Her groan stretched my cheeks impossibly wide. It also inspired me to keep her upside down while Zola droned on and on and on about preparing for the battle to come, counteractingIlasall’s propaganda to start a civil war, and how we had to time our attack on Ilasall just right.
If Ilasall caught a whiff of our plans, it would affect Conall’s and Damia’s compounds too. Coriattus’s and Ardaton’s military would raze them to the ground while we ravaged Ilasall.
Basically, she gave a repeat of everything we’d been aligning for the last twelve weeks.
Boring.
Because when you had a squirming bird in your grasp, the choice of who to focus on was clear as day: your catch. So I spent my time toying with the backs of Kali’s thighs to distract her while we awaited our turn to speak.
Most people had an innate ability to detect rehearsed words and a tendency not to heed them. Spontaneity and a natural flow, raw emotion, these were the spears that could penetrate the most heavily guarded minds, bend them to your will and convince their owners’ feet to meander the path you wanted them to go on.
“…our leaders have ventured out here to meet us, at the risk of their lives.” Zola scanned the herd of the rebels filling the cavern to the brim. “Though Gedeon couldn’t”—she inhaled sharply, the sound of it reverberating off the domed ceiling—“join us today, our unity hasn’t been breached. The opposite—it’s been fortified. His partners have stepped up to continue his work,ourwork, so we can stand together, fight as one, and earn our long overdue peace.”
Nails clawing my back suddenly dropped limp. Kali’s leg muscles relaxed?—
She was losing consciousness.
And I couldn’t have my sweet meal passing out on me.
Carefully, I lowered her until her boots grazed the limestone and she found purchase on the ground. She teetered, flushed and unseeing, and I pressed her close to me.
But as seconds ticked by, the pounding in her head ebbed away. Observing the throng studying us, she swallowed. “They won’t respect me now.”
“Oh, they will,” I reassured her. Opposing her was not an option they could so much as consider. Not on my watch. “I’ve never shown a sliver of affection to someone publicly before. You’re the first.”
Okay, that might have been a small lie. A minuscule one. I’d savored Gedeon jumping me at Vice that night. But it’d been different. This was deliberate, while that evening had been an…unexpected explosion.
I tucked a silky strand behind her ear. “You keep me sane. They see it. And that, the effect you have on me, is what will make them bow.” I’d slit their hamstrings if they didn’t. “Not once have I stood here so calmly before. They usually give me a wide berth, but today,” spinning her around, I splayed my hands on her belly, “their eyes are fixed on us. Onyou.”
I nuzzled the artery pulsing in the column of her neck, the beat steady and strong, and smiled at her squaring her shoulders. Kali…
She bowed to no one.
Nearing the end of her speech, Zola looked over at us. Her silver braid slid over her black jumpsuit, the immaculate fabric and its straight edges creating an aura of competence and a keen mind—a highly valuable skill to possess in your arsenal.
But despite our countless propositions to smuggle her out and bring her to live in one of our compounds, she’d repeatedly refused. Claimed her place was among her kind—the unlucky souls born in this cursed city. Raised by their schools, but too independent to submit to Ilasall’s doctrine.
“Zion,” she announced so solemnly my spine straightened. I pulled the leather jacket off Kali’s shoulders right as Zola finished, “and Kali.”
The same short man with bulging muscles—meh, too much for my taste; nothing compared to the sculpted planes of Gedeon’s back—helped Zola get off the table.
“May I?” Zola extended a palm to Kali.
Such a simple gesture, but godsdamnit, Zola could put anyone at ease. Even me. She had a way with words, not a hint of deceit in them.
Perhaps that was what compelled Kali to agree, and Zola took her hand between hers. “Don’t fear the stage. Speak from your heart, and they will believe you.”
“It’s not their attention I’m wary of.” Kali’s fist clenched at her side. Half-moon indentations would mark her palm if I uncurled it. “It’s bearing the responsibility of their deaths.”
“The load isn’t light. I know it. I’ve witnessed many of us leave this world over the years.” Zola patted Kali’s hand. “But it’s not about the loss. It’s whether the benefits outweigh the risks. And freedom to live out your days as you wish—it’s worth everything. It’s why we are here, and why they’ll listen to you. Or, as Gedeon once told me, ‘they say hope is the last thing to die in a person, but hatred burns even brighter.’” She stepped aside, motioning to the temporary stage. “Go kindle it.”
10
ZION
As we ascended onto the wobbly table, my hackles rose, and I angled myself to half-cover Kali. We were easy targets.
The crowd’s buzzing ebbed away, and a myriad of gazes locked onto us. Pairs of eyes, of hunters and prey, of ordinary city dwellers and occasional guards we’d swayed to our side, of office workers and medical personnel serving in Ilasall’s hospitals, gleamed in the candlelight dancing in the cavern.
