Adder hummed. “Correct.” Unhooking his shining cufflinks shaped like raindrops, he noted, “So your brothercanfollow orders. Good to know.”
“He’s not my brother,” I sneered as I rubbed my right wrist. Ezra had secured the restraints purposefully too tight. “Our…relation aside, I wouldn’t mind knowing why I’m standing here instead of being used as fertilizer for your soil.”
Adder rolled up the sleeves of his white button-up shirt, the garment a copy of what he had donned in the broadcast. “I don’t kill those who are useful to me.”
My eyebrows rose of their own accord. “And I am?”
“I don’t speak empty words, Gedeon.” The Head of Ardaton pulled up some program on his tablet, and as the screen flashed, the room-length mirror became matte. “First, take a look.”
Gradually, the glass grew transparent, and?—
My knees wobbled. I had to clutch the clear surface to keep myself upright. Cold tickled my palm as I stared at two identical rooms divided by a thin barrier made out of the same material as the screen I was pressed against.
Dread seized control of my limbs, and I ceased blinking. Because in the room to my right, Zion was secured to a chair in the center of the space, his head hanging forward, his golden-brown strands too short to conceal the numbers written on his nape. Strings of chains clung to his ankles, wrists, elbows, and torso like vines set on suffocating him.
If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, you would think he was?—
No. Hewasbreathing.
His chest was expanding in shallow bursts. Thoughhowwas the question, as his right arm, from hand to shoulder, looked far from right. The binds didn’t lay properly against his flesh—the swelling made them dig into his muscles, framing the bits of ivory protruding from a dozen gashes.
His limb had been shattered.
“Please.” Kali’s plea trickled through the speakers. “Let him go,” she croaked out, secured to a chair like Zion, but in a separate room.
Only, while he had been stripped to his pants, she was fully naked.
“Don’t worry.” Adder’s assurance kindled the rage balling my fists. “They can’t hear us.”
My pulse ebbed and flowed, roared and whispered, its pace as erratic as a winter storm. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Kali straining to watch the door in her cell.
Gauze wrapped around her hand lured cold sweat to soak my soldier’s shirt. The drenched-in-blood medical fabric couldn’t conceal the lack of two fingers. Or distract me from noticing the uneven contours of her body. Localized swelling told me she had been hit, and repeatedly. The blows had been carefully doled out, but the bruises would appear in a day or two.
And the cities circulated rumors we were the savages. Their own cruelty had reached levels so high, they caused my fists to clench so hard they creaked.
“I’ll stay here.” Kali faced the barrier separating her and Zion, a few strands glued to her glistening cheeks. “Just please…” Sniffling, she cleared her throat. “I will comply with whatever you ask of me if you let Zion walk out of here.”
My intact ribs crumbled at her request. She was ready to give herself up for him.
But I couldn’t lose either of them.
“Can they see each other?” My inquiry came out hoarse, more of a rumble than a sentence.
I knew better than to ask Adder to free them.
“If we allow it.” Adder tapped the glass. “This wall, like the one separating them, is made of special glass. We can make it opaque, one-directional, or adjust it to be fully transparent.”
So the answer was no.
Though I didn’t doubt they were goading Kali by having shown her a glimpse of Zion sometime before my arrival. And then had turned the glass back into a mirror, using the device as a torture method.
Schooling myself, I shoved the need to break things deep inside me. I couldn’t let instincts rule over logic. Not when Adder had yet to state what he wanted.
I couldn’t lose my only bargaining chip—myself—before I had a chance to use it.
Loosening my fists, I demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”
Adder stuffed the tablet under his armpit. “I want you to join my forces and assist me in taking over Coriattus.” His hands slipped into the pockets of his black slacks. “If you help me, I will allow you and your people to either join Ardaton afterward orlive in the ruins of the other two cities,” he said, and then added, “Free and unbothered.”
