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The girl didn’t look in his direction. She was watching me, trying to decide if she could win me to her cause or if I was just another obstacle in her way.
“It does no one any good to take risks that doom all of us,” she said finally. “Trying to free everyone will be impossible. When we fail, the Troika will kill all of us.”
I crossed my arms. “Why shouldn’t we just kill you right now?”
Zed stepped forward, his shoulders back and his hands curled into fists. That one was a fighter. Too bad he wouldn’t live long enough to prove it.
“Killing us only guarantees you’ll all die in this camp.”
“I already made peace with that, girl.”
“If we can get out of here alive, we’ll be able to make a plan for a more focused attack. Raise enough of an army to make a real liberation attempt.”
“An army?” I laughed. “Sweetheart, the workers in this camp outnumber the vampires fifty to one. We have superior numbers, but they have the weapons, the power, and every other advantage over us. It’s not an army we need. It’s a miracle.”
Six threw up her hands. “So you’re going to lie down and die? You’ve given up? Fine. That’s your choice. I’m leaving with those children tonight. If you want to help, fine. We’ll take everyone out of here that we can. But you’re never going to convince me that it’s better to surrender than to try, damn it.”
The room fell silent. The pressure of dozens of expectant stares weighed against my skin.
“There might be a way to save the rest of the prisoners,” Tuck said.
I glanced at him in surprise.
He smiled. “The minute y’all take that train, the guards are gonna swarm you like angry wasps.”
“Yeah, so?” I said.
“So the distraction might give the rest of us time to hide in the mines. There’s water and air shafts down there. Could probably survive a couple of days if y’all come back to help us.”
The room fell silent as this sunk in.
Finally, Zed said, “That might work. You’ll be protected from the explosions and we can come back to dig you out once the vamps are cooked.”
“This is a pipe dream,” I said. “You’ll die in those mines and the rest of you will die trying to make a break for it.” I shook my head. “I used to have hope too.” I sighed to release the pressure of disappointment in my chest. “I had it back when I was young and thought that life would work out for me if I only wanted it badly enough. But then I grew up and realized that those stories of heroism we were raised on were just fictions created to fool us into believing life is worth the trouble.”
“If you really think that, why are you still here?”
“You mean, why haven’t I killed myself?”
Six nodded.
“Because I’m too stubborn to prove them right.”
“Who?”
I nodded toward the door. “The vampires. They want us to believe that we don’t matter. If I give up the only things I have left—the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins—then I’m only proving them right.”
Zed stepped into the conversation, forming the third point of a triangle. “Then help us.”
“What’s in it for me?”
Six raised her chin. “They crave our surrender. They want us to give up our blood, our lives, our hope. I say we show them that humanity still has some fight left in it. If we’re going to die anyway, let it happen with our feet on the ground and our fists flying.”
Behind Six, Cleo was rubbing her red hands together. Tuck’s white teeth flashed as he chewed contemplatively on his lower lip. Only Wu looked unmoved by the girl’s passionate speech. His expression was as skeptical as it had been from the minute the conversation started.
I raised an eyebrow and watched Cleo for a reaction. When it came, the nod was almost too subtle to see, but then she glanced at Tuck, whose lips spread to reveal aggressively bright teeth, gleaming like stars against a night sky.
Something tugged at the hem of my tunic. Little Finn looked up at me. He was only as tall as my waist and barely wider than one of the floor planks. “Matri,” he said, “are we really going to leave?”
