All three of those things had all been taken from Cath.They had all been taken by Eos.How had the Key not seen it coming?How had Blair not seen it coming?Eos had taken everything from her.
Blair surged forward and nearly tripped over theblood-smearedrug piled by her feet.“Rhett,” she shouted over the hum of bots and men whose discussions were no doubt turning Cath’s death into numbers.“Major Owens!”Blair repeated, stepping out of the office that had once given her suchpride.
The red barrier of men parted and Rhett emerged, skittish and panting.His brows rocketed up his forehead and his gaze darted back and forth.Apparently, the Major wasn’t used to violent, bloodyends.
Blair grimaced and motioned for him to follow her down the hallway.She couldn’t stay near her office.She couldn’t keep staring at the blood and the goo and Cath’s lifelessbody.
Rhett followed her.A dark purple lump protruded from just under his left eye, its swirl of color radiating like heatwaves.With each step away from the scene, he grew taller, more confident.By the time they reached the end of the hall, the frightened,shell-shockedsoldier had faded.“Got some kind of fancy new nanite injection,” he said.“Should be all cleared up by tomorrow.”He winced as he grazed the swollen knot with his fingertips.“You’ve got a wicked desk in there.”He nodded back down the hall toward the doorway and the onyx slab just beyond.“Doctor said that a few inches over and up,” he tapped his temple, “and I’d be a goner.”
Blair let out a bark of laughter.“My mother is dead.”She bit the inside of her cheek.Cath wasn’t her mother.Cath wasn’t her mother!
Cath isn’t my mother!
Red.
Rhett cleared his throat.“Yes, I am terribly sorry about what transpired.If I—”
“You’resorry?”Blair lifted onto the toes of her pointed stilettos.“I’ll—I’ll...”
I’ll kill you!
Despite the fury burning hot within her veins, Blair couldn’t say what she felt or follow it up with any action.She still needed Major Rhett Owens, the blockheaded lump of a man.Blair’s teeth sounded like sandpaper as she gnashed them together.“Major Owens, where is Aiden?”Her voice shook, her hands shook, her legs shook.
Where is my brother?!
She dug her nails into her palms.It was fitting that the gloves protected her from the pain of her jagged nails and raw cuticles.Blair had always been protecting herself.
Rhett’s good eye twitched.“I’ll find him.”Another twitch.“I’ll find Elodie.”
Tears bit at Blair’s eyes.“People think living without them is hard.”She tilted her chin toward the ceiling and blinked the tears back.“Living without them is the easy part.It’s livingfor themthat will rip you to shreds.”Blair took a deep breath.In control of herself once again, she settled her gaze on Rhett.“Youwillfind them, Major, and I’ll be right there when you do.”Blair sniffled and forced her grief and anger and panic into the luggage in which she stored the lies she told herself and the lies she told others.She’d unpack them later.
With studied ease and grace, Blair clasped her hands in front of her.“Thank you, Major Owens.”She nodded, turned, and headed toward the restroom.The hairs on her arms rose and a sharp chill brushed her neck.The same kind of cold that welcomed blizzards and froze lakes.
As Blair took another step, she was sure she heard the distinctcrackof fragile ice.
XLIV
Elodie had never run as fast as she’d run from the MediCenter.Somewhere along the way, as Westfall’s downtown buildings blurred past, Aiden had yelled and told her to head toward the Warehouse District.Elodie hadn’t needed the instruction.Even through the metallic tang of blood crusted against her lips and theburnt-earthscent of gunpowder seared into her nostrils, she still had her wits about her.She could still remember what Sparkman had toldthem.
I’ll send them out to make one pass through this district at exactlytwenty-threethirty.
Elodie and Aiden would be picked up soon.It was almost over.Her legs shook as she reached the Warehouse District and slowed down.They wanted to keep moving, keep the world at a blur so she didn’t have time to think about Astrid and Cath, the guns and their lives being over.They’d died so easily, so quickly.
When they reached the Eos warehouse, Elodie slipped into the shadows next to Aiden and flattened herself against the concrete exterior.She tried her best to calm her ragged breathing and fill her burning lungs by inhaling smoothly, deeply.
“I used to think my life was boring,” she said, her breath finally calming.“If only I could have seen into the future.”Elodie couldn’t help but smile.A cheerless, sardonic smile, but a smile nonetheless.
Aiden’s boot scraped against the pavement.“Bet you wish you could have that life back.”
Elodie chewed the inside of her cheek.“Not completely,” she said and smoothed her collar between her fingers.“But somewhere in the middle, without the death.”
Aiden continued to grind the sole of his boot against the ground.“Yeah, well, we can’t go backnow.”
“What about your sister?”Elodie bit her lip.“Blair said that as long as Cath confessed, we could go free, and that she would sort everything out with the Council.We could pretend none of this ever happened.”
“She only said those things to get what she wanted.She’s always been that way.”Aiden kicked a broken piece of concrete.It tumbled off the sidewalk and disappeared down the sewergrate.
“You’re her brother.She loves you.And now you’re the only family she hasleft.”
