Grief is like snow.
She didn’t reach for it, and I was glad for that, uncertain I could ever let anyone else touch this paper.
His handwriting. His words. His thoughts.
They were mine.
Her eyes grew bright as she read it, and once it was refolded and safely tucked away, she leaned close to me. “Would it be all right if I gave you a hug?”
Nodding, I melted into the woman’s embrace. She smelled how I imagined a grandmother would, like talc and lavender, and she released me far too soon.
As I sat beside Nia Williams on the bumpy flight back home, I thought of that woman. For years, kindness had been so scarce, but like a hardy vine, it still seemed to take root and blossom, even in the bleakest of environments.
I dreaded what came next, but I wouldn’t hide in the darkness. I belonged in the light.
Theo greetedme with a tight hug as soon as I exited the car I shared with Williams. Behind him, the White House sat like a marble cake against the blue backdrop of spring sky.
I’d spoken to Theo only once while I was in the hospital—a brief conversation in which he’d confirmed I was still alive and that he wouldn’t be able to speak to me for many days due to classified activities.
I wish I’d known hisactivitiesinvolved the assassination of a dictator. I might have been less mad at him.
“They tell me you had many injuries?” he asked now.
I showed him my bandaged hands. “It could have been worse.” With a sigh, I added, “My heart is more broken than my hands.”
His brows scrunched. “Sophia?—”
I was shoved closer to him as armed guards surrounded us, safeguarding the Prime Delegate from potential assassination attempts. Theo put a protective arm around my shoulders and directed me toward the building. Our posse made it inside the West Wing, and I was shuffled to the side while a throng of people I didn’t recognize surrounded Williams and volleyed for her attention.
After a moment, I realized they were her Cabinet.
These were the people who’d kept the Defiance alive, the ones who’d run our new government while we reestablished normal.
Theo carted me one way, and Williams and the crush of people moved the other.
“Where are they going?” I asked.
“The Cabinet room,” he said. “They have a lot to discuss before the press conference.”
I glanced back. “Is she really the president now?”
He directed me down a quieter hallway. “Not yet.”
“Seems like it.”
“It’s complicated. Things are delicate right now. NAO loyalists are trying to convince the people that we’re the bad guys. They have thousands of troops in Baltimore. We’re barely holding them off.”
My brows flew up, and the familiar panic tried to take hold. I hadn’t realized things were still so precarious.
Theo glanced at my face and gave me his stern smile. “Don’t worry. We’re at the finish line now.”
He pulled me into an empty room. A large table occupied the center, and an unlit fireplace stood at one end. The walls were hung with gold-framed portraits of old white men.
Theo lowered his voice. “If we want to truly end this, Williams has to consolidate power fast. The NAO’s brutality won them a lot of enemies, and they made themselves brittle by relying too heavily on their leader. To win the American people’s full support, Williams needs to show them what our government will be. Strongandmerciful. Resilientandcompassionate.”
I chewed my lip. “How is she going to do that?”
“I—”
