“Steel cables. Why the fuck would they make a trap out of steel cables? It’s so freaking evil. Kaida,” Mordecai sobs and swipes at his face. “I can’t get you down.”
“No, there has to be a way.” I twist around, looking up and follow the trap to where it originates, high in a building not far away.
He’ll never get me free.
“Mordecai,” I say his name softly, in resignation.
He was looking up at the sky, but he turns to me, and all I can see is bitter regret in wide eyes.
“I’m going to try again!” he insists. His breathing is haggard as he frantically hits the cable. He doesn’t even make a dent.
“Mordecai!” I say louder.
He stops, his head lowered. His whole body trembles. “I can fix this. I know I can. I can do both. It’s not fair. Don’t make me choose.”
“Mordecai, it’s okay. I need you to do me a favour.”
His eyes peel open and focus on me. “Anything,” he says desperately.
“Kill me.”
He recoils like I’ve slapped him. The sword clatters to the ground. “What?”
“Kill me, please,” I say, my voice breaking. “Don’t let them take me alive.”
Why is this so hard? I can see the panic, the fear on his face. But he can’t let them take me. The things they would do.
He shakes his head. “No, I can’t do that.”
“Please, have mercy. Just kill me. Mordecai, it’s the only way. Just put me out of my misery, save everyone, and kill me now. Give me freedom.”
He stares at me, then bends down and lifts his sword. I close my eyes. Waiting for a blow that never comes. When I open my eyes, he’s stepped back from me.
I let out a distressed whine. “Alpha, please.”
He flinches. “Don’t call me that.”
He steps back again. One step, two.
“Mordecai, don’t, please. Cai!” I shout. “Don’t leave me like this!”
He stops ten feet from me. “I’m sorry.” He whispers it, and I know he means it. I can feel it.
But I don’t want this.
“Don’t do this!”
He runs up the street, back the way we came. Ahead, I see him run into Cadel and Taryn. He grabs Taryn, and the three of them disappear into the shadows, leaving me hanging by my ankle.
Cadel was so close. He would have saved me, I know it.
The light fades, and the sounds of the night become as loud as bullets. All I can do is see his face when he took off, leaving me here.
I’m more scared of the Path than I am of dying. They all know that. They don’t understand how completely the Path destroys you from the inside out.
I think I fall into a doze driven by sheer panic and dissociation because, I swear, I see the Warden standing there. He stares and brushes back his white hair in a way that I have seen a million times. When I open my eyes, though, he’s not here.
Instead, I’m faced with the shocked and disbelieving Bear and a few of his Resistance people.
