by S. C. Green
Alain didn’t answer. Beside him, May continued to stare straight ahead, her eyes blazing.
Dorien stepped forward into the centre of the circle of Reapers. He raised the sceptre to the sky and spoke a short prayer in the ancient language of the Reapers.
“These men have been tried and convicted by the Council of the Order.” Dorien pointed the sceptre at Malcolm’s chest. “Their crimes blacken the name of the Reapers during the time when we most need to show solidarity and integrity.”
The crowd murmured their assent. My chest tightened.
“For the crimes of breaking their sacred oaths to the Order, or forsaking their duty to protect the people of this city, and for committing abhorrent acts upon innocents, these men will be beheaded so that their bodies cannot return to their true form in death. They will not know the fields of the underworld, but will instead rot here in the ground with the rest of this dying city.”
A collective gasp rose through the crowd. Beside me, Alain’s grip tightened. From beneath one of the hoods, Lucien gulped. The punishment was the harshest imaginable to a Reaper. Their crime was abhorrent, but even so, Dorien’s words chilled me.
“As the final judge in this horrid affair, I shall be the one to wield the sword,” Dorien announced. “It is my duty as leader to ensure none among you has the blood of your own brothers upon his hands.”
Lorcon stepped forward and handed him a leather scabbard. Dorien drew out a long, two-handed blade, the sharp edges glinting in the grey light. He raised the sword above his head, gripping the hilt with steady hands, and pointing the blade toward the roof of the dome.
“Do you have any last words?” he asked the kneeling figure.
“I’ll see you all in hell,” came Malcolm’s muffled reply. He started to laugh, his cackles echoing around the silent courtyard.
Dorien stepped back, his face faltering. But then he seemed to find himself. He set his jaw, raised the sword above his head, and swung.
The sword sliced. Diana buried her head in the folds of my coat. My heart froze. Malcolm’s laugh cut off abruptly. Blood spurted across the cobbles. Lorcon hurried in to clean up the head while two other Reapers dragged the body away.
Two more slices, and it was done. My ears throbbed with the rush of blood between my ears.
The Compound was supposed to be a place of safety. Alain had promised me that Diana and I could live there without fear. But as I stared down at those lumps of bloody meat, I realised we were never going to be safe here. The law was the same as it was outside, decided arbitrarily by whoever held the most power. Behind these walls, I was a prisoner to Dorian's whims, and when I’d watched him bring that sword down upon his fellow brothers’ necks, I knew that—as much as I might agree with him—I couldn’t trust him.
Diana sobbed into my coat. I patted her head, but could utter no words of assurance. In my mind, I’d already made my decision. It was time to leave the Reapers. As much as I loved Alain and May and even Dorien, Diana and I no longer had a place behind the Compound walls.
Diana was my life. I had to protect her at all costs. I would not trap her here because of my own desires.
That was my mother’s realm, putting her own desires before anyone else. Career or man, they both had to be less important.
I would not be my mother.
I WANTED to sneak away while Alain was on a shift that night, avoiding the painful goodbye that I knew would rend my heart. But that would kill him, to lose me the way he lost Raine, without knowing why. As it turned out, he didn’t leave for a shift in the city. Instead, he crawled into bed beside me and wrapped me in his arms.
“I’m sorry you had to see that today,” he whispered in my ear.
Diana was sleeping with May in her room again. Dorien had someone guarding the door to make sure they stayed safe. I hoped they were staying up late, drinking soda straight from the can and talking about boys and not—as I suspected—crying over the death of Cory and the other Reapers and the horror of what they’d seen today.
“It was awful.” I paused, trying to think of some way to tell him my plans, but I couldn’t find the words.
“But necessary.” Alain stroked my hair. “We couldn’t allow such a heinous act to go unpunished. I noticed the girl, Sia, wasn’t in the courtyard. Did you tell her what happened?”
“She isn’t here. She asked Dorien to let her leave the Compound, so he did.” I took a deep breath, but another idea occurred to me. I had to try to talk to him about my fears. Perhaps, if he could assuage them, then we wouldn’t have to leave. Maybe Alain would be able to bring Dorien back from the dark place he seemed to be heading. “Alain, I’m concerned about Dorien.”
“Dorien? Why?”
“He killed three of his own brethren today.”
“He had no choice. They were guilty. It was his duty as leader to ensure that justice is done inside the order as well as outside it. Dorien understands his duty.”
“See, I’m just not sure justice really was done today. There was no trial. Sia wasn’t even here to give evidence before the Council. Dorien said he took her down to the cells and she identified those three men, but—” I watched Alain’s face. “Judging by the way you’re looking at me, I gather that’s the first you’ve heard of this.”
“I’ve been busy in Cory’s lab all day. He might not have had time to speak to everyone on the Council.”
“You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”
Alain’s forehead creased. “There will be an explanation, Sydney. You know Dorien as well as I do. He would never do anything like this unless he had good reason to.”
“Actually, I don’t really know Dorien at all.” With a deep breath, I pressed on. “I’ve known you all for less than a fortnight, and in that time, ten of your Order have been killed by the wraith and three by your leader.”
“Why are you saying all this?”
I wiped a strand of his hair from his narrowed eyes. “I’m trying to show you what an outsider might see. You’re too close to him, Alain. You’re blinded to his faults because he’s your friend. But I have no such ties to him, and I can see that this power is changing him. For fucks sake, he’s advocating destroying the dome!”
Alain’s face darkened. “I don’t like that either. But I understand why Dorien suggested it. He needs to consider all the options, even the ones he doesn’t agree with. If it were Malcolm, he would just be surging ahead with the plans by now.”
“What’s to say Dorien won’t? He surged ahead with this execution without the proper procedure.”
“As an outsider.” Alain spat the word, his eyes blazing. “What did that look like to you?”
“It looked to me like a leader trying to get rid of his competition.”
His jaw set like steel, he turned away.
“I think you’d better go,” he whispered to the wall.
“Alain, don’t be like this.”
“I said go!’ he yelled. “Get out of my sight.”
“You don’t mean that.” I curled my hands into fists. He’d told me he’d protect me, and just like that, he pushed me away because I dared to question something?
“You obviously no longer feel safe here, so go back to the streets where the wraith will suck your soul through your chest. Do what you want, I don’t care!”
“Fine.” I grabbed my leather jacket from the end of the bed, yanked open the door to his room, and flew through it, slamming it back on its hinges. The entire hall rattled from the force.
I stormed down the corridor toward May’s room to fetch Diana, pawing at my face with my hands in a vain attempt to fight away the tears that ran down my cheeks. We’d be safer outside with the wraith—I just needed to remind myself of that. But those words in the same thought sounded so impossible.
17
Diana and I stood in front of the tall iron gates of the Compound, the meagre possessions we’d acquired over the last days packed into a cardboard box that sat between us. On top of the
gate perched two ravens, staring down at me with cold, unforgiving eyes. Blackie—clinging to Diana’s shoulder—hissed up at them defiantly, but they didn’t try to halt our passage.
“Are we really going back to the Rim?” Diana asked.
I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, I’d start to cry again. I wouldn’t break down in front of Diana. I had to be strong for her.
I gripped the heavy latch on the gate, my heart feeling as though it were made of the same weighty iron. My feet ached from the effort of keeping them pointing forward. Every atom of my body screamed at me to go back to Alain, to apologise, to try and fix things. But it didn’t matter what I wanted. He’d made his choice. He chose Dorien.
I hope they’re very happy together, I thought bitterly.
I lifted the latch. The gate creaked open. I sighed, picked up the box, and stepped outside.
“Sydney, wait!”
That familiar voice sounded so broken, that before I could stop myself, I whirled around. My heart pounded as Alain sprinted across the garden toward me, his black coat flapping around his thin figure.
I held up my hand, my face set as stone. Don’t let him break your resolve.
“Stop.” I said firmly, my voice catching in my throat. “Don’t come any closer.”
Alain held up his hands, palms upward in supplication.
“Please,” he cried, desperation thick in his voice. “Don’t leave until you’ve heard me out.”
“I have nothing more to say to you,” I said firmly. The tears burst from the corners of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I wiped them away angrily. “I trusted you. I only told you what I did because I care about you. And you chose not to believe me. You were the one who told me to leave.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s why I came to say that I was wrong. Is there anything I could do to convince you to forgive me?”
I stared blankly over my shoulder at the gate, fighting against a cold shiver, and wished he’d stop playing with my emotions like an insignificant toy. “I highly fucking doubt it.”
“I messed up, Syd. I know I did. When it comes to Dorien, I … He’s been there for me my entire life, like a big brother. He helped me when Raine left, and while I was trying to raise May by myself. He’s my family. It’s hard for me ...” He gulped. “It’s hard for me to see his faults.”
“You can’t do that, Alain. May is counting on you, and so was I.” Shivering from a burst of goose bumps across my arms, I glanced at Diana, who’d withdrawn to a few feet away. I hated that she was seeing this, but it was a little too late now. “You can’t wander around blind like that. It’s going to get you killed.”
“I know.” He stepped forward, reaching out to grab my hand.
I yanked it away and steeled myself against the hurt in his eyes.
“Please come back. We need you here. I need you.”
“You don’t need me,” I shot back. “I got your daughter back. Ever since then, all I’ve been to you is a burden, another mouth you have to feed, another innocent you have to protect. Well, I don’t need your protection. Diana and I were doing perfectly fine before. And I will not spend another minute in a place where my opinion isn’t respected and the man I’m supposed to follow is executing his brethren and no one bothers to question him.”
“You were in jail before,” Alain snapped. “I don’t call that ‘doing fine.’ Are you going to return to your old life, the one where you stole from gangs for whatever scraps they deigned to give you? And how long until you end up back behind bars or husked in the street like everyone else?”
“You told me to go!” I screamed at him, the tears streaming down my cheeks now. I fisted my hands, ready to throat punch him if he came any closer. “You don’t get to care about what happens to us. You made that perfectly clear when you abandoned me.”
He took another step forward, his frame looming over me. He cast his eyes down, the pain in them so deep and so raw it sent a chill through my heart.
“I did not abandon you,” he whispered. “I could never do that. Please, Sydney—”
“I cared about you!” I spat back. “And you did the same thing my mother did. You left me to fend for myself. Well, fine. Here I am, doing what you wanted, what I’m good at. So unless you can think of a more compelling reason for me to stay, we are gone.”
“I don’t want to ever leave you.” His eyes bore into mine. “I love you.”
I love you.
The words echoed in my mind, blaring across my vision like a red-light billboard. Three simple words had the power to drive the air from my lungs and make my heart soar.
I loved him too. No question about that since my whole world had gone cold when I thought I’d lost him.
I stepped toward him, falling into his open arms. His warmth enveloped me as his lips found mine. My whole body swelled with heat. He loves me. I dragged my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer, my mouth open wide as I tried to climb inside his body and make us one.
“Sydney, are we still leaving?” Diana tugged at my sleeve.
“Fuck that.” I buried my face in Alain’s shoulder and cried with joy.
We were staying. The power of the wraith was still flaring, and the city stood poised to bubble over. And I’d just walked back into the fire.
18
I woke in the night, my bladder throbbing. I slid out from beneath a sleeping Alain, pulled my black coat around my body to ward off the evening chill, and stepped out into the hall.
The Compound was deathly silent. Many of the Reapers were out in the city, valiantly making their last ditch effort to hold back the onslaught of the wraith. A small paper on the wall beside the bathroom door displayed a grisly tally—a line drawn for every human or Reaper that had been husked. So far, the toll stood at sixty-eight, and that was just the huskings the Reapers had witnessed. Who knew how close the wraith were to completing their goal?
Once inside the communal bathroom at the end of the hall, I did my business and wiped my hands on a filthy cloth beside the cracked porcelain sink. Little rain fell inside the dome—only that made by condensation formed when steam or sweat rose and fell again as the cold grey sky cooled it—and the few wells in the city had long been drank dry, so what water remained couldn’t be wasted on sanitation. I thought back to the day Cory had proudly showed me the water recycling system he’d made following a design he’d seen described in a book about NASA spacecraft. Tears pricked in the corners of my eyes. I was feeling very raw and emotional today.
I glanced out the grimy window. The bathroom looked over another cloister, and beyond that, the city loomed. I could make out the line of the Citadel glowing on the horizon. Despite its ominous glare, the city was silent. Perhaps the Reapers were finally winning out against the wraith tonight.
Voices sounded behind me. I spun around, instantly on alert.
“Who’s there?” I demanded, squinting into the gloom of the hall.
No reply, but I heard the voices again, muffled behind the walls. Two people were having an argument.
I took a cautious step into the hallway, listening hard. As I moved back toward Alain’s room, I strained to hear from behind which door the argument came. My heart pounded as I passed May’s door and realised the voices were coming from inside. The walls were too thick for me to hear actual words, but I had a better way.
I pressed my hand to the wall.
Dorien had May pushed up against a wall, his face inches from hers. At first I thought they were making out, the way one of his hands was placed on her thigh, the other around her neck. But then I glimpsed the wild, frightened look in her eyes, the way her jaw was set in a firm line. She was terrified. The burn scars across her face stood out in high relief.
What was going on? And where was Diana?
“You know the deal, May,” he said, his voice as calm and friendly as ever. “You give yourself to me now, or I bring you before my friends, and they all take their pleasure with you. They’ll pay a fine price for a
chance with a Reaper girl. Perhaps one will even plant a baby in your belly. That is, if you don’t have one already.”
“Don’t do this,” she begged. “Please—”
“I am the head of this Order now,” Dorien growled. “You will obey me.”
With that, he shoved his mouth against hers. She beat him with her tiny fists and managed to shove him away, but before she could duck around him, he grabbed her by the hair and threw her on the bed. Then he climbed on top of her and buried his face in the nape of her neck while he tugged at her nightgown.
I needed to get in there, to stop Dorien before he took advantage of May. But my legs had frozen in place, paralysed by terror and shock. Was this the real Dorien?
“Let go of her!” Diana leapt out of the shadows in the corner of the room. She grabbed Dorien and tried to pull him off May. On her shoulder, Blackie hissed, swiping his claws across Dorien’s cheek.
Growling, Dorien flung out an arm, sending Blackie soaring across the room. Blackie hit the wall with a sickening thud and dropped to the floor, his tiny neck bent at an impossible angle. Diana screamed, tearing at Dorien’s face with her own nails. He kicked her and sent her sprawling across the floor.
Anger, bright and searing, fired through my veins. Tearing my hand from the wall, I reached for the door and tried the handle. It was locked from the inside, of course. I raised my legs and kicked at it with all my might. The wood made a cracking sound but didn’t budge. I kicked it again. From inside, Dorien cursed and May sobbed.
“Diana!” I screamed. “Get the door.”
From inside, a crash sounded, then more cursing and screaming. How was no one else hearing this? Why was I the only one out here, trying to save May? Unless this wasn’t the first time this had happened? The thought made me sick.
I leaned back and kicked the door again. This time, a long crack appeared underneath the lock. Another kick, and the crack was joined by a second. I pulled my leg back to deal another blow, when the door flew open and Diana’s stricken face appeared.