotten used to the stares of wonder when we went out in public. But this was different, and the stares made me uncomfortable. They'd seen me in a moment of weakness, and were wondering how I'd react to it.

      Shoving the memory of the beating I'd endured last night into the back of my mind for good, I sat down and began my day.

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      For the past week since we'd caught the terrorist, I'd been restless and more on edge than usual.

      We'd caught her and put an end to her reign of terror, but it didn't feel like we did. I was expecting to feel accomplished at the end, but it only felt was like I was waiting.

      Waiting to see what suicide mission Hunt was going to send us to next.

      Waiting around for nothing in particular in the house that we'd been confined to.

      And most of all, waiting to see if another attack graced the news, proving the woman was covering up for someone.

      I could sense that my team felt it too, by the feeling of unfinished business in the air. It had been there ever since Kane had suggested that something was not as it seemed here.

      After a day full of training in the workout room in a futile attempt to prepare myself for whatever was to come, I finally decided to seek out Jake. I couldn't ignore it; he had something to do with that boy that attacked me last night.

      His door was open, and I could see him doing push-ups on the floor. When I knocked on the open door, he looked up to see me standing in his doorway.

      "Yes?" he asked, standing up, his black hair disheveled. I averted my eyes when I realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

      I looked away from him and closed his door quietly.

     "Trying to get me in my room alone?" he spoke in a sarcastic tone, but his cold green eyes bored suspiciously into mine, seeking my purpose here.

      "Maybe," I responded vaguely, taking a step farther from the door.

      His cold eyes narrowed as I took a step into his room. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I didn't come here to flirt with him.

     "Did you recognize that boy from last night?"

      "No," he answered slowly. "Should I have?" I couldn't tell for certain if he was telling the truth. But my guess was that he wasn't. Why would he lie?

     I shrugged. "You tell me."

     Jake's stoic face didn't change expressions. "Why did he go after you?"

     I shook my head slightly when I tried to remember the boy's exact words. "He wanted to take me out. He said that if he could best me, he could best anyone."

      I hoped that he wouldn't ask why the boy had chosen me, of all people, to give an example of his power. I was not ready to open up this quickly, and certainly not to Jake. He was too calculating and I knew that I could trust him the least of all my teammates.

     "Elaborate."

I blinked. "What?"

"You said that if he could best you, then he could best anyone. What is that supposed to mean?"

I chose my words very carefully and spoke slowly. "I am a skilled fighter. Not many have beaten me."

Jake was quiet for a moment, studying my face, before saying, "You might want to learn to tell the truth."

Narrowing my eyes at him, I retorted, "You might want to learn to follow your own advice. I saw the way you were staring at that man. You knew him. Or at least you knew something about him."

He raised an eyebrow in a sardonic manner. "Oh, did I?"

      "Was he after you?" I asked, struggling to piece all the information together.

      "If he was after me, then why did he attack you instead?" Jake's reply came out condescending and dry.

I said nothing for a minute as I stared back at him, unsuccessfully trying to read him. "He said that it would be easier once I was out of the way. He didn't want the trouble of me when he was going after his real target."

      "His real target, you say?" Jake asked sarcastically. "And who might that be? Me?"

      "Exactly," I said gravely. "Evans, you better not be lying. Because if you are, then someone is after you. You need to deal with them before someone else gets hurt."

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"Damien just sent us a message," Finn announced, looking at his phone on the granite countertop. "The woman we caught is going to be questioned tomorrow. He wants us to be there to make sure she stays honest."

"Wonderful," Riley murmured sarcastically.

"I don't care," Arlo said. "I just need to get out of this house." Out of all of us, Arlo was the most restless. Normally, he couldn't sit still, and being cooped up in this compound now probably didn't help.

"He told us to keep training, and to be ready for anything," Finn added, reading off of his phone.

Riley rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Like we haven't been doing that constantly."

"Maybe he feels guilty that he's locking us up like this," Finn supplied, always looking for the good in people.

"Yeah, or he's preparing us for another mission where we'll most likely get killed," Kane put in bluntly.

Finn broke the silence. "So let's make sure we're prepared for whatever Mr. Hunt might send us into."

So that's how I found myself in the workout room for the third time in three days.

      I pounded the punching bag with all of my strength, letting it swing back for more. The sound would have been booming, but among the ruckus taking place in the gym, it was hardly noticeable.

      I hit the bag again with my fists, picturing it as the people I hated. I'd been taught to let my anger reign free when I was still a captive, especially when using my telekinesis. Since I'd been freed, I'd gotten rid of that teaching, using it only when it was against evil.

      The sharp face of the man who'd beaten me the night of Jaymis Park's party.

      Boom.

      Each and every person that had tried to challenge or use me in the last year since I'd been free.

      Boom.

      The masked faces of each of the members of the Tribunal.

      Boom. Boom. Boom.

      And finally, the hooded face covered in shadows, Orion.

      Boom!

      The stinging pain of my knuckles brought me out of the stupor. I glanced down. They were bleeding, the red of my blood flowering through the white wraps.