Remy
If I had to guess how I’d react to certain death, I would have said hysterical crying, but I didn’t shed a single tear or make a sound as we drove to Primo Town. I knew what she had planned for me was worse than the fate of Ms. Oliver. I would not receive a gunshot. My death would not be quick. And why should it be? I deceived the Baelese in the worst way and tried to seduce their leader.
It was funny to think that if Navis had taken me up on it earlier today instead of coming to me tonight, we might have avoided all of this. Or maybe not. Who knew how long Vahni had ben waiting for him to fail so she could swoop in. Perhaps all of these guards and other Baelese had been on her side all along, letting him pretend to be in power, playing the fool. What assholes.
I wanted to rub my eyes, but my wrists were securely bound, the sting reminding me of pain that was to come. I wished there was a way to warn Linette—wait . . . my pulse jumped inside my skin as I remembered what she’d told me. Something was supposed to happen tonight. I slowly turned my head, but all I saw was darkness, and all I heard was quiet. It had to be the middle of the night by now. Whatever Linette thought might be happening clearly wasn’t.
I hoped one of the other women would take Kelsey under her care and protect her from seeing whatever was supposed to happen. Maybe Linette had been smart enough to get rid of the radio. Maybe they would never know who—
“Ms. Haines.” Vahni’s shrewd voice hurt my ears as we neared the encampment. I turned my eyes to her with hesitation. “To whom did you give the radio?”
Oh, shhi . . .
I relaxed down into the seat, my emotions flattened. “Linette Thompson.”
“As I thought,” she said. She motioned to a guard, and the female tightly tied a gag around my mouth, between my teeth.
Emotions came back to me as I was yanked from the car and dragged toward the gates. Vahni said something to the guards in Baelese, and five of them jogged to the women’s dormitory. I held my breath as they banged the door open, and ran in. The sounds of girls screaming ripped my heart to shreds. I heard Linette shout, and a soldier shouted back at her, using the calming control voice. An immediate hush filled the air, and moments later Linette came out between two guards, stumbling. She was bleeding from her eyebrow, bound and gagged like me.
The rest of the guards went into the men’s dorm, and brought out every member of Primo Town. Using their controlling voices, they forced me and Linette to the front, and all of the town members went to their knees in the dirt, eyes on us like drugged sleepwalkers. Tater was on the end. Lifeless eyes. The fog in my mind began to clear. For the first time since Vahni had taken me, I felt the urge to cry.
Linette gave me an annoyed look, as if to say, “This is not how tonight was supposed to go down.”
Vahni marched to the front of the silent crowd, her heels clicking on the hard, dirt ground.
“You all have been coddled. In a matter of three days we discovered four of you breaking the rules. Simple rules. First, giving in to lusts. And now these two have been caught lying, stealing, and worst of all—” she shot me a steely glare, “—putting hands on a Baelese.” She paced up and down the front line, staring at people as they watched her in fear. “I am quite aware of your lack of intelligence, but I thought these rules were quite clear, even for humans.”
She stopped and pivoted, marching to stand in front of Linette and me. Without looking away from us, she shouted, “Come forward, Jacob Tate.”
What in the world?
Tater moved forward, eyes as soulless as ever, and stopped in front of her. My stomach rolled as Vahni pulled a wickedly sharp, curved knife from her belt.
“Take this blade, Mr. Tate, and do exactly what you are told.”
Oh, no. Oh, God.
I tried to squirm back, but two guards held me firm.
Vahni’s voice split the air again. “Ms. Haines is no longer in need of her tongue, her ears, or her pinky fingers.” She looked at Tater. “You will begin by removing the fingers.”
I pushed backward, shaking my head and screaming through my gag.
“Be still!” one of the guards shouted, and with one last quiver, I settled. “Do not move. Hold out your hand.”
A whirring sound began in my ears, a buzzing that had to be mental, my body trying to cope with the trauma that was to come.
Tater stared at my hand as I lifted it.
“You will remove the finger, Mr. Tate,” Vahni said, but Tater’s movements were so slow. He raised the knife in one hand and took my hand in the other. He held my pinky, so small in his strong, firm fingers, and he stared at it like he’d never seen a hand before.
He looked physically ill, and when I whimpered, his dead, confused eyes lifted to mine.
Don’t do it, Tater, I silently begged. You don’t have to do this.
The buzzing got louder. Tater’s eyebrows drew together as he touched the sharp edge to my skin.
“Do it!” Vahni shouted.
The ground beneath our feet rocked as a bright flash lit the sky. For a moment it looked like daylight, and then a sound I’d heard once before in my life assaulted my ears. It was a sound I still had nightmares about. Like the rumbling of an earthquake while a train crashed at top speed.
The sound of a bomb.
Terror glowed in Vahni’s eyes as she turned toward the plume of flames and smoke coming from the other side of base. For a moment I was stunned and stared too. It had to be the palace. All the children . . . little Milna.
“Angels!” Kelsey yelled. We all looked where she was pointing, up at the sky, and I gasped, freaked out at the sight of white, round things floating down. Then my heart leapt. Parachutes!
The last thing I heard before hell broke loose was the knife slipping from Tater’s fingers as he fell to his knees with a thunk, grabbing his head and letting out a low yell that split the air.