Gemma angled her head toward him. “Why did you join the Dissent? Were you born selfish and evil?”
Colton snorted. “Believe it or not, I’m actually the nice one in my family.”
“That’s a scary thought.”
“You make me sound like a villain, Gemma. I just want freedom for our people so badly that I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
She pressed her lips together, stifling her retort. A rehash of yesterday’s conversation would do neither of them any good.
“I’m the youngest of six boys,” Colton explained. “My parents owned a diner in the bad part of Perileos—the part no one wants to go to. They made money off monopolizing the area through threats and blackmail, and they expected us to work for them. To toughen us up, Dad passed on the idea that beating the shit out of your younger brothers was a good idea. So me, being the youngest...Well, you get the idea.”
Gemma frowned. She had had the thought before that everyone in Perileos must have tragedy in their life, and Colton’s story proved that theory further.
It was deplorable what poverty did to human beings.
“Then one day,” he continued, “my oldest brother killed my dad, and Mom had my brother executed.”
Gemma’s eyes widened in a snap. A mother would do that to her own son?
“Lots of love in my family, let me tell ya. I was about eleven at that time, so I ran away. Don’t ask me where I was going to go, because stars if I knew. The Dissent found me and gave me a home and showed me how it’sthatplace—Perileos—that ruins people. It takes away everyone’s hope and drives them to desperation. So, you go right ahead and think of me as evil for fighting with the Dissent. I couldn’t care less.”
Her scowl deepened. Gemma wanted to hate him, but she too had joined the Dissent after her life had been upended. She couldn’t blame him, especially since he was a child when they’d given him a home. She understood his loyalty.
Yet, if an organization was truly good, why would they need to resort to manipulating people to do their dirty work? Why would they make people disappear and collect armaments when a war with the Systems would only see Perileos suffer?
She had to find out what the Dissent was planning.
Colton rose to his feet. “All right, break time is over. Let’s go.”
Without an argument, Gemma obeyed and continued her march through the sweltering heat, her mind already counting down the hours until nightfall.
When Colton called it for the night, Gemma nearly collapsed in relief. Every muscle and bone in her body ached like she’d been the one to take the steep tumble through the floor of the cave, not Christian. Gemma yanked off her helmet and slumped to the ground, her back hunching over as fatigue claimed her. A little bit of light remained as Reva’s sun dipped behind the mountain peaks.
Colton handed her a packet of his pelleted food. “You need to eat.”
Instinctively, Gemma thought to refuse, but sharing a mealwouldbe the perfect time to attempt to con him into revealing details about the Dissent’s plan for Zion.
She took the food and ate the disgusting clumps in silence while Colton’s dark eyes scrutinized her movements.
“What?” she snapped.
Colton smirked. “Just trying to figure out how you fit into these plans in the first place. You’re not exactly...typical Dissent material.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He huffed. “Seriously, though. If you’d actually done your job”—Gemma’s eyes rolled—“what were you supposed to do then?”
Her palms began to sweat. If she spun this conversation to her advantage, she might learn something valuable. “I don’t know. Reymond saidsomeone would contact me.” A blatant lie, but Colton didn’t know that. At least, she didn’t think he did. “I assume you.”
“No, it definitely wouldn’t have been me. I was told not to care what happened to you after you passed your Trials.”
Ouch. Confirmation she was nothing more to Reymond than a worthless pawn.
“What were your instructions, then?”
Colton laughed. “Stars, that was the worst attempt at recon I’ve ever witnessed. I’m not telling you anything, Gemma.”
She ground her teeth, her cheeks flushing. Maybe shewasonly good enough to be a decoy. She obviously couldn’t do anything else.
