Her eyes widened. Had Zayne known? Kira reached a hand out to steady herself, but her knees went weak, and she dropped to the ground. How many people's lives had she stolen? Her peaceful revolution had never been peaceful, not on the day Zayne strangled a soldier on the roof, and not when her drones wrote in the skies all over Ciondo.
Major Tyndale rushed to her side. “Are you okay?”
“I'm just…” Kira almost threw up again. What had she done? “Exhausted.”
“We'll continue working on plans. You need to lie down.” He helped her stand and led her from the room, whispering to her. “I'm the one Zayne came to and made a deal with. He's my asset. They may outrank me, but I hold sway.”
If Zayne trusted him, then she did too. “I'm the one who painted the Phaedra's sky with Pixi Dust. And I'll use it however I can to help.”
Major Tyndale stopped walking, staring in shock. “You… Okay. Okay, that gives me something to think about.”
Kira too. But he was right. She needed rest to continue fighting this battle for Zayne's escape. The Phaedra had him right now, and Kira couldn't imagine what he'd do. If she tried to, she'd lose her tenuous hold on her panic.
She heard Zayne speaking again when she asked him what the Phaedra would do to him if he ever caught him.
“Anything he wants for as long as he wants.”
Kira shouldn't have left him there. Luke was right that he'd rather die than be trapped with the Phaedra. Killing him wasn't the answer, but how could abandoning him be either?
Her eyes snapped shut for several seconds. She came back to get help, and falling apart didn't accomplish that. There was nothing for her to offer him in the woods while he was dying. Here, she could leverage the intel to coerce the rebel army to save him.
It was time for Kira to learn how to close herself off to her feelings like Zayne did, not to live like that permanently, but to survive in the middle of a battle.
While they walked, Kira glimpsed the light from a window and gazed out, hoping Zayne had light too. Hoping he was even alive.
She whispered to herself, not caring who heard.
“I'm coming for you. I promise.”
CHAPTER 71
Zayne
The Before-Times
3 Years Ago
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
830 P.C. [Post-Collapse]
PXI dust burned in the sky, and no one could stop it.
All the people on the streets of Kallum stared at Kira's words on their way to work and school, captivated by the sight. A forbidden thrill of excitement swept through the other emotions tangling their faces. Military vehicles patrolled the streets, with orders booming from the loudspeakers.
“Do not stop. Report to your designated location or return to your homes. Do not linger.”
A block ahead of him, Zayne kept line of sight on Kira while she traveled to the market. She blended in well, looking like the rest of the civilians, rather than the mastermind of this city-wide panic.
The rush of her kiss still flooded him. If not for Zayne's father bombing his phone with messages, vibrating incessantly against his wrist, he might not have left her.
He didn't know what came over him. Maybe when he lost Nadia, he lost his mind too, but one breath of Kira, and he couldn't stop himself. He burned with the need to catch up to her and finish what they started.
But the emergency meeting with his father and the Phaedra was only twenty minutes away. And he had to sit in the same room as his brother for the first time since finding him with Nadia three months ago. Ordinarily, the thought shot Zayne into a rage, but today it only raised his heart rate because he was too focused on every vehicle that passed Kira.
If anyone came for her, he wouldn't have long to make a move.
