Chapter 21
Ford
Shadow was naturally tapped into every change of my emotional state, a benefit of our bond. It allowed her to know when I was in danger, which was likely what had her and Sky running up to us.
Apparently, she also knew when my self control was seconds away from snapping.
My brain was still barely working, only able to process things very, very slowly. I was shocked I was able to have such an intense conversation with Esme, seeing as I felt like my heart stopped the moment she’d kissed me.
My shock made me freeze for what felt like an eternity, even if it had only been about a second in real time. That was not, at all, how I’d planned that to happen.
Esme—and life itself—had a habit of disregarding my carefully laid plans. Including, but not limiting, kissing me for show and with an audience. That kid was lucky he interrupted when he did, or he would have seen a much different picture.
Had I gotten Esme in my arms, had those long legs wrapped around me for the first time…
Again, the brain was working slowly.
Even now, over an hour since that happened, nothing was quite in working order.
For instance, the appropriate emotion for me to be feeling at present was concern. Maybe an undertone of fear or anxiety.
That was what everyone else was feeling, Soren’s eyebrows knit together and Bellamy ringing her hands together. Freya was still off with Caspian’s aunt, or else she’d likely be showing the same. It might even get a reaction out of Arthur.
So tell me why, while they listened to Esme’s recounting of what we’d found and looked over the templates of Marks she’d drawn from memory, my baseline emotion was contentment.
Even spiking with happiness when Esme smiled.
A real smile, one I’d become increasingly familiar with and fond of since I’d gotten to see it up close.
Something on my face must of given me away, because Esme’s face lit up with another smile, this one edged with a secret.
“This is…just, wow,” Bellamy said, staring at the pages in front of her and at a rare loss for words.
“We’d need to come up with another way to prove it, but I have a feeling we’ve been woefully misguided when it comes to Matches on Muli,” Esme said, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose while she looked over the notes she’d scrambled down the second we burst into our room.
Sky and Shadow had assisted in getting us back to the inn as quickly as possible, though it was a short distance. They’d felt our anxiety and were hesitant to leave us. Even now, they were munching on grass behind the inn, not wanting to stray far.
Esme passed me her notes, silently asking me to look them over to see if she left anything out.
I doubted she had, and my stomach sparked with more than a little pride at that thought.
She was brilliant, and though I hated that the Empire took advantage of her for it, it was something I’d always admired about her.
As I looked over what she’d written, Esme continued, “If you think about it, everything we’ve been told about Matches has been direct from someone in Muli. Well, of course it was, but I mean it has been something they’ve told us and we believed.”
“You’re saying what if they lied?” Soren asked, though I was sure his own mind was taking off like a racehorse with possibilities.
Something tickled at the back of my mind and when I looked up, Esme looked like her brain was about to explode out of her ears. Though the speed at which her mind worked was a gift, sometimes it got a little out of control. I’d learned the signs years ago.
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, eyes darting back and forth, blinks stuttering.
“More tea?” I asked her, gently pulling her out of it. She nodded, giving me a small smile of thanks.
The Bond exploded, turning into a goopy glob of contentment. That also could have just been me, the two were nearly indistinguishable lately.
Esme took a sip of her tea, then a deep breath. “I think…I think that there is a story here, one we hadn’t considered. I’m thinking about what we would have done, if the roles were reversed. If people from another planet popped up in the middle of the desert one day.”
“I wouldn’t put a beheading past the Empire,” Soren quipped. The same thing that had been done to one of our messengers across the Bridge. The story that was told over and over and over again as justification for keeping us at war.
“Exactly,” Esme said, her hands closing around her tea cup.
I imagined it was to keep her centered with another sense so her mind didn’t take off again.
Testing the waters, I placed my hand on her knee under the table to give her another point of contact to reality.
The way her body relaxed at my touch made me feel like I could run a hundred miles with a broken foot.
“Fear. Fear of the unknown. Now imagine people start popping through with matching tattoos, saying that’s what allowed them to Cross.”
My exhale was so heavy, it shook the water in front of me. “And you have no idea what they are or how they got them,” I supplied. The story was coming together now. A brilliant story, really. But one that threatened to turn this whole thing around on its head.
Esme nodded, her skin paling by the minute.
Soren could raise his eyebrow at me all he wanted. I moved my chair closer to hers and took one of her hands between mine, squeezing hard. Two pricks of pink bloomed on her cheeks. There we go. Much better.
“If they convinced us that on Muli, you were born with a Mark, they didn’t have to come up with a story as to how they were extracted or placed. And hell, I’m pretty sure we went ahead and told them how it worked on Vir in the beginning,” Esme continued.
Bellamy dropped her head into her hands.
Before her forehead even connected with her palm, Soren’s hand was already on her back.
“We did. I’ve read every single report sent back to the Empire since the beginning of this war.
We told them everything, under the assumption they were being equally forthcoming. ”
God, we needed to talk to Peter. He was the only one who could give a first hand accounting of what happened.
A sound, between a scoff and a laugh, fell out of Soren. “I have to admit, it’s kind of brilliant.”
“Oh my God, they got us to practically scream at them who Matches were, too,” Esme said with a groan, falling forward on the table.
I blinked a few times, taking me a second longer to catch up.
It was the image of my Mark on the back of my hand, continuing up through a clear panel on my long-sleeved shirt that did it.
“They had no idea how Matches reacted around each other. They needed a way to make us show them who belonged with who,” I said, my voice edged with a mix of shock and awe.
“Is it bad to say I want to meet whoever came up with this?” Esme asked, the words muffled behind her hands.
I laughed despite the stress still coursing through my blood. “One smart son of a bitch.”
“I feel like I’m seeing clearly for the first time,” Esme said, sitting up to look at me. This time, she moved her hands around to clasp mine, and I felt like a child who had just been handed a bar of chocolate. Surely, the heat flooding my cheeks wasn’t visible to anyone else.
Based on the look on Soren’s face, I was not so blessed.
“This really changes things.” Yeah, no shit.
Bellamy twisted her hands together again, clearly thinking deeply about something.
“Elijah, Caspian, even Alice. They’ve all made allusions to the Empire being the aggressor in this war.
We know our side is not blameless—no one can be truly in a war like this.
But the story has always been that we are playing defense against a world that has the inherent power to Cross.
They could flood people through the Bridge faster than we could have the priestesses extract Marks and match them. ”
“Whereas to them, they don’t even have the power to Cross, at least not that we know of.
Maybe they’ve developed a method since then, but they are still clearly artificially drawing on Marks.
” I’d only had time to grab a few templates, but there had been a box next to the desk that had hundreds more.
Esme nodded at me in agreement. “We at least have the advantage that they don’t know we know yet. Or at least we hope. I’m pretty sure that the kid who caught us believed us.”
“Remind me what excuse you used again?’ Soren just couldn’t resist stirring up a little shit, now could he?
“I told you,” I said, failing to hide the underlying threat in my tone.
It was like the Bond had turned into a snarling demon that only had a taste for blood, specifically that of people who stepped an inch out of line with Esme.
“We acted like we were sneaking off for a tryst or dalliance or whatever fucking romantic word you want to use to describe it.”
“Yeah, but how convincing were you?” Soren pressed. I was pretty sure Bellamy kicked him under the table.
“He believed us. Nothing untoward happened,” Esme said firmly, with such conviction even I doubted for a second that I’d dreamed the whole encounter. It wouldn’t be all that different from some dreams of nights past, to be honest.
“I’m happy to believe he did,” Bellamy cut in.
“I’ll sleep better that way.” She did look slightly weary, but I knew better than to voice that concern.
“What I want to know is whether Caspian and Muli are brokering for peace because they actually desire to or if they plan to use it to uncover more information.”
An idea sparked in my head. There was a part of me that hated myself for being able to come up with it in the first place. “Maybe they are trying a different path for drawing out information. Remember our first year out here? We had that string of kidnappings?”
“Don’t remind me,” Esme said, and she was deadly serious.