39. Aron #2
“It’s beneath both of us for me to bring bodyguards.” Tristan straightens, squaring his shoulders. “My men are just on the outside.”
“That far, huh?”
A charged silence hangs between us as we measure each other, agile on our feet and muscles tense. I’m younger, and likely stronger too, but I know it’d be unwise to underestimate Tristan. But I’m just fucking with him. I have zero interest in fighting him.
“Aron, if there is one thing we know about you, it’s that you are loyal to the cause. You will do what’s best for your men. Which fighting Tristan is not, and you know that.”
Her words land like a chest punch, knocking all air out of me.
There is absolutely no point, but I protest regardless, “I am Retrograde. Without me, all you’ve got is a bunch of aimless men who barely know why they’re here anymore.”
He only shrugs in response. And that subtle, resigned movement says it all: do any of us?
Little does he know he’s only playing into my hands at this point, giving me a diamond ace that I hadn’t even hoped for. All I need for a royal flush is one more card, and I know exactly how to get it.
“Let’s move everyone first and announce it then. You’ll only cause chaos if you do it now. I have the new hideout location picked and ready. An abandoned valley village near the Rift.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Lena chips in.
Tristan pretends to consider it for a moment, but I can tell by the vaguely detached look on his face that he’s not going to object.
Because for all his hatred and paranoia not even Tristan suspects what I’m about to do.
He has no idea that since the moment I realised I was in love with Riley, I have been doing nothing but spinning my catastrophic plan.
I’d already decided long before he showed up that moving Retrograde to deceptive safety would be the last thing I’d ever do as its leader.
RILEY
Even though they dragged me in here blindfolded and shut me in a small windowless room, I know instinctively that I’m back in Everrise. There’s just something oppressive in the air that every cell of my body revolts against.
I don’t know how much time passes, but not a lot. They bring me food twice, and I ignore it both times, lying on the cot and looking at the ceiling stubbornly until they take it away again.
The first guard that comes in doesn’t speak to me. He doesn’t even look at me.
But the second one hesitates on his way out, his hand on the metal door lever. He sets the untouched tray on the dusty, cracked-tile ground, turns back around and reaches me in two steps.
Everything inside me clenches. I force myself to stay completely still as he leans over me.
My heart is galloping away, but I only raise my eyebrows at him and don’t react otherwise. My body may be recoiling in instinctive horror from the pain that I’m sure is coming, but my mind doesn’t care. There’s nothing they can take from me anymore.
“Would be a shame to waste a ripe cunt, I says.” He licks his plump lips, revealing uneven teeth. “I’m going to fuck your brains out, pet.”
“Hmmm.” I hum dismissively, then shoot forward. I grab his crotch, fingers closing around the scared little plums of his balls and the base of his shaft—average-sized at best. His eyes widen in shock.
“Oh, honey,” I purr nastily. “Didn’t they tell you?” I fondle his rapidly softening length. “I’m used to taking the Necromancer’s cock now. And it’s really big,” I emphasise with relish. “So that little thing you’ve got there? I won’t even feel that.”
He blushes violently, and his erection is gone. I jiggle his limp dick as I spit at him, “What’s the problem, big guy? Can’t even get it up for a girl who’s not scared of you? Fucking. Pathetic.”
Red in the face, he roars and lands a punishing blow across my cheek that knocks me off the cot.
Tasting metal, I land on the ground just as the door flies open and three more guards rush in to drag my wannabe rapist away with words that finally break me out of my lethargy, “Are you crazy? Volker said he wanted her unharmed.”
I huddle in a corner, pull up my knees, blinking my tears away. But there’s no stopping it, that stampede of panic rushing through my ears at the mention of that name, the cold sweat erupting all over me, the nausea rising up my throat.
There is only one thing to keep me afloat in the pit of my despair. Aron.
I know it in the marrow of my bones that he will try to come for me.
Not to save me—oh no. I ran away. I broke the rules. He would never let that go unpunished.
He’ll come for me so that he can kill me himself.
I hold on to the impossible hope that he’ll succeed.
I’m dead either way. But if I have to die, then I’d rather die by his hand than anybody else’s.
And so I cling to the memory of his voice and his touch, letting hours pass me by in an unformed blur.
Until the door opens again and a familiar voice freezes all the blood in my veins.
“Hello, Princess.” My lungs constrict, and fear twists in my belly. “You’ve been very, very bad.”
Volker steps into view—the nose that looks like it’s been flattened by a hammer, the pointed beard, the eyes like two vats of clear acid, eating right through me.
I forget how to breathe, scrambling away from him until my back hits the wall. A fractured sob claws up my throat. He smiles, a flash of sharp, white teeth. My terror is music to his ears.
“Shhh, don’t worry. It will be our secret. As far as the public’s concerned, you’ve already died in the line of duty.”
“I’m telling you nothing.” My voice quivers with grim determination.
“I’m asking you nothing,” he counters, smug and indifferent.
I could give him Retrograde’s location. But we both know that Aron will have moved his men by now, making it worthless. Volker has no idea that I could share something much more valuable with him—Phoenix’s identity.
But I won’t. Much as I’d have no qualms about betraying Daria, I dread to think what she could tell him about the rebel groups.
I’ll protect the resistance with my silence.
No matter what, I will not fail. Because I have been waiting for this much longer than I ever realised. For a way to finally redeem myself.