70. CHAPTER 70
Kira
The Territories
United Base, Caspador
The last time blood covered Kira, she lost herself so deeply that Zayne barely coaxed her back to herself. This time, he died if Kira didn't save him, and it didn't matter that his blood felt even worse than his mom's and the Followers’. Kira needed to stay strong.
The jet landed on an airstrip inside a large military base.
From the sky, she'd seen how enormous the building was and how isolated they were from anything else.
They'd flown over dark patchworks of farmland to make it here, but for quite a few minutes before landing, she didn't even see that. Only untamed green below.
Her first few steps were unsteady when she walked away from the jet, sick from the flight.
They'd shot so fast through the sky to escape Ciondo that she kept getting sick on the way.
Though they didn't encounter any fighter jets, she could hear her pilot talking through the headset about Ciondian missiles and decoys to protect their path.
A group of United soldiers rushed out to meet Kira. Before she saw the mother she spent most of her life longing for, before she even asked for a washrag, she lifted her chin at the closest officer and imagined carrying the authority of the Riven family. “Take me to whoever is in charge.”
“Ms. Stiles.” A soldier walked forward, his kind expression concerned. “You've been through—”
“Now.”
He paused and then turned away, calling someone on his phone.
Nausea battered Kira from the flight, but she refused to show any weakness.
She might not know how to command soldiers, but she spent plenty of time watching Zayne, and he never showed his suffering.
Kira knew the brokenness waiting for her the moment she stopped to rest or sleep, but right now, with her adrenaline pumping, she could fight through the worst injuries.
Brock stepped beside her, a mess of bandages and gauze. It hadn't been easy trying to take care of his wounds in the jet. She couldn't reach him, and he was forced to patch himself up while flying so fast he could barely move his arms.
He squeezed her hand, saying nothing, but looking forward with the same devastation everyone must see in her eyes.
“Major Tyndale says he'll see you and will gather whoever he can,” an officer said. “He's only a few minutes away.”
Kira nearly collapsed at the news, but she couldn't.
The soldier led her inside the massive hangar door and through a long hall to a bathroom, giving her washcloths and clothes. Kira avoided the mirror, not wanting to see Zayne's blood when she'd never unsee it.
Her hands trembled, and her stomach lurched. She clasped the sink, eyes closing.
Everything hurt.
Her heart was a massive, hemorrhaging wound.
Gushing blood like Zayne's chest.
Stop it.
If she let herself think about him, anything about him, she'd fall apart.
Kira stripped off her ruined clothes and cleaned his dried blood from her skin in the sink.
There was just so much of it. Her mind was caught in flashes of memory, of the bullets piercing the air, and his hot blood soaking her hands.
His tongue pressing against hers.
The fears beat at her mind.
What if he didn't survive? What if she lost him like they lost Adelle?
“He's alive.” Kira said it every time the fear came. She needed it to be true, or she wouldn't make it through this fight.
After dressing, she left with the officer and met a man wearing a uniform with stripes and badges that meant nothing to Kira except that he must have been high ranking.
“Major Tyndale,” he said, a scar pitting the side of his neck. His dark hazel eyes carried the kind of hardness she needed right now.
“Who are we meeting with?” she asked.
“Two generals.” His look softened. “I'm sorry about Zayne. We're doing all we can to gather intel. I don't know anything other than what you and Brock reported.”
She clenched her teeth to keep from crying. “Thank you.”
The major led her into an office that reminded her of the day she saw Mom and doomed them to all that came next.
Two generals stared back at her on the screen hanging from the wall, a man and a woman.
Aside from a table in the middle of the room, there was little else.
As nondescript and utilitarian as the High General's conference room.
“Kira Stiles,” the woman said. “I'm General Roul. We're glad you made it safely.”
“Are you?” She lifted her chin. “You tried to kill me.”
A quiet sigh. “We're still glad you made it. No one wanted to make that decision.”
“Who made it? Was it you?”
A flicker in her eyes. “Yes. It was me.”
The United was supposed to be better than the Phaedra, but the apathy in Roul's eyes reminded her of the High General.
Kira's look shifted to Major Tyndale. “Then why should I trust you to help me bring Zayne home?”
“Because no one wants Zayne Riven more than we do,” the female general said.
Kira's brow raised. “I can think of one person who wants Zayne Riven way more than you. If you think you're the most motivated, then you don't understand what's about to happen.”
The male general leaned forward. “What, exactly, does that mean, young lady?”
“It means I'm the only one who knows the passcode to the intelligence Zayne left for you, and you're not getting it until he's here with me, alive and well.”
Quiet pulsed. “We're doing everything we can,” he said. “Zayne is invaluable, but that intel can't arrive soon enough.”
“Neither can Zayne.”
“Caspador is under attack,” the man said. “You could save thousands of lives, maybe tens of thousands.”
Kira narrowed her eyes, refusing to listen, because this was her only leverage. “You can, by saving Zayne from the Phaedra.”
“We're going to, but we need that intel now,” General Roul said. “We won't take no as an answer.”
Kira worked closer. “I looked into the eyes of the Phaedra, and I told him no. I didn't relent when I lay covered in blood for three days. Do what you will and see how well that works for you.”
“Do you really understand what you're saying?” the woman asked.
“He left behind his country, his family, and his entire life to bring me to safety. I won't abandon him with the Phaedra. You won't either because he sacrificed everything to help you win this war.”
“How are we supposed to break him out of the Phaedra's tower?” Roul asked.
The truth of it. Kira didn't doubt that they desperately wanted Zayne and would expend a great amount of energy to free him, but they wanted that intelligence he offered the most. They'd take it in his place.
“Send an army if you must. The Phaedra is obsessed. This will hurt him. You can finally control the narrative. Attack with everything you have and free the man who gave so much to you.”
“She's right,” Major Tyndale said. “No one knows the Phaedra and High General better than the Riven children. Imagine the statement it makes for Zayne to betray them. This could shape a generation of kids who will see the future High General turn away.”
“He's probably already dead,” the woman said. “What then?”
“He's not.” Kira clenched her fists, yelling the words. These monsters didn't know Zayne. He wouldn't leave her.
“We can't conduct this war based on some girl's feelings.”
The rage she felt against Luke for trying to kill Zayne, and against the Phaedra for murdering Adelle, and against this entire empire for this cruel war, sharpened inside of her. “I have nothing left to say unless it's about a plan to break Zayne out of Ciondo.”
“You won't see your mother until we have the intelligence.”
She already hurt so badly that she didn't flinch. “Fine. Looks like we're done here.”
“Wait.” Major Tyndale lifted a hand to the generals and then looked to Kira. “They're posturing.”
“Major,” General Roul said, but he ignored her.
“We're losing the war, and the next High General just defected to our side. Trust me when I say we're not letting him go.”
Her heart softened so much she couldn't stop tears from wetting her eyes. “I hope that's true.”
His voice sounded sympathetic. “It is true. They're working through plans and contingencies.”
“You can help us with this,” the male general said. “You've witnessed the Phaedra's hatred for the Followers firsthand.”
The slaughter he referenced rippled through her in horror.
“How many churches do you think the life of the High General's son costs? How many will sway the Phaedra?”
The feeling drained from her hands. “You'll give up the Followers?” Kira almost took her own life to save them. Zayne risked himself for them, as well. After all this work to keep her mother from sharing intel, the United wanted to just hand over the churches to the Phaedra?
“It's a terrible decision,” the man said. “But we think Zayne Riven can save more than this trade will cost.”
“No.”
In such a short amount of time, Kira endured the slaughter, watched the elder die by Zayne's own hand, spent all that time in their blood, and lost the only mother she'd known in a decade.
And now she left Zayne behind in Ciondo, dying.
Kira had not begun to process any of this and was painfully aware that she'd never escape it.
Her heart waited for safety to start unpacking that her mom betrayed all those people to save her life. If Kira did that for Zayne…
“You can't sacrifice the Followers,” Kira said. “Zayne would rather die.”
“It's not about what Zayne wants.”
“He'll kill you and never help you.” Kira backed away. “You can't do this to him. I know how it feels. Show your strength and attack the tower. The Phaedra will take Zayne there. Show all of Ciondo you can win this war.”
“It's a worthy response to the invasion of Caspador,” Major Tyndale said. “We can do more than we've done. Flying through their airspace wasn't enough.”
“If we attack the tower, there's no telling what he'll do,” Roul said.
“There's no telling how much we can damage his image,” Tyndale said.
“If Zayne Riven defects, and we damage the tower, people all over the country might stand up.
Only the military knows we invaded their airspace.
They didn't shoot us down only because they wanted to hide us. The people need to see us fighting back for the invasion of Caspador.”
“Yes,” Kira said. “Did you see any results from the Pixi Dust? I know you must have.”
“Seventy-two,” the female general said.
“What?” Kira asked.
“Seventy-two soldiers defected from Ciondo. In the first wave of deployments after the PXI writing, that's the number of soldiers who came to our side. More likely tried.”
It was the first time she heard about how the Pixi Dust affected anyone. Her hope kindled. “Then don't miss this opportunity.”
“That was also an influencing factor in the invasion of Caspador,” the male general said. “And the Phaedra killed a dozen drone experts.”
Her eyes widened. Had Zayne known? Kira reached a hand out to steady herself, but her knees went weak, and she dropped to the ground.
How many people's lives had she stolen? Her peaceful revolution had never been peaceful, not on the day Zayne strangled a soldier on the roof, and not when her drones wrote in the skies all over Ciondo.
Major Tyndale rushed to her side. “Are you okay?”
“I'm just…” Kira almost threw up again. What had she done? “Exhausted.”
“We'll continue working on plans. You need to lie down.” He helped her stand and led her from the room, whispering to her. “I'm the one Zayne came to and made a deal with. He's my asset. They may outrank me, but I hold sway.”
If Zayne trusted him, then she did too. “I'm the one who painted the Phaedra's sky with Pixi Dust. And I'll use it however I can to help.”
Major Tyndale stopped walking, staring in shock. “You… Okay. Okay, that gives me something to think about.”
Kira too. But he was right. She needed rest to continue fighting this battle for Zayne's escape. The Phaedra had him right now, and Kira couldn't imagine what he'd do. If she tried to, she'd lose her tenuous hold on her panic.
She heard Zayne speaking again when she asked him what the Phaedra would do to him if he ever caught him.
“Anything he wants for as long as he wants.”
Kira shouldn't have left him there. Luke was right that he'd rather die than be trapped with the Phaedra. Killing him wasn't the answer, but how could abandoning him be either?
Her eyes snapped shut for several seconds. She came back to get help, and falling apart didn't accomplish that. There was nothing for her to offer him in the woods while he was dying. Here, she could leverage the intel to coerce the rebel army to save him.
It was time for Kira to learn how to close herself off to her feelings like Zayne did, not to live like that permanently, but to survive in the middle of a battle.
While they walked, Kira glimpsed the light from a window and gazed out, hoping Zayne had light too. Hoping he was even alive.
She whispered to herself, not caring who heard.
“I'm coming for you. I promise.”