“Because?”
I looked into the mossy depths of his eyes. “If I tell you, and we get out of here, and you use this against me—”
“I won’t.”
“How do I know you won’t?”
“Because I give you my word.”
“And I’m just supposed to trust your word?”
He drew his shoulders back. “You still don’t trust me.”
I was beginning to, but did I trust him enough? I fingered my sling, the weight of his attention making me extraordinarily uncomfortable. I steeled my spine and stopped twitching. “Do you trust me?”
His mouth flattened. “You’re right. We haven’t gotten there, have we?”
Would we ever get there, though? I scanned the crater filled with debris ringed with steep mountains. How many cells and how many days would it take to repair generations of distrust? Could it even be repaired? As the firm knot of his arms slackened, and he pivoted toward the train, I realized that Remo and I, we had nothing to repair because we’d never had anything to break in the first place. What we did have was the power to build something new.
Sighing, I decided to lay the groundwork. “Iba’s convinced Gregor’s harboring Kingston and grooming him for a second coup.”
Remo’s eyebrows almost kissed. “Kingston was executed four years ago.”
The pressure on my heart eased. Even though I hadn’t said this to test Remo’s knowledge or affiliation, I was glad to find him perplexed by the news. If he hadn’t been . . . Skies, I didn’t want to think about the alternative. It was one thing to be related to a monster; it was another to be cavorting with one.
“Apparently, he wasn’t executed.”
“It was public.”
“It was televised,” I corrected.
“Are you saying it was staged?”
I waited for the information to settle.
“So, what? Your father thought that binding our essences would make my grandfather confess to some nefarious plan?”
“No. He thought it would keep him happy andforgetabout his nefarious plan.” The episode of Gregor and Remo standing by my crib sprinted into my mind. “Getting his own flesh and blood on the throne beats getting a puppet there.”
Remo lifted his hand to the back of his neck and kneaded it as though our conversation had given him a kink. “But you weren’t going to go through with it.”
Weren’t?Did he think I’d somehow changed my mind? Instead of pointing out that I still wasn’t going to, I said, “I’ll be faithful to you and to our union as long as it takes to find out Kingston’s whereabouts.”
He snapped his hand off his neck. “This is so fucked up.”
“Which part? The coup? The prison? Our betrothal? This conversation?”
“All of it!” He ran his hand through his hair, tugging at the roots. “Every fucking part of it.”
For a long moment, the only sound was the breeze combing through the chunks of metal, glass, and brick.
He released his hair, his fist banging against his thigh. “I work with my grandfather. If he was training someone, I’d know.”
“I understand your need to defend him, Remo. I understand that you’ll always want and probably choose to believe your family over mine, but know that my father isn’t alone in thinking this way.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I suppose your mother thinks this, too.”
“I wasn’t talking about my mother. I was talking about someone who isn’t related to my family.”
