by Rachel Aaron
Rosalie was speechless. Everything Brigitte had said matched what she privately thought, but admitting it would mean betraying her duty to her family. Betraying her father.
“Just think about it,” Brigitte said gently. “And be sure you give those forms to the rest of the squad. If anyone has questions, I’ll be available all day tomorrow. Dismissed.”
Rosalie rose on shaking legs, saluting her officer before walking out the door.
* * *
On the other side of the city, Jax was sitting on a stool in one of Trost’s smaller, dirtier taverns, taking care of some unfinished business.
“So you’re telling me there’s nothing,” he said, glaring daggers at the ruddy-faced man sitting at the bar beside him. “Woermann attacked Rosalie and then decided to what? Sit on his hands for two months?”
“Look, I can only tell you what I’ve heard, and I haven’t heard a peep,” Markus said, taking a long drink from his ale. “All Woermann wanted was to suck up to Dumarque, but when you lot killed the Gobbler, you became bloody heroes, and heroes don’t run home to daddy.” He took another drink. “The whole thing went sour on him. Can’t blame the poor bastard for wanting to lie low. Anyhow, word is the lady’s leaving the Garrison for marriage soon, right?”
Jax had been trying very hard not to think about that. He still clung to each nightly reading session like a dying soldier to his last breath. A wiser man would have already started to distance himself, spared himself the pain, but Jax couldn’t kick the fear that once Rosalie was gone, everything good she’d brought to his life would go with her.
“All right, Markus,” he said tiredly. “If you don’t have anything, why did you ask me to meet you? It certainly wasn’t for the company.”
“Absolutely not,” Markus said, tipping back his mug to finish his drink. “But I didn’t come entirely empty handed. I hear tell that Woermann’s about to try a new angle.”
“That’s more like it,” Jax said. “What’s he got in mind? Because if it’s another titan, I’m not even going to bother. Rosalie can carve those up on her own now.”
“No, no,” Markus said, getting up from his bar stool. “No more titans.”
“What is it, then?” Jax asked, frustrated.
Markus smiled wide, showing the gap in his yellowed teeth. “You.”
That was all the warning Jax got before something hard slammed into the back of his head.
* * *
He woke up tied to a chair in an office.
Captain Woermann’s office, specifically. Jax had been subjected to several unpleasant visits here over the years. But though he knew where he was, the finely dressed man standing in front of the fireplace was not Captain Woermann.
He was tall and broad-shouldered and seemed very fit for a man in his fifth decade. He was in shirtsleeves, no uniform, but he stood with the rod-straight posture that only came from a lifetime in the military. His blond hair was cropped ruthlessly short, but his stern face looked very much like Rosalie’s when she was angry, which told Jax all he needed to know about exactly how much trouble he was in.
“Let me guess,” he said. “You’re Lord Dumarque.”
The man looked away from the weak flames in the fireplace just long enough to shoot Jax a deadly glare. “I did not give you permission to speak.”
Jax sighed. Definitely Lord Dumarque. “Mind telling me why I’m here, then? I don’t recall doing anything that would warrant a personal visit from a Military Police general.”
“I’m not here as a general,” Lord Dumarque said, turning at last to walk across the carpet with slow, deliberate steps. “You are meddling with something that belongs to me. I am here to take it back.”
“ ’Fraid I don’t follow,” Jax said, wiggling experimentally against the ropes that tied his hands behind his back. “I’ve touched nothing of yours.”
“Haven’t you?” Lord Dumarque leaned down until he and Jax were eye to eye. “Because I have it on good authority that you, Jackson Cunningham, have shamelessly seduced my daughter, a noble lady of House Dumarque.” He tilted his head. “Do you know what the king’s punishment is for men of your station who trifle with noble ladies?”
Jax’s mouth went dry. “I believe it is hanging.”
“Father’s choice, actually,” Lord Dumarque said with a slow smile. “I can be quite imaginative.”
“Well, that’s lovely,” Jax said. “But you won’t be getting imaginative with me. I haven’t done anything to Rosalie.”
The lord’s blue eyes narrowed. “So it’s ‘Rosalie,’ is it?”
“She’s in my squad,” Jax said defensively. “What am I supposed to call her? Lady Dumarque?”
“Dissemble all you want,” Lord Dumarque said. “But Woermann has several witnesses who’ve seen you and my daughter being much closer than officer and subordinate should be.”
“Then why don’t you talk to her about it?”
“If I could talk Rosalie out of her self-destructive behavior, she wouldn’t be on that wall,” Lord Dumarque snapped. “You are but the latest in a long line of very bad decisions. If we wouldn’t be the laughingstock of Sina, I’d drag her home by her ear. The only dignity we have in this disaster is that at least she’s making a name for herself in the military. In killing a famous aberrant titan, she’s distinguished herself even more than her brothers. We now have some honor to hide behind, but that shelter does not extend to you.”
Lord Dumarque reached down and grabbed Jax’s jaw, forcing-him to look up at his face. “I don’t know how you managed it, but if the rumors are true, it would seem my daughter has developed a very unfortunate attachment to you.”
Jax, who’d been struggling, suddenly became still.
“Stop smiling,” Lord Dumarque snarled. “You clearly care nothing for my daughter’s future, so I can only hope you feel differently about your own.”
He released Jax’s jaw and reached into his pocket, pulling out a rectangular sheet of paper with the Royal Bank’s seal engraved on the corner. “I want Rosalie back, and I am willing to put out a great deal of money to make that happen. Name your price, and I’ll give you half right now. The other half will come when you get Rosalie off that wall.”
Jax gaped at him. “You want to pay me to make Rosalie go home?”
“Yes,” Lord Dumarque said flatly. “That’s how transactions work.”
It took everything Jax had not to laugh in the general’s face. “It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at me,” he said, grinning. “I can’t make Rosalie leave. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“Then try harder,” Lord Dumarque said. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear: I can change your life. With the money I’m offering—”
“I don’t want your money.”
“Of course you do,” he said. “Everyone has a price.”
“Not me,” Jax said angrily. “I learned my lesson about selling people long ago, and I’m not selling Rosalie. You talk about your daughter like she’s a lost dog, but Rosalie is a solider. She’s not like you, happy to let good men die and children starve so you can have your parties in peace. She’s fighting, and she’s going to keep fighting until she wins or she dies.”
For a moment, Lord Dumarque looked taken aback. Then he smiled. “Now I see,” he said with an infuriatingly condescending smile. “Rosalie’s not the victim of seduction here. You are.” He shook his head. “Poor little peasant, you’re in love with her.”
He stopped, waiting for Jax to argue. When Jax said nothing, Lord Dumarque’s face grew furious. “It’ll never happen,” he snarled. “You might be the big man on the wall, but you’re common as dirt, beneath her in every way. A pig in maneuver gear is still a pig.”
“I’d rather be a pig than someone like you,” Jax replied, looking the man up and down. “You call yourself a general, but Rosalie’s a braver soldier than you’ll ever be. That’s why you’re threat
ening me instead of talking to her. You already know she won’t back down, you’re just too cowardly to accept it.”
Lord Dumarque’s fists clenched, and Jax tensed in expectation of one landing in his face. In the end, though, the general just turned away. “I’m sorry you refuse to be reasonable,” he said as he walked to the door. It opened a moment later, and Captain Woermann stepped into the room, his beady eyes smug.
“Did he not cooperate, my Lord?”
“He did not,” Lord Dumarque said, putting on his coat. “He’s useless, but his death will only make my daughter even more unmanageable.”
Woermann looked disappointed. “What should we do, then?”
“Whatever you want,” Dumarque said as he stepped out of the room. “As long as he can still walk when it’s over.”
“Yes, my Lord,” Woermann replied, opening the door wider to let in two of the largest men Jax had ever seen. “Cunningham’s been a thorn in my side for some time now.” He grinned. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
His goons chuckled, and Jax cringed in his chair, gritting his teeth as he braced for how much this encounter was going to hurt.
C
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“Morning, Rosalie!”
Willow’s cheerful voice cut through Rosalie’s churning thoughts. The sun had barely risen, but her teammates were already coming out of the stairwell, suited up and ready for practice.
“We’re doing sword drills today, right?” Emmett said excitedly, patting his hands against the sheaths on his legs, which he wore much more confidently now. “I sharpened everything! Where’s Jax?”
Rosalie wished she knew. The first thing she’d done last night after leaving Brigitte’s office was try to talk to Jax, but she hadn’t been able to find him. Not even Cooper knew where he was. She’d gotten here early this morning hoping to find him, but still no sign. He technically hadn’t missed work yet, so she supposed it wasn’t her business, but that didn’t make her voice sound any less panicked when she told her squad the truth.
“He must have stayed out all night,” Emmett said, scratching his chin. “I thought something was odd when I didn’t see him in the barracks. Maybe he’s visiting a girl in town for—OW!”
Emmett jumped away, rubbing his side where Willow had elbowed him. “What was that for?!”
The medic rolled her eyes before looking pointedly at Rosalie, causing Emmett’s whole face to redden. “S-sorry, Rosalie,” he stammered. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s all right,” Rosalie said quickly, trying not to wince at the sudden pain Emmett’s speculation had lodged in her chest. “Jax and I aren’t…that is, he’s my officer, so we can’t be—”
“What’s important is that he’s missing,” Willow said, taking over before Rosalie could dig herself any deeper. She pointed at the stack of papers Rosalie was clutching. “Those look like orders. Did something happen that could have caused him to need to go somewhere?”
“Oh, no,” Rosalie said, holding up the forms Brigitte had given her. “These are for us. They’re actually why I was looking for Jax in the first place. Lieutenant Brigitte called me to her office last night. She wants to move our squad to the Survey Corps.”
Willow and Emmett’s faces went blank in stunned shock.
“Are you serious?” Willow demanded.
“The Survey Corps?” Emmett said at the same time. “As in green cloaks, horses, Wings of Freedom—that Survey Corps?”
Rosalie nodded. “The lieutenant thinks we’re too aggressive for the Garrison, so she’s recommended us for transfer. She wrote a letter explaining her decision—”
The rest of what she’d meant to say was crushed out of her as both of her squadmates grabbed her in a hug.
“I can’t believe it!” Willow cried in her ear. “We actually made it to the Survey Corps!”
“We’re going to ride outside the walls!” Emmett yelled back, nearly cracking Rosalie’s ribs in his happiness. “Think of all the secrets we can learn!”
“We could retake our home,” Willow said, releasing Rosalie to grab Emmett by the shoulders. “The Survey Corps is on mission in Maria right now. If we joined them, I bet you could come up with a way to patch that hole in Shiganshina’s gate. If we repaired the breach, all we’d need to do is kill the titans left inside, and Maria would be ours again!”
“And when we’ve done that, we could go beyond Wall Maria!” Emmett added excitedly. “Maybe we can even find where the titans are coming from and build a wall around that instead!”
The two of them were grinning so fiercely that Rosalie was amazed they could still talk. “So I take it you two are a yes, then?”
“Absolutely,” Willow said. “I’m signing up right now, before Brigitte changes her mind. Where’s my form?”
Rosalie held out the paper with Willow’s name at the top. The medic snatched it from her fingers, pulling a nubbin of pencil out of her medical bag to sign her name in a scrawl at the bottom. Emmett was slightly more careful. He actually read his form first, but a few minutes later he signed his name as well, beaming at Willow as he handed his paper back to Rosalie.
“We did it.”
“We did it,” Willow repeated, wiping tears from her eyes as she turned to Rosalie. “Let’s go turn them in now. We’ll get Jax later. You’ve signed yours, right?”
“Wait,” Emmett said. “Can she sign up?” He looked at Rosalie. “You’re getting married in the summer, right?”
“I’m supposed to be getting married,” Rosalie said, “but…”
She looked down at the form with her name on it. Brigitte had written each one very carefully, noting specifically that their squad was to remain together as part of the transfer. It was a future on a page, an invitation to reach out and grab what Rosalie had wanted since the very first time she’d climbed onto her roof: a chance to break free of her own walls, to live as she wanted.
The paper crinkled in her fingers. From the day her father sat her down when she was eleven, she’d known her future was to marry money and rescue the noble House Dumarque from debt. But every time she tried to feel pride in saving her family, all she could think about was that stupid party.
That’s what she was saving. Not lives. Not people. She was giving up her future, marrying herself to a lifetime of Ferdinand’s tedious conversation, so her mother could keep wasting food to impress other nobles. That was what she’d been sold to buy. And no matter how hard she tried, Rosalie couldn’t make herself believe it was worth it anymore.
“Dumarque is more than a house on a hill.”
“Sorry?” Willow said, but Rosalie wasn’t talking to her. She was speaking to herself, to the eleven-year-old girl who’d known her role in life, but never quite accepted it.
“We can find other ways to make money, but we can’t buy back our honor,” she said, reaching for Willow’s pencil. “Our family has never failed to answer the call to battle. I won’t be the first.” Her voice was shaking by the end, but her hand was steady as she signed her name. “I’ll make them understand.”
They wouldn’t. Her father would be furious, and her mother would never speak to her again. But terrifying as that was, Rosalie couldn’t feel regret because for the first time ever, she was doing what she wanted to do. Not for a month or half a year—forever. She was going to live as she liked because she was not property. She was a soldier, a person who’d heard her whole life about the bravery and nobility of her Dumarque ancestors. Her father couldn’t complain now that she was finally living up to her name, and once she helped the Survey Corps win back their lands in Maria, maybe he’d even forgive her.
“I guess that’s that,” Willow said with a grin. “Congratulations, beanpole. I know
this marriage was a big thing for you, but you’ve definitely made the right decision. You’d be bored stiff as that fancy idiot’s wife, and if your former fiancé does get mad that you chose titans over him, well he can’t do anything, can he? You’ll be out in Maria with the rest of us. Like to see him try to follow you out there.”
Even with her heart pounding like a drum, the thought of Ferdinand getting anywhere near a titan was enough to make Rosalie laugh. “There is a bit of built-in security, isn’t there?” she said as the three of them started toward the stairs. “Even if my father sends a military police squad, they’ll have to wait until we come back inside to pick me up.”
“Assuming they’re willing to wait,” Emmett pointed out. “Commander Erwin’s been out there for two years already, and I doubt future missions will be any shorter. They’ll probably just give up.”
Her father would never give up, but Rosalie liked the idea of the walls working to her advantage for once. “Come on,” she said, hurrying down the stairs. “If we’re quick, we can get these forms in to Brigitte and get out to the field before anyone knows I’m gone.”
The three of them went down at a dead run. As they turned to head for Brigitte’s office, Rosalie spotted Jax limping through the base’s front gate.
* * *
Jax hobbled through with one minute to spare before being counted AWOL. Thanks to Lord Dumarque’s orders, Woermann’s “lesson” had left no lasting damage aside from a cracked rib on his left side, but his body was still a mass of pain. He wasn’t even sure how he’d made it all the way back after they’d dumped him in the alley behind headquarters. His current focus was finding a place where he could flop over unseen, but then he heard Rosalie’s voice.