Phoenix’s Fire (The Ruins Of Men #2)

Epilogue

Callah

T he hunters had returned, and while there were more wounded, there were also more of them alive. I'd scanned the infirmary, looking for Tobias, but he hadn't been there. That had filled me with dread, but after hours of doing what I could to sew the hunters back together, the sweetest sight had been waiting for me in the hall.

Tobias stood against the wall with a handful of bright pink flowers in his hand and a smile on his face - completely fine.

"I got yelled at by my squad leader for taking too long to get these," he said, thrusting the flowers at me. "They won't live long, so it's okay if you share them with the other women." Then he handed me a thick package wrapped in a scrap of black cloth. It looked like part of a hunter's shirt. "And an engagement present. You know, to convince you not to change your mind."

My hands closed on the package, and I swore it felt like a book. A small one, barely bigger than my hand, but thick. And padded? Confused, I turned it over, surprised to see the fabric had been tucked in tightly. It also looked new.

"Open that in your room," he said. "And I know you're probably tired, but maybe I can walk you to the morning meal?"

"I'd like that," I said, reaching out with my free hand to squeeze his. "Thank you, Mr. Warren."

"It is my pleasure, Miss Atwood." He squeezed back, the most intimate gesture a couple could give in public, and then left.

I meandered back to my room, lifting the flowers to my face so I could smell them. It was nothing like I'd imagined. They were sweet, but also pungent and different. And so many! Some stems had many little flowers on them. Others had only one big one, but they were all pink in some way. A few had white as well, but I liked how bright they all were .

I may have been grinning as I made my way back to my room. Some girls looked over, unable to miss the entire bouquet of flowers I had, and that felt good. Tobias had just proven he was a very good catch. Maybe some thought he was stupid, but from a woman's perspective, he was pampering me.

But when I made it into my room, I dropped the flowers onto my table and hurried to open the fabric. Inside, I found page upon page of paper. Ayla's handwriting covered it. Small, delicate lines of text filled as much space as she could manage, and there were at least ten pages!

Underneath that was a book. The cover of it was written in soft, rounded letters unlike any I'd seen: The Ruins of Men. Curious, I opened it to scan the pages. There were a few small drawings, but most of this was text.

Setting that aside, I turned to her letter. She started by telling me about quarantine, but Tobias had already explained that. Then she said she had a list of all the Dragon women who'd been taken, but warned they might not be the only ones. I flipped through the paper until I found the list. Not only did she have names, but also descriptions and relatives!

Desperately, I trailed my finger down that until I found my own mother's name. There, I saw Nenufar. Red hair, green eyes. Tobias had told me his mother's name when Ayla said he had family up there, so I kept going until I found it. Ione. Comparing the families listed, I breathed a sigh of relief.

We weren't related. This was okay. He wasn't my cousin or uncle! Even if our marriage was for protection, I felt better knowing I wouldn't need to kiss a relative! Setting those pages aside, I went back to Ayla's letter, not surprised at all to find she spoke of Meri next. They had her, she was going to be fine, and she'd gotten something called a divorce. That meant she was no longer Gideon's wife.

I was so engrossed in Ayla's update, the rap at my door caught me by surprise. Shoving the book towards my pillow, I tried to hide the evidence just as the door opened and Ms. Lawton stepped inside. She was smiling, but the moment she saw the panic on my face, she eased the door closed behind her.

"I came to let you know Tobias is hale," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," I said, feeling my cheeks heating even as my blood ran cold. "He met me in the hall with a gift."

Her eyes jumped to my desk, then over to my pillow. "Flowers?"

I swallowed hard, but managed to jiggle my head in a nod.

"And?" she asked, looking at the papers I was still holding in my hand. "Did he write you a letter?"

"It's not from him," I breathed. "He only carried it."

The air slid from her mouth and her shoulders dropped. "Callah?"

"Please don't tell, Ms. Lawton?" I begged.

"From who?" she asked, sounding almost excited.

I had to swallow again. "Ayla."

"She's alive?"

"And Meri. "

A laugh fell from the woman's throat, and she moved to sit on the bed beside me. "And?" she begged.

"But I'm not supposed to have this," I reminded her.

"And I don't care," she said. "I raised those girls. To hear they're actually alive, and you have proof?"

So I turned the page toward her. "Meri got something called a divorce, so she's no longer married to Gideon. Ayla got a list of the women in quarantine - " I stopped hard.

"What about quarantine?" she demanded.

"It's a lie," I breathed.

"What lie?" she pressed. "I always thought there was something wrong. The children are born from mothers I've never heard of. They tell me I must've forgotten them, but I'm not daft!"

"They're from the surface," I explained, looking at the letter again. "Dragons are born from human mothers. Long ago, science made people different to survive after men destroyed the world."

"What?" Ms. Lawton gasped.

I nodded and continued reading. "So every Dragon is a person, and they all have not only human mothers, but sometimes human children. The hunters will take women when they can, locking them away, but in the compound, it is dark compared to the surface. These women are nearly blind, speak a different language that the Righteous are told is gibberish, and then raped."

"No..." Ms. Lawton breathed.

"My mother was from up there," I told her. "Tobias's too, but not related. Ayla has a whole list." I showed her that next. "Please don't turn me in?"

"Child," Ms. Lawton chided. "Have I not done enough to show you I'm on your side? Callah, I have spent almost twenty years trying to protect you girls. I do everything I can to show you love and care, but also to prepare you for the horrors that come in marriage." She paused to lick her lips. "But Ayla found a way out. And Meri, even if her way was horrible."

"She lied," I said. "I told her what to say."

Ms. Lawton paused, slowly lifting her head to gape at me. "You?"

"I encouraged Ayla, too. She wanted to die. I told her that maybe she could live, and now she is. She's happy there, Ms. Lawton, and Tobias said.... Devil's toenails!" I needed to learn to think before I just let words fall out!

She chuckled at that. "So Tobias knows too?"

"He delivers my letters to her and hers to me. He..." I closed my eyes, knowing I was in too far, but there was no reason to stop now. If Ms. Lawton told anyone, I'd definitely end up in quarantine. "He spoke to the Wyvern too."

"So Ayla is with him?"

I nodded. "And she says the world is not evil. It is wild but beautiful, and they will help us if we can get out."

"But we can't," Ms. Lawton said .

"No," I agreed, "but what if we could? What if we stopped letting the men punish us and started punishing them?"

"Callah, they are stronger and larger. You cannot stop them."

"Not at their own game," I agreed, "but we're women , Ms. Lawton." I tapped the paper. "And Ayla knows it too. Right here, she says the compound cannot run without us. Men would starve without women to cook for them. They would be bare without us to mend their clothes. They would be miserable without us to clean. So we don't have to hit them with rods. We simply have to remind them that we have power too."

"And when they beat you for it?" she asked.

"Then we do it more subtly," I told her. "Also, I would not eat the meat."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because it's made of Dragons, and Dragons are people."

Her hands flew to her mouth. "No!"

I just flapped my papers. "I'm tired of being helpless. Ayla's not. Meri's not anymore. But I am the one person in this entire compound who knows that. I also know the girls, the wives, and my intended will protect me."

"Tobias is not that smart," she warned.

"Which makes him easier to control," I assured her. "And he knows all of this. I can change things, Ms. Lawton, but only if people want it to change. If women are ready to push back."

"Callah, we've been ready for generations. We just haven't known how."

So I leaned to pull out the book. "Well, I'm learning."

"What do you need?" she asked.

"To not get caught."

"That," Ms. Lawton said as she stood, "is the one thing we can make sure of. I know over twenty wives who will be glad to say you were helping them, and you already showed us how. If one person accuses you, the rest of us will say it's a lie. It's jealousy over your intended, or trying to hide their own faults. The men have tried to keep us apart. They said friendships would spread gossip, and they were right, but we're not required to be ignorant!"

"We're just easier to control when we are," I pointed out.

"Exactly," she said as she smoothed her skirts. "But we don't want to be controlled. We want to simply be happy. I think we want that enough to fight for it."

"No," I corrected. "We can't fight them. We need to remind them why they need us. We, Ms. Lawton, need to show them what happens when their wives rebel."