by Jenn Vakey
Maybe I was. A little. I guess that's what love does to a person.
When I really registered what she had said, another thought came to me. She might not have known that Rhydian and I were together, but she had suspected something. And if she had been in contact with Dex…
“Did you attack me in the woods and throw me into that river?”
Maizie shook her head, but not as an answer. It was the way someone did when they just couldn’t believe what was going on around them. While the snort she also gave could be seen by the others as just part of the same reaction, I could see the mirth there in her eyes. Enough to make me think I was on to something here.
Too bad I didn’t know if Gryffin or Lamont had even been told about that incident in the first place. If I pushed it now, it could look to the others like I was doing all of this because of a personal vendetta.
"You insisted Rhydian not join Gryffin when you thought we were going to Denver. Was there going to be an attack there? An attempt to kill Gryffin? Then you’d wait to see if Rhydian or Dex was the one to come out on top so you could slip right in to be their queen."
"This is absurd!" she finally yelled. "She's trying to cover her own ass, since she was the one working against Alkwin. It's funny how there was no talk of this supposed engagement until after she left him unable to dispute it. Rhydian told me she was just one of his people."
That felt like a knife to the gut. Not because of what she was saying about me, but because she wasn't lying about that last part. It shouldn't bother me. We weren't telling people. I also knew that he had struggled with just how to tell her. Still…
"The prince asked my wife yesterday to look through the computer system at the facility," Kavon spoke up. "There was mention of a Tainted woman giving them information. Working with them. There's a chance she will be able to find a name when she gets a little deeper."
And the look in Maizie's eyes told me everything I needed to know. There was some fear there. She wasn't certain it would be my name if they found one.
"Take her to a holding room until we can get this sorted out," Gryffin stated solemnly.
"Which one?" another of the Sentry asked.
And I honestly didn't know what his answer would be. He must have motioned, because there wasn't anything said before I felt a hand tighten around my arm and pull me to my feet. With it, I felt the last of my world threaten to shatter.
Maizie smirked triumphantly as a Sentry I didn't know held out a hand and helped her to her feet. A woman, which I'm certain was the only reason she had been touched at all. It was for the same reason that I knew Lamont had been the one to pull me up. The owner of the hand still holding me. Only someone who had spent time in Alkwin would touch the opposite sex so willingly.
I didn't really know how this was going to go down until I watched the look on Maizie's face drop and turn disbelieving. That happened the moment another Sentry started moving toward her.
"You can't be serious," she gaped. "She's the spy. You can't believe anything she said. You can't do this. She just wants to keep me away from Rhydian so she can slip in and finish him off."
Her words trailed off as the Sentry led her from the room. The door shut behind them, leaving Gryffin, Lamont, and Kavon.
"It might be my name in the records," I said numbly. There was no point in hiding anything at this point. It would only make me look more guilty in the end. Make them think I really had been lying about Maizie.
"Leeya," Gryffin said, but I ignored him.
"Rhydian knows everything," I went on. "Adler was holding Lillith. I didn't do what he wanted, though. I couldn't. Not even when he told me that Rhydian had killed you. Then your father."
"Leeya," Gryffin said again, more persistent now.
"Adler captured us," I said. My tongue felt numb and heavy. My whole body did. I might have been talking, but none of this felt real. "He tried to kill Rhydian. I stopped him. I killed him to stop him."
"Lee–"
"Orson knows. Rhydian was with me when he found out. That day Lamont showed up in camp. And Aarys. I told her everything. Rhydian wouldn't let me tell anyone else. He didn't want anyone to know.”
My rambling was stopped when I was forcibly turned and pulled into a pair of big, strong arms.
"Breathe, Leeya," Gryffin said, holding me. "I know you would never hurt my brother. He trusts you. I trust you."
Rarely did words ever sound so good. Especially since they were true. He really did trust me.
I let myself sink into Gryffin's embrace, falling apart. He held me through all of it, whispering soothing words as sobs racked my whole body. There was just too much. It all hurt so badly.
“Something tells me you just saved my life,” Gryffin said, rubbing my back as I slowly calmed. “I don’t imagine it would have been long before she tried to get me out of the way. Especially if she really was angling to be queen, and had been working with Dex to take us out.”
I didn’t want to believe it was possible, for Rhydian’s sake, but I couldn’t brush off the idea. She knew who Linley really was. For all we knew, she could have been the one to tell them she was in Alkwin. It would explain how the Sentry had found Linley at the house during the attack.
“I really needed that,” I said, stepping back so I could face him. I wasn’t even sure if I was talking about my multiple hits I had delivered to her face or that I had cried like I hadn’t in a very long time. Both felt pretty good.
Gryffin actually gave me an amused little smirk.
"What do you want done with the other one?" Kavon asked. I had forgotten he was here and had just witnessed my total meltdown. So was Lamont. That was embarrassing.
I held my breath until I was sure I wasn’t going to lose it again, then shifted so I could face all of them. "I know she was working with them. I just don't know the extent. She lied about being captured and brought here. Unless she left Alkwin before we did, the only way she could have gotten here in time was if they had used a hovercraft and brought her."
"So it's reasonable to assume she was in contact with them," Gryffin stated. “And you think she was responsible for the attack against you in Alkwin?”
So he did know. Given the confused look Lamont had, he was the only one. While it wasn’t really relevant to anything going on now, I decided to explain. “It was before I got my memories back. I was out in the woods one minute, then waking up in the river the next. Outside of the wards and with a group of Sentry on my trail. Rhydian and I had considered the possibility that someone in camp had attacked me. He said there were what looked like drag marks where I had gone into the river. A Sentry named Nikan helped me and told Rhydian they had been informed I was in the water, which was how they knew to look for me. He might know how they had been tipped off in the first place. If she had notified someone.”
Gryffin nodded like he agreed it could be possible. "Do you have a way of contacting the people in Denver? They should be warned of a possible threat if an ambush was really set up."
Nodding, I said, "Rhydian's Haller is with Harun. I doubt they would have gone all the way there, though. It's more likely that they set up along the path or near the river. The Makers should also be asked to check the boat, just in case they decided to tamper with it."
"I'll inform the teams watching the wall that there could still be a team out there," Kavon said, nodding toward Gryffin.
"Good," he replied approvingly. "I'll start having supplies gathered for your trip, Leeya. You should rest and get something to eat."
I nodded on reflex, but that was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to leave. To get started on this trip so I could get Rhydian back.
No one waited around to see what I did. Kavon was speaking into his communicator as he left, relaying orders to detain any Sentry coming back into the city. Lamont and Gryffin both gave me supporting looks, then they started discussing the different items that would need to be gathered for both the trip and for Alkwin.
As soon a
s the door closed behind them, I turned and crossed back toward the bed. Rhydian's chest was slowly rising and falling, but he hadn't moved at all since I left his side.
Crawling up on the bed, I curled into his side, resting my head on his arm.
"I know we were tied, but that didn't mean you needed to go to such extremes to try to win our little game," I said. Tears clouded my throat as I ran my fingers in little circles over his chest. "This still only counts as one save.”
I wanted to hear that chuckle of his, to feel his arms wrap around me and pull me closer. I wanted him to give me even the slightest sign that he was going to keep fighting. That he would still be here when I came back.
There was nothing.
"I'm going away for a little while," I told him. "You won't like what I'm about to do, but it's the only choice I have right now. I can't lose you like this. I just need you to hold on for me, no matter how long it takes me to make it back to you."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
LEEYA
The sun was high in the sky as I stood on the balcony and looked out over the city. The people here were resilient. Other than the damage to the front of the palace from the bomb, you couldn't tell by looking that a war had been fought only last night. The citizens were banding together, despite their vocations, to clean the streets.
Rhydian would have loved to see this.
"I'm going with you," a voice said, breaking the silence.
Lamont walked up next to me, resting his elbows on the stone railing. His eyes were focused ahead on the people walking around.
"I can't ask you to do that. You just got Stazie back."
He smiled and met my eye. "And I owe you a life debt for that. Besides, I've already given King Gryffin my word that I'll protect you on this little adventure. Maybe we'll even find something as interesting as that subway train you were telling me about."
His tone was so light, but I could see in his eyes that he knew just how serious this was. We were going to be venturing into parts unknown. I would be lying to myself if I didn't accept that there was a chance we wouldn't be coming back. He knew it too, yet he was still willing to come with me.
"You're a true friend," I told him. "I can never express how much everything you've done for us means to me."
"Likewise."
We lapsed into a comfortable silence for a while after that, neither doing more than watching the city until Lamont's Haller went off. Gryffin had made sure we both had one, as well as arranged for a dozen others to be sent back with us for the people who would need them. Without the threat of them being traced, things would be a lot easier when it came to being able to communicate now.
"Everything is ready," Lamont said. "The hovercraft is being loaded now. Did you have any other business before we go?"
I shook my head. I wanted to see Rhydian again, but it had been hard enough to leave him the first time. We needed to leave soon if I was planning on having my team ready to depart as planned.
A hovercraft was stopped just outside of the gate to take us to the exit. When we arrived, I was surprised to see a small group waiting for us.
"Hey, Leeya," Paxton said, pulling me into a hug when I jumped off. "How's Rhydian?"
I held my breath for a few moments until I was sure I could keep it together, then answered. "The same. I have a lead that might help. We'll talk about it when we get back to camp."
He nodded. "They haven't been told anything yet. Gryffin thought you might want to be the one to tell them."
That actually made me smile, though it was a small one. The war was over. The threat against Tainted had ended. It would be nice to see their faces when they learned of it.
“Did you see your mom?”
Paxton sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair. “I spent the morning with her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d been tasked with finding out where she stood with all of this. She’s understandably shaken, but thankfully she wasn’t involved in any of it. I think she was actually more upset I wouldn’t be staying in Eden than about her husband’s arrest. But she understands, and I assured her we would come visit as soon as Lillith is up to it.” He smirked. “She even brought up the idea of going out to see us in Alkwin.”
That was a relief. He might have come to terms with what his father had done, but it would have devastated him if his mother had shared the same beliefs. If she had taken part in any of it. They had always been close.
Looking past Pax, I saw the other two people with him. I knew both, although they weren't our people. Not really.
"Treyson," I said, nodding to the Sentry I had met the night before. He was in regular clothes now, with a bag slung over his shoulder.
The woman next to him I had regretfully never gotten a name from, but her presence also wasn't a surprise. The woman from the broadcast station. The mother of the young banshee we had taken with us last week. Natali. Like Treyson, she had bags with her.
And, of course, the one behind the group I knew. Harun.
"I guess you're out of a job now," I said, offering him a small smile.
The older man grinned brightly. "Couldn't be for a better reason."
No, it couldn't have been.
Harun opened the passage for us, and our small group stepped out and moved toward the path. Lamont took the controls when we reached the loaded hovercraft while the rest of us settled in for the ride.
I spent the next several hours reading through the book Gryffin had given me. Unlike the other books I had read, this one was hand written. Parts of it were difficult to understand, especially toward the end when it was clear that the man, Abram, had already been bitten by the snox. It was a miracle he had found his way back to Eden in that state.
By the time we neared the archway, the spark of hope I had been fighting to hold on to had started to grow. There were some things he had written of that I thought I recognized. If I was right, I at least had an idea about where to start looking for this city.
I just had to hope that it was still there. If it had been real at all, and not just a hallucination brought on by the bite.
But I wasn't letting go of my hope.
We didn't slow when we reached the archway. We were all Tainted now, so there wasn't a need.
Then we were back.
It only took one person seeing us driving in before word spread and a crowd started to form. Lamont stopped the hovercraft were the others were parked along the tree line near the training field. By the table Rhydian and I would lay on at night.
I pushed down the emotions that threatened to consume me and jumped off with the others.
Pax took off first, running at his new speed toward Lillith, scooping her up into his arms before she even knew what was happening. Her laugh took some of the heaviness away. I had heard that he had come very close to being killed last night. From what Gryffin had told me, he and a small group had been cornered by Sentry. Miraculously, something he said to them made some of them turn on the others. Gryffin thought they might have been his supporters all along. Ones that we just hadn’t reached before the war started. Either way, they had given him the opening that was needed for him to get Othman into the prison.
Lamont wasn't far behind Paxton, making his way to Stazie. With a sound of pure joy, the woman from the broadcast station, who I now knew to be Rose, ran toward her daughter and encompassed her in an embrace. Both women succumbed quickly to tears.
That just left Treyson and me. He was looking around. Searching.
"Come on," I said, taking him by the elbow.
He tensed at the contact, but didn't fight me as I steered him toward the crowd. When he puffed out a breath, I knew he saw where we were going. The slender girl with the red hair and light brown eyes that matched his.
Aarys watched curiously as we approached, that familiar smile comfortably on her face. A welcome sight.
"I have someone you should meet," I told her, stopping just short of where she stood with Joury and Auggie.
/> She looked confused as she looked between Treyson and me. If I wasn't mistaken, there was almost a hint of humor there. Like she was anticipating a matchmaking attempt like Joury tended to do.
This was so much better.
"Aarys, this is Treyson," I said. "Your brother."
Shock quickly took over her face as she stared up at the man beside me. The moment I saw the first sign of tears filling her eyes, I took it as my cue to leave them.
Orson was standing back watching the scene, almost like he was trying to figure out what was going on. Not that I could blame him. We returned with only half of the people we left with, along with two strangers.
