Chapter 23 Zion #2
“From me, too.” Kali pulled a loose thread on her pale-blue sweater. The cotton fiber floated to the hardwood floor, the string as long as the healing cut on her cheek. “Because, apparently, my agreement isn’t necessary for this deal to take place.”
Gedeon pushed off the windowsill. “It’s not.” The rolling thunder, so powerful it shook the sky, muffled his steps as he prowled toward her.
The loud rumbling seized control of my muscles, and I followed him, admiring how his long-sleeved shirt grew taut as he rolled his shoulders.
Kali lifted her chin, the filthy heels of her boots painting a picture of disobedience on Gedeon’s desk.
Seizing the armrests, he twisted the chair so roughly her legs flew to the ground. “I remember how you reacted that night at Vice when I proposed taking you on stage.”
Kali gulped, her attention bouncing between our friends and us.
Sauntering around her, I came to a stop at her back and inhaled the cherry scent wafting off her hair. “That wet spot on your panties looked delectable.”
The sharp intake of her breath ripped a chuckle out of Gedeon.
Locking her in place, he leaned into her.
“We own you, Kali. Your body, soul, and mind. So no, I do not require your permission to strike a bargain with Jayla.” A flash of blue light lit up Gedeon’s face.
Lightning had decided to attack our compound.
“You have willingly given yourself up to us. My absence did not change that. Our rights to you still stand, and that includes your pleasure, by any means necessary.”
I clutched her chair’s backrest. “Imagine if we played a game called how many times we can make you come until you pass out.”
She crossed her legs, one on top of the other. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh, little death. I would make it my priority each evening.” Gedeon curled a dark lock behind her ear. “I can see it in your eyes—you are already trying to estimate the number.”
“I’m not,” she huffed, her squeak such a lovely shade of flustered I yearned to taste it. If voices were edible, hers would be a dessert.
He arched a thick eyebrow. “Is your memory in need of a nudge on how to answer me?” His lips ghosted over hers. “I spank the lies out of deceivers, Kali.”
“Ahm, guys? I don’t think Jayla meant she wanted a show right this second,” Ryder quipped, his elbow hooked on the couch’s backrest. “As much as I enjoy your dynamic, can we get back to business? I’m still not fully over the fact that Gedeon is alive.”
Gedeon moved to lean against the wall behind Kali, his knee bent and his foot resting on a gray coat of paint.
“I told you my reasoning. Our people were splitting into factions. If I had done nothing, we would have had to fight two fronts: a rebellion against us and Ilasall’s military.
” He paused, boring into our friends. “When Kali stabbed me—which was an unfortunate accident—I realized we could implement a solution I had learned of in my father’s books. So I ran with it.”
Reclining in his chair, Eli rested an ankle on his knee. “You vanished.”
Gedeon nodded. “For three months, I was supposedly buried in Ilasall’s prison. It’s a tactic as old as time.” He folded his arms. “Tell me it didn’t work. That our people have not forgotten their warped ideals. That they didn’t tuck their tails and crawl back.”
“It’s been quiet since your…supposed death.” Eli rubbed his nape, tousling his shoulder-length blond waves. He might have had angelic features, but the man was quick, both on his feet and in his wits. A menace concealed in an innocent package.
“Gossip has decreased at Vice too.” Jayla pulled the yellow-and-pink blanket to her chin.
“It mostly revolves around what the city is planning or where people will be placed during the initial attack: front lines, special tasks, whatever. We haven’t heard any grumbles about leadership sitting on their asses and doing nothing. ”
Ava studied the wall-sized bookshelf. Another strike of lightning colored the neat rows of tomes in red, the titles on their spines faded. “So what’s the plan?” she asked.
Gedeon flexed his neck, and drool flooded my mouth. The crackle of his joints was the dreamiest sound to exist.
“Have any of you heard the term ‘martyr’ before?” he asked.
Frowns popped up across the study. Ignoring Gedeon, Jayla huddled closer to Ava while Eli and Eislyn exchanged confusion-laced looks. Sadira and Ryder glanced around, as bewildered as Ezra sipping his tea.
“It has something to do with religion.” Kali shrugged. “I’ve read about it once.”
“Correct,” Gedeon said. “In the old times, when religions ruled people’s actions, a concept of martyrs was born. They were people who sacrificed themselves rather than renouncing their beliefs.
“However, their deaths weren’t always voluntary.
Often, the enemy—the so-called heretics, or those under the guidance of a different faith—would abduct the religion’s leader, string him up and leave him exposed to the elements.
A few days, and he would die of dehydration or starvation.
If he didn’t, they would whip him until he bled out. Or bind him to a pyre.
“But martyrs were often considered leaders, and so their deaths would turn their followers into fanatics. They would fully embrace the worship of their chosen god and seek to convert anyone who opposed them.”
“So you turned yourself into one.” Eislyn brushed away her overgrown chocolate bangs. “A martyr.”
Gedeon dipped his chin. “Yes.”
“So that’s why you didn’t let us in on your plan,” Ava added, adjusting the woolen blanket so it covered Jayla’s legs. “It wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t unexpected. If it didn’t feel real.”
Kali sighed. “Too real.” Her recently trimmed hair flowed around her shoulders, the mass begging to be disheveled, as roughened up as the months without Gedeon had done to me.
“An act of manipulation.” Sadira dragged the end of her braid along her collarbone, her dark skin gleaming in a burst of blue lightning. “You influenced people’s beliefs. Steered them into willing submission.”
“By tricking them.” Ezra scoffed, fixated on the tea dregs in his cup. “So honorable.”
I itched to rip out his vocal cords for daring to scorn my man.
Gedeon gripped my bicep, and the slight shake of his head reeled me back in. Sometimes I wondered if he could read my mind.
“You replicated Ilasall’s tactics,” Eli concluded. “Figured out how to control the masses by utilizing yourself as a tool. Like the Head of Ilasall and his speeches at major events in the city. He has turned himself into a symbol, and now you’ve done the same.”
“He’s done better.” I hooked my thumbs around the loops of my tattered jeans. “He’s become a figure, so shapely I could eat him up.” I grinned at Gedeon as he dragged a hand down his face. “You’re so edible I want to lick you all over.”
A round of groans engulfed our group, and even Jayla roused from dozing off in Ava’s lap.
Gedeon’s steely gaze roved over me, from my toes to my ears. If looks could melt, I’d be a snowflake slowly disintegrating on the sidewalk right now.
“We are going to play a game of three stages,” he said a tad gruffly.
“The first was bringing the splitting factions of our people together. It’s complete.
Everyone thought I had been kidnapped by Ilasall and tortured in their cells.
This”—Gedeon gestured to the purplish bruise on his face—“will help to sell it.”
He continued. “The second stage is my return. Instead of dying like in the history of religions, I survived. I endured. I came back for my people.”
Ryder looked out the window. “And the third stage?”
“War,” Kali and I said simultaneously.
Gedeon went on. “The problem is, the news of me will cause noise. People will talk. If we don’t expedite matters, they won’t stay united for long.
The emotions will run too high and too fast.” He surveyed the band of our friends.
“What is the main thing stopping you from moving up the invasion date?”
After weighing all our options, we had set the war date as the last day of spring. We needed those weeks to find a solution to our problem.
“The city wall,” Kali gritted out. “We can’t breach it.”
Catching Gedeon’s frown, I supplied, “Too many guards patrol the gates and the top of the city wall. We can’t get closer than a hundred yards. They shoot before asking questions.”
“The catacombs are a valid option, but it’s a bottleneck,” Eli mused. “It would take a while to move thousands through such narrow passageways. Assuming none of them get lost or apprehended by Ilasall’s military.”
“We need to take hold of their wall,” I summarized. “To be exact, the three main gates.” Each was large enough for trucks to pass. “If we can seize them, we’ll control all major exit and entrance points. We could pinch them from all sides.”
A clank disrupted the discussion as Ezra put his cup on the coffee table. We had to act exactly how that porcelain had collided with the wood: swiftly, unpredictably, and loudly.
Scrutinizing our trio, he asked, “So what do you expect from us?”