I flicked a crust of blood off my sleeve. But it didn’t really help. The material was saturated beyond laundry. “You tried to kill us at the Spire. You arranged the explosion with Ezra,” I listed, my tone the epitome of collectedness, my exterior hiding the havoc my emotions were wreaking inside me.
Ardaton’s ruler shrugged, as nonchalant as a person could be. “It was part of my deal with Ezra. An opportunity to take you three out in exchange for his support.” Leaning against the glass, the City Head blocked my visual of Kali. “But why do you think the Spire stood? Ichosehow powerful the explosives would be.” He looked me up and down. “I hoped you would survive.”
It didn’t take much to figure out the reasoning behind his hopes. “So I could work for you.”
His chin dipped. “Yes.”
“What’s in it for you?” I zeroed in on the minuscule Ardaton emblem embroidered in the collar of his button-up shirt. “Up until now, the cities had always supported each other.”
“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you,” Adder mused. From the brown shade of his skin, one could think we were more related than my actual father and me. “We have been failing to expand our population. Ardaton’s birth rates have been steadily declining for the last two decades. The Matching system isn’t producing the results we seek. Our doctors have confirmed our green-banded citizens are experiencing too many complications in their efforts to conceive and carry our pregnancies until a survivable-outside-the-womb state.”
When I didn’t provide a reaction, he continued. “We have asked,begged, Ilasall and Coriattus to help by sharing their supply of able-to-reproduce residents. Both cities refused. Every single year in my and my predecessor’s terms of service.”
So that was why Ardaton had been so quick to invade Ilasall. They had been waiting for an opening to sneak in and steal the city’s fertile folk.
“You want us to repeat what we have accomplished in Ilasall. To crush Coriattus,” I concluded.
The Head of Ardaton smiled. “See? We think alike.”
“I’m not going to agree to it, Adder.” This couldn’t possibly work out. He would simply use our people as his personal army, keeping his own citizens at the back lines, and after occupying Coriattus, find a loophole in our agreement and wipe us out or coerce us into serving his city.
He pulled out his tablet. “I thought you might say that.” Half a dozen swipes later, the doors to both Zion’s and Kali’s cells opened, a…doctor striding into each.
The two individuals were dressed in white pants and tunics, but the way they stopped at my partners’ sides screamed of wrongness.
And from how Kali curled her lip at the slender man looking down on her, whatever was about to go down was not going to be good.
“Pick one,” the City Head at my side said.
My frown deepened. “Pick what?”
“One,” Adder gestured to Kali, then to Zion, “or the other.” Returning the tablet to its place under his armpit, he explained, “I’m not above employing battle tactics. I know how to persuade. So pick one of your partners.”
A chuckle vibrated through me. I was not one to heed threats. “And if I do not?”
He shrugged. “Then both will be subjected to whatever I choose.”
My mouth dried out. Based on our short interaction, Adder seemed more than capable of playing my weak points.
Pressing a palm to the glass, I pushed past the rush in my ears. Seeing Kali gulp at the man standing near her, yet square her shoulders in a soundless protest, thickened my throat. She had endured so much in Ilasall; it would tear me apart to subject her to more.
But the sight of Zion passed out, slumped in his chair, bound, with his tattooed arm broken and the undamaged one marked with the burn scars I’d forced him to inflict on himself, drove a knife into my stomach.
Your death belongs to me and her, Zion, only me and her and no one else. Don’t you give up, I chanted in my mind.
Like Shadow, Zion had made his home in my chest. And all I could do was consider the possibility of adding more bones to my rib cage to lock him in, to shield him, keep him happy and protected, and never expose him to the cold—my constant companion for years. Kali had unlocked that part of me, and now it held seats for two. I wanted to strap Zion next to her and carry them with me down the roads our lives took us on.
So no, choosing one to sacrifice and saving another was not an acceptable option.
I loved them like the dawn loved the stars, both burning each other, not able to coexist for long, but when they did find their peace, forged a truce, it was as if time stood still.
I licked the dried blood off my lips. “Me.”
Adder tilted his head aside, the movement tugging on a short, jagged scar at the bottom of his neck. “Explain.”
Leader to leader, I laid out my pick. “I choose me. Torture me instead of them.”
His slow-to-spread grin sparkled in the bright lights. “Now, where would the fun be in that?”
