Chapter Thirty-Five — The City Bows
Chapter Twenty-Seven — The City Bows
Nobody fired.
That was the terrifying part.
The Black Vein operatives flooded across the abandoned station platform in perfect
formation, rifles raised—
yet every single one hesitated.
Because the ivy kept moving.
Black roots crawled across the walls and rails around Avery like living veins beneath the
city’s skin. The station lights flickered in rhythm with her pulse while poison smoke curled
softly around her bare hands.
The operatives looked afraid.
Not of dying.
Of her.
The realization settled heavily into the station.
Avery stared at them breathing unevenly.
This was how the city looked at monsters.
Silas noticed immediately.
His voice softened slightly when he spoke beside her.
“Careful.”
Avery glanced toward him.
“If you let them fear you too much,” he murmured quietly, “you’ll start believing you
deserve it.”
The sentence hit harder than expected.
Because part of her already did.
Blaine moved closer beside her despite the black serum spreading slowly through the veins
in his injured arm.
His face looked paler now beneath the flickering emergency lights.
The Collector’s blade.
Poisoned.
Avery’s pulse sharpened instantly.
“You’re hurt.”
“I noticed.”
“That serum—”
“Focus.”
Always him.
Bleeding and still worrying about everyone else first.
The children clustered tightly behind Avery while the Black Vein operatives spread
cautiously across the station platform.
Then one operative removed his mask.
Avery froze.
Young.
Too young.
Maybe twenty.
Black veins shadowed faintly beneath his throat while exhaustion hollowed his eyes.
Not soldiers.
Survivors.
Conditioned survivors.
The young operative stared at Blaine almost reverently.
“You’re alive.”
The room went still.
Blaine’s expression hardened immediately.
“Lower your weapons.”
The operative swallowed hard.
“We can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
The command cracked through the station sharply.
Not shouted.
Conditioned.
Authority burned instinctively beneath Blaine’s voice.
Several operatives physically reacted before catching themselves.
God.
They really were trained under him.
Or after him.
The young operative looked toward Avery then.
Fear mixed strangely with awe.
“They said she destabilized containment sectors.”
“She saved children,” Blaine replied coldly.
Silence spread through the station.
The operatives looked toward the frightened kids huddled behind the black ivy barrier.
Confusion flickered through their formation.
Cracks.
Avery saw it immediately.
These weren’t loyal men.
These were controlled ones.
The same way Blaine used to be.
The Collector suddenly laughed softly from within the ivy restraints.
“You think they’ll turn against the city for you?”
Avery looked toward him sharply.
The masked man’s voice darkened.
“They belong to Black Vein.”
“No,” Blaine said quietly.
Everyone looked at him.
The black serum still spread slowly beneath his skin but his silver eyes remained
terrifyingly clear.
“They belong to themselves.”
Silence.
The young operative visibly faltered.
Because nobody in Black Vein had probably ever said something like that aloud before.
Not to them.
Not ever.
The station trembled violently again.
More trains approaching.
Luciano was sending reinforcements.
Avery looked toward the frightened children.
Toward the exhausted operatives.
Toward Blaine struggling to stay upright without showing weakness.
And suddenly she understood something dangerous — this wasn’t a rescue anymore.
It was the beginning of a war.
The poison curled sharply around her fingers in response.
The young operative saw it.
Then slowly he lowered his weapon.
The sound echoed through the station like a gunshot.
The other operatives stared at him.
Fear.
Shock.
Choice.
Avery’s pulse crashed hard.
Because choice was more dangerous to tyrants than violence ever would be.
The operative looked directly at Blaine.
“They told us you abandoned the program.”
Blaine held his gaze steadily.
“I survived it.”
The sentence shattered something open in the room.
One by one more weapons lowered.
Silas looked absolutely delighted.
“Oh,” he murmured softly. “The city is about to become extremely inconvenient for rich
people.”
Another operative removed her mask slowly.
Tears streaked silently down her face.
“They said nobody ever escaped.”
Blaine looked at her quietly.
“You can.”
The children watched everything with wide silent eyes.
Lena stepped slightly forward from behind Avery then.
Small.
Fragile.
Brave anyway.
The little girl looked toward the armed operatives and whispered:
“Please don’t take us back.”
That did it.
A silence heavier than grief swallowed the station afterward.
Because suddenly the operatives weren’t looking at subjects anymore.
They were looking at children.
The same children they used to be.
The lead operative slowly turned toward the arriving trains roaring through the tunnels.
Then toward Avery.
Toward Blaine.
Toward the black ivy spreading across the station like revolution growing roots.
And quietly he made the most dangerous choice possible.
He pointed his weapon away from them.
Toward the city instead.
The first shot fired toward the city.
Not from Avery.
Not from Blaine.
From a Black Vein operative.
The bullet shattered the lead transport spotlight barreling into the station tunnel, plunging
half the platform into darkness.
Then chaos erupted.
Alarms screamed.
Operatives shouted.
House tactical units flooded from the incoming trains—
and suddenly Black Vein soldiers turned their weapons on the people who owned them.
Silas laughed.
Actually laughed.
Warm.
Beautiful.
Unhinged.
“Oh, this is historic.”
Gunfire exploded across the abandoned rail station while black ivy ripped violently
through the concrete walls in response to Avery’s pulse.
The city was cracking open beneath itself.
Blaine grabbed Avery’s wrist instantly.
“We move now.”
“What about them?”
The defecting operatives already formed defensive lines around the children and
evacuation tunnels.
Choice.
Actual choice.
The lead operative slammed a fresh ammunition clip into his rifle before looking toward
Blaine again.
“We’ll hold the platform.”
Blaine froze briefly.
Not because he doubted him.
Because someone was following his lead willingly instead of obeying from fear.
Avery saw the exact second that realization hurt him.
The operative noticed too.
Then quietly:
“You saved more people than they told us.”
Blaine physically looked away.
Like praise felt more dangerous than bullets.
The station exploded violently overhead.
A train car derailed off damaged tracks crashing sparks and twisted metal across the
platform while House tactical units screamed orders through comm systems.
“Retrieve Subject Nimh alive!”
“There!” Silas pointed dramatically. “That’s the part where we should leave.”
The ivy barrier surrounding the children shifted automatically opening a path deeper into
the underground tunnels.
Avery stared at it.
The poison was adapting faster every hour.
Learning.
The realization terrified her.
But not as much as the way the children looked safer around it.
Blaine swayed slightly beside her.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
Avery noticed instantly.
The black serum spreading beneath the cut on his arm had reached his wrist now.
Cold panic shot through her chest.
“You’re getting worse.”
“I’m functional.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one available.”
Typical.
Even poisoned he sounded exhausted more than afraid.
Silas noticed too.
The amusement finally slipped from his face completely.
“That serum’s accelerating.”
Blaine ignored him.
Which meant yes.
Wonderful.
Avery’s chest tightened violently.
No.
Absolutely not.
She already buried Vinny.
She refused to lose another person to this city.
The thought hit hard enough the poison reacted instantly.
The ivy surrounding the station pulsed sharply.
The black serum beneath Blaine’s skin visibly slowed.
Everyone froze.
Avery stared at his arm.
The veins weren’t spreading anymore.
Silas blinked once slowly.
“Well,” he murmured softly. “That’s new and medically terrifying.”
Blaine looked at Avery sharply.
“You did that.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“But you did.”
The poison around her hands curled tighter like living smoke responding to emotion again.
Protection.
Attachment.
Blaine’s breathing steadied slightly.
The realization hit all of them at once.
Avery wasn’t just evolving.
She was counteracting Black Vein contamination.
The lead operative stared openly now.
“You could cure us.”
Silence crashed through the station.
Avery physically stepped backward.
“No.”
Because cure implied she understood this.
She didn’t.
At all.
Another explosion thundered through the platform.
House reinforcements poured from the train cars heavily armed now.
Avery looked toward the defected operatives holding the line.
Then toward the children moving through the ivy tunnel.
Then toward Blaine.
She had one job.
One actual job in all of this.
Make sure they stayed found.
“Go,” she said.
And the city burned beautifully around them.