Sapient Salvation 1: The Selection (Sapient Salvation Series) by Jayne Faith, Christine Castle Page A

foot of my bed. One, a man with light taupe skin and a shock of short black hair, stopped when he reached me.
    He held a small, flat monitor and a pointed object that was mostly concealed in his large hand. Extending the monitor toward me, he said, “Speak your name.”
    I did as he asked.
    He attached the monitor to the foot of my bed and came around to my right side. “Sit up and tip your head down. Hold still.”
    I caught a glimpse of the object in his hand. It had a wickedly sharp tapered end. When he raised it, I sucked in a gasp, suddenly realizing what it was.
    An implant, like the ones the man who weighed our collection bags and the woman who directed the Selection had at the backs of their necks.
    I started to shake my head and tried to lean away, but the medic’s hands were lightning fast. He wrapped his fingers around the side of my neck, and a sharp prick of pain zapped between my shoulder blades and zipped the length of my spine.
    My entire body seemed to melt, my muscles softening, and my nerves numbing. There was a soft click and an impact that pushed my upper body forward like I’d been rammed from behind, and then I was falling.
    Falling . . . back to the pillow at the head of the bed. My brain swam in a dizzy swirl, and eons seemed to pass before the back of my head finally contacted with the pillow.
    My eyelids closed, blotting out the world.
    A moment later—or maybe it was an hour, I had no idea—I heard voices. Male voices, I thought. Definitely Calistan accents.
    My eyelids seemed to weigh a hundred pounds apiece, but they wanted to open. I couldn’t move my limbs or even feel much of anything, but my eyes wanted to see who was talking nearby while I drifted.
    At first I saw only bright light. From the light, two figures took shape. One was talking, but I was not interested in him.
    The other was looking right at me, his blue-green eyes so intent, as if he were trying to absorb me through his gaze.
    It was him.
    I don’t know how I knew, but I was sure: this was the man who’d been standing on the balcony when I’d first stepped onto Calisto.
    I wanted to pour myself into those exotic eyes, but my eyelids grew too heavy. My senses numbed again, those mesmerizing eyes and the voices fading away.
    *
    The throbbing at the back of my neck was the first thing I became aware of when I awoke again. The remnants of a dream, of aquamarine eyes, tried to solidify in my mind, but slipped and faded away before I could clearly recall it.
    The muscles of my neck and back cramped, and I froze with a groan. Through clenched teeth, I breathed into the spasms, and once they passed, I moved more cautiously.
    The sighs and groans nearby told me that the other Obligates were rousing, too.
    I raised a tentative hand to the back of my neck and brushed it with my fingertips. I winced at the feel of the metal disc, but there was no pain. Just the throbbing, which I’d at first taken for the throb of a swelling wound but now realized it was a faint pulse at the site of the implant, in sync with the rhythm of my heartbeat.
    The rest of my body felt different, too. A silent buzz seemed to reverberate in every cell. My attention was somehow sharper. Heightened. No, it was my senses that were more aware.
    I felt more alive . As if I could feel my own blood singing through my vessels, feel on the air the night-black of the dress I wore and the bleached white of the sheet against my bare arm, sense the radiance of every object and person in the room.
    My heart pounded as I tried to take it all in.
    “Rise and move to the foot of your bed,” came Akantha’s voice from somewhere in the room.
    I did as she commanded and drew slow breaths, trying to calm my pulse. Looking back and forth, I saw stunned faces with wide eyes. More than anything, I wanted to ask the purpose of the implants in our necks. On Earthenfell, we’d been told only that Earthens who had implants, who worked directly for the overlords, needed the