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“Aria—”
Marilyn inched towards me, but Aster interrupted her. “Aria Gribald? Oh, that’s just perfect.”
Did I even want to know what she thought she knew about me? Aster was eyeing me with disdain and a bit of pity, lips pressed into a thin line.
“You really waltzed in here, not knowing who you were up against?” Marilyn asked. She didn’t believe it; disbelief was dripping off every word as her arms crossed over her chest.
“We knew it was a Resistance camp, and it needed to be cleared out to protect civilians—that’s all weneededto know.”
Aster sounded so sure of herself, that I was disheartened. People like this were so set in their ways that even faced with facts, they’d try to talk their way around it. How would we even try to argue with that?
Marilyn raised a brow. “So you didn’t even try to think for yourself. Got it.”
Both captives bristled, opening their mouths to bicker back when she held a palm up. Their mouths moved, but no sound came out, and from the murderous looks that we got over it, they were none too pleased.
“Honestly, I gave you two too much credit,” she continued, sneering. “You know what they did to us during our training. You’ve met the people brought in under false charges. So how can you sit back and try to act like you have the high ground when I wasthere?”
Velez looked a little green but ultimately dropped her eyes.
Aster, though? She glared right back at Marilyn, clinging to her fury like a lifeline.
Marilyn dropped her hand, and the woman started in on us immediately.
“The Upper Council is the lesser evil,” she argued. For a second, I had hoped she could be reasoned with, but then she said, “Abominations likeherare too unpredictable. The laws exist for areason, Ansen.”
“Yeah, because they’re afraid of anything stronger than them,” I hissed.
I tried not to take her vitriol personally. She didn’t know better, just believing whatever nonsense was told to her because thinking outside of the box was too scary. The Upper Council being power hungry instead of virtuous? The foundation of her entire worldview was that they were virtuous. To look at them and have to accept that they were just flawed, cruel creatures was too much.
“Azazel’s oldest son is a hybrid,” I pointed out. The addition takes some of the wind from her sails. “Do you really think they believe we’reunpredictable? That’sthe line you’re buying? We’re just people like you and Velez and everyone else. And what’s worse? We didn’taskto be made. Our parents made that choice, but we’re the ones who end up paying.”
I didn’t mean for the words to make me emotional, but they did. This was something I’d thought of a million times—saying it here, to someone whoactuallyhated me for just breathing, was almost overwhelming.
I had spent so long angry at my birth parents, confused and hurt, and all those awful things that came with being an “abomination.” I’d bought into the propaganda, too, even though I was walking, talking evidence it was all bullshit to keep the status quo. There wasn’t anything wrong with me, or Sariel, or Kiyomasa, or the twins, or any other hybrid I’d met so far on this crazy misadventure—it was always the ones likethiswho were cruel.
Velez was staring at me a little harder than I appreciated. It had me clearing the lump from my throat noisily, standing up a little taller.
Aster said, “I’m sorry that they didn’t think about the consequences, but—”
“Shutup, Aster,” Velez butted in, swiping a hand down her face.
The other Captain looked scandalized at the reprimand, but her mouth snapped shut audibly.
Marilyn was leaning against the railing of the staircase, watching everything unfold with an air of nonchalance I wished I could copy. But, unfortunately, this was all too personal to me.
The two Captains didn’t say anything after that, so Marilyn and I left empty-handed. By the time we gave up prodding at them, the guards had already rotated shifts.
“No luck, huh?” Neo asked, seeming… duller than he usually was. The temptation to ask him what exactly had happened yesterday was eating at me, but given how short Reese had been, it had obviously been nothing good.
“Actually, I think Aria got through to Velez,” Marilyn replied. “They didn’t talk today, but I think she can get them to if we buy her some more time.”
Because Auren expected immediate results, I knew.
He’d been furious that they’d managed to not only find us but attack us without him having caught wind of it first. The way he’d paced the meeting room this morning had made him look every bit like a caged animal; he wasdyingto get his hands on the surviving Paras. Had I not been his brother’s mate, I think he’d have laughed at my suggestion to try interrogation over… whateverit was Zuzanna had been doing.
“You need to get the Director on your side, then, because the man acts like he’s about to snap any minute,” Neo advised, and Marilyn took it to heart, bidding me a quick goodbye before heading off towards his house.
“Are you okay?” I called after him. “I know Reese said you were, but—”
