Tate’s breathing suddenly felt loud in her ears as she fought to keep her reaction to his words off her face. How did he know she’d used her name in court? His surroundings should have practically guaranteed an information lock down on anything pertaining to the rest of Aurelia.
“I wonder how long before the thing you fear most comes to pass. Tell me, Tatum, do you think they’ll finally finish the fifth statue, or do you think the Guardians will choose to assassinate you to prevent the truth from tainting the memory of their beloved Saviors?” Madness lurked behind Christopher’s words. Hatred burned in his eyes.
There was the Christopher Tate knew and disliked. She’d been a little concerned for a moment.
His loss of control helped center her. This man wasn’t some lost waif who needed saving. Just because he’d run afoul of an ancient artifact that had scrambled his brain, didn’t mean he was someone she could be merciful to. It was better for her future health and safety that she treat him as the threat he could so easily be.
“What? Curious as to how I know so much when I’m stuck down here?” he asked when she didn’t speak. He leaned forward. “I know everything.”
High pitched laughter echoed through the room as he sat back, the other inmates joining him.
Dewdrop grimaced with distaste. “So glad crazy-pants can still compete as most creepy person ever.”
Ryu watched Tate and Christopher with a blank expression that concealed whatever he was thinking.
“If you know everything, then you know what he wants?” Tate said finally.
Christopher examined his nails. “Maybe.”
So, it was going to be like that. Christopher was going to make it painful to drag out even the smallest of details.
Fine, if he wanted to play like that. Tate could be vicious as well.
“You know he doesn’t care about you. Why else would he have left you here?” She lowered herself to eye level with Christopher, crouching so they were face to face. “Or do you really think he’s coming after all this time?”
“What I think is that you’re desperate, Tate. You’re afraid you’re not going to be able to stop what’s coming, and it has made you turn to the one person you know you can’t trust. Even I wasn’t crazy enough to rely on my enemy for answers.”
Tate’s head tilted. “You know, I talked to your former Grandmaster about you.”
There. Finally, a reaction.
The skin around Christopher’s eyes tightened the faintest bit. He didn’t like this topic. Good. Tate was making progress. If he wouldn’t talk willingly, she’d see what shook loose if she destroyed his calm.
“Really, Tate, you should know by now you can’t trust anything that old man has to say. Haven’t you learned the depths of his greed? I’d have thought his order’s involvement with Nathan’s resurrection would have woken you up to the fact you can’t trust anyone in this doomed city.”
“People can change. You more than anyone should realize that,” Tate said, her eyes sharpening at his last two words. He did know something. “After all, Keel said you were a shining light. Someone who believed in the Saviors more than anyone. Yet now you seem to hate them.”
“Don’t you? You know what they did to you. They left you to clean up their mess. Don’t you hate them for it?”
Tate remained silent as she contemplated her answer. Lying would be a waste. Christopher would only see through her, and it would destroy any progress she’d made.
The problem was that she wasn’t sure any answer she gave would be the truth. Her feelings toward the Saviors and Jax were a lot more complicated than they once were. Reality had a way of destroying the pedestals people placed others on.
The mistakes and the wrongs her friends had committed against Tate were many.
Yet Tate couldn’t summon the level of anger she should feel for having her life stolen from her. It felt like history that happened to someone else. There was a wall between her and that knowledge that left her feeling detached.
“Hating them won’t change anything.”
A huff left Christopher as he leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “A perfect Savior-like answer.”
Sensing a crack in his defenses, Tate allowed herself a little more of the truth. “I don’t remember much, but what I do remember is struggle. Every single moment of every single day. Endless fighting and sacrificing bits of myself so I could survive one second longer. So yeah, I find it difficult to fully hate them because their betrayal gave me what I currently have. Friends who’ve become family. A lover who reminds me what it is to be alive. A home that’s always waiting for when I’m ready to return.”
Yes, Tate had lost much when her former friends sent her to sleep. All her memories. Her sense of self. All that was left to her was a name and a gaping hole in the middle of her chest that said she didn’t belong. But, in Tate’s mind, she’d gained far more in trade.
“How very evolved of you.”
“Take it however you like.”
