Chapter 7
THE TRAITOR
Iwaited in the shade of the bus shelter until I heard the hum of an approaching SUV. I watched it come to a smooth stop on the broken highway. But it wasn’t a Knight who stepped out of the vehicle. It was Senator Gaines himself.
“Are you all right?” he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. He looked genuinely worried about me, which was…weird. He hadn’t sounded very sympathetic on the phone.
“I’m fine,” I told him. “Where are the Knights?”
“They couldn’t come.”
“But…that doesn’t make any…”
The heat was making me dizzy. The Senator’s hands caught me as I stumbled to the side.
“Everything will be all right,” he said.
My hand flashed out and caught his. A syringe slipped from his fingers and clinked against the asphalt ground. I’d moved so fast. It seemed I still had a little magic left in my system after all.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“I’m trying to help you, Savannah. I’m on your side.”
“No.” I shoved him away from me. “You’re not on my side. You tried to sedate me.”
“For your own protection.”
“Get away from me!”
Senator Gaines took a step toward me.
“You heard her. Get away from her,” Kato said in a low, menacing growl.
He and Conner were running toward us. Relief rushed through me. They’d come. I’d called them, and they’d come.
The Senator’s eyes panned from Kato to Conner. “That is a Rebel.”
“I sure am.” Conner’s grin was light and easy, but his eyes told a darker tale; he looked angrier than I’d ever seen him.
Kato slapped a pair of handcuffs on the Senator.
“This is treason,” he snapped.
“You know all about treason, don’t you?” Kato countered.
Conner nodded. “You see, Senator, Kato and I did some digging. And it turns out it wasn’t the General who sold those kids to Prince Fenris. It was you.”
Oh, wow.
“You sent those kids to Fenris,” Conner continued. “You wormed your way into the Castle to spy on the Knights.”
Senator Gaines met his stare for a moment, then he started laughing.
“What exactly is it about kidnapping people that you find so terribly amusing?” Kato demanded.
“You, Knights.” An irritated crinkle formed between the Senator’s eyes. “You think that just because you can do a few magic tricks, you understand what it means to take care of a whole world. You know nothing,” he hissed.
I stepped forward. “You traded those kids to the vampires in exchange for a few boxes of supplies. You traded people for things! Why would you do that?”
“Because, little girl, we need things to survive. I did what had to be done to save this world.”
Kato pulled him toward the SUV. “Somehow, I don’t think the citizens of Gaia will agree.”