56. CHAPTER 56
Miya
The Territories
Archai, Caspador
Dark bricks blurred as they ran.
“We’re halfway there,” Miya said.
Sounds Miya had never heard before drowned out her own voice, closing in on the rest of Archai from downtown and the outskirts of the city. The chorus of shrieks and gunfire never ceased.
They took a hard right that Miya nearly missed and didn’t slow down when they hit the cars clogging the street.
She squeezed between two taxis in standstill traffic.
Lance clambered over the hood, denting the metal in.
A man reached for them through an open window, screaming and cursing, but they didn't slow down.
Continuing forward, they sprinted until a door in the alley ahead swung open, forcing them to slide to a stop on loose gravel.
Miya's heart dropped when Aiden walked out.
How did he find her?
Sweat covered his face. “Looking for me, baby?”
“You always show up at the right time.” Miya managed to smile and yanked her hand away from Lance. The captain must have been tracking them with facial recognition, which meant he'd directed Aiden to them. This was way worse than her handler finding them.
The unseen hand of the captain wrung her neck. Whatever had happened, he either knew Miya betrayed him or no longer needed her and would take the excuse to end her. It didn't get worse than this. She should have left Lance behind. Now he'd die with her.
Aiden worked closer, the area around his nose and eyes still black and blue from the captain. “I heard you've been talking.”
His men flanked them. Two placed a hand on Lance’s shoulders.
Miya made sure not to look back at Lance as she sauntered to Aiden.
“You poor thing. Look at your face.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You didn’t think I’d let that old man, Hakym, outmaneuver us, did you?
” Running her fingers through the base of his hair, she winked and motioned at Lance. “I brought you him.”
“What would I want with some worthless idiot?”
Keep it together. Miya always found a way to play him. “The old man was going to the United. I’ve given you all the collateral you need. Hakym will do anything for Lance.”
Aiden's expression softened. “That’s what you were doing?”
“What did you think I was doing?”
“It looked like you were ditching us and the captain for the United.” Aiden lowered his voice. “It's too late. The captain doesn't need us anymore. The United has the king on lockdown with Ciondo's attack.”
“What's happening, baby?”
“Ciondo struck tons of cities in Caspador. I don't know for sure, but I think the captain got spooked, abandoned his plan, and the Phaedra moved on with whatever this is.”
How had it never occurred to Miya that if the covert operation didn't work, they'd wage all-out war? The Phaedra struck first. Struck hard.
Miya wanted to help Caspador, not get the people slaughtered. What should she have done differently?
“We always find a way to survive,” Miya said. She had to try to get Lance out of here. “We can do this.”
“I’ll get you away from the captain,” he said. “It’ll be just us again.”
“He’ll think I betrayed him.” She couldn’t show Lance this wasn’t real. Had to hope he knew. Miya wanted to look at him so badly to see if he still trusted her. “You have to make him understand.”
Aiden nodded.
“And then…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “We'll run away. Caspador’s going up in flames.”
“We’re supposed to meet with the captain, but he thinks you betrayed him. And the United wants us dead. They figured out what we planned to do.” He held her face. “We have to go now if we want to make it out.”
She smiled. “Just us. I like the sound of that.” Yes, she could work with this.
“Well... The boss will have to come too.”
“What?”
“He won’t be safe here either. We’ll all take off and start over somewhere.”
“Me, you… and the boss.”
“Yes.”
Miya's shoulders fell. This fool. Her glimpse of hope shriveled and died, but her heart couldn't grieve yet. The violence drained her of feeling. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
Aiden swallowed loud enough for her to hear. “Sorry, Miya.”
“Damn it, Aiden. I can’t count on you for anything.” As a girl, Miya thought she could make a difference for the people of Caspador. It ruined her life. How did she grow up to make the same mistake again? This time, she took one of the only kind men she'd ever met down with her.
Miya faced the darkness of the room Aiden had left behind. In the shadows, she made out his stooped shape. The boss moved into the light, stopping right before he reached her.
“Miya, Miya, Miya…” He held a revolver at his side with his salt and pepper hair slicked back. “You don’t know when to stop.”
“Obviously, we wouldn’t leave you behind, boss man,” she said.
“You’ve played plenty of your own games before. This is the first time you turned on me, though. The United? I didn’t think you’d stoop so low.” He raised his finger to her lips. “And don’t try your games on me. Craft a weapon as good as you, and it’s only a matter of time before she turns on you.”
She pulled his finger from her mouth. If it all ended here, she'd at least speak. This was all she had left. Bitterness. “The captain is going to kill you when he's done with you, just because he can. He’s going to burn you to the ground and take all you have. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.”
“That’s funny.” His lips fell into a straight line. He ran his tongue along the base of his top teeth. “You’re a funny girl.”
“All your girls are going to laugh their asses off while you choke on your own blood.”
“Miya.” Aiden gave her a look. “That’s enough.”
“Are you seriously too stupid to understand what’s happening?” Miya laughed. “You’ll be worthless without me. The boss might as well get rid of you too.”
“He does what he’s told.” The boss rolled his wrist. “A priceless quality.”
She drew in a deep breath and finally let herself look at Lance. His face was red.
“I thought we could make it,” Miya said. “I’m sorry.”
The boss’s fist flashed like lightning before the cackling of thunder. His knuckles connected with her temple and blacked out her vision. She slammed into the ground.
The world blinked in and out.
His polished shoes stopped right in front of her head. Blood trickled from the side of her face onto the gravel below. Her eyes closed.
Out.
Fingers plucked hair from her bloodied cheek.
In.
It sounded like the crowd they’d traveled to the town square with had returned. Miya blinked hard. All Lance. Tangled up with Aiden’s men on the ground. What a mess.
The boss knelt in front of her. His words sounded far away. “The captain’s men are waiting for you. This is where we say goodbye.”
Out.
Pain tore through her scalp.
She cried out. The boss dragged her through the gravel toward the door.
Over Aiden’s shoulder, she saw Lance face-first on the ground. One man knelt on his back, and two others forced his legs down. Blood and gravel speckled his face. He bucked and roared.
Miya should feel something, but she didn't. Couldn't feel anything.
“Don’t do this, boss,” Aiden said. “After all we put her through, all she’s done for us, no matter what she meant to do today, we owe it to her not to hand her over to that maniac.”
All talk. Those men holding Lance down were loyal to Aiden. If he really wanted to help her, he’d stop pleading with the boss and tell his men to get to work.
Aiden’s voice broke. “That’s my girl. You can’t give her to the captain.”
That was the only reason he wanted to save her. At least she got to hear him admit it before she died, even if he didn't see that was what he did.
Aiden stayed there, kneeling on the ground as he watched the boss drag her into the darkness.
Miya moaned and touched her cut forehead. The boss and Aiden had left hours ago. She had no idea where they were. It took around an hour to reach this empty house out in the country.
The captain’s officers drank on the ground on either side of her, ensuring she remained seated. They didn’t bother tying her hands. There was an entire squad here, and nothing in the room to use to fight, not even furniture.
That didn't stop Lance. He refused to quit fighting.
In an attempt to immobilize him, the soldiers knocked a hole in the wall and cuffed him to the studs.
Even then, the wood had creaked from him slamming his back against it.
So, they wrapped chains around his legs and drilled down into the floorboards to fasten him.
He wasn't going anywhere. Still, he didn't give up on trying to break free.
Lance hadn’t taken his eyes off her either, except once when the corporal sitting beside her brushed her hair back from her cut. That was the only time he looked away from her, and he bashed against the stud so hard they tied his waist to the wooden beam too.
He couldn’t help her any more than she could help him or the rest of Caspador.
While waiting for death, Miya revisited every decision she'd made since seeing the captain arrive at Governor Krowe's estate.
If she had run, the captain would have likely killed the king and the rest of her family.
They would have selected a new king and stripped Caspador of its power.
But they wouldn't have shot people in the middle of the city.
The government of Caspador remained intact, for now, but Miya wasn't sure the people were any better off for her work to stop the plot against the kingdom.
What would Lance think? He knew so little. But if she'd told him everything from the start, and they fought the captain together, he wouldn't have run either. And he wouldn't tell her this was her fault. He'd say the Phaedra waged war against their kingdom, and the guilt fell to him.
Miya still wasn't sure whether the kingdom would have been better off without her, and it bothered her that she didn't feel more devastated. Those emotions waited for safety to emerge, she knew that. But it seemed heartless not to cry after seeing so many people killed.
The sergeant reclining beside her finished off his bottle of rum. “Any more news?”