“Go to Petition!” I hiss. “Let the gods judge you and find you wanting.”
“There are no gods, only one.”
“They’ll rain their hate down on you; they’ll hate you for everything you’ve done. You’ll never find a kind word, a place to sleep, or a scrap of bread. You will hunger and thirst and feel every wound you inflicted!” I scream at him.
My words echo around the factory. A noise rumbles, growing louder and louder until I realise it’s a cheer. The omegas and alphas are cheering for me. The alphas without hope, the omegas who are nothing but fear, they hear my words, and they cheer, screaming back at our captors. Repeating my words.
“I will not surrender. I won’t stop fighting. I’m not yours!” I scream in shrill hysteria. The sound of my rage echoes around us, pushing him into a contemplative silence. “I am Kaida Keres, and I am an omega, and I will not be silenced, not in this life or the next.”
He stares at the cages of alphas and omegas. “I wonder if they would be so excited by your words if they knew what happened to the last people who defended you.”
I stare at him, my aggressive words sticking in my throat and choking me. What? What does he mean?
“Do you want to know what happened that day? When you walked into the citadel like a lamb for slaughter?” He leans down over me, so I can’t see anything but him. His dark eyes are pits into madness.
My gaze flicks to the side where I can see Walker watching.
“You came, and as soon as you were secured, I personally took the Beta’s Claw, and we went to your old neighbourhood and stood there in the dark, watching the bustling movement as they prepared to flee.” He bites his bottom lip and leans over me so his face is only half a foot from mine.
“They were too slow. We waited with the place surrounded, and they walked straight into our trap. There was an old woman with steel-grey hair. She was tall and carried a staff in her hands. I believe she was…what was it, oh, that’s right. She was blind, wasn’t she? Your grandmother, right?”
My jaw trembles, and I clamp it shut. He reaches out and brushes my tears aside.
“No, not your grandmother, just another one of the scum who live there. But there was another woman, one clutching an infant in her arms. She had pale hair the colour of straw. I remember thinking she resembled you.”
Aunt Rae?
“No! What did you do to them?” I howl and struggle. He pulls back and then, before I can think, slices another long, deep wound into the spot above my hip.
He applies the salt, but this time, I don’t scream, I shake and grit my teeth so hard I think they might break, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of making a single sound.
He waits until I’m shaking and panting for breath, and then he removes it, sits down, and strokes my sweaty hair back from my face.
“I personally killed your aunt Rae. Your neighbours were only too happy to point her out. She screamed and screamed as I peeled the skin from her body. It took hours for her to die, and I made them all watch. We killed them one by one.”
I stare at him wide-eyed. “My mother escaped,” I say it defiantly.
He hits me. The blow is so sudden that I don’t even have time to flinch. The right side of my face goes numb. I spit and, this time, spray red mist onto his lower jaw and mask.
“But your cousin did not.”
I freeze. The agony his words cause has me howling, ignoring the pain in my face.
“You monster. She was a baby.”
“Omega filth,” he spits.
A dangerous fury fills me. “I will never stop fighting you. I will join with whoever will work against you. With my last breath, I will bring you down!” I howl.
“I hate to remind you, snow, but you’re the one tied up right now.”
With effort, I bank my temper and focus my sight on the ceiling and a particular hole that reminds me of my aunt’s stove. She liked to sing while she cooked, and she always made enough for the rest of the neighbourhood.
People came to her when they were sick or hurt. She never turned anyone away. Rae was always smiling and whistling, and she loved those children that blessed her in her later years more than her own life.
My chin wobbles as I remember cuddling my cousin for the first time and watching how Rae softened.
Her nightmares got stronger, and she would wake us with her screams. She didn’t want anything to happen to her babies. She was fierce.
