Rite of Redemption (Acceptance Book 3)

by Sarah Negovetich

  We didn’t see even a whisper of the guards all night. Of course, I have to assume that means they caught Phillip and high-tailed it straight to Cardinal City to turn him in. If they did, it will be all over the news, and Daniel will know all about it. He’s probably going crazy back in Blue River. We only expected to be gone a few hours.

  All around us, the forest wakes up with the sounds of birds calling to each other in the trees and other animals scurrying about making their last preparations for winter. Between us, Eric is spent, and his full body weight comes down on my shoulders. I take a few more stumbling steps, but I don’t have the strength or energy to keep supporting him.

  “Over here, by this tree.” Ethan leads our trio over to a thick oak tree, and we ease Eric to the ground.

  I collapse next to him. The ground is cold and soggy under my back, but I don’t care. Dinner feels like a lifetime ago, and my stomach groans in protest of all the work I’ve done without eating more. We need to keep moving, but the reality is we aren’t going anywhere for a while.

  Ethan slides down the tree next to me, and we lay in silence while the forest around us goes about its normal morning routine. Between us, Eric breathes deeply, the pain finally taking him under. We need to get up. We need to keep moving. But I’m spent.

  I roll onto my side and suck in a sharp breath against the pain that radiates up my hip. I peel back the waist of my pants and immediately regret it. My skin is a solid landscape of purple and blue. I flop onto my back and stare up into the tree above us.

  “I’m sorry I pulled you into this.” I turn my head so I can see Ethan. “You never saw this as a viable plan, and it seems like no matter what we do, it’s destined to fail. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not.” Ethan lifts up on one elbow, and I get my first good look at him since we jumped out of the transporter. Several small sticks and leaves stick to his shirt and into his hair. Dark circles line his eyes, and his lips are chapped. But his eyes are alive with conviction. “I was wrong about all this. About you. It’s true I never thought this plan would work, but it can. I thought your little speech in Allmore was a fluke, an emotional response from a group of people who already loved you. But last night was different. You walked into a room full of strangers, completely unprepared, and you just went with it. And they loved you.”

  “They were desperate for someone, anyone.”

  “No.” Ethan shakes his head, dislodging a few leaves. “You didn’t see the way they looked at you. The way they hung on your every word. If you had told them to storm the capital, they would have grabbed the couch cushions and rushed the door.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “I think you can do this.” He reaches out a hand and helps me sit up. “We can do it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get back to Blue River. Can you move?”

  I nod and use the tree to leverage myself back up. The alternative is staying here where we’ll either die of hypothermia or get picked up by more guards. Either way, death is the only possible outcome. So getting up isn’t optional.

  We stare down at Eric. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to move him. Ethan squats down and pulls both of Eric’s arms over his shoulder.

  “Help me get him up, and then I can carry him. At least for a little while.”

  I grab Eric’s waist and help to wedge his abdomen across Ethan’s shoulder. Neither one of us asks what will happen when his weight becomes too much, and Ethan can’t carry him.

  Placing the rising sun at our left, we keep walking south. Ethan glances around us constantly, searching for any kind of landmark that will orient him to where we are. He spent all night pausing and examining trees and boulders, but so far, nothing is familiar.

  “So…Mexico. What’s the game plan there?” Ethan’s voice is muffled with Eric’s body draped across him.

  “You mean am I going to plan out what to say or just wing it again?”

  “Yeah, I mean you can totally wing it. It worked last night.” He adjusts Eric’s position, but doesn’t stop walking. “If it had been me, I would have just stared back at them. I might have told a joke. But you…if I didn’t know better I would have thought you knew you would have to speak. You’re a natural.”

  Of course, this is what everyone has been telling me for months. That the Cardinal should have been worried about me and my quick words. But this is different. Everyone else sees my speeches as something we can use to defeat the Cardinal, but by the way Ethan congratulates me, I feel less like a weapon. “Thank you.”

  “After watching you last night…I know exactly what Liam was thinking when he asked you to come out here. If given the chance, you could talk a whole nation into fighting back.”

  That’s what we want. For the people to fight back and take down the Cardinal. But I never really gave my role in all of this much thought. The way Ethan sees it, I’ll be the girl that plunges an entire country into war. I can’t help but picture some of the old war generals from my father’s history books. Me, standing on a hill littered with death and destruction, my face wide with rage while I urge the soldiers on to more death.

  My stomach curdles at the image, and my mouth fills with saliva. If there was anything in my stomach at the moment it would be thrown up.

  “Instead of convincing everyone to fight, I wish I could convince the Cardinal to step down.”

  “You might as well wish for a star from the night sky to land on your pillow tonight and grant you sweet dreams.”

  “Ethan. Rebecca?”

  Our feet freeze on the leaf-strewn forest floor. There’s no point in hiding. Whoever called to us already knows where we are, though I can’t make out anyone amidst the trees surrounding us on all sides.

  “They’re here. I found them.” John David comes riding out of the shadows. He races his horse over to us and dismounts in under thirty seconds. Relief washes over my body, starting at the top of my head and radiating all the way down until it warms the tips of my fingers and toes.

  As he gets to us, Henry rides over along with Michael. “Thank the stars. We’ve been worried sick, looking half the night to find you guys.”

  “What happened to Eric?” Michael comes around Ethan’s back and helps him lower Eric to the ground as carefully as they can.

  “He broke his leg when we jumped out of the transporter.” Ethan gestures to Eric’s swollen leg, but Henry only stares at Ethan in disbelief.

  “Why would you do that?”

  Ethan recounts the story of Phillip seeing someone following us and pushing us out of the transporter so he could create a distraction.

  “So where’s Phillip?” John David’s happiness at finding us is quickly overshadowed by the realization that Phillip isn’t with us.

  “He told us not to wait for him and to just head south,” I say, fighting back the tears that threaten to fall every time I think about those last few minutes with Daniel’s last remaining family member. I swore Patrice would be the last, but I knew it was only wishful thinking. This is going to kill Daniel.

  John David just nods at us and rounds up the horses. “We need to get these kids back to Blue River.”

  Michael picks up Eric and drapes him over his lap in the saddle. I climb up to double with Henry, while Ethan pairs up with John David. Henry pulls an extra blanket out of his saddle bag and drapes it over my shoulder. It smells like horse and scratches at my chin, and it’s the best blanket I’ve ever had. I pull it tight to cut out the wind as the horses turn around and head back.

  “How did you find us?”

  Henry leans forward so I can hear his soft voice over the sounds of three horses. “When you didn’t return after four hours, I was a little concerned. After six hours, I couldn’t read my book anymore and officially went to worried. After eight hours, I threw on my shoes, marched to John David’s house, and pounded on the door until he woke up.”

  Henry reaches into his pocket and pulls out a red a
pple so shiny, the sunlight actually reflects off the perfectly colored skin. I forget every table manner I ever learned the minute the first bite hits my mouth. Juice drips out of the crisp flesh and I lick my filthy hands so I don’t lose a single drop.

  I get a few bites down before I remember to say thank you. “So you just headed north and hoped for the best.”

  “I know which route Phillip usually takes to get to MidWest. It was pretty easy to follow his normal flight path and track you down. You were a little off the normal path, but we found you and that’s the most important part.”

  We ride some more, my body slipping in and out of sleep. One second I’m awake, talking to Henry about the guards finding us, and the next, we’re riding into the barn. John David is already dismounted and talking to several villagers who were waiting on us to get back.

  “Go back to the rider house and get some sleep. I’ll have someone from the kitchen bring you some food and water right away. Michael, can you take Eric over to the medic?”

  John David turns to leave, but I grab his arm. “What about Phillip? Is there any news?”

  His shoulders dip, and he stares past my head instead of looking me in the eyes. “Nothing so far, though I’m not holding out much hope. Do you have any injuries that need looked at?”

  I rub a lazy hand over my hip, but shake my head no. A little physical pain is nothing compared to the emotional turmoil boiling hot and searing my chest.

  “Go get some rest.”

  Exhaustion weighs down every part of my body, but I know there’s no sleep in my future.

  “What about Mexico?”

  “Nothing has changed. The Cardinal isn’t going to slow down and neither can we.” He grasps my shoulder a little too tight. “You leave for Mexico tomorrow.”

  I don’t have the energy to argue with him. I don’t even have the energy for tears. Phillip is missing, Eric’s leg is broken, and Daniel faces losing his father for the second time. I have to push all of that aside and keep fighting when what I really want to do is give up. But that’s what the Cardinal wants, too. So instead, I follow Ethan to the rider house to prep for Mexico. Not because I want to, but because I must.

  Eighteen

  A pallor of death and regret hangs over the rider’s house. We aren’t two feet inside the door before Elizabeth is up and asking a million questions a minute about Eric.

  “He’s in the med building.” I grab her arms and we take a steadying breath together. “He’s okay, but his leg is probably broken.”

  “He’s okay.” She blinks back tears threatening to spill over onto her pale cheeks. I haven’t seen her cry since Molly died, and the reemergence of those powerful emotions is a blow to my fragile emotional shell.

  I wipe away my own tears. “He’s okay.”

  She squeezes my arms and walks out the door. Daniel looks up from the Noteboard in his lap to stare at me, a war of emotions raging across his face. I take a step toward him, but a loud beep from the Noteboard freezes my feet.

  Daniel hits the volume button, blasting the high-pitched beep through the small room. Ethan looks over at me, his face scrunched in confusion, but I just shake my head. Every child in the Territories knows the sound of the emergency broadcast.

  The beeping stops, and I imagine the somber faces filling the Noteboard screen. “Ladies and gentlemen of the Territories, we have a special announcement just in directly from Cardinal City. Last night, while most citizens were sleeping safely in their beds, the ever diligent Cardinal guards apprehended the fugitive, Phillip Whedon. Former Councilman Whedon had been missing since last spring. We’ve now been informed that Mr. Whedon was in hiding after the Cardinal discovered his involvement in efforts to disrupt the peace and safety of our great nation.”

  The deep baritone voice of the broadcast announcer pauses, letting the full gravity of his words sink in. “Thanks to the tireless efforts of our benevolent Cardinal, Mr. Whedon is now on his way to the PIT, and our nation continues to enjoy the benefits of peace and stability. On behalf of everyone here at Capital News, we wish to thank the Cardinal—”

  Daniel powers off the Noteboard and stares at the wall behind us with a completely blank face.

  “Daniel.”

  “He’s gone.”

  His monotone words break what’s left of the whisper-thin strings holding me together. My knees give out, and I sink to the floor just inside the door.

  “I’m going to…” Ethan jerks his thumb at the door and hurries out. I don’t blame him. I don’t want to be here either.

  Emptiness fills the room around us like a heavy smoke that makes it hard to breathe. Both of us know the score. There's no way Phillip went to the PIT. As a member of the council, he would know all about the poison capsules, how often the guards patrol, even the timing of the deliveries. There's too much of a chance he could escape, and the Cardinal would never let that happen. Phillip isn't on an Airtrain to the PIT. He's dead.

  Daniel is hurting, but I’m all out. Out of energy. Out of ideas. Out of hope that I can help him.

  “I should have known this would happen.” Daniel’s bland voice breaks through the silence. “It was too much to ask that after losing Patrice I should get to have a full twenty-four hours with my dad.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He finally turns from the wall and really looks at me. “Sorry for what?”

  “I don’t know.” I suck in a breath and hold it to keep the growing pain in my chest at bay, but it’s too late. Hot tears break free and sprint down the sides of my face. My words come out filled with the pain I’ve worked so hard to keep inside. “I’m sorry about your dad and Patrice. I’m sorry I dragged you into this whole thing. I’m sorry for whatever I did that makes you hate me so much.”

  Daniel stands, but doesn’t move any closer to where I’m nothing more than a sobbing ball on the floor. “I don’t hate you.”

  The world’s least funny laugh bubbles up and out of my throat. “You could have fooled me. Ever since…Patrice, you tiptoe around me like I’m the one that shot her. You barely look at me, let alone touch me. I haven’t seen you smile in ages.”

  “I don’t hate you.” This time he does come to me, limping over to kneel on the ground in front of me and resting a hesitant hand on my knee. “I could never hate you. Don’t you see that everything I do is because of how much I love you?” He drops his hand away and stands up. “But I can’t lose focus. That’s when people get hurt. When they die. I can’t risk losing you, too.”

  I reach a hand out to him. “You aren’t responsible for those deaths.”

  Daniel only shakes his head and walks slowly to the door. “I can’t lose you.”

  He’s gone, and the emptiness I thought was so absolute pales in comparison to the vacuum he leaves behind. I crawl to my bunk and wrap the thin blanket over my head the way I did when I was a kid. Pretending the monsters in my closet couldn’t get me if they couldn’t see me shivering under the sheet. I pull it down over my head and tuck it around me like a cocoon. But of course, I’m too late. The monsters are already here.

  * * *

  The nurse by the door points me back toward Eric’s room, and I follow the long hallway to the back of the building that Blue River uses as a medical facility. I rap my knuckles on the door and push it open at Eric’s request.

  Elizabeth stands and fusses with Eric’s blanket. She must read the look on my face. “I’m going to grab something to eat.”

  We both watch her leave in silence.

  “Hey there, gimpy.” I pull a chair up to the side of his bed and sit down. “Thought I’d come see how you’re doing.”

  “Pretty beat up, but they tell me I’ll live.” Eric smiles, but it looks more like a grimace.

  “So what’s the official word?”

  “Broken tibia and a deep tissue bruise on my hip. My wrist is sprained, and there’s a chance I cracked a rib.” Eric points to the IV in the crook of his arm. “They’ve got pretty good meds here, thou
gh, so at least I’m not in constant pain.”

  “That’s good.” I stare at the wall behind Eric’s head, not sure what to say. I didn’t come over here with a purpose. I just needed to not be alone with my thoughts. We both sit in comfortable silence, except for the steady beep of a monitor hooked up to Eric’s chest.

  A nurse comes in, checks his IV, and leaves again without a word.

  “We’re leaving for Mexico in the morning.”

  Eric shifts slightly, bringing a quick grimace of pain to his face. “I’m sorry I won’t be there for you. Though I guess I haven’t been the best travel companion. You guys are probably better off leaving me here.”

  “That’s not even close to true.” I reach for his hand but pull back, afraid to hurt him. “You were the only one who believed in this mission. If not for you, I’d have given up ages ago. I know things haven’t always been great between us, but I wish you were going, too. You’re the one person around here I know I can trust with my life.”

  “Well, I should hope so since you’ve done it plenty of times before.”

  “Back in the PIT?” I wave my hand at him. “That wasn’t trust. I didn’t have a choice. It was either follow you or die. But I have choices now. And I would put my life in your hands without a second of hesitation.”

  “Why? What’s different now?”

  I stare at his face as if the answer is hidden in the details there. “I don’t know. There isn’t a specific time when I went from not trusting you to trusting you completely. I guess we’re both different people than we used to be.”

  Eric reaches out with his fingers and wraps them around mine. “I’m glad I can be that person for you. You deserve to be surrounded with people you can trust.”

  “I wish that was the reality.” I scoot my chair a little closer to the head of the bed. “Do you trust John David?”