“Eight minutes,” Azo counts off, and my adrenaline spikes.
Shit. How was that a minute already? All we’ve done is say hi.
“Ens, we have a problem,” I tell her, getting right into it.
The faux levity in her features immediately cracks and falls away.
“It’s not just betrayal within our walls we have to worry about; someone on the outside is making trouble for us as well,” I tell her, and her features harden.
Enslee grasps her hands in front of her and widens her feet, like she’s preparing to go blow for blow with whatever I’m about to tell her.
“The Tainted weren’t a coincidence, Ens. We didn’t start running into them on missions by chance. I think one of our blood bank contacts put them on our trail. They’re hunting us. And I think they might know where we are. They can’t get in through our wards, so they’re picking us off when we leave them. Enslee, I don’t think whoever betrayed us and this shit with the Tainted is unconnected. I have no idea how or why, but all of this—everything that’s been happening, everything that’s been going wrong lately—I think it’s orchestrated.”
Enslee’s already fair complexion grows even paler, and she closes her eyes like she’s hoping it will shut out the overwhelming scale of betrayal I’m unveiling.
Azo steps up next to me and taps me on the shoulder. “Six minutes, and we need to get you dressed while you talk,” he tells me.
I nod absently and start pulling off my sleep shirt and shorts while I hear Enslee speaking hurriedly to someone off screen.
“Step into the skirt,” Azo instructs, and I glance down just long enough to see a mass of fabric that looks unsettlingly see-through.
I step into it and then immediately dismiss everything Azo is doing so I can stare down my twin, who looks both pissed and crestfallen as she continues to quietly argue with someone I can’t see.
“How could you have known?” the mystery person comforts my sister, and I recognize Amadi’s voice. She’s a Syphon that’s a couple years older than us and the person Enslee trusts the most aside from me.
“Ens?” I ask, pulling her attention away from her hushed conversation. “What couldn’t you have known?”
Enslee’s gaze flicks back to mine. There’s frustration in it, and resolute determination, but it’s the regret simmering in her stare that has the blood in my veins congealing with trepidation.
“What did you do?”
The words are half accusation, half plea to be wrong. But I can see in her body language, in her pinched features, that something has happened, and whatever it is, my sister feels responsible. Enslee flinches and her gaze drops like the shame is just too heavy to bear. Instantly my mind conjures all kinds of horrifying scenarios.
“The intel looked good, Ever. I had the information contained within our ranks. I would have never sent them out if I’d known there was more to all of this, but everything pointed at the possibility of the Conduit. You know I couldn’t just ignore that. Maybe some other Blood Crafter, but not the Conduit,” Enslee rushes to explain.
“You greenlit a mission after I told you not to?” I ask incredulously, and then it hits me, why she looks so distraught, why she looks so…guilty.
“Who did you send out, Enslee?” I demand, but I already know. It’s written all over her face.
Azo tugs at the dress he’s fitting around me, and it suddenly suctions to my skin. I wobble on my feet as the human fusses over the bodice and then the skirt, but I can’t focus on what he’s doing as devastation and outrage play tug-of-war with my heart.
“Your Flight has the highest success rate and the most experience,” Enslee defends, delivering the final blow with her shoulders back and her chin lifted.
It’s my turn to close my eyes as though it will shut out the inescapable reality of what she just said. I want to pace, to rage, but Azo pleads with me to stand still or I’ll ruin the dress, and it sucks me back into where I am and why. I’m stuck in Four Tiers, hours away from facing off with The Horde for the first time, and my Flight is hunting a Conduit that may or may not be real when danger is at an all-time high. Anger suffuses every ounce of patience I have left.
“Itold you it wasn’t safe,” I snap at my sister. “I told you to keep everyoneinsidethe wards!”
“I know, and I had every intention of doing just that, but a chance at the Conduit…I couldn’t ignore that, Ever. You know I couldn’t.”
“So you sent my fucking Flight? Like they haven’t been through enough…likeIhaven’t?” I shout at the projection.
The square barrier buzzes, making Azo jump and Enslee flash brighter as I work to rein in my runaway rage.
“You knew we had a traitor. Why would you believe any intel coming in after what I told you, after what happened to me and Ren? Just because it’s notyourlife on the line out there doesn’t mean you can be so fucking reckless! What were you thinking?” I castigate.
Enslee’s eyes narrow and she steps closer to the screen. “Reckless? I’m not being reckless, Ever. I’m doing what we always do, capitalizing on an opportunity. We can’t all be in Four Tiers, playing dress-up for the dragons. I’m holding things down for all of us, and that requires making difficult decisions in impossible circumstances because they just might be the thing that saves us.”
I reel back, the vitriol in her words clocking me so hard that my vision wavers. Stunned, I stare at my sister. I take in the tight line of her lips, the angry flush working its way up her throat and settling in her cheeks, the outrage blazing in her light green eyes. Contempt radiates off her, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I don’t know her. Andthathurts worse than any of the fucked-up shit that just came flying out of her mouth.
