It is easy to bend the truth when youarethe truth.
The bloody history of these sculptures stretches particularly long across the thoroughfare tonight. Even without the surge of Talin’s emotions, I would have known about today’s attempt on the Premier’s life. People flooded major intersections in the city. Jeran and I had been forced to lie low, hiding in alleys as extra troops flooded the streets to clear out the people. Even as a young soldier doing simple assignments throughout the city, I’d never seen unrest as sharp as that.
From where we hide, I can see the broken limbs. When Talin and I agreed to meet here, we had no idea the city would be thrown into this kind of chaos. A pang of worry pierces through me as I wonder if she can still show up.
I’ve almost given up on her appearing when I sense her coming down the thoroughfare. Her heartbeat pulsing through our bond strengthens, a gradual, familiar pattern that conjures in my mind the image of Talin’s figure.
Jeran is the first to signal. From his post high up on the sculpture, I see his silhouette ripple—almost invisible—within the ribs’ shadows. He straightens from his crouch and looks down at me, then lifts two fingers east.
I turn and see her coming.
Talin has always been graceful, in the deadly way that all Strikers I’ve known are, but now her movements have an eerie, superhuman quality to them. Her walk is just a little too fast to seem natural, and her gait is a little too smooth to match it. The way she watches the world around her is a little too keen. I stare at her as she cuts her way through the shadows darkening the thoroughfare, inconspicuous to anyone except those who know she’s coming.
The unsettling way she moves is like staring back at yourself. You’re the same kind of monster now.
Through our bond, the faint trickle of her emotions is tense, held so tightly around her that I can barely tell what they are.
It suddenly occurs to me that this must be how she’s been for the past six months—holding her emotions close in an attempt to keep Constantine from sensing them, hiding her feelings so that the Federation can’t use them against her, hiding herself from me in an attempt to protect us.
A tide of yearning fills me—the ache of missing her, the agony of watching her go through the same torment that I did, the pain of facing off against her as enemies. I let my heart fill my mind.
Let her know that there’s someone here who loves her fiercely.
Let her remember that she’s not alone.
Talin pauses for the briefest moment and turns her head to where I’m crouched in the shadows of the sculpture. The tight hold she has over her feelings wavers slightly, but she immediately clutches it close again. Then she picks up her pace and draws near to us.
Jeran jumps down from his vantage point as Talin steps into the wide shadow under the sculpture. We stare at her as she stands mere feet from us. Her body is slender but strong, fortified with steel, the image of a killer. There is a threat in the way she stands, as if she is ready to lunge.
And for a second, I’m afraid she might attack us right here.
Then her eyes widen in the dark, and as they meet mine, they well with tears.
You’re a traitor and a fool. Of course she saw the fear in your eyes. You can see the hurt of it reflected on her face.
Everything in me wants to pull her close. Still, I can sense her hesitation. It makes me hold back too. She looks like she’s caught in a web, too terrified to touch me in case her emotions come loose.
But Jeran doesn’t wait. He sees her expression and steps forward as if driven by some desperation in him. In an instant, Jeran wraps an arm around Talin’s neck and hugs her to him. In the quiet night, I hear the faintest whisper of a sob escape his lips.
At Jeran’s embrace, something inside Talin seems to crumple. I feel her grip loosen on her emotions, and a spike of pain and joy rush through her. She hugs Jeran back and squeezes her eyes shut as if to hold back her tears. Her hands clutch his clothes tightly. Then her eyes open again, turned toward me. A small smile trembles on her lips.
Should’ve been you. You should’ve stepped up in Jeran’s place and comforted her. Instead you’re standing here, awkward as hell, caught between loving her and remembering the man watching from the other end of her mind.
Finally, I settle on a stiff nod at her before smiling back.
Talin finally pulls away and fixes a steady stare on us.The key to their holding room, she says through our bond. At the same time, she signs the words to Jeran so he can understand it.I have the code.
She reads the numbers to us slowly, several times, giving us both a moment to take them in. Jeran scratches them into a bit of cloth behind his sleeve.
You will have to move fast, she tells us.They change the lock to the doors every day.
“Will Constantine think you did it?” I whisper.
She shakes her head.Let me deal with him, she answers.He doesn’t know you’re in the city. I have my alibi, watching him in the room beside his chambers.
For a second, her shoulders loosen slightly, as if casting off a weight. There’s such deep sadness in her that all I want to do is leave with her—take off into the sky together, this world be damned.
The other voice begins to sound skeptical in my head.
