“Shiva,” she gasped, stunned.
“Hello, Aelia,” Shiva said, quietly.
It only took her a second to remember what he’d done.
“You joined them,” Aelia snarled.
Shiva held his hands up imploringly. “I made a mistake.”
“You filthy, traitorous bastard,” she seethed, taking a step towards him. “They murdered everyone in cold blood, rounded them up like animals, and youjoinedthem.”
“No. Yes,” he stammered. “No.”
She lunged at him with teeth bared and shoved him in the chest, hard. He staggered backwards.
“Aelia, listen!”
She had never liked him. He had always been arrogant and cocky, letting his apex predator get the better of him, but this? She shoved him again, anger blurring her thoughts until she could only think in red; in the red of the flames feeding on the ones they’d burned, in the red of the blood they’d spilt in the clearing, in the red of the insignia he wore on his chest.
“Bastard,” she hissed and drew her dagger, swinging it at him with a snarl. He was quick enough to block her, but he didn’t attack back.
“Aelia, stop,” Shiva pleaded, but she barely heard him over the blood roaring in her ears.
Again, she swung, and again he blocked. Over and over, until she had him backed against the wall with her blade against his neck.
Rage boiled inside her; all she could see was Mirra’s face when he’d shouted at her. When he tainted her last day in this world with those vile words. Blood appeared at the tip of her blade as she snarled at the memory, the steel pricking his throat.
“They caught Keeran,” Shiva gasped, his hands held by his head in surrender. “I came to help you.”
Her eyes sliced to meet his, terror tainting the anger she was hiding behind. They’d caught Keeran. He’d tried to lead them away from her so she could escape, and here she was, just as trapped as he was.
“Why would you help me?”
“I can’t work for them anymore,” his voice cracked, the desperation breaking through. “I had no idea what they were capable of until it was too late.”
“Beserkir made it pretty fucking clear, Shiva. What part of his wanting to cleanse Demuto didn’t register?” she spat sardonically.
“I know.” Shiva gulped past the steel at his throat. “It was only after they started attacking everyone I knew how fucking stupid I’d been. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat… that night will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“That makes two of us,” she sneered, but she pulled the dagger back an inch.
“I just want to go home,” Shiva choked out. “But how can I face my family with everything I’ve done? If I can get you out of here, at least there will have been some point to all of this.”
The cries of the Guard Dogs broke through the silence and Shiva twisted his head towards them.
“We have to leave. If they catch us, we’ll both be on the next boat out of here,” Shiva said, his pupils wide with fear.
“I don’t trust you,” Aelia snarled.
“I know,” Shiva bit his lip, gaze flicking between her and the street, the sound of barking getting steadily louder. “But you can’t get him out on your own.”
Aelia sucked in a breath. Keeran’s words echoing round her skull, mixing with Shiva’s. All the times she’d refused his help, she’d failed. Years of trying to be good enough, trying to prove herself just as capable as any artemian, and when it really mattered, she’d failed. She was as useless as they’d all believed her to be. She couldn’t let her stubbornness cost her Keeran, too, and Shiva was right, she couldn’t get him out on her own.
Aelia reluctantly stepped back, letting her dagger drop to her side.
“How do we get out of here?” she asked, her voice cold.
Shiva breathed a sigh of relief. “We need to make it to the sea.”
