“She’s alive,” I said.“For now.The infirmary has managed to keep her from dying, but without their help she will quickly succumb to her injuries.Her life rests in my hands.It would be easier for my paperwork if we let her die, but I could ask them to keep her alive—if I was persuaded with the right information.”
He stared at me, and I watched the torment play across his eyes, the moral dilemma I had presented him with.Sickness roiled within my stomach, but I kept my face impassible, revealing nothing.So many of his facial features resembled Analleia’s, the bright blue eyes a mirror match—but she didn’t matter anymore.She was no one.She didn’t care about me, and she never had.It was all a trick.All a betrayal.I pummeled down the conflicting emotions within me.
They had enacted violence upon us, and that had sealed their fate.Kallistar could either save his sister or the girl I knew him to love.
I shrugged, turning to leave.“I’ll leave you to think on it, but I doubt your dying girl has much time.”
I stepped out of the cell before his voice stopped me.
“There’s a safe house.In the city.”His words came out in defeated rasps.
“Where?”
He took several breaths before giving the exact location.“I don’t know if she’ll be there.She may have already left the country.”
I shook my head.“No.She wouldn’t leave without you, and she came here to do something.She won’t abandon the city until it is finished.What did you come here to do?”
His eyes narrowed.“All you asked for was her location.None of the other information is part of the deal.Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn’t.Whatever she’s planning will have changed by now.She never revealed all of her secrets.”
I hesitated.Could it have all been a lie?If my father was the real reason she had come here, why had she not done anything to him yet?They’d had ample opportunities to harm him.
I let it go.No matter.All I cared about was finding her before the end of the finale and bringing her before my father.
My chest tightened.
“You may not know her plan, but you know how she thinks,” I said.“If she’s not in the safe house, where is she going to be next?Lie to me, and I’ll know, and your friend will never get the treatment she needs.”
Pain etched across his face, his skin crawling with betrayal.
“She’ll be at the finale.”
I lifted an eyebrow, suppressing a laugh.Had they damaged his head?Everyone knew who she was now.It would be impossible.
His hard gaze bore into mine without a glint of humor.“She wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Something in his eyes convinced me.He was not leading me on.
The corner of my mouth lifted.“Once a betrayer, always a betrayer?”
His jaw clenched at the accusation, chained hands tightening into fists above him.
I would keep his secret.
Kallistar’s expression turned distant again, focusing on the beyond, and I sensed he had retreated to another world within his mind.
I stormed out of the dungeon, my head spinning as it tried to piece together what her plan might be.Howland fell into step behind me.
“Send a squadron of soldiers to that safe house,” I ordered.I turned, jabbing my finger into his chest.“But she is not to be harmed.No matter what happens, I want her brought to me.Alive.”
He nodded his acceptance, and I leaned against the first window ledge I could find, inhaling the fresh air into my lungs that wasn’t tainted with pain and despair.
She was nothing.She meant nothing.But I had questions.A corner of my heart refused to believe it was all a lie no matter how hard I tried to destroy the idea.I clenched my jaw.I had questions, and she would answer them.Whether it be now or at the finale.
“What are you up to?”I asked the air, fearing the answer was darker than I could ever imagine.
