22. CHAPTER 22
Zayne
The Territories
Archai, Caspador
Zayne walked to the window after they filled Ashantae in on every detail related to Kira. “I owe her.”
“Let me do it,” Ashantae said next.
“Tae.” Imani's voice sounded chastising, but fear quieted the name.
“I'm as high on your father's enemy list as a person gets,” Ashantae said. “He butchered the rest of my comrades. He already wants to butcher me.”
The dark memories binding them in blood filled the air with the metallic stench of death. Zayne turned back to his old friend with one hand in his pocket. “My father thinks you're dead. We're not telling him you're alive. He'll hunt you down.”
“We can't let them kill Kira and those innocent Followers,” Ashantae said. “I can disappear for good this time. What I'm doing in Antor matters, but we all know I don't have your reach.”
“The people need you,” Zayne said.
“You know how long soldiers survive fighting in my city? Months at the most. Weeks. Days. I've made it for four years because of our partnership. If your work ends, mine will too, along with my life.”
“You made it because you're the best of the best,” Zayne said.
“Being the best of the best doesn't change what a bomb does to my body. I have limits, Zayne.”
“I can take her home.” Brock gripped his fists on the table, voice resolute. “I can do it on my own, without Zayne.”
Stunned, Zayne didn't speak for several moments. “The Phaedra will kill you.”
“Just like he'd kill you two. Look, I stay because I don't want to leave you behind.
You're a mess, and you need someone looking out for you.” Brock unfurled his hands.
“There's nothing else for me in Ciondo. If I do this, it casts suspicion on you, but you're resilient.
You can win back the Phaedra's trust and keep working.”
Imagining life in Ciondo without Brock sounded so bleak, even if his friend just infuriated him enough to put his head through the wall. But he also wanted to see Brock free in the territories. “How will we explain it?”
“I'll come around over the next few weeks.” Brock leaned back. “Say I fell for her. She's pretty and sweet. The Phaedra will buy it.”
Zayne's brows raised. “That's it. You betrayed your country because a woman is pretty and sweet?”
“Oh yeah.” Brock shrugged. “Easily. Love is the greatest excuse.”
Zayne blinked and nodded, realizing Brock was right.
“It could work,” Ashantae said. “Brock doesn't want to fight anyway. He'll be content taking off and hiding.”
“So very content,” Brock said. “We'll pretend Kira and I are together out here. You know, in love and happy. Eventually, no one will care. We don't matter to the Phaedra. It's his power that matters. Sure, if he can find us, he'll make us suffer, but if he can't, he has plenty of other enemies.”
“You'd do this for her?” Zayne asked, torn by hope and sadness.
“Yes.” A hesitation like Brock may stop there. “And for you.”
Ashantae looked between the two of them. “We'll need the United's help getting her out of Ciondo and moving to their best safe house. We shouldn't tie up your name in this, Zayne. Let me handle this part.”
“Just be discreet,” Zayne said, his mind flashing through potential plans.
“All you and Brock need to do is figure out how to get her past security at your parents’ and to a neutral location where the United can meet them.”
“Then they'll be free,” Zayne said quietly. “We'll offer the United information to convince them.”
“If all plans fail and we can't get her out…” Ashantae's voice softened. “What then?”
Brock rubbed his temples, eyes closed.
No one answered the question, not because it seemed unlikely, but because failure wasn't an option.
“Will you give her an escape?” Ashantae asked finally.
Zayne sensed Brock's eyes on him. The question turned in his mind over and over. What a polite way to ask whether he'd help Kira kill herself to end the torture. “I won't let it come to that. I'll find a way.”
Zayne returned to the table and started picking up the almonds. Imani helped him and then placed the cup in front of Ashantae.
“Eat up, babe,” Imani said with a sad but teasing smile.
Ashantae smiled too and slapped Zayne on the back. “You need sleep, my friend.” A nod at Brock. “You too.”
“There's too much to do,” Zayne said. “This needs to happen as fast as possible. I—”
“A few hours of sleep will be more productive than anything else right now,” they said. “You're exhausted. I'll work on this.”
“You might argue with her, but you won't argue with me.” Imani flicked the cup of almonds threateningly.
Brock required no persuasion. He took the first room, and Zayne entered the second, sighing when he settled face down on the bed.
Then the door opened, and Imani climbed over Zayne, leaning against the corner of the wall.
“You don't need to do that anymore.” Sleep already tugged at him.
“Shut up.” Imani opened her book to read. “When you outgrow your nightmares, then you'll outgrow my company.”
He laughed. “I don't think these are the kind of nightmares someone outgrows.”
“Exactly. I'm not the kind of company someone outgrows either.”
If Zayne had an older sister, he would have liked for it to be someone like Imani.
No one in the empire talked to him the way she did, and no one cared about people more than her.
Once Ashantae managed to halt the interrogations, Imani didn't leave his side.
She wasn't a soldier or a medic. She wasn't even a part of the militia.
No one could stop her without arresting her, though.
Their people loved Imani, and there was already so much division about the situation.
So, they let her stay while they dealt with the mess they made.
In the end, his father found them before Ashantae's people decided what to do, and the High General left nothing of them but scraps. These two lost everyone they loved even though they tried to save Zayne.
Their grief crushed his chest. And still they cared for him when they were victims of his father.
It hurt to accept their friendship, but he would never deny them anything.
Ever since Imani sat with Zayne in captivity, she stayed with him while he slept, no matter how much he fought her on it. To her credit, the nightmares were never as bad with her around.
Shifting, Imani settled her feet against his side.
“Get off me,” he said.
“Shut up, kid.” Imani nudged him with her toes.
He pushed her legs away. “I'm not a kid.”
“I'm not a kid,” she mimicked in a deep voice. “I'm a man. Zayne Riven, big scary super-duper soldier.”
He narrowed his eyes when snickering broke through her terrible impression of him.
“I only know two expressions,” she continued. “Frowning and frowning harder.”
Catching his scowl, he tried to straighten his face, and she burst into a laugh.
“See now you can't frown! You're too stubborn to prove me right.”
Hearing Imani laugh melted away any frustration.
Zayne rolled his eyes, mostly out of obligation to act annoyed, and then let himself smile.
A woman who lost as much as she did learned to cherish every good feeling.
Wasn't that what Kira meant about learning to live?
Though Zayne may not be able to do that for himself, it required no work to feel thankful for any shred of happiness Imani felt.
“Now sleep,” she said.
Back when she sat with him in the north, Zayne couldn't grow a full beard. He understood her treating him like a kid at the time. Now she did it out of fondness.
Why didn't they resent him?
Zayne's wishes didn't matter to his father.
The High General vowed to kill all the officers in the militia and every person who knew about the attack.
As for those who drew even a drop of Zayne's blood, his father and the Phaedra tortured them to death.
First, they inflicted every wound upon the soldiers that Zayne suffered, and then all the injuries of his comrades until death took them.
Ashantae did nothing except help Zayne, but that didn't matter.
As a high-ranking officer in the militia, his father insisted upon no mercy, even with Zayne vouching for them.
The High General didn't trust that Ashantae was innocent.
Though for binding Zayne's wounds, he promised a swifter death for Ashantae and their wife.
So, Zayne helped them fake their death and escape to the territories.
No one in the empire would dream of ever taking the family of a powerful official hostage again, as if Zayne wasn't stained with enough blood already.
Precisely why extricating Kira from his parents' house was even harder than the highly secure prison.
Who was willing to touch the house of the merciless High General?
Zayne trusted Ashantae and Imani with Kira, far more than he trusted her with himself. These two had gotten Zayne through the worst time of his life. Together, they'd find a way, but they also needed to survive.
And not waste their energy thinking about him. “I feel you worrying about me, Imani. Stop. I'm okay.”
“You've never been okay.” Sliding down the wall, she rolled onto her side. Her soft smile defied the deep pain in her eyes, but he'd learned to see how the two went together for her. “But maybe you can be one day. Maybe we can be, too.”
For as many ashes as he'd scattered in his life, he'd never lost his home, his family, and every person he loved. Imani's heartbreak exceeded his worst nightmares.
He tucked her hand between both of his. Imani lost her older brother and two younger ones to his father's rampage. Zayne did his best to stand in for them right now and care for their only sister, who was left mourning their losses.
Who did Kira have? Only him, and he hurt her.
“I didn't sit with Kira.” So much shame. “I abandoned her.”
Imani didn't offer advice or comfort like Ashantae would. Instead, she nodded. “Will you do better now?”
He didn't know how to answer, because he didn't know what to do with Kira. Didn't understand her. She was too good and too strong. Too far beyond him to comprehend. And this was how she accomplished it. The same way Imani did.
“If you can't win a war, your mission is to survive.”
Ashantae spoke it to Imani and Zayne both when they first fled the north.
Now here was Kira saying to live. Not just survive.
SEIZE YOUR LIFE
“I'll poison her,” he said finally, almost drifting off to sleep.
Imani's thumb brushed the side of his hand. “You're poisoning her now, stupid.”
Despite that Zayne didn't want her to worry about him, he fell into the deepest sleep he'd had in weeks, even after seeing Edwards smile in his dream.