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She sets her shoulders back and looks my father square in the eye. "I want you to kill the President. I will take his place and this war will never happen."
"And the changes to the agreement?"
"I will tell the women what the draft really is. The draft will be done away with. If...if you agree, I would have monsters and humans mix freely. That way, when a monster finds his mate, she will know there's no fear of her being eaten or murdered by him. She will have a choice on whether to come down here with him or not. I am open to talking over other amendments, with the understanding that this will not all happen in a day."
"I will want a specific time frame for every step."
She nods. "Understandable. Do we have a deal, then?"
My father remains silent, looking at only her. I can't imagine what he's thinking. I have my mate, my family to think of. He has the entire village on his shoulders. If this is all a trap, a war, possibly their deaths will be on his conscious.
"Where is the President now?" my father asks.
"His mansion. He stayed in his office long after me and the cabinet left. One of us stayed there and watched to keep the others informed."
"What happens when he dies?"
"He'll be taken to the hospital when someone finds his body...no matter what state he's found in. He must be declared dead there, and then I will be sworn in as President within hours."
My father arches a brow. "And if he suspects you and has someone in place to kill you if he's killed? You said he's distrustful."
"Then, one of the cabinet members will be sworn in. And they are of the same mind as me on stopping this war before it begins."
"And after you are sworn in?"
"I will announce that, upon the President's untimely death, while clearing his belongings out of the mansion, a video was found among them. That the footage proved the president’s account was a lie, expose what this whole situation truly was. I ask for a week to release this information and make an announcement about the draft being no more, and what its true nature has been all along."
"Does anyone else have questions while I think this through?" my father asks.
Olex is the first to speak. "Your people do not have a high regard for women in your quadrant, your president especially, it seems. How is it then that you became the vice president?"
"My father is extremely wealthy, and did not share the views that women were less than. He contributed almost half of the money the President used to campaign and win the presidency. My father's condition for that money was that I be placed as vice president should he win. I think he saw it as a small price to pay, that I would end up being inconsequential."
"So, you always had eyes on being the President?" Olex presses.
"No. I was content to just be able to make things better. But that's become quite impossible over the last few years. There's no way to have change with him as our leader."
"What's to stop us from taking all of this information and simply moving to another village?" Dalin questions. "Avoiding your war for now, coming back to finish all of you off later with reinforcements?"
She nods. "You could. That's a risk I'm willing to take that, by coming down here and telling you all of this. I don't take you for a people who run. And I do take you for people with honor. I don't think you want bloodshed any more than I do."
"Why does he want Leah back?" I puzzle out loud. "I wondered that after the meeting, but even more so after everything you just told us. He has everything planned, already has, what he thinks, is a way to win this war. He doesn't need her, and yet he insists on having her. Why?"
Her mouth gets tight before she says, "Because he thinks we still believe she was at the institution for treatment, he says he plans to return her there, let them treat her until she's deemed fit to be released. I've heard of the treatments I'm pretty sure he'd give her. Electric shocks that scramble her mind until she doesn't even know who she is. She will be his puppet, repeating every word he tells her to. I'm sure being his voice to tell the other quadrants the horrors she suffered at your hands, and how he saved her from monsters."
My hands ball into fists at my side. I knew it had to be a reason, and a horrible one. But hearing what he might do to her if he ever gets his hands on her, I want to slowly, so fucking slowly, rip him limb from limb. I’ll even leave his head for last so he can see all the things I do to him. I miss out on some of the other questions the Grounders around me ask, but I notice the silence that fills the room as my father straightens, a decision clearly made.
"I will do it," he declares. "I will kill your president." He extends his hand. "Among my people this seals our vows, not some ink on a piece of paper. So, this is me agreeing to rid you of an evil male, and you agreeing to prevent this war from happening, dealing with us justly upon being president, and making the changes you spoke of in the agreement."
She stands and places her hand in his. Their hands go up and down just one time. I swallow at the sight of it, hoping like hell that everything she says is true. I am confident we will win in any war against them, their bombs and technology be damned. We have survived for centuries and will continue to. But the thought of any of us being lost in the battle breaks my heart. I want to avoid it if I can. And if it can't be avoided, then I will do all I have to in order to protect those I love.
"He will be dead before the sun rises tomorrow," my father adds as their hands pull back from each other's."
"No matter the state he's found in, I will have it is listed as a heart attack."
My father nods and Judith looks at me, then the other monsters around me. "I am sorry, for the harm and uncertainty he has brought your people. You didn't deserve it."
"You need not apologize for sins that aren't your own," Linc says.
