On the outside, interrogation room 1 looks just like 3 and 4. It’s the threat of what’s inside that has my nerves twisted in a thorny vine.
“We’ll be down the hall if you need anything,” the guard says to no one in particular.
Three sets of eyes evaluate each other in the silence that follows. I anchor my gaze on the stranger, Vi’s male counterpart. Close-cropped dark hair with matching two-day stubble rest above a commanding frame of taut muscle. A warrior, the kind featured in legends. But what holds my attention are his eyes, almost violet with an intense blaze poised for explosion. Vi’s fire is tempered by a humor that gives her control of her passion. I sense her brother lives every moment on the cliff’s edge.
“Val,” she whispers, that word so much more than a name in this moment.
His smoldering stare rests on his sister and it’s impossible to tell if she’s about to receive a hug or a punch in the face. Her rigid shoulders make me suspect she’s not sure either. I’m able to breathe again when he moves in for a tight embrace. “Sis, I was so scared when I heard you were taken.”
“I’m fine. They treated us well,” she murmurs into his chest. His expression darkens as he pulls back.
“Well, it shouldn’t have happened. They had no right to take you away.”
“I know.”
“If you’d just come with me like I said, it never would have. They wouldn’t have been able to make you their prisoner.”
“Not now, Val, please?”
The young man studies her with a frown, and they face off: the same person formed into separate fires, forged from the steel of a harsh life. “Twins” also means Val is twenty-four, like his sister, but I suspect years have been added to him that Vi has avoided. If I subtract the trauma, I can see the youth still clinging to this rebel.
“I’m glad you look well, at least. You’ve filled out,” Vi teases, squeezing crafted muscle stretching his shirt.
The hint of a smile spreads across his lips, melting his face into a glimpse of what he could have been. Maybe what he used to be?
“And you’re as puny as ever. Although I see we now have the same haircut,” he snickers, rubbing her head. He’s rewarded with a playful smack.
“Yes, well, that’s a story you will hear at some point.” Her face slips into a thoughtful pout as she studies him. “Why are you here, Val? I didn’t think you’d want to see me.”
His eyes shift, and he casts a heavy look at the door. “What exactly did they tell you?”
A knock interrupts Vi’s response.
“We need you next door,” the guard says to me. “You two can stay here and catch up,” he directs to the siblings.
Dennel nods to the guard when we enter. “Thanks,” he says, stuffing gratitude and dismissal into one word. He waves me toward a chair, but my legs don’t move. Nothing does except my eyelids, which blink a few times in response to the ghost before me.
“Imagine my surprise when I got the message that my cousin, Andie Sorenson, was looking for me.”
My throat starts to work, and I can swallow now too. Small miracles.
He raises his eyebrows. I assume he’s waiting for something besides a blinking and swallowing statue. The battle to rise to the challenge rages within the walls of my skull.
“You can speak, Andie. They’re not listening. It’s just us.”
“Okay, well, imagine my surprise when I was told Kaleb was abducted again and you were involved,” I reply.
I have his attention, and the slight power shift helps me complete the journey to the chair.
“Is that what they told you?”
“Is it true?”
“Would I be here if it was?”
“Maybe. You’re clearly working for the enemy.”
“Whose enemy?”
He sounds like Kaleb.
“Where is he, Dennel?”
The man’s eyes narrow as he evaluates me. “We’re not there yet. Why are you here? Why did they send you?”
“How do you know I was sent?”
“You didn’t escape.”
I quiet. Games were never my specialty. “They sent me because I didn’t give them a choice. I told them I was their best hope at getting into rebel territory and finding Kaleb.”
“Right.”
Yes, it sounds unforgivably stupid out loud.
“Well, that’s the official story, but now I’m pretty sure it’s all bull.”
“Okay, so back to my question. Why do you really think you’re here?”
“Because I was in their way. I care about Kaleb and wouldn’t give up on him. They had to get rid of me.”
He studies me, expression softening. I don’t like it. It makes me want to believe he’s not a monster.
“Dennel, please, if you know anything… Can you at least give him a message for me?”
He leans back, still searching my eyes. “Do you actually think I kidnapped one of their high priority prisoners right from under their noses?”
My brain launches into a panic. “But—”
“We don’t have him, Andie. We never did.”
I shake my head.
“Then where is he?” The airy voice sounds nothing like mine.
His eyes shift in confirmation of my terror. “Kaleb never left the base. He’s still there. He always has been. They have him.”
No. No, because I don’t know what to do with that.
“Andie?”
Fact: My name is Andie.
Fact: “But you disappeared!” Such a weak argument.
“I had to. Once Emery said they were releasing Kaleb, I knew it was about to start all over again. I fled while I could and—”
“You fled? What about Kaleb? What’s he supposed to do now?”
My fury is a helpful upgrade from paralysis, but I’m not convinced it’ll do any good. “Good” is dying. Dying with a twenty-three-year-old soldier at the hands of his own people.
“What was I supposed to do? Emery is obsessed and has lost patience. She’s—”
“Wait, what?”
He doesn’t look at me as he mutters the next statement. “There are videos, aren’t there. They showed you videos?”
Back to swallowing. “Yes?”
“They’re messages.”
“I suspected that. For the real spy.”
He shakes his head. “No. For Kaleb’s father.” He leans forward. “Roberto Novelli was not killed in action six years ago. He defected and now leads the Free Forces.”
He says it with confidence, as though it’s a missing piece, not the entire damn puzzle. Months of half-truths and partial lies snap into place to shove me into a new normal I never would have accepted until this moment.
“So Kaleb’s first abduction. His thirty-four days with the rebels? You said it’s happening again.”
He looks sad. Tired. “It wasn’t the rebels then either. Someone was leaking secrets. The GF assumed it had to be him, but it wasn’t. They wanted to know where his father was, but he didn’t know. Kaleb thought the man was dead too.” He quiets. “It took thirty-four days and the Kalik Closer for them to believe him.”
My eyes burn. At some point tears have joined the conversation.
“And now?”
“They’re trying to draw Roberto out. One last effort to bait him with his son.”
He’s blurry through the haze of tears. “Does he know?”
“Roberto?”
“Is he getting the messages? Does he know they’re butchering his son?”
Dennel doesn’t answer right away, and I choke back a sob.
“Andie, you have to understand the stakes.”
“Understand?” I scream, shoving my chair back. “What am I supposed to understand? Why the only innocent person in this entire nightmare gets brutalized and abandoned? You want to know who the traitor is? We are! Every single one of us. We’re all traitors except Kaleb.”
He doesn’t answer my challenge. There is no defense. No reason to give one. Fact!
“It was you, wasn’t it,” I hiss. “That first time. You were the one passing the secrets that got him tortured and branded a traitor. You owe him your life but not for the fake reasons you told me.” I can barely even say the next sentence. “He knows all this. He’s known this whole time that he’s bait. That at any moment he’d be sent back to hell. Probably killed once and for all. That’s why he didn’t want me near him and kept lying.”
Dennel is torn up. I don’t even know if I believe his reaction. I don’t trust anyone with my loyalties anymore.
He breaks the silence. “They brought him in right after they learned about his father. ‘Drafted him,’ but a select few knew the truth. They were going to own him as leverage against Roberto.” His eyes meet mine. “It wasn’t so bad for him in the beginning. I don’t think they knew what to do with their Ace, and it was better if no one knew why he was there. Then Emery took over his case a year ago. She got impatient, obsessed with tracking down General Novelli.” The story stalls, and his gaze finds something above my head. “At some point, Kaleb figured it out. He’s been carrying this weight since then.”
“The counseling?”
“Monitoring. Sometimes interrogations.”
“His sudden arrest?”
He doesn’t answer.
“His arrest, Dennel! What changed?”
His eyes flick to mine, and I start to shake. Still, I need to hear it. I deserve it. I’m a traitor too. Fact.
“You. You were the change.”
Everything hurts. All of my muscles clench in one giant ache. “He turned himself in to protect me, didn’t he?”
He looks away. “You don’t want to hear this part, Andie.”
God, I don’t, but I have to. I have to finish this.
“Tell me. What really happened that day? What did I do to him?”
He shakes his head, rubbing at his eyelids. “Are you sure?”
No. I nod anyway.
“Yes. You were the reason he turned himself in. It wasn’t chance that brought you together. Emery put you into Kaleb’s life as leverage against him, and it worked. He went to her that night and laid down his sword. He begged her to end the game once and for all. He told them they needed to finish it, or he would broadcast the truth to anyone who’d listen. The only thing he asked for in return was your safety.” His eyes float to mine. “They hoped he’d get attached to you. You were his poison, not the other way around. Until you, they had no power over him. He had nothing to lose.”
I’m just sobbing now. Head in my arms, tears soaking my sleeves. He doesn’t try to comfort me. There’s no way to fix the fact that the man you love asked to die to save your life.
I swipe at my eyes and startle Dennel with a sudden blast of resolve.
“Okay. Then what now?”