"She's going to let you die?" Lena knew she shouldn't be shocked. But she was.
"She'll either let me die down here, or she'll come and kill me. It doesn't really matter. I deserve what she has in store for me." He sounded pitiful. So full of regret and sorrow that Lena could feel her chest swelling with sympathy.
"Someone will intervene," Lena said, but even as the words came out she didn't feel it to be true.
"Who will intervene, Lena? The greatest man to stand against her was killed by my own hand. His daughter, you, has also been captured and is set to be killed as well. Anyone who has ever resisted her is dead or in hiding."
Zeke coughed again and Lena had to wait for him to stop.
"No one will intervene, Evangeline. The Alliance is under her power. Gideon is being controlled, and you are about to be executed." He started coughing again. The rattling in his lungs as he tried to catch his breath nearly was enough to make anyone cringe.
Lena wanted to shout at him. Wanted to tell him that it wasn't true. There were people scattered all over this world, ready to fight Selene. The Rise was ready to attack. Ready to form a new government. She wanted to tell him about the Zoons, about Suki and even Tarek. Zeke would know Tarek's father. But as she looked around her dark dank cell, the fire inside her was smothered.
She listened to Zeke's rattled breathing until it grew somewhat calmer and more even. She hoped he had fallen asleep.
"Lena." It was Corgy again. "Here is that blanket.”
This time Lena reached through the bars and grabbed the blanket.
"I'm sending the com device with it. I'm not sure if it works or not. The Captain changed the frequency on it and was trying to reach you with something he called Morse code. Anyway, it was some type of clicking."
Lena wanted to kick herself. The clicking she had heard in the caves was Gideon trying to get ahold of her. She could have talked to him again before he killed her.
"Anyway," Corgy said. "Maybe you can figure out another way to use it."
Lena held the device in her hand. Gideon had been trying to get ahold of her and she had turned him off. She wanted to cry all over again.
Corgy cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You'll figure this out, Lena," he said. "There is no way that she's going to kill you. You're too strong for your story to end that way.”
Lena pulled the blanket around herself and clasped the com device in her hand. She moved to the darkest corner of the cell. Collapsing in grief, she curled into a ball on the floor and cried. She grasped on to the com device as if it was the only comfort she had until she fell asleep.
***
Gideon walked towards the training room. Mentally, he fought the hold his mother had on him. As he entered the room, he saw her standing opposite him. One hand was pressed against her temple over the band that allowed her to control him.
"Stop fighting it," she said with a grimace on her face.
Gideon didn't. Instead, he mentally urged himself to move on his own. With every step forward she made him take, he fought to move backward. It didn't make a difference. He was still forced to move forward. And the effort caused a vein to pulse inside his head. But he was not going to let her control him without a fight.
When he was a few steps from her, she glared at him with an icy hatred. "Don't you realize you are mine whether you like it or not?" she said. She stepped forward and slapped his face. "You will eventually realize fighting me will get you nowhere." She looked to the door where Ras had just appeared. "Take him to the crags. Show him what he's done to her. Let him think about what he's going to do to her."
Gideon stood where he was the horror of his actions engulfing him. When she finally released him from her control, he fell to his knees, unable to stand on his own.
Ras stepped beside him. He grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him down a hall.
"What was she thinking? She shouldn't have come for me," Gideon said. Tears fell from his eyes. The image of Lena's blood caked face haunted him. His stomach knotted remembering the feel of his foot kicking her. He wished he could die. He had failed her.
Ras led an unresisting Gideon towards his cell. He stopped, forcing Gideon to look into the cell next to his.
Lena stared back. Her eyes haunted and bruised.
"Are you ready to kill her?" Ras sneered. "Because she's going to die by your hand.”
***
Lena watched Gideon disappear from in front of her cell. Her heart wrenched with Ras' words. "Gid," she called as soon as Ras was out of sight. She scurried to the door of her cell. "Gideon, are you hurt?"
"Eves," Gideon answered. He sounded like himself. A completely devastated version of himself.
Still, Lena's heart soared at the sound of his voice. He was in control of himself. She knew it. She reached her arm awkwardly around the wall of her cell into Gideon's. She felt his calloused hand grab hers.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." Gideon let out a huge sob and tightened his grip on her hand.
Lena pressed her head against the wall. The coolness of the cave felt good. "It's me who is sorry," she said. "I've failed you."
The recruits stood silently at their doors. Lena heard their quiet sniffs and stifled sobs. She had failed them all.
"Eves, you are not responsible for Selene's evil," Gideon said.
"But if it wasn't for her," Jenna snapped, "we wouldn't be here in the first place. She should have died years ago."
"Jenna, be quiet," Corgy said from above. "You don't need to be making things harder for them than they already are."
Jenna glared then retreated to the darkness of her cell. The tunnel fell silent once more.
Lena felt Gideon's hand tighten on hers. "She's right," she said. "I have let you all down. Forgive me."
"Eves, there is nothing to forgive," Gideon said.
Lena lowered herself to the ground still grasping Gideon's hand through the bars. The wall scratched her, and she had to hold her hand at an odd angle. But she didn't care. She wasn't going to let him go. She would hang on to him as long as she could.
"I love you, Gideon," Lena said. "I always have."
Gideon's sobs echoed across the tunnel. "All I ever wanted to do is protect you, Eves."
Lena sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand that was caked in blood. "Don't you know?" she said. "You did protect me. You gave everything. For me."
"Eves..."
"Don't argue," Lena said. "I don't want to spend our last night together arguing."
Lena felt Gideon's grip tighten once more. "How would you want to spend it?"
"Can you tell me a story?" Lena said. "Tell me a story of Everleigh. A happy memory of us."
Gideon let out a sad chuckle. "Okay. Remember when I saved you from the lake?"
Lena smiled, remembering the story. "I remember. It was freezing," she said.
"I knew then that I would do everything I could to save you. No matter what the price. I loved you then, Eves. I love you even more now."
Squeezing his hand back, Lena closed her eyes and locked the image and words in her mind. "Gid, promise me something," she said.
"Anything," Gideon answered.
"After I'm gone, keep fighting her," Lena said.
Gideon let out a painful sob.
"Promise me that you'll keep living. And keep resisting," Lena pleaded.
Gideon didn't answer.
"Promise me!" she shouted, pleading for the impossible. "You have to keep on living. You have to keep on fighting."
"Eves," Gideon whispered his voice hoarse.
"Say it, Gideon," Lena yelled. "Say you'll keep on fighting."
Both his hands tightened on hers. "I'll keep on fighting," Gideon said.
"I love you, Gideon Merak," Lena said.
"And I will always love you, Evangeline Adhara."
***
Lena fell asleep listening to Gideon tell her stories of their childhood. She recognized immediately when she entered the vision. S
he stood on the edge of the crags. A white dress billowed around her feet as mists of reds swirled across the landscape. Xenia stood next to her.
"Xenia," Lena said. "I've failed." The sound of her own voice soothed her for it was soft and melodic. She felt in the distance the throbbing of her head. She was sure if she were actually conscious, she'd have a killer headache.
"Evangeline, this is not over," Xenia said taking her hand. "Your task is not complete."
"I 'm being executed by Gideon tomorrow," Lena said. "There is nothing more I can do."
Xenia took her by the shoulder and stared directly into her eyes."Evangeline, you have been given the power to destroy her. Now is the time." Her voice vibrated with the breeze, jolting Lena from her melancholy.
"Haven't you been listening? I have failed," Lena said.
"This is not over, nor have you failed." Xenia's fingers tightened around her shoulders. "Use what you have. Use who you have. Your friends have not abandoned you. You will do this, Evangeline. You are the only one who can."
Chapter Twenty-One
Lena jolted awake. Her arm was dreadfully numb from where she reached through the bars. Gideon's fingers were still wrapped in hers. She heard his gentle breathing on the other side.
Slowly, she pulled her arm back into her cell and shook it to get the feeling back. Xenia was right. She needed to pull herself together. She needed to come up with a plan. Her head was throbbing. She looked at the blood caking her hands and remembered the cut on her head. She reached up and touched it. Parts of it were starting to scab over but when she pulled her hand away, it was still bleeding.
"Eves?" Gideon said, panicked.
"I'm here," she answered trying to untangle the knots in her hair from the blood.
"Eves, what are you doing?" Gideon said.
"She's prettying herself up for her execution," Jenna said coming to stand at the edge of her cell.
"Can't you just stay quiet?" Gideon snapped at her.
Lena bit her lip to keep from laughing. "I'm trying to think of a plan," Lena said tearing off a portion of her sleeve. She dipped it in the water of her small water tin and began washing the blood off her face and out of where it had pooled inside her ear. The water quickly turned a reddish brown color.
"I thought you were all out of plans?" Corey called from above.
Lena winced as she worked out the tangles. She didn't have enough water to wash it with so she smoothed out the strands as best she could. "I'm not dead yet, so I'm not out of plans yet," she said. Slowly, she started braiding a small section of hair across the cut.
"We only have a few hours," Gideon said.
Lena awaited the argument. It didn't come.
"We can activate the resistance," Gideon continued. He sounded alert and determined.
"What resistance?" Lena asked.
"Gideon has organized the old resistance," Zeke's voice rattled. "They're ready to fight as soon as they're freed.
"Gid? Why didn't you tell me?" Lena said.
"Last night, it didn't seem to matter," Gideon answered. "But, I think Ruddy might help us. If we can get a message to him."
"You have the com," Corgy said. "All soldiers communicate through a com and we have one."
"Pass the com back to me and I will change it back to it's original channel," Gideon said, shuffling around in his cell. "We can start a riot."
"I gave it to Lena," Corgy said.
Lena looked around trying to remember where she had set it. Seeing it in the back of her cell, she quickly grabbed it and passed it to Gideon. "This isn't just about freeing ourselves," she said. "We still need to overthrow Selene. The Rise is still out there."
Lena could see Jenna's shoulders shaking with an unconvinced laugh. "Wasn't Lucius part of your Rise?" Jenna said. "If your leaders turn against you. You have nothing. Sorry to break it to you, princess. The Rise has fallen."
Suddenly, it was as clear as day what she needed to do. "Then we don't use those leaders," Lena said.
"Eves, what are you talking about?" Gideon asked.
"Thora," Lena said. "We use Thora."
Zeke laughed. "She can start your war," he wheezed as his laugh turned into a cough.
"I have my lens." Lena was bubbling with excitement. "Evren can get a hold of Thora. We can use my execution as the catalyst for the attack. The Rise is still out there. We just need to let them know when to act and who to follow."
All the recruits were standing at the front of their cells listening to what was being said.
"I'd love for it to happen before I execute you," Gideon said.
"The Zoons can bring me the nullifier," Lena said. "I can fix you."
"You fixed it?" Gideon practically shouted. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'd left it at the caverns," Lena said. She felt the excitement in the air and for the first time since coming to the crags, she felt hope.
The clicking of boots drowned it just as fast.
"Ras," Gideon said. "Corgy, quickly, take the com," he said handing it up through the bars.
Lena reached her arm through the bar and grabbed onto Gideon's hand.
The recruits retreated to the darkness of their cells.
Ras walked to the front of Gideon's cell, his face hard and unforgiving. "I'm to ready you for the execution. The Priestess wants her son to look the part." He opened the cell.
Lena felt Gideon stiffen and release her hand. He walked in front of her cell, following after Ras with no resistance.
"Gid?" Lena called.
He didn't answer.
"Fight her, Gideon," Zeke yelled. "Don't let her win." His breath gave away.
Lena listened to his strangled gasps as Gideon disappeared from view.
"Lena," Corgy said interrupting the dark silence. "You need to act on your plan. Now."
Lena shook head to clear it. She blinked on the lens. It didn't take long. Her lens started flashing like crazy then a line of text appeared.
"Lena?" A typed message appeared on the lens.
"Evren? Is that you?" Lena said out loud. "Can you hear me?" she said.
"Lena!" he typed. "Of course I can hear you. You should have turned your lens on sooner. Suki's been driving me crazy trying to get a hold of you. And of course this is Evren. Who else would it be?"
"Look, I don't' have time to chit-chat," Lena said. "They're sending me to my execution in a matter of hours.”
"I know. It's all over the Priestess' communication channels. Suki has been going crazy organizing the Zoons. We're sending in a crew to get you out. General Carina still plans to attack."
"What? But I thought Lucius..."
"Long story short," Evren typed. "If we win, Lucius is on our side. If we lose, he's on Selene's. He hasn't told Selene of the attack..." Evren typed. "As far as we know that is."
"No," Lena said.
"What do you mean, No." Evren typed. "We're not going to let Gideon kill you."
"I mean, no, you're not going to let General Carina lead the attack. I need Thora," Lena said. "Thora needs to be the one to lead the Rise."
Lena's lens flashed again but this time it looked excited.
"Evren, you need to do it now. We don't have much time."
"Already working on it," Evren typed.
"And I need the nullifier."
The screen went blank. Lena blinked her lens off and on again. Had they lost their signal? "Evren, the nullifier," she repeated louder.
"We have a little bit of a problem there," Evren typed. "Lucius has the nullifier."
"What?" Lena said. "How?"
"Well, I assume he still has it since he's the one who stole it."
"I need it, now," Lena panicked.
"I don't have time to build another one before the execution," Evren typed.
Lena wanted to hit something. She took several deep breaths instead. "Okay, Lucius is here. He'll most certainly be at the execution. I can get it from him.”
"Lena, you can't die," Evren typed.
"I don't plan on it. But Evren, you must get a hold of Thora. She must lead the Rise."
"I'll get a hold of her, Lena. But you should know, it is you that's leading us now. You are the Rise."
Lena shook her head. "No, we're all the Rise.”
***
According to Evren's countdown on her lens, it was almost time for her execution.
Corgy handed down the com. "You think Ruddy will help us?"
Lena grasped the com device. "He's helped me escape her before, and I'm certain he helped me again at the consulate. I just need to convince him to help me one last time." She took a deep breath and held the com up to her mouth. "He just needs a reason."
"Lena," Zeke cut in. "As soon as you speak into that device, Selene is going to know you're up to something." His breath rattled. "As will every other guard down here."
"Selene won't know unless one of the guards tell her," Lena said. "Evren is controlling the Priestess' communications."
"You can't guarantee any soldiers change of allegiance to you," Zeke said.
Lena nodded even though she knew that Zeke couldn't see her. "I know that," she said. "But I'm going to try. Plus, broadcasting it over the com is the only way we'll know for sure that Ruddy will hear us.”
"Evangeline," Zeke said. "You would make your parents very proud.
She took a deep breath and pressed the button to talk on the device. "My name is Evangeline Adhara," Lena said into the com device. Her stomach felt tight. "This message is for..." she stopped herself. She couldn't say Ruddy's name out loud in fear someone would stop him. "This message is for the person who has helped me escape the Priestess, twice. You know who you are. I need your help once more. Please, come find me.
"And for all of the rest of you who are listening, I need your help as well. You may not know me, but I know of you. You are the desperate, the enslaved. You are the ones who will do anything to survive and keep your families out of the Priestess' grasps. I don't blame you. But you don't have to be in her clutches anymore. You can fight her. You have been fighting her in silence. Now I need you to Rise against her."
She paused, not sure if her words were going to work.
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 63