Chapter 55
And I thought I was done being shocked to the bone tonight.
“W-what?” I stammer. For a moment, the whole world seems to fray at the edges. Nothing makes sense in my own brain. “Travis Redden is your son’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Wren?” Poppy calls uncertainly.
“Give me a second,” I say, my tone sharper than I intend.
My mind is racing. Travis was the “piss-vein” Evlynne was telling me about that day on the Ledge?
“How is that even possible?” I demand.
Her voice is dull as she says, “After the network recruited me out of upper school, I was supposed to infiltrate the Command and train as a pilot. Travis was one of my instructors. I already told you what happened—one stupid booze-induced night. When I found out I was pregnant, the Uprising got me out of the city and relocated me to the Dagger.”
“Are you insane? You kept Fisher a secret from Travis for a good reason and now you’re running straight to him? You’re trusting him?”
“I know you won’t understand this,” Evlynne says quietly. “You can’t, not until you have a child you’d do everything in your power to protect. The Authority will kill him if they know what he can do.”
“What can he do?” I feel a pang of dread as I realize she’s probably been keeping a lot more from me than I thought.
She doesn’t answer.
“What can Fisher do, Evlynne?” I push. At her prolonged silence, I swallow my frustration. “Whatever it is, nobody on the Authority would ever vote to kill a child. Gray would never allow it. But Travis? We already know what he’s capable of.”
“He promised he would protect him.”
“You really think Travis Redden, the General, isn’t going to use Fisher—maybe even kill him—just like the Authority would? Because you’re delusional if you believe that.”
“You weren’t there, Wren. I saw his face when I showed him a digital holo of his son. I have to trust that he’ll keep his word.”
I suck in a breath, stunned that someone as levelheaded and capable as Evlynne could be so na?ve.
“What about the cause?” I say in a last-ditch effort to make her see reason.
“All you’ve done since I met you is go on about Mods regaining our rightful place in society.
You call Primes piss-veins. And now you’re going to work with them?
Nothing is more important, isn’t that what you said? ”
“I was wrong,” she says simply. “Something is more important. My son.”
“Where is Fisher now? Please don’t tell me you’re going back to the Dagger to get him.” Fear clamps around my throat. “Are you leading them to the mountain?”
“No. He’s already with me. He was on the plane with us tonight when we left the Dagger.”
Her gear bag.
That’s why she’d been handling it so gingerly. Fisher must have been in there the entire time.
“I would never compromise the Dagger,” Evlynne insists. “I made that clear to him. I told him this was the only deal I was willing to strike.”
“And I’m just supposed to believe you after what you did to the Bramble civilians?”
“I did it for my son and I would do it again. But I’d never destroy everything we’ve worked so hard for. The Dagger will be safe, I promise.”
My breath comes out in short bursts. I can’t fathom what I’m hearing.
“Please don’t do this,” I beg. “You still have time to make it right.”
“It’s too late, Darlington. My son comes first. Take care of yourself. Take care of Gray.”
Then she’s gone.
I’m…dumbfounded. I look around the empty runway, that promise of escape slipping away, just like everything else that slipped away tonight.
Fiona. Declan. Evlynne.
It’s a complete clusterfuck.
I rub my temples before checking in with Adrienne. “Evlynne is gone,” I report. “We need to request another transport.”
She starts to ask questions, but I shut it down because my brain can’t handle any more activity. I take a breath and return to Poppy, the girl who just killed a man without lifting a finger.
It’s too much. Too fucking much.
I need to get us out of here.
Everything else can wait.
The mood back at the Dagger is somber. Gray meets us in the hangar, informing Adrienne that Kallister is waiting for her in the war room. She gives a resigned nod and heads for the air lock.
Gray’s arms wrap around me in a tight, urgent embrace. Then he releases me to give Karra a quick hug. “You all right, KC?”
“Fine. Thanks.” Without another word, Karra stalks out of the hangar. I think she’s in shock. She’s barely uttered a single word since Henley flew out to the airfield to retrieve us.
“Are you okay?” Gray says, stroking my hair before tucking it behind my ears.
“I’m as okay as I can be, considering everything.” I touch his cheek and give him a quick kiss on the lips before gesturing to Poppy. “I’m going to sleep in my own quarters tonight. Poppy’s going to stay with me.”
He nods, glancing at the stricken teenager.
“My mother’s dead,” she says flatly.
His gaze softens. “I know. Fiona will be missed.”
When her bottom lip starts to tremble, Gray pulls her into his arms. He strokes his hand down her back, and I see Poppy relax slightly.
His short sleeves reveal the silver in his veins, telling me he’s grounding her.
I’m keen with it. She needs to feel numb for a while or the pain and grief will consume her.
Gray gives me a grim look. “I’ll probably be in the war room all night dealing with the fallout.”
“Kallister is pissed?”
“Beyond pissed. He’s not going to let Ade go unpunished for this.”
I want to defend Adrienne—she had no idea Evlynne would choose to betray us—but nobody would’ve even gone to Bramble Base tonight if not for Adrienne’s insistence that we open peace talks with the Company.
I take Poppy back to my quarters. We both reek of smoke, but she doesn’t want to take a shower yet. She plants herself on the small sofa that I moved back into the room after Xavier moved out.
“You can ask about it,” she says without looking at me. Her empty gaze is fixed on the wall.
I settle beside her, keeping my voice gentle. “What was that tonight? You weren’t corrupting him. You were…?”
“Inflicting,” she whispers.
I’m no longer surprised by the new abilities that crop up whenever I think I know them all.
“And what is that?”
“Infliction is…” She makes an embittered sound under her breath. “It’s exactly what it sounds like. I inflict pain. And sometimes death.” She laughs, but there’s no humor in it.
“Does anybody else know that you have this ability?” I ask in a careful tone.
“No. Only my mom knew.”
I bristle at that, and hope Poppy doesn’t notice. Fiona knew her daughter possessed this dangerous power and didn’t disclose it to her own council, yet it was perfectly acceptable for her to tell the entire base I could incite?
“And before you ask,” Poppy says, interrupting my indignant thoughts, “the bloodmark is inside my cheek.”
Again, I have to acknowledge how fucking lucky that is. Like Valeria, Poppy couldn’t have seen her bloodmark appear in a more fortuitous place.
Something else dawns on me, something about Fiona, and the way she looked at me each time I dared to speak to her daughter.
She wasn’t trying to keep Poppy away from me because I’m an inciter.
She was trying to keep me away from Poppy, because Poppy is an inflicter.
“Is that why your mom always sent you to train in the Temple? She said it was to strengthen your shield, but it was to control the infliction, wasn’t it?”
“No, she wanted me to suppress it.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I can already control it. Most of the time, anyway. If my emotions are heightened, sometimes it will happen spontaneously.”
“I don’t know anything about infliction,” I admit. “Theo’s body was…he looked like he was in pain?”
“I can manipulate the nerve endings,” Poppy says. “And once the seizures start, I go for the heart. I…stop it. I don’t know how I do it, exactly. How do you incite? How does Grayson make me feel numb like this? I can’t explain it.”
She’s right. We can’t always explain how our abilities work.
“Did your mother ever let you practice on her?” I can’t imagine Fiona allowing Poppy to inflict some unsuspecting soul.
“Yes. But it didn’t require a lot of practice. If I’m calm, I can turn it on and off easily.”
“How fast can you harness the gold?”
With one eyebrow raised, she looks at me.
A second later, I feel a pain in my chest.
I slap my hand over my collarbone, rubbing away the sting. “Was that you?”
She nods.
Holy hellfuck. Now I know why Fiona was so desperate to keep people from getting close to Poppy.
“Don’t worry, I won’t accidentally stop your heart,” the girl says. “That doesn’t usually happen with humans. Your hearts are too big.”
With humans.
The implication hangs in the air. “But animals?” I say softly.
At that, Poppy looks crestfallen. “The slightest jolt can kill them. When I told you that Scarlett doesn’t let me touch the birds, I lied. She never made that rule. I don’t touch them because I don’t want to hurt them. Like I hurt Didi.”
Sadness squeezes my heart. So that’s why she doesn’t go to the aviary anymore. She must’ve accidentally killed that raven.
Fuck. I rub my forehead. I’m so tired, but I know there won’t be any sleep for me tonight.
“Has it happened with any other animals?” I ask.
She nods. “We had a dog…” She trails off.
That’s all she needs to say, and I ache even harder for her. I know what it’s like for your abilities to work spontaneously, but I can’t imagine actually killing someone with my touch.
Her eyes well up with tears then. “But tonight, I did it to a person. I stopped his heart.”
“You saved my life,” I remind her. “So if you feel guilty about killing that man—”
“I didn’t save your life,” Poppy blurts out. “I almost killed you.”
“What are you talking about? You mean tonight?”
“No. I…” Her entire face collapses. “The night of the red moon, I’m the one who poisoned your drink.”
Shock slams into me. “What?”