Chapter 14
Aerysn descended into a fountain. As they became submerged in water, Aerysn released his hold on Kid and Treycore. They made their way up and broke through the surface of what appeared to be a pond. They gasped for air as they swam to the shore. Treycore could tell by the sky, the moon hanging overhead, that they were back on Earth.
He was filled with rage and anger and confusion. All he wanted was to get somewhere safe so that he could beat the hell out of Aerysn and get some goddamn answers.
Treycore reached the edge of the pond and crawled out. When Aerysn came out behind him, Treycore—his wrists still in shackles—grabbed him by his throat, pulling him to his feet. He clamped down to restrict his breath. Aerysn would be weak from carrying them, so now was his chance to get the upper hand. He clasped his hands and swung his arms, laying a few blows into his face before Kid crawled from the pond and hurried to him. “Stop it, Trey! For fuck’s sake, he’s working with us!”
“I fucking smelled him on you, Kid. How can you fucking tell me he didn’t do anything?”
“It was an act. We did it to keep everyone from knowing he was really on our side.”
“Is that true?” Treycore asked Aerysn, letting up his hold on his throat.
“I only did as much as I had to,” Aerysn replied. “As much as I needed to make it convincing.”
“Why?” Treycore asked, before throwing another punch. He wasn’t sure whether or not Aerysn deserved it, but he was so pissed that he didn’t really care.
“Jesus Christ, Treycore.” Aerysn recovered from the injuries he’d sustained. “I was undercover.”
“Did you fuck Kid?” Treycore was obsessed with knowing the answer. He needed to know, because it was painful thinking of Kid in another higherlings arms. Being fucked. Being raped.
“No, Treycore! No!”
“He didn’t fuck me, Trey,” Kid shouted. “We had to make it look like he did, but he was doing it all to protect us. To protect me. If he hadn’t, you know what those guys would have done to us.”
Treycore knew what they would have done to them, and Kid wouldn’t have survived. He curbed his rage, stilling all the emotions that had worked up within him from everything that had happened—at Veylo’s mansion, at the Nest, at the Colosseum of Parasonia.
Too much had happened.
Far too much.
But if Kid was vouching for Aerysn, he must’ve really been on their side.
“I’m giving you a chance to explain,” Treycore said, getting in Aerysn’s face. “So fucking explain.”
“You have to let up your grip on my throat a little more,” Aerysn hissed.
Treycore relaxed it more, keeping alert in case Aerysn tried to use the opportunity to his advantage.
“When you were arrested,” Aerysn said, “my operative in the Leader’s Allies created some bogus charges to pin on me to get me put in the same Day of Judgment as you.”
“You knew that was going to happen?”
“No! We had no idea Janka was going to use your Day of Judgment as the start of the next war. I was there to help orchestrate your escape. We needed immortals on the inside. After that first bomb went off, I was to create a distraction of my own among the other prisoners to catch the guards’ attention, and then when they got you two out, we would be fine. What happened back there, that definitely wasn’t part of the plan.”
“And how was Kinzer involved in that?”
“He was there to help you escape as well. We enlisted him to work with our operatives to get you out of the Nest.”
If Kinzer was working with him, that gave Treycore some confidence that what he was saying was true…or at least, that Kinzer also believed it to be true. There were few immortals he trusted, but in this, Kinzer had proven his loyalty, especially now that they knew his ex, Janka, was a motherfucking bastard.
“Help me escape?” Treycore asked, trying to process all this new information. “Why? How does that benefit the Leader’s Allies?”
“You have information we need. Codes to a bomb we can use against Janka.”
“I don’t have any codes.”
“Yes, you do. You were given them in secret. You probably thought they were part of a previous mission.”
