Some knew me personally. Some had merely seen me from afar.
But all were aware of my reputation.
A little twisted, a little dark.
It did the talking for me.
I’d never been a man of many words. Gedeon usually took care of such pesky matters. Or had used to. He could inspire non-believers, sow seeds of peace, or…turn you into a puddle with a one-word command.
“I can safely assume many of you have heard rumors about me.” Kali’s opening sentence cracked out in the chamber like a whip, and my core spasmed. She could kill with her mouth. “A woman from the city, someone Gedeon had snatched away, someone with no knowledge of your customs and ways, someonewho hadn’t been involved with the resistance brewing in Ilasall’s underbelly before.Notsomeone worth anything in your eyes. I can attest to that.”
She was not nothing. If anyone dared to lay such a claim, I was going to ensure they wouldn’t be able to finish it. The lack of a tongue would stop them.
As if sensing the storm bubbling up within me, Kali subtly shook her head without breaking her focus on the throng. “I’m no one. A stranger at best.”
She stepped in front of me, and I shifted to better cover her back. I doubted anyone would attempt anything, but Kali hadn’t been training since she was a child. Instincts didn’t bloom overnight. Senses, muscle memory, awareness, they took years to hone.
“So let me introduce myself. Like you, I grew up in the city’s schools. Like you, I lost friends along the way. Like you, I clawed my way to stand before you today, and my hands are far from clean. I’ve bled myself and others.”
A few mumbles interrupted her flow, and she bit out, “Don’t lie. If you’re looking at me today, then you’re not without guilt yourselves.”
Her chin rose, the line razor sharp, ready to slice the opposition into shreds. “Like you, I’ve made the wrong choices. Like you, I carry my past like a noose.” She paused. “But I don’t surrender to anything the city throws my way.” Her boot struck the table so hard the wood rattled. “I believe not in a person’s looks, not in some old faith, and not in the Head of Ilasall,” she sneered. “I believe in people—inyou. So I stand here today, asking you to believe in yourselves too.”
A hush ruled over the mass of renegades. The phantom reins Kali had buckled around everyone reached for me too, and I reveled in the power she held.
“How to call me holds no weight, because a name can also serve as a disguise in our treacherous world.” Her stance widened, and if I wasn’t hovering at her back, I likely would’ve become a witness to her cruel smile—a sign of the intensity crackling around her. “The first and the last thing you need to know about me is that I don’t give promises I have no intention of upholding. I may joke, I may tease, but Ichoosenot to speak false words. Because I did it once, a long time ago, and I’d rather be flayed alive than repeat anything resembling it. I expect the same from you.”
Not a rustle of clothing disturbed her speech—the story of her life.
I’d heard it before, but it shaved me, peel by peel, just the same.
“As Zola has shared, we’ve been amassing our forces, intensifying our training regimes, involving Damia’s and Conall’s compounds in our plans, so at least a part of us survives in case of failure—becauseit isa possibility—and coming up with scenarios that could curdle the stomachs of the strongest.” Kali stomped onto the makeshift stage. “So tell me the truth, and tell me it now—are you ready to die?”
Half-smothered gasps and shocked outcries accompanied the multitude of raised or furrowed eyebrows, and a chuckle rumbled in my chest. Talking, preparing for war was one thing.
Taking part in it?
Nothing your expectations could prepare you for.
“You think we’re going to lose?” A shout arose from the back of the crowd, the question leaking indignation.
“Yes and no,” I responded before a commotion had a chance to break out.
The murmurs gradually died down as I moved to Kali’s right side, drumming on the sheath strapped to my bicep and drawing everyone’s attention to my favorite knife.
Their audible gulps permeated the atmosphere once again. Most here had heard a few stories of what my blade was capable of.
Or rather, what its wielder enjoyed doing with it.
“Part of uswillfall,” I explained, my tone not allowing objections. Something I’d picked up from Gedeon. “It’s a certainty.”
“But we’re not fighting for us,” a barely-out-of-his-teenage-years boy finished my thought. “We’re fighting for ourfuture, aren’t we?” Standing in the front row, he looked around, scrutinizing those closest to him. “It may or may not include us. We’re just the means to reach our goal.” He tousled the black curls hugging his shoulders, and his green wristband glimmered.
So he was one of the few our people had managed to lure to our cause soon after his Matching, and reverse the damage the schools had done on him.
Finished with his one last scan of the underground expanse, the boy focused back on me and Kali. “That’s what you’re asking of us, aren’t you? Are we willing to risk everything in hopes of gainingeverything?”
“Not just hopes,” I told him and everyone else. “We’re past them. It’s down to survival now. Ilasall won’t idle anymore. They’ve upped their security again, stole the people we’d freed from their clutches, and a few months ago, assassinated Damia’s daughter. Before that? Me, her”—I motioned to Kali beside me—“and Gedeon. Now he’s rotting in Ilasall’s prison, if they haven’t killed him yet,” I rushed out, refusing to consider the statement had the potential to be false. “So either we fight for the future, or we will be slowly wiped out, one by one. And then? Then even your hopes won’t see the light of day.”
