I already know better than to kill him. I know, even as spots crowd my vision, that Leon is gone, that killing his host body will only delay the inevitable. Somehow, I’m being punished, and I need to pay attention.
I don’t know how this is happening.
I don’t know why his eyes flash black instead of blue. I don’t know how Klaus has managed to override Leon’s mind; I didn’t know it was possible for Klaus to have this kind of control from a great distance. I only know that I’m losing oxygen, struggling to see straight. He pushes me into my room, slamming my back against the interior wall. My eyes flutter as the butterknife falls, with a dull thud, from my hand.
“Phase three is now complete,” he says.
He lets go of me without warning, and I collapse to the floor, slamming my head against the edge of the dresser, pain exploding behind my eyes. I look up, the room surging around me. I watch Leon close my door, turn on the lights, then flip the lock. I gasp for breath, massaging my throat.
“I wonder what time it is,” I rasp, repeating the words I was instructed to speak.
“Late,” he says, his voice low. “I heard you had questions, Rosabelle.”
I try to swallow. “What do I do with the vial?”
“You drink it,” he says.
“What will it do?”
Leon blinks, the inky film floating and retreating across his eyes. “Clear the way for the final three phases of the mission.”
This renders me still. Fear is now unfolding within me at a rate I can’t overcome.
“Look what they did to us,” Leon is saying, gesturing around the room. “Look at what they took from us. Look what they did when they were allowed to think for themselves. They, like you, think they can escape control. Leon, too, thought he could escape us. He was the first scientist to taste the earth—to experience the power of his own invention—but he decided, too late, that he didn’t like Klaus. He performed merciless experiments on himself, trying and failing to undo the gene edit. Don’t be like Leon,” he says. “Leon tried to fight the future, and look what happened. Nothing good can come of the masses ruling themselves. Only chaos. War.Anarchy.”
“So you’re testing this vial on me,” I whisper, “to see if you can control me better than you controlled Leon.”
“Control you?” Leon frowns, his muddied eyes affecting confusion. He bends down to my level, then taps my head like I’m a toy he’s turning off. “Have you not figured out yet why you’re here?”
I stare at him as he stands, my heart hammering against my ribs.
“Rosabelle Wolff, you’ve been sent here to die. Klaus looked into your mind and saw weakness unworthy of our greater mission. Your father was weak. Your mother was weak. Your sister was weak. You are a disgrace. You entertain near-traitorous thoughts about your nation, you resent the only man willing to marry you, and your everyday actions are motivated by the welfare of a diseased child whose existence only drains our resources. Your mind has been found wanting—and your life, as a result, is no longer worth sustaining. Your only benefit to us will be in your final sacrifice, should you choose to accept it.”
This revelation batters me in waves, shattering the planes of my body like sheets of glass, leaving me in ribbons.
“You said— You promised me that if I completed my mission you would set me and my sister free—”
“Death is freedom. Should you choose to accept your final sacrifice, we will reward you by killing Clara swiftly. If you reject the final sacrifice, we will keep her alive for ten years, each day enduring greater tortures than the day before.”
The room is spinning around me. Suddenly I can’t breathe, can’t see straight—
“You will dig your own grave, Rosabelle. You will drink the vial and bury yourself alive. Your body will decompose within twenty-four hours, the results of which will ignite an undetectable explosion that will radiate the land at unprecedented levels,effectively cauterizing all within a hundred-mile radius. The rebels’ preternatural powers will disappear. Within six months, their bodies will succumb to the gene edit, allowing us control over them without further bloodshed or strife. This is the magnitude of our mercy.”
“Why do I need to bury myself alive?”
“Your decomposing body will require fusion with a classical element; of the four, earth with earth is the most powerful.”
I’m out of my mind, a collapsed star, a black hole, then nothing, nothing—
You’re not the only one, Leon had said to me.You’re not the only one here.
“You’re doing this everywhere, aren’t you?” I gasp. “All over The New Republic. I’m not the only one—”
“You have eight weeks to accomplish this task. Should you choose to reject this mission, you will be replaced, promptly assassinated, and your sister will suffer the consequences.”
“What are the last three phases of the mission?” I manage to ask.
“Death, destruction, and rebirth.”
