white dawn (Black Tiger Series Book 3)

by Sara Baysinger

  “Good to see you again, brother,” I lie.

  Brendan stares at me, then smiles. “We’re here to free you, Rain. Where’s that wench who dragged you on this ridiculous road trip?”

  I nod in greeting at the other two boys behind Brendan.

  “She went down that way, as I’m sure you already saw.” I point down the vineyard and they begin heading that way, guns in hand. “But I don’t think she’s the one you want.”

  Brendan stops. “Are you out of your shoddy mind, Rain? Of course we want her. She’s the one who put us in this shoddy mess! She locked Chief Titus up somewhere and is now recruiting the country to take down Frankfort! How have you not killed her yourself yet?”

  “Trust me,” I say. “I almost left her for dead in the explosion.” I glance down the row, relieved to find Aurora and Chale disappear into the next field. I grin at Brendan. “She’s useless, trust me. But you don’t want to kill her. She is Titus's sister, after all, and he will be absolutely pissed to say the least.”

  “But, we should at least chain her up, yes?” Another younger boy, whom I don’t recognize, asks. “I mean, she’s getting away.

  I cross my arms and smirk. “Remember, boys, she’s been locked up in a room all her life and isn’t all there.” I tap my head with that last word. “Let her play her little game. I’ll stay with her to keep an eye on things. You head back to Frankfort and wait for us.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” the third boy says. “Your own father sent us out to get her.”

  I roll my eyes. “As you well know, my father isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But how much happier will he and the other politicians be if you returned with, not only Aurora, but all her secrets?”

  The greediness in their eyes becomes more apparent.

  “Aurora has been trained to keep silent,” I say. “No one’s gonna be able to torture anything out of her. But guess who’s got the trust of the she-chief?” I grin and pump my chest. “Me. She trusts me now. So I can drag whatever secrets she might be holding about the Resurgence out of her, and we can squash those Neanderthals once and for all.”

  Thank God they haven’t heard of my association with the Resurgence yet. Only Titus and Forest knew, and then Congress, but they kept that info undercover to keep the Turner name clean. All the citizens of Ky know is that the Resurgence fled across the river and Aurora locked me up because she didn’t trust me.

  “So?” I ask. “You gonna let me try to get this info from her, or are you going to waste a perfect opportunity to spy and get valuable information out of her—information that would make the council proud—and kill her now?”

  They look at each other, then form a circle and mutter amongst themselves. I roll my eyes and smother a yawn. I already know their answer. But let them pretend like they’re part of Congress, let them act important. When they finally stop chatting, Brendan approaches me. “Very well.”

  So, so easy.

  “You keep an eye out,” Brendan says. “Take notes of every piece of info she drops, yes?”

  “Of course.”

  “Report back to me.”

  I smother a snort. Brendan commanding me to report back to him? His popularity has gone further into his head than I thought. “I’ll report every day,” I lie.

  “Okay. Great. The entire northern and western gates of the Garden are guarded. Those guarding them won’t be as agreeable as us. They won’t understand.”

  Ugh. Perfect.

  “But the southern gate is open,” Brendan continues.

  “We just took a half day to get here. And now you’re telling me I have to cross the twenty miles of the Community Garden to get to the only gate that’s not guarded?”

  Brendan shrugs. “Just letting you know, brother.”

  I grit my teeth. “Fine. Thank you.”

  “And, uh, which gate will you be coming through in Frankfort so we can get her when you come through?”

  I smile. “The main gate, obvs.”

  They nod.

  “Okay,” Brendan says. “We’ll meet you there. Just remember, Rain. If you don’t show up with her, we’ll report you to the authorities. Your father puts the law above his family and won’t fight for you if he knows you’re working for her.”

  He’s never fought for me.

  I lift my hand in mock salute, then head down the vineyard toward the fields where Aurora and Chale disappeared, and find them on the other side of the bean field. Aurora and Chale stop and turn to look at me. An odd squeeze makes my heart ache at the sight of Aurora. She looks too much like Ember, standing there, unassuming, the wind playing with her brown hair, her dark eyes filled with impossible secrets. Maybe it’s because she’s not caked in make-up and her hair isn’t styled that she looks more like Ember. Instead her brown hair is half-up, and without her make up masking her true features, she looks almost real. The bullet-proof vest and cargo pants don’t help. Those are too similar to the clothes Ember died in. Aurora watches me as I approach, not smiling, even though her eyes always appear to be smiling.

  “Everything okay?” she asks when I’m within hearing distance. Her eyes scan my body. “You didn’t get harmed, did you?”

  I drag my hand down the length of my face. Snap out of it, Rain.

  “Talked them right out of it,” I say. “Just like I said I would. But, we have to turn around. We have to head back to the southern gate of the Garden, because the Patricians who blew up our crew apparently saw us heading in this direction. They’ve got all northern and western gates guarded.”

  “Your Patrician friends told you this?” Aurora asks.

  “They think I’m working as a spy to drag out Resurgence information from you. They think I’ll return with a wealth of information and that information will make them famous. Y’know. Patrician thought process.”

  She nods. “Typical Patricians.”

  That’s exactly something Ember would have said. The ache in my chest swells.

  “Well,” she says, stepping past me. “We just wasted all morning to get here. Better start heading back. Maybe we can get more water from the town square. Have you let Mcallister know our plans yet?”

  “I’m about sick of talking to Mcallister, since he won’t leave me alone about you.” I wink at her, slip off my phoneband and toss it to her. “Why don’t you do it?

  She grabs the phoneband.

  “Just tell him who you are to put his mind at ease. You can even take a selfie and send it to him. Might help ease his heartache.” I snort and shake my head. I’ve never seen Mcallister so obsessed with another girl. Sure, he always had to keep up the façade of a brainless Defender, but still. The protective way he acts toward Aurora is almost suffocating.

  Aurora gasps, then stops while staring at the phoneband.

  “What’s the problem?” I ask. “Did something happen to him? Are they okay?” I step toward her, about to grab the phoneband from her, when she shoves the screen into my face.

  “Trying to protect me, huh?” she snaps. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much rage burning in Aurora’s eyes. Ever. “This entire day, I thought you were actually trying. I thought maybe you respected Ember enough to see in me what she saw, but I guess I was wrong. You’re just waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill me.” She shoves the phoneband into my hand and stalks off. Chale glares at me, then follows after Aurora.

  I look down at the screen of the phoneband for the first time, and a fist forms in my stomach. A new message from Isaac flashes on the screen.

  Don’t wait too long to kill Aurora. We missed our opportunity with Titus and look what happened? Let me know when you have the situation taken care of.

  -Isaac

  Once my eyes scan the message, the previous messages slowly begin scrolling through. Aurora saw all of them. She thinks I still intend to kill her.

  Well.

  So much for being a team.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

&n
bsp; AURORA

  Unbelievable. For just one morning, I actually thought Rain might have been opening up. For a moment, I thought he didn’t hate me. Boy was I wrong. He’s just waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill me.

  I walk faster, hating myself for trusting him. Will he kill me now? Shoot me in cold blood now that I know his plan? I shouldn’t be surprised. We’re exactly where we were this time yesterday. Chale walks a good distance behind me. Good thing. I don’t think I could handle anyone talking to me right now.

  I walk at this pace for a good hour, surprised Rain still trails behind us. Still waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, no doubt. Will he take Chale down if the poor Defender tries to save me?

  We’ve been walking all morning without food and with limited water, and I’m feeling it. After an hour of walking at this pace, I arrive at one of the Garden streams and sit down for a break. Trees dot the edge of the stream, their branches just now budding with life. Taking off my shoes, I dip my toes in. The water is icy compared to the warmish day. I plunge both feet in, allow the shock of the cold to rush through me and disperse my thoughts into a million pieces like birds in flight.

  Chale steps onto a small bridge by the road, crosses his arms, and waits patiently. Such a good Defender. A good friend. This trip would be torturous without his company. I let out a small laugh and shake my head. I would be dead without his company.

  I look back into the water, look at the reflection of the tree branches on the creek’s surface. I’d hoped I was beginning to find a friend in Rain. A friend. In the one person I need to be friends with. Because he’s got a foot in every part of Ky. And, honestly? I was beginning to enjoy his company. He may be the worst possible enemy, but he definitely makes a decent friend.

  Jackal.

  Closing my eyes, I exhale and do the one thing that has always helped me cope with uncertainty and fear—and inhale.

  Breathe in. Breathe it all in.

  Allow the energy to fill up my lungs, flow through my muscles, igniting my bones, and surging through my veins. Feel it pour down my arms and into my fingers, burrowing into my soul.

  Exhale back into the universe.

  No more fear, Aurora.

  “That tree was a seed, once,” Rain’s voice cuts through all my thoughts, and I stiffen, the tension creeping back into my shoulders.

  He sits beside me and gestures at the tall oak across the creek. “Before she died, Ember—” His voice cuts off, and he swallows. Tries again. “Ember told me you were that seed.” He looks at me, his eyes opening up to his very soul. His eyes—Rain’s eyes—misted with tears. My anger ebbs, though I try to keep it aflame, I try to keep the red fire flickering through my veins.

  “She always compared herself to dirt.” He grabs a fistful of rich, dark earth. “At first she thought she was useless and invisible. Torn up and overlooked. Then she met you.” He allows the dirt to sift through his fingers. “And through you, she found her purpose.” He wipes his empty hands on his pants and looks at me while he sighs. “She realized she was like the dirt. She was useful. She kept telling me you were the seed. That she was meant to prepare the way for…for you.”

  He reaches out, and I flinch, but he tips my chin up, searches my eyes. I try not to pull away, because only one man has ever touched me like this, and I hate it. I hate this familiarity men seem to want, seem to demand, but when I look into his eyes, I realize he wants nothing more than my full attention. Because Rain communicates better with his eyes than his mouth, and he knows it. One look at him and I always know what he’s thinking, what he’s planning. And the way he’s looking at me now, like I’m the first sunrise after months of winter storms, like I’m the hope he’s been looking for since Ember’s death, makes something hum inside me that I didn’t know existed.

  I’m alive.

  He’s looking at me, not through me. He sees me the way Krin sees me, not the way Titus sees me. And I can’t find words because very few people have looked at me like this. I can count them all on one hand. And the fact that of all the people in Ky, Rain is one who sees me for who I am—there are no words. I couldn’t even form them on my tongue if I could find them.

  Rain Turner sees me. And he values me.

  “Ember prepared the way for more than one of us,” he whispers, dropping his hand now that he has my full attention. And I don’t look away. I can’t look away. This is the first glimpse of vulnerable Rain—the first sighting of his emotions raw and in the open, raging gray storms and high seas—that I can’t get myself to break eye contact. “I was closed off to everyone before I met her,” he’s saying. “I was a rock, a building with no doors and no windows. I could hold myself together and no one would know what was going on inside. I didn’t want to risk heartache by letting anyone know me. And then I let her in, and—and she…left.”

  The guilt overtakes me. I close my eyes, press my palms to my eyes.

  “I wanted to shut everyone out after she and Forest died.” His voice is husky. “Even you. Especially you. Because you looked like her. And it hurt so bad to look at you. To be reminded every day that Ember was dead, and you weren’t her. Aurora, look at me.”

  I lower my hands and force my eyes back to his gray ones. “Ember already made me crack. And while I tried to seal that crack back up, I couldn’t. Not with you around.”

  “You hate me, Rain. You tried to kill me. You almost left me for dead.”

  “But I didn’t. I couldn’t.” He’s staring into my eyes, his own filled with destroyed, destructed emotions. “Don’t you understand? You’re the only piece of Ember I have left.” He shakes his head. “The only reason I almost left you for dead was because I thought that losing you would help me move on faster. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Aurora, for all the grief I’ve caused you. You lost your mother. You lost your sister. You lost your child. You’ve experienced more heartache than I could ever comprehend. I’ve been pushing you away because you remind me too much of her. Titus deceived too many people, and I thought you were just like him. But I was wrong. I was so wrong, Aurora. I’m beginning to see that now.” He kneels in front of me and searches my eyes. “I wasn’t going to kill you. I mean, I was, once. But today I’ve been trying to see you through Ember’s and Jonah’s and James’s lenses. I’ve been trying to see good in you, instead of bad.”

  I swallow. “And what’s your verdict?”

  “I mean, it’s only been a day. But even in the past week I’ve seen a kinder side of you. A side I’ve refused to see for so long. You told me to think of one thing you did in the past that made me believe you were evil.” He shrugs. “But all I’ve seen is good. And I think—I think I’m catching a glimpse of what Ember saw. In your eyes, Aurora, I see a true leader seeking out justice for the evildoers. I see a fearless fox.” He taps my nose playfully, and humor replaces any leftover anger I clung to. “In your eyes, I see a sapling that has grown into a mighty oak that promises to right what is wrong.”

  A tear escapes down my cheek, and he wipes it away with his finger.

  “What if you were right about me?” I whisper. “What if I’ve been completely brainwashed by Titus and don’t even know it? What if my mother never intended for me to take over? I mean, she gave Ember her name for a reason. She even told her. But me and Titus? She left us behind, Rain. She left me to die. Maybe she had a reason for doing that.”

  He shakes his head. “How could she think you evil, Aurora? You were just an infant. I don’t think she even thought Titus was bad. She loved all of you. She had to.”

  I want to believe him. But I can’t. Because of how much of a big disappointment I’ve always felt to my mother, even after she died. Titus and Father pretty much pressed it into my mind that Mother never loved us. She picked her favorite child and hightailed it out of here. She didn’t care about us. But Jonah Walker had a different story, saying she left me behind because I was the sick, weak baby. Which Titus ended up confirming.

&nb
sp; So now I don’t know what to believe. I’m the youngest and the weakest of my siblings, and yet the one leading the country.

  “So, you really don’t want to kill me?” I ask.

  Rain winks. “Not yet.”

  “Rain…”

  He sighs and his smile softens. “Unless all this has been an act and you prove to be just like Titus, I don’t plan on killing you.”

  He stands, then holds out his hand to me. And we continue walking.

  Rain shoves his hands into his pockets. “So…what was it like living in that mildewy basement?”

  I glance at him. This is the first he’s ever shown interest in my personal life without an ulterior motive. He looks at me, then at the ground, clearly uncomfortable.

  “I’m really, genuinely interested,” he says. “Show me what Ember saw. Show me what Walker sees. I really want to see you through their eyes, but I can’t seem to get past my own assumptions.”

  I look ahead and take a shaky breath. “It’s…not really a place I like to visit with people whom I barely know.”

  He stares at me, then nods. “Understandable.”

  We walk in silence for a few minutes, and I can’t help but feel like maybe I should give Rain a chance like he’s giving me. Maybe I should try a little harder to show him why I was brainwashed, why I never stepped out of the mansion to help. This is the first time he’s willing to listen without considering every word that leaves my lips a lie. Letting out a breath, I release my pride and doubts with it.

  “I’ll start at the beginning,” I finally say.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  RAIN

  I look sharply at Aurora, begin to ask her what she’s talking about, when I realize she’s actually opening up.

  “Krin…your mother…has been in my life since Mother left. She was there a lot more when I was younger, pretty much from when I woke up until I fell asleep again. She taught me how to read, how to write. She read me stories and taught me songs.”