by Bec McMaster
When Lily woke, it was the first time Eden let herself cry.
She spent the next week buried in the quarantine tents, or helping to vaccinate the long line of people from outside of Absolution. They lost most of the first round of victims, including Ian, who was simply too weak to recover, and Eden cried as they buried him, before she dried her eyes and got back to work.
She barely had time to eat, and sleep was snatched when she hit the end of her endurance. She didn't dream of Johnny—she was simply too exhausted—but he filled every waking moment of her days.
They wouldn't kill him. They used wargs as soldiers in the Confederacy.
Broke them to their will.
The thought made the knot twist even tighter within her, but she couldn't think of that. Johnny would survive, no matter what they did to him. He was strong, and he knew she'd come back for him.
She'd promised.
All she had to do was get through this week, and figure out how to break one warg out of a highly secured military facility in the middle of a walled city-state full of people who were gunning for her head.
Piece of cake, right?
SAVING JOHNNY COLTON seemed an impossible task.
But Eden had dealt with impossible before, and as she'd learned in Cortez City, to get what you wanted, you had to work out what your opponent wanted too....
The problem was, she no longer had just one opponent. And this time she was working alone.
Step one had been secured, thanks to Mayhew. She’d given him the letter she’d prepared for General Bligh, and he’d promised to get it to the general. A day ago, the radio room in Absolution had called her aside; General Bligh had received her terms and was interested in discussing the matter.
Miles Wentworth had been arrested, and his case was due to be processed in Cortez City in a month’s time. Eden had agreed to be a witness, and Bligh was going to send a helicopter for her. Mayhew had dug up some damning evidence—somehow it was released to the general public—and the general had been smoothing affairs over by shipping out large quantities of the vaccine to the settlements.
She had time to breathe, and now it was time to turn all of her attention on rescuing Johnny.
She just needed to wrangle a herd of ornery cattle into line. Easier said than done, but she'd run through all possible scenarios in her mind, and prepared her retaliating arguments.
The council waited as Eden strode through the doors to the meeting room in Absolution; Meredith Hammerstein arguing with Ben Whitshaw at one end of the table; Maggie Carpenter nursing a mug of tea at the other end and staring at nothing with bleary eyes; Bart Carpenter, Maggie's greedy brother; Alan Cummings, rifling through documents as if he'd never seen the terms listed in them before; and Susan Hawker, who was probably going to be her staunchest opponent here.
Susan straightened with a scowl. "You're late."
Eden didn't take her seat. Instead she rested her hands over the back of the vacant chair left for her. "Sorry. Didn't realize you had anything better to do. I was too busy saving lives."
Maggie wrapped her hand around a mug of steaming chamomile tea and slid it toward Eden. "And we appreciate it. We all know we owe you the lives of nearly everyone in this town," she said, with a pointed look around the table. "Have you had any sleep?"
Sleep. God. Eden's eyes felt grainy enough she suspected half the Wastelands were embedded beneath her lids. "I'll sleep when this is all over. Have you had a chance to look at my proposal?"
Alan looked up from the page scrawled in Eden's neat handwriting. "These terms are nearly half what they were before."
"You're right." Eden feigned shock. "And I was lucky to get that out of General Bligh. It seems the Confederacy is done playing your games. You were going to grant them the Copperplate mining rights a month ago if they agreed to all your terms. They accepted. And then you got greedy and added gold to the list, and Miles Wentworth clearly decided killing off the locals would be a more profitable exercise. Considering I helped foil that plan and am now trying to salvage the deal for the sake of Absolution, I think you can grant me a little bit of leeway."
"What's this?" Bart demanded, stabbing his finger at what Eden knew would be item five.
"It's an additional term," she said, her voice settling into a steely resolve. "And it is not negotiable."
The Confederacy didn’t count wargs as people. She needed leverage if she was going to get him out.
"You're basing this entire agreement around the life of one warg?" he protested.
The slimy little bastard was probably thinking of the money that had slipped through his fingers. He was the one who'd talked the majority of the council—bar Eden and Maggie—into adding gold to the original terms.
"Yes." She stared him down. "I am. If Bligh doesn't agree to this one term of mine, then it's off the table."
It wasn't Bligh she was trying to bluff. She would never deny her people the chance at medication and food they desperately needed, but the council didn't need to know that.
Because she didn't have any other options of saving the man she loved.
She'd seen where Johnny was no doubt being held. Sneaking into a Confederacy-controlled city was one thing. Managing to break into the military camp, find the one warg she wanted to rescue, and escape? Impossible.
She'd spent all week putting her people first—saving their lives. It had broken her heart to do so, but every time she thought of Johnny, she remembered his last words to her. Whatever it takes. If it had been her own life on the line, a choice between him and her, then she wouldn't have suffered a moment of doubt. But there'd been too many innocents to consider. The Confederacy wouldn't kill him. They'd try to use him. It was standard operating procedure for them, and she had to believe he was still alive.
Eden wasn't a warrior like her friend Riley. She couldn't take up a gun and shoot her way through to the man she loved. All she had was diplomacy, a deal the Confederacy might accept, and a will of pure steel.
And if Susan, Bart, or Alan thought they could sway the rest of the council against her, then she was here to prove them wrong.
"You don't have the authority to decide that," Bart exploded.
"Eden," Alan's tone sounded a little more conciliatory, "I understand your circumstances, but wargs are wargs. Thou shalt not suffer a warg to live." He glanced toward Susan. "That's the rule we've always lived by, to keep our people safe. It's a horrible rule, but we have to protect—"
"It's the way we lived in the past." Thank you, Alan. She didn't bother to roll her eyes at him and point out that of all people in this room, she knew the most about wargs. But please, do explain just how dangerous they are... and use small words so my poor female brain can understand.
Alienating him would not help her cause. Putting up with his bullshit might. But there were limits to how long she could let him prattle on.
"What the six of you don't know," Eden said, sucking in a slow breath, "is that there are options now for those afflicted with the warg nanotech. We can't cure it, but—"
"Thought you said there were limited amulets," Alan protested.
"There are. I'm not talking about the amulets. I'm talking about wargs learning how to control the beast within without one. I'm talking about how the Confederacy uses wargs as foot soldiers, and trains them to leash their inner wolf." Not that the council needed to know about the shock collars and "breaking" sessions. That wasn't a solution either. "Johnny Colton knows more about wargs than anyone else I've ever met—including Adam. He doesn't need to wear an amulet. I've never seen him turn. Not once. I've never seen him come close to it. And he offered to teach CJ how to control himself. Imagine what it would be like to live in a world where being clawed up by a warg was no longer a death sentence—or worse?"
Susan's lips thinned. She'd personally put her husband in the ground six months before Adam's status as a warg came out, and in her grief she'd been angry enough at Adam's deception that she'd voted to cast him out of Abs
olution.
Eden had never held that against her. Every Wastelander grew up knowing you had to put a bullet in your loved ones if they were scratched or bitten by a warg. It was considered a mercy. But Adam's revelation about the amulet that kept him human had shattered the other woman. In Susan's place, she might have been bitter too.
But she'd never have retaliated the way Susan had.
"Maybe it's too late for those we've lost," Eden said softly to her. "But what if we could save those who'll face such a future dilemma? There aren't enough amulets. Nobody knows how to create them." Though Johnny had hinted the amulets themselves might not be responsible for halting the warg, merely a placebo effect. "Our children. Our brothers and sisters. Our husbands and wives. If you help me get Johnny back, there might be a way to save future generations."
Susan stared at her fiercely, her lower lip trembling with suppressed emotion. Eden didn't know whether it was a good or bad sign.
"Why don't we stop wasting everyone's time?" Bart broke in. "Wargs are the least of our concerns. We can deal with them the same way we always have. Clearly your emotions are engaged, but this has to be a business deal, Eden. And what you've put on the table for us is a shit deal. We're giving up a damned mine for this."
Greedy fucker. "It's goddamned better than nothing, and it's not like we have the resources to mine it."
Alan shoved the documents away from him. "I'm with Bart. If this general is open to negotiations, then we have another shot. We can get more."
"You want us to give up the rights to Copperplate for a weaker deal, Eden," Ben said softly. "I'm sorry. But I cannot vote for this."
"My vote's with you, Eden," Maggie growled. "As you say, it's not like anyone else has managed to bring the Confederacy back to the table. We know what happened last time we got greedy."
Meredith looked like she'd bitten into a rotten apple. "I need time to consider our options. Sorry, Eden. I'm not for or against. I'd like to take a week or so to assess."
Johnny might not have that time.
She looked sharply toward Susan, her heart sinking in her chest. Please. Please.
Susan stared down at the table, drumming her fingers slowly.
"Fine," Eden said, locking down all of the emotions that afflicted her. She'd been prepared for this. Eden drew the chain over her head—the one that marked her as a councilor. "Then I resign."
"What?" Meredith blurted.
The chain clanked as it hit the table. Ben—who'd been leaning back in his chair—straightened abruptly. A gasp came from Maggie.
Bart, however, looked rapturous. They'd always butted heads. "You've done a lot for the council," he said sanctimoniously—the prick. "Unfortunately, we will have to accept your resignation and take over the—"
"I also intend to leave Absolution," Eden said, cutting through his monologue. "You are welcome to attempt to contact General Bligh, if you can work out how to reach him. You might have to remind him who you are, and you'll also be competing against an offer from Haven, which I’m helming."
Six voices cut over the top of each other, echoing off the walls.
"You can't leave!" This from Maggie, who looked stricken. "Your place is here."
"What offer?" Bart.
"Haven?"
"Who's going to run the medical team?"
"No. We need you. The medical team needs you."
"Eden, please reconsider...."
"How do we contact Bligh?" Bart again.
Eden held up a hand, letting their voices wash over her, until they fell into silence. "I am done dealing with this council." A little bit of heat suffused her voice. "My brother built this town. Adam forged Absolution out of nothing, and gave a home and a place of safety to every person I see sitting around this table." She glared at Ben. "He took a bullet for you." Another glance speared Meredith. "He rescued your son when reivers took Milton prisoner. And three years ago, when you discovered what he'd been hiding, you cast him out, despite the fact he'd spent years holding the warg within him at bay." Her throat felt dry as she locked eyes with every councilor in the room. "It was Adam's choice to walk away and I knew if I fought you on it, it would be one vote to six in favor of banishment. He was gone before I woke up, and even though it gutted me, I felt I had a duty to stay and continue training up my medical team, as there was no one else to step into my role.
"I have never asked you for anything. Except this." The muscle in her jaw ticked. "Johnny Colton is the one item I've added to the list. One life. The life of the man I love, a man who sacrificed himself so you could have the cure that saved the lives of every damned person in this town. Some of you might not even be here if it wasn't for him." Angry tears dampened her eyes. "Once upon a time, this town believed in looking after its own. We opened our gates to those who needed it. We gave our food to strangers and watched each other's backs. I don't know where we lost our way. Maybe it was Adam's secret coming out, I don't know. But warg or not, Johnny doesn't deserve to be repaid for his sacrifice with contempt. He doesn't deserve to rot in a Confederacy prison while we go about our lives without a care in the world. So if you want to deny the deal I've discussed with Bligh—medicine for Absolution, resources to teach our healers more about medicine, food supplies, gasoline—just because you're greedy and Johnny's a goddamned warg? Then go ahead. But I won't be here to listen to your shit."
Eden took a steadying breath. "The settlement of Haven owns access to the escarpment mines to the north. They're a little further out of the way, but there's copper there too. And they're willing to ask for less. You want to know why you're getting half the original deal? Because Haven's in on it too. I think that's fair. They took in those who couldn't find a place here, and they've accepted others who don't belong anywhere else. They need food and medicine just as much as we do. I could negotiate a deal for both Haven and Absolution. But that choice is up to you. And my price is not negotiable. If you won't help me rescue the man I love, then screw all of you. I will save him myself, and you will get nothing."
Someone cleared their throat behind her.
Eden turned, half-blinded by rage. How much did she have to give these people? The fucking blood from her veins?
There was a large shadow in the doorway.
A tall man, wearing a black ten gallon hat.
Her heart took a sudden mad leap in her chest as she straightened away from the table. "Adam?"
Luc Wade came into the light, hands in his pockets. Eden's hopes fell. For a second she'd thought it was her brother. The one person she could trust—the one person who took all her troubles away and promised to deal with them. Luc ignored the rest of them, simply gave her a crooked smile as if he knew exactly what was going through her mind. "Sounds like Absolution's loss is Haven's gain. Want some help packing your bags?"
The rest of the council gaped at him as if he were a ghost sprung to life. Wargs weren't welcome in Absolution, and the last time Luc had been here, he'd caused an epic shit-ton of trouble.
She'd never understood what Riley saw in him before—until she fell in love with Johnny. Luc might have been one part villain, one part ruthless mischief-maker, but he adored his wife and he was a damned good father.
And he'd clearly heard enough to play along with her proposal.
"I would love a hand," she said.
She made it two steps toward him before chairs scraped across the floors behind her.
"Wait!" Susan called.
And relief flooded through her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE DOOR GAVE an electric buzz behind him.
Johnny lifted his head, tension dripping down his spine. He pushed away from the barred windows he'd been staring through, his fingers aching as blood rushed back into starved digits. He'd lost track of time, staring at the thin sliver of blue sky he could barely see, his thoughts drifting to better times....
Of lying on a pile of furs with Eden's panting body beneath him.
Of watching relief cross her face
when they finally received the cases full of hydrogel that would save her people.
Of watching a smile creep shyly across her mouth when she finally warmed up to him.
And finally, that one last time, when he'd told her he loved her as Lincoln and Arik hauled her away from him.
The trick of dissociating from his current surroundings had saved his sanity in the past. He'd needed it to survive the past couple of weeks. But now he needed to be in the moment.
A handful of guards came through the door, splaying out before him with baton-like stunners in their hands. They all wore flak vests and riot masks, with plastic shields guarding their faces. Four of them. As if he couldn't put them all down if he wanted to.
"Hands behind your head, L-234."
L-234. He bore the fucking barcode on his wrist, and that was all they'd called him in the interim. Johnny Colton had ceased to exist the second they brought their electric-stunners down on him in that hallway three weeks ago.
Reluctantly, he lifted his hands and clasped the back of his shaved head. One of the guards moved closer, lowering his stunner as he approached with the warg-proof cuffs they used with a heavy hand. Another guard lifted his gun and pointed it directly at Johnny. Clearly they hadn't appreciated what had happened three days ago, when his temper finally snapped.
Likewise.
His ribs had finally stopped aching. Wargs healed fast, but the enforcers treated them like animals. Any assault on their guards earned a heavy-handed retaliation, and they hadn't stopped kicking him until he lost consciousness. They didn't speak to him unless it involved ordering him around. They'd stripped his name from him, started trying to break him to their will.
It was nowhere near as bad as what Cane had done to him, but fear curdled his gut whenever he found himself alone.
Because he'd broken once. He'd bent, and he knew it.
And maybe they couldn't get to him, but maybe... maybe they could.
I would rather die than become someone's pawn again.
"Hands behind your back, L-234."
