I believe him. I believe Forest wholeheartedly. I believe he wouldn’t intend for harm to come to us. But Titus has the ultimate say. And if we’re caught, he will most definitely kill us both. Oh Forest. I had so much hope for him. I trusted him with my life so many times. I squeeze my eyes shut, fight back the tears threatening to surface at his betrayal.
“You still won’t show yourselves?” Forest’s golden brows furrow. He removes his hands from his hips and crosses his arms over his chest. “I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to resort to…threats. But you should know that Chief Whitcomb has Elijah.”
My breath is knocked out of my lungs. My brother. Titus has my brother.
“If you come out now,” Forest says. “I promise, no harm will come to you or him. But if you don’t come out, we will have to use him to draw you out, by…” He blinks several times like the next word is too hard to squeeze out. “By…torture.”
And that one word makes my heart drop into my stomach. I look at Rain, but he gives a brief shake of his head. I suck my bottom lip in, gnaw on it until it’s sore.
“Still no cooperation, hm?” Forest lifts his wrist and looks at his phoneband. “I’ll call Whitcomb right now, then. Tell him to proceed with the interrogation.”
I look at Rain again. He’s still shaking his head too fast. But this isn’t Rain’s call to make. It’s mine. This is my brother, my life. Not Rain’s.
“Stop.”
I clamor out of the tree, branches scraping against my face and arms, then stumble through the trees toward Forest. I can hear all guns turn toward me, all Defenders looking at me, and I lift my hands to show I’m not armed. My heart is thrumming in my fingertips, in my jugular, pounding into my head. I can’t think past the shock, and I look at Forest, the person who used to make me feel safe, now has my life in his hands.
“Please,” I say, falling to my knees in front of him. “Please, please don’t let them touch Elijah.”
“Ember,” Forest whispers.
He hunches in front of me and tips my chin up, and it’s only when he’s blurred that I realize I’m crying. I try to blink back my tears, but the action backfires, and instead a tear is released down my cheek. Forest’s eyes soften. His lips open as if in a gasp, and for a brief moment, I see the Forest Turner I met at The Tap, the Forest who gave me the farming career, the Forest who did everything in his power to save me…three times.
“You came,” he says, and his voice is thick and warm. Not cold like it was one minute ago. And he’s not a traitor anymore, but the kind, honest Forest I know. The Forest with therapeutic hugs and comforting words. And all I can do is stare at him until the one burning question in my mind finally finds its way to my lips.
“Where’s my brother?” I ask.
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. And he opens his mouth to say something, when Rain’s voice sounds behind me.
“An odd time of year to be picking out a Christmas tree, eh, brother?” Rain says.
And just like that, the concern in Forest’s eyes vanishes. The blue summer sky of his eyes ices over. His jaw clenches and he looks past me at Rain.
“Let us go,” Rain says.
“Absolutely not.” Forest’s hand drops from my chin and he stands abruptly.
“Seriously?” Rain asks. “You have no idea what this government is capable of. What Titus is capable of. You have no idea how blind you are.” Rain places his hand on Forest’s arm. “You have no idea how corrupt this country is—”
“Arrest them both,” Forest snaps. And Defenders are on me and Rain in an instant. Iron grips wrap around my arms and begin dragging me toward the road, and I know better than to fight them now. I’ve been arrested so many times in the past few months. So I go along with them. Let them drag me out of the pines while Forest marches ahead without looking back. Whatever sympathy I saw in him is clearly gone. And it’s because of Rain.
I glare at Rain. “You should have stayed hidden.”
“And let you have all the fun?” He smirks as he struggles against the hold of his Defender. “No way. Besides, someone has to look out for you, since Forest here is apparently stabbing you in the back.”
“I’m stabbing her in the back?” Forest’s voice is raw. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it’s you two who are working against the government. I’m just trying to keep order and keep people from dying unnecessarily in a war the Resurgence wants to start.”
“Dying unnecessarily?” Rain asks with a snort. “Really? Like all those rebels who die on the circle every month? Like all those thieves who get arrested just for stealing food to feed their families? You’re not really one to talk about unnecessary deaths, Forest.”
Forest pulls his gun from his belt and slams the heel of it into Rain’s temple, and Rain goes limp. I bite back a scream, because I’ve never seen Forest do anything so brutal and the fact that he did that to his own brother is. Just. Too. Much.
“Was that necessary?” I ask.
But he keeps his gaze forward, his jaw tensing as he continues walking ahead of the group.
Well, one thing is certain. Forest will always choose Titus above anyone else. Above me. Above Rain. Above his own country.
And that makes him as dangerous as Titus.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
We’re taken straight to the capitol building. Rain and I ride in the back of a barred truck. A prison vehicle. Forest drives his own car and leads the procession. So distant, separating himself from the girl he once loved and his own brother. He’s not the Forest I thought I knew. How can he blindly follow everything Titus says? How can he just think it’s okay to burn Dad’s orchard down or make Leaf kill himself or kill anyone who associates with Walker? All of this is just so twisted.
I pull Rain’s limp body closer, cradle his head on my lap to protect him from the bumps of the truck. A trickle of blood smears his temple, but it doesn’t look bad enough to cause serious damage. I kiss his forehead, then smooth his hair away from his temple, wishing I had something to tend his wound with.
When we arrive at the capitol, Defenders drive up to the stadium, and I’m hit with wave after wave of memories. This place. This place of death and black tigers and gawking Patricians makes my stomach hollow, and I suddenly wish Rain was conscious, if only for moral support. Because he could always make light of things, and he would know exactly what to do in this situation.
The Defenders pull up to the front door and a head Defender, who I’ve never seen before, escorts us into the building. I guess someone had to take Mcallister’s place. This guy is strong and cold, with a buzz cut and careless brown eyes that almost look dead.
Definitely a brainless Defender if I’ve ever seen one.
But instead of taking us to the smelly basement, we’re taken to an actual room. I recognize it. Because it’s the room Forest met me in when I was first arrested. It’s the room he met me in when he said he would try to get me out of prison. And now he’s the one delivering me to prison.
Large, with a sliver of a window running the length of the ceiling, the room is sparse. The fireplace is unlit, and two leather couches are placed across from each other by the fire. The room harbors a giant table on the other side. Rain is practically dropped on one of the couches. I race to his side and kneel down, trying to make him comfortable. A bead of blood trickles down his temple where Forest struck him. He’ll bruise, but he’ll be okay once he wakes up. He’ll be grumpy too, probably. Headache and all. I don’t know if I dread grumpy Rain more or Titus’s inevitable visit that’s sure to come. Maybe that’s why we were brought to this room. So Titus could kill us himself.
Forest steps in a moment later and instructs the Defenders to wait outside. He looks at Rain, still passed out on the couch, then looks at me. And his jaw is rigid and his eyes cold as ice, and with one stern look from him, my heart begins beating two times too fast.
“Was it all a lie?” His voice his husky, and he swallows hard. “Were you just…faking it? What we had
?”
I shake my head. “No. It was real.”
He furrows his brows and looks away. “That’s hard to believe.”
“Why?”
His eyes snap to mine. “You’re with the Resurgence. And you lied about that.”
I look down at my hands. “You would have turned me in if I said anything about it.”
“And with good reason.”
The sting of his words makes me wince.
“You’re also Aurora’s twin.”
“Titus finally told you the truth, huh?”
Something flashes in his eyes. “He was protecting her.”
“He was keeping her locked away like a shoddy hostage.”
“And isn’t the Resurgence doing the exact same thing? Keeping her hostage? Except I doubt their living conditions are nearly as plush as what she’s used to.”
He’s actually probably right about that.
“Besides,” he continues. “It looks like it was the smartest thing for Titus to do. Keeping his sister hidden with rebels like you running around.”
“Don’t forget I’m his sister, too.”
He narrows his eyes. “So where is she?”
“Who? Aurora?”
“Yes.”
“She’s still with the Resurgence.”
Concern weaves in and out of his eyes. “What have you done to her?”
“N-nothing.”
“Come on, Ember. She’s your hostage.”
I really don’t like how he keeps calling her my hostage. “Let’s not forget who the villain is, Forest. Aurora hasn’t been touched.” Well, except when Rain dug out her finger nail, but no need to tell Forest about that. “Her living conditions aren’t exactly fit for royalty, but she’s certainly still living the life of an entitled princess.”
“Am I supposed to believe that you took your worst enemy’s sister captive, and you haven’t laid a finger on her?”
“Jonah won’t let me.”
“Jonah?” His eyes widen. “Jonah Walker.” A disgusted look crosses his features. “You’re working with Ky’s most wanted.”
“Who happens to be my and Aurora’s and Titus’s uncle.”
“What?”
“Jonah Walker was my mother’s brother.”
He stares at me in obvious shock, then offers a hollow laugh and shakes his head. “Should have seen that one coming. Did you know all this time?”
“No.”
“Really? Because I’m beginning to believe that everything you said was a lie. That maybe you were working with your uncle while you were in Frankfort. That when he broke into your hotel room, it really was all planned for you to help him. And if that’s the case, then Titus had every right to burn you on the Rebels Circle.”
His words sting worse than the searing heat of the Rebels Circle, and I just want him to stop. Stop talking. Stop burying the dagger of betrayal deeper into my chest.
“What’s happened to you?” I ask, and tears are suddenly burning my eyes. “You’re nothing like the Forest Turner I knew. You’re almost as heartless as Titus.”
“My apologies for not harboring any affection for traitors.” Forest’s eyes roam down the length of me before he searches my eyes. “You’re the one who’s changed. You’re not the Ember Carter I remember.”
“How so?” I wipe my nose with the back of my hand and stand. “You knew all along that I was against the chief. You knew I wanted change. I’m exactly the same now as I was when you met me at The Tap in the Community Garden.”
“No. The Ember I knew wouldn’t take an innocent hostage.”
A laugh escapes me. “I would hardly call Aurora innocent.”
“You don’t know her.”
“And you do? She didn’t even tell you she was my twin and Titus’s sister. How can you believe anything else she said?”
“Because she’s sincere. She withheld that information for her own safety, because she’s been gallivanting around Frankfort without a bodyguard. If the Resurgence knew who she really was, she would be an easy target for rebels like you and Walker and Rain.”
“Do you keep forgetting,” I say, “that I’m her twin and Titus’s sister, too? Or don’t I count because I was raised Proletariat? A nobody?”
He winces. “You know that means nothing to me. I—I wanted to marry you.”
His words shock every thought out of my head. Forest wanted to marry me? I mean, sure, we were pretty serious. He spent two weeks in the Community Garden with me and my family. But marriage? But then I remember how he was going to marry Olivia Doss, too, and how Rain’s friend, Cherry, said marriage is really just a convenience around here. It has nothing to do with love.
And my heart hardens.
“You wanted to marry me,” I say. “Just like you wanted to marry Olivia Doss. What about Aurora? You two were engaged. Do you want to marry her now? How quickly you move from one girl to another.” I release a dry laugh. “I mean, in the past three months, you’ve dated three girls, and been engaged to two. Is marriage just a way to look good for you? A means of promotion?”
“Seriously? You think so little of me?”
“Isn’t that why you were about to marry Olivia?”
His jaw tenses. “I didn’t know you like I thought I did.”
Rage ignites through my veins. I don’t understand Forest. How he can claim not to know me, but says he knows Aurora. I mean, he’s known her all of two weeks. What does he see in her?
“Is it because she looks like me?” The question leaves my lips before I can reel the words back in.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you like her b-because she looks like me?” I’m shaking now. With rage or grief or pure confusion, I’m not sure. “She looks like me but has your Patrician culture? And Titus approves of her? Is that it? Is that what makes her so p-perfect?”
I hate this. I hate arguing with Forest, the boy I thought was so pure and honest. He’s not as pure as I thought. Or maybe he is. Maybe he’s too pure. Maybe that’s why he’s so incredibly naïve. And I realize, it could have never worked between us. I never fully trusted him to begin with, and he clearly doesn’t trust me, either. The strongest relationships are built on trust, and ours had none of that.
“I like Aurora,” he says, being more honest than I’d hoped. “I like her because she’s real.”
I’m so confused now. Are we talking about the same Aurora? Because the one I know is more fake than all the Patricians put together. At least, she was until last night. And maybe last night’s version of Aurora is the version Forest saw all along.
“I like her,” Forest is saying, “because after everything she’s been through, she still knows how to hold herself together. She’s strong like that. She doesn’t run off with a bunch of rebels, hoping they will make things right for her. She doesn’t fall in love with the first boy she meets hoping he will fix her.”
Humiliation heats up my neck, and now I really want to disappear.
“She picks herself up off the ground,” Forest says. “And deals with her problems herself.”
I blink back my tears. His words betray my trust in him. Because he sees me as a weakling. He thought I fell in love with him so he could fix me? He thinks I’m using the Resurgence to clean up my mess? Little does he know I wanted nothing to do with this revolution. Not really.
But another question is burning my brain right now.
“What problems?” I ask. “You keep talking about Aurora’s past like you know it. Did she tell you about her living conditions? Did she tell you she was lonely?”
He presses his lips together and stares at me, guarded, then looks away. “I don’t know all the details. I know she had a baby once, and then lost it.”
The shock of that statement slaps me in the face. A—a baby? But, no. Aurora told me she was alone. She said she only spoke to her maid and Titus. She never mentioned a lover. So who was she lying to? Me? Or Forest? Is she really as manipulative as Rain said? I don’t want to entertain the
thought. Not when I saw a glimmer of authenticity in Aurora. Not when she’s my hopeful replacement as chieftess. But I don’t have to entertain the thought long before Rain groans. I race to his side.
“Rain. You okay?”
He places his hand on his head and groans again. “Son of jackal. I’m going to kill Forest.”
Forest clears his throat, and Rain’s head jerks up until their eyes meet.
“Brother,” Rain says, straightening. “What a horrible surprise.”
“Seems I’m not the only one full of horrible surprises,” Forest says. And if I thought he was angry moments ago, I was wrong. So completely wrong. Because he could murder Rain with his mere gaze, he could rip this planet apart with that look in his eyes, and my own heart is beginning to shred, because I didn’t know one look could hold so many emotions. Fear. Grief. Betrayal. Pure, undiluted hatred. All in Forest’s cobalt eyes.
“I can’t believe,” Forest says, his voice low, “that you two have been going behind my back this whole time.”
“Hey,” Rain says. “Ember tried to get you to make changes in the government, and you wanted to move at the pace of a slug. Keeping the Resurgence a secret was our only way to keep you from betraying us.”
“Let’s not get confused, brother,” Forest says, looking at me. “You two are the traitors here, not me.”
“Where’s Elijah?” The question escapes my lips as soon as he looks at me. But I have to know. “Is he okay? Did you let him go?”
For the briefest moment, I catch a glimpse of sorrow in Forest’s eyes. But he hardens his gaze, clenches his jaw, and says, “We will not let him go until we get Aurora back.”
I’m on my feet in an instant. “But, you said if I turned myself in you’d release him!”
ashen city (Black Tiger Series Book 2) Page 31