فصل بیست و ششم

TWENTY-SIX

I can barely keep up the pace, but the soldier at my back, holding my shackled arms, keeps shoving. Another does the same to Maven, forcing him along with me. Arven follows us, making sure we can’t escape. His presence is a dark weight, dulling my senses. I can still see the passage around us, empty and far from the prying eyes of the court, but I don’t have the strength to care. Cal leads the pack, his shoulders tense and tight as he fights the urge to look back.

The sound of gunfire and screams and blood in the tunnels rumbles in my mind. They are dead. We are dead. It is over.

I expect us to descend, to march down to the darkest cell in the world. Instead, Cal leads us up, to a room with no windows and no Sentinels. Our footfalls don’t even echo as we enter—soundproof. No one can hear us. And that frightens me more than the guns or the fire or the pure rage rippling off the king.

He stands in the center of the room, dressed in his own gilded armor with the crown on his head. His ceremonial sword hangs at his side again, along with a pistol he’s probably never used. All part of the pageant. At least he looks the part.

The queen is here as well, waiting for us in nothing but a thin white gown. The moment we enter, her eyes meet mine and she forces her way into my thoughts like a knife through flesh. I yelp, trying to clutch my head, but the shackles hold firm.

It all flashes before my eyes again, from the beginning to the end. Will’s wagon. The Guard. Kilorn. The riots, the meetings, the secret messages. Maven’s face swirls in the memories, making him stand out against the fray, but Elara pushes him away. She doesn’t want to see what I remember about him. My brain screams at the onslaught, jumping from thought to thought until my whole life, every kiss and every secret, is laid bare before her.

When she stops, I feel dead. I want to be dead. At least I won’t have long to wait.

“Leave us,” Elara says, her voice cutting and sharp. The soldiers wait, looking to Cal. When he nods, they take their leave, departing in a din of clicking boots. But Arven stays behind, his influence still pressing down on me. When the march of boots fades away, the king allows himself to exhale.

“Son?” He looks at Cal, and I can see the slightest quiver in his fingers. But what he could possibly fear, I do not know. “I want to hear this from you.” “They’ve been part of this for a long time,” Cal mutters, barely able to say the words. “Since she came here.” “Both?” Tiberias turns away from Cal, to his forgotten son. He looks almost sad, his face pulling into a pained frown. His eyes waver, reluctant to hold his gaze, but Maven stares right back. He will not flinch. “You knew about this, my boy?” Maven nods. “I helped plan it.”

Tiberias stumbles, like his words are a physical blow. “And the shooting?”

“I chose the targets.” Cal squeezes his eyes shut, like he can block this all out.

Maven’s eyes slide past his father, to Elara, who stands close by. They hold each other’s gaze, and for a moment, I think she’s looking into his thoughts. With a jolt, I realize she won’t. She can’t let herself look.

“You told me to find a cause, Father. And I did. Are you proud of me?”

But Tiberias rounds on me instead, snarling like a bear. “You did this! You poisoned him, you poisoned my boy!” When tears spring to his eyes, I know the king’s heart, no matter how small or cold, has been broken. He loves Maven, in his own way. But it’s too late for that. “You’ve taken my son from me!” “You have done that yourself,” I say through gritted teeth. “Maven has his own heart, and he believes in a different world as much as I do. If anything, your son changed me.” “I don’t believe you. You have tricked him somehow.”

“She does not lie.”

Hearing Elara agree with me rips my breath away.

“Our son has always thirsted for change.” Her eyes linger on her son. She sounds afraid. “He is just a boy, Tiberias.” Save him, I scream out in my head. She must hear me. She must.

Next to me, Maven sucks in a breath, waiting for what could be our doom.

Tiberias looks at his feet, knowing the laws better than anyone else, but Cal is strong enough to meet his brother’s gaze. I can see him remembering their life together. Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other.

After a long moment of hot, stifling silence, the king puts a hand on Cal’s shoulder. His head shakes back and forth, and tears track down his cheeks into his beard.

“A boy or not, Maven has killed. Together with this—this snake”—he points a shaking finger at me—“he has committed grave crimes against his own. Against me, and against you. Against our throne.” “Father—” Cal moves quickly, putting himself between the king and us. “He is your son. There must be another way.” Tiberias stills, putting aside the father to become king again. He wipes away his tears with a brush of the hand. “When you wear my crown, you will understand.” The queen’s eyes narrow into blue slits. Her eyes, they’re the same as Maven’s.

“Fortunately, that will never happen,” she says plainly.

“What?” Tiberias turns to her but stops halfway, his body frozen in place.

I’ve seen this before. In the arena, long ago, when the whisper beat the strongarm. Elara even did it to me, turning me into a puppet. Again, she holds the strings.

“Elara, what are you doing?” he hisses through gritted teeth.

She replies with words I cannot hear, speaking into the king’s head. He doesn’t like her answer at all. “No!” he yells as she forces him to his knees with her whispers.

Cal bristles, his fists exploding into flame, but Elara holds a hand out, stopping him in his tracks. She has them both.

Tiberias struggles, his teeth clenched, but can’t move an inch. He can barely even speak. “Elara. Arven—!” But my old instructor doesn’t move. Instead, he stands quietly, content to watch. It seems his loyalties lie not with the king but with the queen.

She’s saving us. For her son’s life, she’s going to save us. We bet on Cal loving me enough to change the world; we should’ve looked to the queen instead. I want to laugh, to smile, but something in Cal’s face keeps my relief at bay.

“Julian warned me,” Cal growls, still trying to break her hold. “I thought he was lying about you, about my mother, about what you did to her.” On his knees, the king howls. It is a wretched sound, one I never want to hear again. “Coriane,” he moans, staring at the floor. “Julian knew. Sara knew. You punished her for the truth.” Sweat beads on Elara’s forehead. She cannot hold the king and the prince for much longer.

“Elara, you have to get Maven out of here,” I tell her. “Don’t worry about me, just keep him safe.” “Oh, don’t you fret, little lightning girl,” she sneers. “I don’t think about you at all. Though your loyalty to my son is quite inspiring. Isn’t it, Maven?” She tosses a glance over her shoulder to her son, still shackled.

In response, his arms snap out, pulling apart the metal shackles with shocking ease. They melt off his wrists in globs of hot iron, burning holes in the floor. When he rises to his feet, I expect him to defend me, to save me like I’m trying to save him. Then I realize Arven still has hold of me, and the familiar feel of sparks, of electricity, has not returned. He’s still holding me back, even though he let Maven go.

When Cal’s eyes meet mine, I know he understands much better than I do. Anyone can betray anyone echoes louder and louder, until it howls in my ears like the winds of a hurricane.

“Maven?” I have to look up to see his face, and for a second, I don’t recognize him. He’s still the same boy, the one who comforted me, kissed me, kept me strong. My friend. More than my friend. But something is wrong in him. Something has changed. “Maven, help me up.” He rolls his shoulders, cracking the bones to chase away an ache. His motions are sluggish and strange, and when he settles back on his feet, hands on his hips, I feel like I’m seeing him for the first time. His eyes are so cold.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“What?” I hear my voice like it’s coming from someone else. I sound like a little girl. I am just a little girl.

Maven doesn’t answer but holds my gaze. The boy I know is still there, hiding, flickering behind his eyes. If I can just reach him—but Maven moves faster than me, pushing me away when I reach out.

“CAPTAIN TYROS!” Cal roars, still able to speak. Elara has not taken that from him yet. But no one comes running. No one can hear us. “CAPTAIN TYROS!” he yells again, pleading with no one. “EVANGELINE! PTOLEMUS, SOMEONE, HELP!” Elara is content to let him shout, enjoying the sound, but Maven flinches. “Do we have to listen to this?” he asks.

“No, I suppose we don’t,” she sighs, tipping her head. Cal’s body moves with her thoughts, shifting to face his father.

Cal panics, his eyes growing wide. “What are you doing?”

Beneath him, the king’s face darkens. “Isn’t it obvious?”

I don’t understand at all. I don’t belong here. Julian was right. This is a game I don’t understand, a game I don’t know how to play. I wish Julian were here now, to explain, to help, to save me. But no one is coming.

“Maven, please,” I plead, trying to make him look at me. But he turns his back, focusing on his mother and his betrayed blood. He is his mother’s son.

She didn’t care that he was in my memories. She didn’t care that he was part of all this. She didn’t even look surprised. The answer is frighteningly simple. Because she already knew. Because he is her son. Because this was her plan all along. The thought stings like knives running along skin, but the pain only makes it more real.

“You used me.”

Finally, Maven condescends to look back at me. “Catching on, are you?”

“You chose the targets. The colonel, Reynald, Belicos, even Ptolemus—they weren’t the Guard’s enemies, they were yours.” I want to tear him apart, lightning or not. I want to make him hurt.

I am finally learning my lesson. Anyone can betray anyone.

“And this, this was just another plot. You pushed me into this, even though it was impossible, even though you knew Cal would never betray his father! You made me believe it. You made all of us believe it.” “It’s not my fault you were stupid enough to play along,” he replies. “Now the Guard is finished.” It feels like a kick in the teeth. “They were your friends. They trusted you.” “They were a threat to my kingdom, and they were stupid,” he fires back. He stoops, bending over me with his twisted smile. “Were.” Elara laughs at his cruel joke. “It was too easy to slip you into their midst. One sentimental servant was all it took. How such fools became a danger, I’ll never know.” “You made me believe,” I whisper again, remembering every lie he ever told me. “I thought you wanted to help us.” It comes out a whimper. For a split second, his pale features soften. But it doesn’t last.

“Foolish girl,” Elara says. “Your idiocy was almost our ruin. Using your own guard in the escape, causing all the outages—do you really think I was so stupid as to miss your tracks?” Numb, I shake my head. “You let me do it. You knew about it all.”

“Of course I knew. How else do you think you came so far? I had to cover your tracks, I had to protect you from anyone with enough sense to see the signs,” she snarls, growling like a beast. “You do not know the lengths I went to keep you from harm.” She flushes with pleasure, enjoying every second of this. “But you are Red, and like all the others, you were doomed to fail.” It breaks against me, memories falling into place. I should’ve known, deep down, not to trust Maven. He was too perfect, too brave, too kind. He turned his back on his own to join the Guard. He pushed me at Cal. He gave me exactly what I wanted, and it made me blind.

Wanting to scream, wanting to weep, I let my eyes trail to Elara. “You told him exactly what to say,” I whisper. She doesn’t have to nod, but I know I’m right. “You know who I am in here, and you knew”—my head aches, remembering how she played inside my mind—“you knew exactly how to win me over.” Nothing hurts more deeply than the hollow look on Maven’s face.

“Was anything true?”

When he shakes his head, I know that is also a lie.

“Even Thomas?”

The boy at the war front, the boy who died fighting someone else’s war. His name was Thomas and I saw him die.

The name punches through his mask, cracking the facade of cool indifference, but isn’t enough. He shrugs off the name and the pain it causes him. “Another dead boy. He makes no difference.” “He makes all the difference,” I whisper to myself.

“I think it’s time to say your good-byes, Maven,” Elara cuts in, putting a white hand on her son’s shoulder. I’ve struck too close to his weak spot, and she won’t let me push further.

“I have none,” he whispers, turning back to his father. His blue eyes waver, looking at the crown, the sword, the armor, anywhere but his father’s face. “You never looked at me. You never saw me. Not when you had him.” He jerks his head toward Cal.

“You know that’s not true, Maven. You are my son. Nothing will change that. Not even her,” Tiberias says, casting a glance at Elara. “Not even what she’s about to do.” “Dearest, I’m not doing anything,” she chirps back. “But your beloved boy”—she slaps Cal across the face—“the perfect heir”—she slaps him again, harder this time—“Coriane’s son.” Another slap draws blood, splitting his lip. “I cannot speak for him.” Thick silverblood drips down Cal’s chin. Maven’s eyes linger on the blood, and the slightest frown pulls at his features.

“We had a son too, Tibe,” Elara whispers, her voice ragged with rage as she turns back to the king. “No matter how you felt about me, you were supposed to love him.” “I did!” he shouts, straining against her mental hold. “I do.”

I know what it’s like to be cast aside, to stand in another’s shadow. But this kind of anger, this murderous, destructive, terrible scene is beyond my comprehension. Maven loves his father, his brother—how can he let her do this? How can he want this?

But he stands still, watching, and I can’t find the words to make him move.

Nothing prepares me for what comes next, for what Elara forces her puppets to do. Cal’s hand shakes, reaching forward, pushed along by her will. He tries to resist, struggling with every ounce of strength he has, but it’s no use. This is a battle he does not know how to fight. When his hand closes around the gilded sword, pulling it from the sheath at his father’s waist, the last piece of the puzzle slips into place. Tears course down his face, steaming against burning-hot skin.

“It’s not you,” Tiberias says, his eyes on Cal’s wretched face. He doesn’t bother pleading for his life. “I know it’s not you, son. This is not your fault.” No one deserves this. No one. In my head, I reach for the lightning, and it comes. I blast away Elara and Maven, saving the prince and the king. But even that fantasy is tainted. Farley is dead. Kilorn is dead. The revolution is over. Even in my imaginings, I cannot fix that.

The sword rises in the air, shaking in Cal’s trembling fingers. The blade is ceremonial at best, but the edge gleams, sharp as a razor. The steel reddens, warming under Cal’s fiery touch, and bits of the gilded hilt melt between his fingers. Gold and silver and iron, dripping from his hands like tears.

Maven watches the blade closely, carefully, because he is too afraid to watch his father in his last moments. I thought you were brave. I was so wrong.

“Please,” is all Cal can say, forcing the words out. “Please.”

There is no regret in Elara’s eyes and no remorse. This moment has been coming for a long time. When the sword flashes, arcing through air and flesh and bone, she doesn’t blink.

The king’s corpse lands with a thud, his head rolling to a stop a few feet away. Silverblood splashes across the floor in a mirrored puddle, lapping at Cal’s toes. He drops the melting sword, letting it clang against stone, before falling to his knees, his head in his hands. The crown clatters across the floor, circling through the blood, until it stops to rest at Maven’s feet, sharp points bright with liquid silver.

When Elara screams, wailing and thrashing over the king’s body, I almost laugh aloud at the absurdity of it all. Has she changed her mind? Has she lost it entirely? Then I hear the click of cameras switching on, coming back to life. They poke out of the walls, pointing straight down at the king’s body and what looks like a queen mourning her fallen husband. Maven yells at her side, one hand on his mother’s shoulder.

“You killed him! You killed the king! You killed our father!” he screams in Cal’s face. Only a hint of a smirk remains, and somehow Cal resists the urge to rip his brother’s head off. He’s in shock, not understanding, not wanting to understand. But for once, I certainly do.

The truth doesn’t matter. It only matters what the people believe. Julian tried to teach me that lesson before, and now I understand it. They will believe this little scene, this pretty play of actors and lies. And no army, no country will follow a man who murdered his father for the crown.

“Run, Cal!” I scream, trying to snap him back to life. “You have to run!”

Arven has let me go, and the electric pulse returns, surging through my veins like fire through ice. It’s nothing at all to shock the metal, burning it with sparks until the shackles fall off my wrists. I know this feeling. I know the instinct rising in me now. Run. Run. Run.

I grab Cal’s shoulders, trying to pull him up, but the big oaf doesn’t budge. I give him a little shock, just enough to catch his attention, before screaming again. “RUN!” It’s enough, and he struggles to his feet, almost slipping in the pool of blood.

I expect Elara to fight me, to make me kill myself or Cal, but she continues screaming, acting for the cameras. Maven stands over her, arms ablaze, ready to protect his mother. He doesn’t even try to stop us.

“There’s nowhere for you to go!” he shouts, but I’m already running, dragging Cal along behind me. “You are murderers, traitors, and you will face justice!” His voice, a voice I used to know so well, seems to chase us through the doors and down the hall. The voices in my head scream with him.

Stupid girl. Foolish girl. Look what your hope has done.

And then it’s Cal dragging me along, forcing me to keep up. Hot tears of anger and rage and sorrow drown my eyes, until I can’t see anything but my hand in his. Where he leads, I don’t know. I can only follow.

Feet pound behind us, the familiar sound of boots. Officers, Sentinels, soldiers, they’re all chasing, coming for us.

The floor beneath us steadily changes from the polished wood of back hallways to swirling marble—the banquet hall. Long tables set with fine china block the way, but Cal throws them aside with a blast of fire. The smoke triggers an alarm system, and water rains down on us, fighting the blaze. It turns to steam on Cal’s skin, shrouding him in a raging white cloud. He looks like a ghost, haunted by a life suddenly torn away, and I don’t know how to comfort him.

The world slows for me as the far end of the banquet hall darkens with gray uniforms and black guns. There’s nowhere for me to run anymore. I must fight.

Lightning blazes in my skin, begging to be loosed.

“No.” Cal’s voice is hollow, broken. He lowers his own hands, letting the flames disappear. “We can’t win this.” He’s right.

They close in from the many doors and arches, and even the windows crowd with uniforms. Hundreds of Silvers, armed to the teeth, ready to kill. We are trapped.

Cal searches the faces, his eyes lingering on the soldiers. His own men. By the way they stare back, glaring at him, I know they’ve already seen the horror Elara created. Their loyalties are broken, just like their general. One of them, a captain, trembles at the sight of Cal. To my surprise, he keeps his gun at his side as he steps forward.

“Submit to arrest,” he says, his hands shaking.

Cal locks eyes with his old friend and nods. “We submit to arrest, Captain Tyros.” Run, every inch of me screams. But for once, I cannot. Next to me, Cal looks just as affected, his eyes reflecting a pain I can’t even imagine. His wounds are soul-deep.

He has learned his lesson as well.