Gemma swallowed. “Not specifically, but he did say that the Dissent expects to have control of Zion before the shuttle to Oranos comes, and that they’re not against killing hundreds if it means they win the war.” She looked at Christian at last. “I think it’s a bomb, what he had Imara stick in his backsack. He knows how to make plenty of different kinds. He told us when we were in that bounty hunter place.”
Gemma had had a long time to think about it when Colton dragged her across Reva. It was the only reasonable plan that made sense. Reymond wouldn’t risk storming the tower, even if theydidhave hundreds of weapons at their disposal. Zion had some of the best security in all the Systems’ galaxies. But if the Dissent were to take out that security...
“That’s what we feared,” Christian replied. “No specifics though?”
She shook her head.
Christian cursed. He held his thumb on his comm. “Send a message to Rami Vidar. Gemma confirms likely a bomb. No other details known.” He ran a hand down his face.
Gemma’s leg shook. “Anything else? I’d really like to shower.”
He squeezed her knee. “No, go ahead. I think that was it.”
Smiling softly, Gemma went to stand—the memory of the ghoul attack flashed through her mind.
She hadn’t thought about it much since then, between focusing on staying alive and trying to determine the Dissent’s plan for Zion. But now that she was here, the impressions from that night filled her: the roaring from the power in her veins; the shock that froze every molecule in her body; the sulfuric smell of the ghoul’s breath as they clawed at her dome.
Her purple blood.
“Actually...” Gemma sat back, and Christian held her stare. “There’s something I need to tell you.” His face tightened, fear passing over his eyes. She entwined her fingers with his. “Something happened to me when Colton and I were in the desert. Something, I think, because of how you found me in the temple.”
Christian sighed. “You mean the purple blood. Yeah, we saw that too.”
Of course they would have—they’d carried her into Zion with her body covered in it.
Gemma bit her bottom lip. “It’s . . . not just that, though.”
He furrowed his brows.
She swallowed. “When I was with Colton, I got attacked by those ghouls—those demon creatures we saw on our first night. And right when I thought they were going to kill me, this...power came out of me. I don’t even know how to explain it.” Christian’s jaw flexed. “It protected me from them until Colton stepped in and blew them up. But it was like—I don’t know—an instinctive reaction. And then I had flashes of what happened in that temple.”
Christian’s gaze swept across her face, like he was searching for a clue that something was out of place. “What did you see in these flashes?”
She looked away. “A purple orb. I touched it. And I remember feeling so cold...and screaming into a pool of purple blood.”
Several moments passed before he let out a long breath, and when Gemma looked at him, his eyes grew tight. “Okay, well, tomorrow I think we need to ask Rami what he knows about that place. He said we’d see ruins. He might be able to tell us something.”
Gemma nodded, digging her nails into her palms as she stood. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. They had enough to worry about already. But what if something was really wrong with her and she never got to go to Oranos and see her sister again?
Tears pooled in her eyes.
Calloused fingers touched her palm when she turned to walk away. “Hey.” Christian stood, enveloping Gemma in a hug so fervent that her chest pinched. “We’ll figure it out.”
Clinging to him, she let the promises too difficult to verbalize flow from him into her soul. From this moment on, she would never fight another battle alone.
Gemma stood in her shower for what felt like an hour, letting water pound against her skin on the hottest setting she could stand. The nanobots may have healed her injuries, but after her conversation with Christian, the darkness that had plagued her for years began to creep back in.
You didn’t fight hard enough against Colton. There’s something wrong with you. In a couple of days, if the Dissent has their way, everyone will be dead, and you could’ve stopped it.
Wrapped in a towel, Gemma used the xerothermic to evaporate the moisture from her dark hair then wandered into the main part of her flat. Christian leaned back against the headrest of her bed, his toned arm draped casually behind his head. His gaze flitted back and forth, absorbing whatever information he’d cast onto his eyepiece.
Gemma’s body lit on fire as she took in the sight of him. He wore nothing but his underwear; her breath hitched as throbbing desire built deep inside. Her eyes wandered across and down his sculpted chest, arms, and torso, imaging the feel of those muscles beneath her palms.
The feel ofhim.
On the end of her bed were the panties and sleep top she’d created with the costumery, but she walked right past them and dropped her towel.
Not long ago, she had been terrified to expose herself to him, but now...
