Twell and the Rebellion

By Kate O'Leary

Twell's life is complicated. Her world has been attacked for precious water resources, and loved ones have died. Thrown into the Army Of Powers, Twell is forced to continue training her telekinetic gifts for the looming war.
As if that wasn't stressful enough, she's in love with a boy who was not chosen for her, and her genetic match believes in obeying the Governing Body's laws, and fighting for Twell, whether she likes it or not.
When Twell begins to question her rights, she manages to invoke a rebellion against the Governing Body she never could have imagined. Twell finds herself in more danger than ever, both from the enemy planet who want to destroy her world, and her own people, who will punish her for fighting for love and free will.
To save the ones she loves, Twell must choose what's worth fighting for, despite the consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Oct 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781612359656

Kate O'Leary

Kate O'Leary, has loved reading and writing ever since she was young enough to try and get through the back of her cupboard into Narnia, or through her mirror into Wonderland! In high school she entertained her homeroom reading out chapters of her first novel 'Miranda' about a teenage girls adventures with her horse Rusty. After school Kate studied Children's Literature, and her first drafts of Twell were awarded in writing competitions. Kate's writing interest is firmly embedded in dystopian fantasy, being continually fascinated with future direction of our world and the concepts of free will and moral vs. lawful obligations. Twell's adventures will continue to explore these ideas in the Como Chronicles Trilogy. Kate lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills of Australia, surrounded by rolling hills and wineries and horses, as well as some good rocks to climb when she feels like scaring herself!

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Twell

and the Rebellion

The Como Chronicles #2

by Kate O'Leary

Published by

Fire and Ice

A Young Adult Imprint of Melange Books, LLC

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

www.fireandiceya.com

Twell and the Rebellion, Copyright 2014 Kate O'Leary

ISBN: 978-1-61235-965-6

Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America.

Cover Design by Caroline Andrus

To my father, who is my rock. Thank you for always believing in me, and teaching me never to give up on my beliefs and dreams.

Table of Contents

Twell and the Rebellion

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

About the Author

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TWELL AND THE REBELLION

by Kate O'Leary

Twell's life is complicated. Her world has been attacked for precious water resources, and loved ones have died. Thrown into the Army Of Powers, Twell is forced to continue training her telekinetic gifts for the looming war.

As if that wasn't stressful enough, she's in love with a boy who was not chosen for her, and her genetic match believes in obeying the Governing Body's laws, and fighting for Twell, whether she likes it or not.

When Twell begins to question her rights, she manages to invoke a rebellion against the Governing Body she never could have imagined. Twell finds herself in more danger than ever, both from the enemy planet who want to destroy her world, and her own people, who will punish her for fighting for love and free will.

To save the ones she loves, Twell must choose what's worth fighting for, despite the consequences.

They taught us that war was to be left in the past, to be buried with our ancestors as we paved a new way in a new world.

But our true natures could not be entirely abandoned, and too soon we rediscovered our old ways.

Retaliation awakened, revenge burning like fire through our veins.

But the rage was no longer contained to our enemies, because where the will was imprisoned, spirits would always rise up in rebellion and battle for the hope in our hearts.

What a frightening world we lived in. A world where we thought we had come so far, yet there was still so far to go...

Prologue

I looked up into the eyes of my genetic match and discovered I was very far from happy.

It wasn’t because I didn’t choose him myself, or because the Governing Body had forced me into it. As much as I resented and secretly planned to fight it, that wasn’t the reason I was freaking out. It wasn’t because he was hideous either, because he definitely wasn’t. I watched him rake back a flop of fair hair from his face, while fathomless silver eyes gazed back at me. His mouth turned up in a tentative smile of wonder, and my heart beat faster in alarm. It wasn’t even because he wasn’t the boy I was already in love with, the one I was going to find a way to be with. It was because I knew him. Or at least, I’d already met him. And he had not made a good first impression.

"It’s you," he breathed, his voice soft with delight. His molten eyes swirled enticingly, luring me into their depths.

But I was prepared this time, my eyes narrowing to slits of warning as I took a rapid step away from him. "You, I hissed. You’ve got to be kidding me."

You’re mad? He frowned, considering the possibilities as to why. There could have been several reasons, apart from the predicament of being unwillingly matched to a virtual stranger. Such as the fact he tried to hypnotize me with his fancy powers the first time he met me. Sooooo not okay.

Let me make my feelings perfectly clear for you. I conjured a tone cold enough to intimidate ice off a berg. "If you so much as twinkle one of those despicable weapons you call eyes at me again, I guarantee you’ll experience front row tickets to the Twell’s Power Show." If I said something like that to Jonaz, he would’ve smirked at me in a way that ignited my temper, or laughed in my face because he always saw right through my defences. Because he knew me. But Avin’s eyes widened in shock at my threat and I was glad. I wouldn’t make it easy for him. It was already too hard to bear.

I didn’t mean to hypnotize you in Aran. Avin’s tone seemed earnest, as he studied my face. But there was so much in your expression that day. Loss, fear…despair. I felt drawn to you… I thought we connected.

Well. You thought wrong. I folded my arms across my chest, inexplicably cold, despite the matching room being pleasantly heated. I shivered as I tried to conceal the panic and fear behind my anger.

I’m sorry then, Twell, Avin said softly. Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot.

I stared at him in surprise. That phrase was totally vintage, an ancient saying from our ancestors of old earth. It was a quirky expression for someone my own age. But it was also a distraction, and I really needed to stay focused.

Look, I muttered, avoiding his gaze. Don’t waste your time bothering to be polite, or trying to win me over. I’m in love with someone and when this war is over we’re going to find a way to be together.

Avin inhaled sharply, as if I’d insulted him. It was his turn to take a step back and I glanced up involuntarily, meeting his stricken gaze. You mustn’t say that. His voice was already higher and smoother in comparison to Jonaz’s voice, but his tone stepped up another level in hushed warning as he glanced furtively around the small room containing us. I noticed he didn’t say, ‘you mustn’t do that.’ I knew it was because he didn’t believe I ever could. Like Avin, I found myself scanning the room for a window or camera where they could be listening or watching. Even though they’d told us the matching ceremony was one of few private moments we were allowed in our carefully monitored lives, I wasn’t sure I had enough faith in them left to believe it.

You’ll be punished. Avin’s tone dropped low, heavy with foreboding. It will only lead to heartbreak.

My heart’s already breaking. I struggled not to raise my voice at him. "So if they want to punish me for desiring free will, then so be it. That’s my choice."

It closely resembled the one I’d received from my trainer, Brazin, when I told him I wouldn’t follow all of the Governing Bodies orders without questioning them; that I couldn’t, for fear of losing my soul in the process. It was a look of pity and it ticked me right off.

But that’s the thing, Twell. Avin’s luminous eyes darkened as though a storm was brewing. You don’t have to make a choice. You just need to obey our leaders. They already know what’s best for us. I’m sure they’ve matched us for a reason.

Anxiety bloomed inside my ribs, pushing against my lungs until I felt breathless. They’ve matched our DNA, Avin, not our hearts. My voice shook despite my efforts to sound firm. That can never be enough for me and it’s too much of me to give them.

But they only want your obedience. Avin’s eyes, as they held mine, were uncomfortably searching. It’s me you would be giving your heart to. I could hear the desperation mixed with uncertainty in his tone. He didn’t have a clue how to handle my insubordination. I knew it scared him, but I couldn’t blame him. It scared me too.

I can’t give myself to you if it was never my choice, don’t you see? my voice finally rose in agitation. Are you really happy to be forced into a match with someone you don’t even know or love?

Give me a chance to know you. Avin raked a hand through his shoulder length hair and began to pace the room, his features growing tight with distress. Guilt pricked sharply at me as I observed him and I knew I had to be careful my actions didn’t hurt him. As unsure of his sincerity as I was, I didn’t want him or anyone else punished because of me.

Okay, you’re right. I sighed in insincere defeat. I’d pacify him now, while we needed to be seen complying, and then fly for the stars later. Avin swung back to face me and I prepared to look away again, but the storm had been calmed, his eyes clear and still, and fathomless.

Just give me a chance, he pleaded gently. Give me a chance to earn your trust, even if you don’t trust our leaders’ decisions right now.

Yeah right. I snorted, giving no indication as to which of his words I didn’t believe.

Please, Twell.

A panicky shiver rippled over my skin as Avin stepped closer, my mind beginning to thrum in warning as he cautiously extended his hand. My muscles coiled; ready to block his powers if I had to. Instead, he reached out, lightly touching my face in the traditional Comian greeting…for those who were familiar with each other. I froze, my body tensing up as stiff as a statue, as his fingers brushed my cheek. They felt cool and firm, but his smile was warm and gentle. I held my breath, willing myself not to react. But deep inside of me, where I couldn’t hide my fear, my heart drummed at a frantic pace.

For a tiny moment, caught in his gaze, I imagined what it would be like to give in. I could just accept him and the life already chosen for me. It would be so easy and although I didn’t want to acknowledge it, there was something compelling about him, a kind of gentleness that promised an easier way. Then I thought of Jonaz Maven and how I knew I’d fight everything I’d ever known, just to be with him. It wouldn’t be easy at all. It would be impossibly hard. Unheard of. Dangerous… Illegal.

But giving in was harder. There was so much more to lose by giving in. Jonaz had promised me we would find a way. Until then, I knew I’d have to watch my mouth, as well as my behaviour. There was so much to get through first, a war to fight, lives to protect, enemies to defeat. So much to survive before there was even a chance to fight for love. Before I could have any hope.

Hope for my future was the thing driving me forward. Giving me strength. It wasn’t the only thing, but it was everything.

Be careful, I silently willed myself. Be brave. Looking up into the endless depths of Avin’s hopeful eyes, I lifted my hand to his own cheek, forcing myself to smile. And so my own battle began.

Chapter One

I sat with my guardian, Shay, on the balcony of our pad, gazing out over Caran. We didn’t talk for a while, preferring a comfortable silence as we watched the distant sun setting over the city. The white sky dimmed to a soft pearly glow, the muted light caressing everything it touched. Normally, I went so fast at everything I did, I failed to stop and appreciate the beauty of my world. Now I was trying to stow away last minute memories, savouring the city I loved before I had to leave it, or before it changed any more than it already had.

The moon rose steadily upward and hung at peace, as if it knew nothing of our troubles, while the solar lamps twinkled to life in the dusk. A light, cool wind blew over my skin and everything was calm. Then, a long, ominous dark shape sailed overhead, reminding me of those troubles. The Army craft moved in silence like a predator through the sky, even though it was supposed to be for our protection. The evening had fallen too dark for shadows, but there was already one in my heart, heavy with the foreboding that the crafts’ presence signified.

Have you finished packing? Shay broke the silence in her gentle voice I’d almost never heard raised. I’d put her through enough frustrations to raise it in my journey from child to young adult, believe me. However, Shay had patience I knew I’d never inherit and not just because she wasn’t my biological parent.

I guess so, I replied absently while twisting my coppery, brown hair through my fingers. There was only so much packing one could do that was appropriate for army training and I was pretty sure my sassiest outfit and latest face enhancers were not required. I’d resisted the training at first. I’d doubted my ‘gift’ for a long time before I’d gained the courage and desire to use my abilities for good. However, the attack on Caran changed my mind, just as it had changed everything in my world. In the morning, I’d be leaving the home I’d lived in my whole life and the city I’d once felt safe in, to join the ranks already patrolling our skies and training for war. Not so long ago, the only thing I’d been protective over was the amount of sleep I got. Now, I was expected to protect my own people against the threat of more attacks. The idea seemed as ludicrous as it did frightening.

I heard you again last night, Twell. It would be good for you to get as much rest as possible. The wrinkles around Shay’s eyes creased in worry, her greying head turning towards me in concern. Shay’s reply reminded me of two things. The first was what a wonderful guardian she’d been my whole life. When I lost my parents in the first war, the Governing Body assigned her to care for me. Many children of Como had required guardians; the first of the Abwarzian’s attack against our people so devastating it caused a significant loss in our population.

The G.B. had also ensured Shay encouraged my telekinetic abilities as I grew up under her care. That was the part where I’d tested her patience. Let’s face it, being different as a teenager is social suicide no matter what planet you inhabit. I’d mostly refused to practice, stubbornly disregarding my abilities until I’d been called on for mandatory training. Now, I was honing my powers, as though my life depended on it. Which, to be honest, it did.

The second thing it reminded me of was the dreadful nightmares that gripped me almost every night. I hate to come off in any way dramatic, but my guilt at what happened in the caverns still rubbed fresh and raw on my mind. In my dreams where I couldn’t escape, the grisly scene played perpetually over. I could still hear the sharp crack of my bones breaking as he snapped them. I relived the horror of watching him hurt my friends, awakening over and over to my own cries, screaming in fear that he was still coming for me. His eyes were always glazed with burning hatred, his huge hands clawing at my throat, crushing my life out of me…well… you get the idea. So much for worrying about the enemy.

Yet there were much bigger things to fear and unfortunately, they weren’t a nightmare, but reality. The Abwarzians had attacked us. Again. They’d targeted our schools, a warning to surrender, or a brutal hint they could do much worse. The death toll included people I knew, peers and teachers, people who were innocent of bloodshed, and people who hadn’t deserved to die. One of my training friends, Marz, hadn’t made it, and I was sorry about it every day. But it was my best friend’s death that haunted me the most.

Chaz Harlen’s lifeless eyes still stared at me when I closed my own eyes. I saw his body lying broken and empty of his soul among the flames and wreckage. The horror of finding him dead was still too vivid a memory, a sharp, torturing pain that never seemed to fade or lessen. I knew I’d never recover finding him dead like that. Some things change you forever and I knew I could never go back and be untarnished by death.

However, I had a purpose now, even if I didn’t actually have a choice. The Army of Powers had been created, calling on all the gifted young adults of Como to use their powers in defence of our world and in particular, our water. That was what it was all over. The Abwarzians had used up their own fresh water a generation ago in their weaponry processing plants and then battled or bullied neighbouring planets ever since for their natural water supplies. There was a time when we had bartered with them. As a new colony of the uninhabitable earth, we’d wanted to try and do things right in the new world. We hoped for peace, negotiation, and sharing. We wanted a new way. But the Abwarzians didn’t care what we’d done to ruin earth or hold any remorse for ruining their own planet.

When the bartering of water was eventually restricted, the Abwarzians became violent without hesitation, using a horrifying array of technology to fight us. Their weapons were advanced beyond ours, and some of it was so inhumane it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The only reason we defeated them was because we outnumbered them in size and numbers, but even our numbers were severely reduced by the time it ended. Then our leaders noticed that the new generation, my generation, were starting to evolve new senses and abilities. After that, there was no escaping their notice or interference for people like me.

Last year I’d broken into Caran’s intelligence centre to find visual proof of their threats when I’d still been unsure if I wanted to fight. The images showed total carnage, melted bodies in the streets, our cities reduced to ashes and rubble. More terrifying than that was their complete lack of mercy. While their bodies seemed small and weak from lack of minerals in their desalinized water and diet, their sharp, dark eyes held a dangerous strength that foretold their desperation to survive. There was no mercy or compassion in their expressions, only a vicious victory as they slaughtered our women and children. Seeing it for myself scarred me for life, but it also convinced me I’d do anything to protect our people from ever facing the horrors of their race again. I was afraid to lose my own life of course. Scared witless, actually. However, I was more afraid of the remaining people I loved being hurt, not to fight back.

That wasn’t all I discovered though. We found images we weren’t supposed to see, of our own people mistreating Abwarzian prisoners in war camps. Worse than that, we’d executed them all, both men and women, displaying our own lack of mercy as we sought our own revenge. These were things we’d never been shown or taught in school. Our history painted us as victims of the war, innocent of any war crimes or blame. But I’d seen different. The images we found revealed the sheer terror on their alien faces, while hopelessness pooled in their eyes. I recognized their fear because it matched that of our own people, and it tore my black and white education of our enemies apart. I knew we had our own dark side, our own capacity for cruelty.

When I recalled the Abwarzians we’d caught in our underground aqueducts, I remembered both fear and hate on their faces. It was a new idea I’d been slowly coming to realize; that maybe to them, we were just as barbaric as we considered them to be. It also made being a solider harder for me, because now I knew there were no easy answers, no sure way to understand who was right and what was wrong.

These were thoughts I could never share. I would be severely punished if the G.B. found out what I knew, and my people had no idea of the truth anyway. Comians seemed to accept and believe whatever the G.B. told them, following their leadership without question. It was the way it had always been, but now I was starting to understand that people believed what they were told because it was safer. Because it was easier to believe all was well if that’s what you wanted to think. And it was much easier to accept what they told us when doubting was socially frowned upon. It created an uncomplicated, ordered world that the post war generation desired.

Yet for the few of us who knew the truth, it was like holding a ticking bomb. I was afraid to throw it and hurt my people, yet I couldn’t keep holding onto it without fear of exploding myself.

Twell?

Jerking out of my thoughts, I met Shay’s eyes and grimaced. I’d been lapsing into my own world of thought too much lately, and my concerns weren’t another burden I wanted her to bear on top of everything else she had going on.

Goodnight, Shay. I stood and dropped a kiss on Shay’s forehead and her expression switched to a look of pride I really didn’t deserve. I was glad she wasn’t getting too emotional about me leaving. Shay wasn’t normally the crying type, so I still felt guilty when I recalled waking up in the hospital after the attack to