“No problem,” I say flatly.
Ulrika hands me the glass jar. It’s covered in soot. I wipe away the black dirt, revealing Theora’s heart inside. Grief spills over me, thinking about the life we might have had together. I’ll never get the chance to love her or have her fall in love with me. I’ll never feel my heart beating again. Icarus stole that from me. I want Theora back, but not in this way.
I thrust the jar into Ulkira’s hands. She doesn’t say anything as she accepts it.
“What do we do now?” Patrick says.
I look down the road. There’s no point in going back to Amber Hills; there’s nothing there to go back to. I turn my head. The road on this side leads to Gray Wolf, then beyond that . . . freedom. I can go wherever I want to go. Be whoever I want to be. My options are unlimited. But there is one thing I am certain of: I will make the Darklings suffer for what they’ve taken from me. I clutch the circle pendant around my neck as a plan starts to formulate in my mind. The future stretches out before me, and I see it how I want it to be:
A world without sin.
A world in her image.
A world united.
So sayeth us all.
22.
ASH
“SO NOW YOU KNOW the truth about Purian Rose,” Lucinda says tiredly.
Everyone is silent. I sink back in my seat, trying to wrap my head around everything I’ve heard. Purian Rose is related to me? No wonder my mom never spoke about her family. Who wants to admit that their cousin is the man responsible for leading a war that killed millions of Darklings? She must have been so ashamed, and frightened too—being related to Purian Rose would’ve put our family at terrible risk during the war.
“Ulrika and I lived with Edmund and Patrick for a while in Gray Wolf,” Kieran says. “But it didn’t work out. They became fanatical about religion, spending day and night rewriting the Guild’s scriptures that were lost in the eruption and tweaking it to suit their own beliefs—”
“The Book of Creation?” Day interjects, referring to the holy text that the Purity faith is based on.
Kieran nods. “During that time Edmund’s hatred of the Darklings got worse. He blamed them for everything wrong in his life.” He sighs, rubbing his head. “He blew his top when he found out I was still in touch with Luci and Annora, so we parted ways. Ulrika came back here while I went traveling with Luci and Annora, attending civil rights rallies across the country, and Edmund and Patrick moved to Centrum to make a name for themselves in politics.”
“When he came into power a few years later as Purian Rose, we knew we had to stop him,” Lucinda adds. “That’s why we formed the Four Kingdoms.”
Elijah turns to his mom. “How did you get involved in the group?”
“I met Luci and the others at a rally in Thrace,” Yolanda answers. “We were all staying with Esme at the Moon Star tavern.”
Kieran smiles at the mention of his wife and home. Natalie flicks a guilty look at me. Neither of us has had a chance to tell him that Esme’s dead. Now’s not the right time.
“Why didn’t the Four Kingdoms reveal Edmund’s true identity?” Day asks.
“Because we didn’t have any evidence, just our word,” Lucinda says. “And who would believe us, especially since Edmund looks human. We tried to hunt down some of the former residents of Amber Hills, but many died that night of the eruption, and the rest were unwilling to talk.”
“We approached a detective with this information years ago,” Yolanda adds. “We think the detective got close to something once. He said he was following a lead—something about an illegitimate child”—I shoot a look at Natalie, who has turned pale—“but he died in a house fire before he could pursue it any further. The fire was set deliberately.”
“Sounds like something the Sentry would do,” Day says fiercely.
The Sentry guards burnt down her house after the ballot a few weeks ago. Her younger brother, MJ, was still inside at the time, although Natalie and I managed to save him.
“But you said Purian Rose doesn’t have a heartbeat?” Elijah says from the front seat. “How come no one’s noticed that?”
Lucinda gives a bitter laugh. “Oh, I’m sure Purian Rose has bribed or threatened his doctor to keep his mouth shut.”
“Guys, we’re here,” Acelot says from the driver’s seat.
The truck sways as we drive over the bumpy dirt track toward a run-down log cabin, hidden among the lichen-covered trees. It’s very dark both inside and outside the vehicle, since barely any sunlight penetrates the forest. Sinister shadows lurk between the trees like stalking wolves, making me shudder. I can see how the Forest of Shadows earned its name.
Acelot parks the truck outside the cabin and we get out. We’re in a forest glen. The air smells like pine needles, rain and sap. My boots sink into the lush, mossy earth as I jump out of the vehicle and help Martha down, then Natalie. Her hand is soft and warm in mine. She smiles at me, and for a second I return it, beforeg guilt and grief come crashing down on me. I shouldn’t smile, shouldn’t feel any happiness when my dad is . . . he’s . . . I swallow a painful lump in my throat. Natalie’s brows draw together and I look away. Now isn’t the time to break down.
Kieran strides up to the cabin and raps loudly on the door, knocking three times, then twice, then four times. The house looks abandoned—the walls are covered in ivy, the windows are dirty, and the yellow paint on the door is cracked. I’m starting to think Ulrika isn’t here, when suddenly the door opens. A middle-aged Lupine stands in the entranceway, dressed in leather pants and a tight black top and frock coat. She’s thin but athletic, with weather-chapped skin, short cropped hair and dirt under her nails. She immediately pulls Kieran into her arms.
“Fragg, I thought you were dead. You were due here weeks ago,” she says, then adds dryly, “You could have called.”
“Yeah, you know me, cuz. Always like to be fashionably late,” Kieran says. “We got caught sneaking around Primus-One.”
They pull apart, and Ulrika nods politely at Yolanda and Lucinda. She notices us for the first time.
“This is my nephew, Ash,” Lucinda explains.
“I know who he is,” Ulrika says, ushering us inside. “Everyone’s heard of ‘the boy who rose from the ashes.’” Did I detect a note of sarcasm in her voice?
The inside of the cabin is cool and dank. The main source of light in the kitchen/living room comes from the amber flames flickering in the stone hearth to my left, which casts a deep orange glow over everything in the dingy room. Shelves line the peeling walls, which are crammed with warped, mildew-covered books. Perched on a rickety cabinet nearby is a portable TV and a dust-covered telephone. There’s a simple pinewood table in the center of the room, and a few mismatched chairs. To the right, there’s a single work surface, stove, fridge and a couple of cupboards. Several dead rabbits hang from hooks above the sink, their fresh blood dripping into the porcelain bowl.
“We can’t stay long,” Kieran says to his cousin. “Do you have it?”
Ulrika nods. She walks over to the cupboards at the kitchen side of the room, while Natalie and Day clear a seat for Martha and help the old lady sit down. Beetle does a quick check of the house to make sure it’s secure. Ulrika angrily purses her lips when he goes into her bedroom.
“You won’t find anything suspicious in my panty drawer,” she calls to him.
Beetle exits the bedroom, the tips of his ears bright pink. He’s carrying some cotton slips.
“I thought the ladies might want something better to cover themselves with.” He passes them to Yolanda, Martha and Lucinda, who put them on underneath their blankets and jackets. Ulrika sighs but says nothing as she starts looking through the cupboards.
“Kieran said the guards know you’re living up here?” Day says.
Ulrika throws her an impatient look. “Of course they do. Edmu
nd came to visit me when they started putting the wall up, giving me the opportunity to leave.”
“And you deliberately stayed?” I splutter.
“Why not?” she says. “This is my home. And at least here I’m safe. There are a lot of Lupine haters out there at the moment.”
“I wonder why,” Beetle mutters.
“It doesn’t bother you that millions of people are being killed just a few miles down the road?” I say.
“Of course it bothers me, but what can I do about it?” she says.
My fangs throb with venom and Beetle frowns, making the scar tissue on his cheek pucker. There’s plenty she could do, if she wanted.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why is Edmund still protecting you?” Natalie asks. “I thought he was mad at you and Kieran.”
“Kieran more than me. He’s the one who wanted to stay in touch with Lucinda and Annora,” Ulrika says, casting a cold look at Lucinda, who returns her frosty gaze. “Besides, Theora was my best friend. That still means something to him.” Ulrika closes the cupboard door and checks the unit above the sink.
Beetle turns to Lucinda. “Do you think Rose knew you were being held prisoner?”
Lucinda sits at the table. “I doubt it. He probably would have let Kieran go at the very least, if he’d been told we were there.”
I think about the fact that no one knew my dad had died at the camp—something that would have been all over the news if they had—and figure she’s right. With the huge amount of people flowing into the Tenth each day, it must be hard for them to keep track of all the prisoners. The registration department probably hasn’t had time to cross-check the names to make sure no one is there who shouldn’t be.
“Ah, here it is,” Ulrika says, pulling a dusty jar out of the cupboard. She places the glass jar on the table in front of us. It’s filled with a sickly yellow fluid. Floating inside it is Theora’s heart.
“Aw, gross,” Beetle mutters.
“Why did you keep it all these years?” Day asks.
“Theora was like a sister to me, and we lost our whole pack in the eruption the night she died,” Ulrika says. “I wanted to keep part of her, part of them, alive, I guess.”
“How is this going to bring down Purian Rose?” Elijah asks his mom.
I’m curious to know this too.
“We were going to transplant it inside someone,” Yolanda explains. “Our hope was that if we could get this person to Purian Rose, his heart might reactivate, creating a Blood Mate connection, and she’d be able to persuade him to stop the war.”
Beetle and Day share bemused looks.
“Utterly insane,” Ulrika mutters under her breath. “There’s no guarantee it would work, even if you could get the heart transplanted.”
The plan is crazy, but if anyone in this room understands the strength of the Blood Mate connection, it’s me and Natalie. If she asked me to end a war, I would, in a heartbeat.
“I think it’s a fragging brilliant plan,” I say.
Lucinda grins. She looks a lot like my mom when she does that; my mom always had a wry smile on her lips.
“But isn’t the heart really old?” Day says. “Not to mention it’s been in embalming fluid all this time. You won’t be able to transplant it inside someone without killing them.”
“We could if they were a twin-blood,” Lucinda says, sliding a look at me.
My stomach knots as it dawns on me that Lucinda intends to use me as the vessel. It makes sense. Twin-bloods don’t need their hearts to live, so I won’t die, even if the organ fails. I’m immune to most toxins, so the embalming solution the heart has been preserved in won’t poison me, and I have the power to regenerate dead tissue. Lucinda’s thought of everything, except one thing: I don’t want to do it. I don’t want someone to rip my heart out and replace it with another one. Not to mention, I’d be Purian Rose’s Blood Mate! That’s twisted on so many levels. I don’t care so much about the guy-guy thing; I’ve had plenty of male Haze clients in my day, and things often got steamy—my “added extras” were why clients came to me instead of buying vials of Haze from the human dealers—but Purian Rose is the butcher of the Darklings, not to mention we’re related. That’s . . . urgh! Just, urgh. Natalie takes my hand, sensing my discomfort.
“It’s a Lupine heart. Surely Ash would reject it,” Day says.
“Not if he had a geneticist who specialized in xenotransplantation,” Yolanda replies.
So that’s why Lucinda needed Yolanda’s expertise. It wasn’t anything to do with her research into yellowpox; it was because of her work with cross-species transplants. I can’t believe we didn’t pick up on this earlier. What better way to bring down Purian Rose, without risking anyone’s life?
“This is all assuming Ash is okay with you cutting out his heart,” Acelot says distractedly from the other side of the room. He’s peering out the dusty window, checking our perimeter. He’s left his Sentry guard jacket in the truck, so he’s just wearing a white vest, black pants and boots. His speckled tail sways rhythmically behind him, stirring the dust on the floor. He glances at me. “Lucky for you, my friend, we don’t need to go ahead with this fukaka plan, huh?”
I give him a grateful smile, feeling secretly relieved. I’m not sure I’d be able to do it if push came to shove. Lucinda shoots a quizzical look at me and at Natalie, who briefly explains about the Sentry rebel stronghold in Gallium.
“And you trust those people?” Lucinda asks.
“Those people are my parents,” Natalie replies tersely. “So, yes, I trust them.”
“They do have an amazing arsenal of weapons,” Elijah says to his mom. “Not to mention a whole fleet of Transporters, which have all been weaponized. It’s very professional. They’re planning an attack on Centrum in four days.”
“And then what?” Lucinda snarls. “We’ll replace one fragging Sentry for another. How will things be any different?”
Natalie looks at me, uncertainty sliding behind her blue eyes. Lucinda has a point. If the Sentry rebels take control of Centrum, then it’s not going to improve our situation much. It’ll still be a Sentry government, filled with people who will put their needs above ours. At least if Humans for Unity and the Four Kingdoms took control, they would try to create a fair and representative government.
Natalie’s watch suddenly beeps. “That’s Destiny.”
“I see the Transporter,” Acelot confirms, stepping away from the window.
Ulrika opens her arms to Kieran. “Well, I guess this is good-bye, cousin.”
“You won’t come with us?” he asks.
She shakes her head. “This is my h—”
Her words suddenly cut off. The lines in her forehead deepen with confusion. She opens her lips to speak, and a bubble of blood pools out of a small bullet hole in her throat. There’s a matching hole in the windowpane that Acelot was standing in front of moments before. Ulrika crashes to the floor.
“GET DOWN!” I yell just as the back windows shatter in a rain of bullets. They thump into the wooden walls, tear up books, smash glasses.
Elijah shoves his mom to the ground just as a book explodes above her head, sending a confetti of words into the air. Everybody hits the floor. Kieran lands beside me. Part of his face is missing.
“Kieran!” Lucinda’s wail pierces my eardrums. “Kieran, KIERAN!”
Natalie is a foot away, lying facedown, her hands clasped over her head. I grip the back of her jacket and drag her toward me, and shield her with my body. Her pulse is racing. A shadow blocks out the dim light from the front window, and there’s a loud hum of engines. Another burst of bullets punctuate the room as Beetle crawls across the floor toward the front door. He inches it open and checks outside.
“Destiny’s landing the Transporter! We can make it if we run,” he says.
There’s another round of gunfire
, and Natalie flinches. Day leaps to her feet and helps Martha up. They hurry out the door, followed by Beetle, Elijah, Acelot and then Yolanda. Lucinda is under the table, frozen with fear, her eyes fixed on Kieran’s destroyed face.
I look down at Natalie. “Go.”
“Not without you!” she says.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Natalie quickly kisses me, then scrambles to her feet and darts out the front door, her blond curls fanning behind her. A bullet slams into the wooden doorframe, missing her by an inch. My heart clenches. There’s no time to panic. I turn toward my aunt.
“Lucinda, we need to go,” I say, stretching out a hand toward her.
Something else in the room shatters and Lucinda cowers.
“Take my hand!” I demand.
She blinks, coming back to her senses, and takes my hand. We clamber out from under the table. I grab the glass jar containing Theora’s heart—we came all this way, and I’m not leaving without it—and we dash outside.
The aircraft is about fifty feet away, the engines roaring, making the trees sway and their leaves stir. Beetle is by the hatch, his gun raised toward the trees. “Hurry up, mate!” he says. The others are already inside.
Above the tree line, I hear the telltale hum of more Transporters approaching.
“Over there!” a voice shouts from the trees to my left.
A Sentry guard emerges from the gloom, his gun poised. I steer my aunt to the right just as he pulls the trigger. The bullet grazes my arm and I grunt with pain. There’s a pop-pop-pop of retaliatory gunfire from the Transporter as Beetle unloads his weapon, giving us a few vital seconds of cover. I force myself to run faster, my lungs burning with the effort. Lucinda barely manages to keep pace, her feet stumbling on a fallen log. I drag her upright as another bullet whizzes by us. We reach the Transporter just as more Sentry guards race around the cabin and start shooting. Beetle grips Lucinda’s hand and helps her on board. I leap onto the aircraft, landing heavily on the metal floor, and nearly drop Theora’s heart.
Wings (A Black City Novel) Page 21