Chapter Thirty
He woke to Gemma pressed against his side, the soft weight of her head on his chest. For the first time in too long, there wasn’t tension in his shoulders the moment his eyes opened. Just the faint shuffle of people stirring beyond the tent walls and the steady rhythm of her breath.
When Gemma stirred, he kissed her temple. “Morning.”
She tilted her face toward him, and the small smile that answered was enough to make his chest ache. For one fragile moment, he let himself imagine a future where mornings like this weren’t borrowed.
Hope. It felt dangerous, but it was there, all the same.
They changed into fresh clothes in silence, fingers brushing, eyes catching—little reassurances to each other. Christian told himself they just had to get through the goodbyes. Then they could vanish into the desert, find some pocket of quiet, and start over.
But the second they stepped out into Tent City, his stomach twisted. The air wasn’t right. Instead of the usual flow of people heading to duties, a mass of bodies clustered near the command tent. The rumble of voices was sharp, cutting, and too loud for morning.
“Something’s wrong,” he said, taking Gemma’s hand in his and ambling toward the crowd.
As they drew nearer, the noise became words jagged with anger. And then Cho’s voice, unmistakable, pitched in, cutting through the crowd.
“She’s a danger to every single one of us! You saw it yourselves. Theo bled out on that table while she stood there, glowing like some kind of alien weapon. You want to risk all of Perileos for her?”
The crowd roared, some in agreement while others shouted her down. Christian’s pulse spiked as Gemma’s hand tightened in his. His instincts screamed to shove Gemma behind him, to grab their things and run before the tide turned.
But heads and glares found them immediately, and fleeing from Tent City would only prove them right and lead to a chase—which meant he wouldn’t get her out safely.
“Stay close to me,” he whispered and tucked her against his body.
“She’s marked. Just look at her arm!” someone bellowed, pointing at Gemma.
“She’s part of us now. We can’t turn on her!” another shot back.
“She’s why Theo’s dead!” Cho’s voice cut through again, high and vicious.
Christian’s jaw locked. She stood near the front, her black hair swinging as she gestured to the gathered crowd like she was the one in command.
“The Systems is right,” Cho sneered. “Gemma Proctor is a weapon, and the longer we keep her here, the harder they’ll look for her. We need to hand her over before they burn Perileos to the ground.”
A ripple of agreement surged through the people. Gemma shrunk beside him. He squeezed her hand tighter as Lysa appeared at his other side.
Nadine shoved her way to the front. “That’s enough.” Her voice cracked like a whip, silencing the noise. “Nobody lays a hand on my sister. She’s done more for this camp in days than some of you have in months.”
Cho didn’t back down. “She killed Theo.”
“No,” Nadine snapped, her face raw with grief. “Theo died because the Systems gutted him, and you fucking know it.”
“But they only gutted him because of her!” Cho pushed, her dark eyes glinting. “You all saw her glowing. You get why they want her. She’s dangerous.”
A fresh wave of mutters rippled through the crowd.
Christian’s vision tunneled. He surged forward, leaving Gemma to stand by his sister. “She is not a danger,” he bit out, his voice low and furious. “And if you had a shred of sense, you’d stop spitting Systems propaganda out of your mouths like dogs begging for scraps.”
Cho smirked, tilting her chin. “Oh, but she is dangerous. And you’d let her tear us apart because you can’t keep your cock in your pants.”
“Keep moving your mouth, and I’ll cut out your fucking tongue,” Imara’s sharp voice cut through.
She pushed her way forward and squared off with Cho, her eyes flashing.
“You really think handing her over buys us safety? The Systems don’t do mercy.
They do control. Give them Gemma, and they’ll just demand the next name, the next body, until there’s nothing left of the Dissent but ashes. ”
Hawk slid in behind Imara, one hand already resting on the hilt of his blade. His voice, though quieter, carried a dangerous calm. “She’s right. You all know it. The Systems don’t negotiate. If you think betraying Gemma will stop their boots from marching down here, you’re delusional.”
A sneer rose from the crowd.
“Easy for a Gallowood to say,” Cho snapped, spitting the name like poison. “Your family’s never wanted for anything. Why should we listen to you about what it means to be crushed under the Systems’ heel? Daddy will always be there to save you.”
The mutters deepened, a few heads nodded, and others shook theirs.
Hawk’s jaw tightened, the red of his hair catching the lamps’ light like fire.
He stepped closer, teeth bared. “You think I don’t know what it means to be crushed?
” he shot back. “You’re right. I am a Gallowood.
And I hate it. I hate the name, the blood, the expectations, every pompous title my family clings to.
I’d cut it out of me if I could. I stand here now because I chose this family.
” He put a hand on Imara’s shoulder and pointed toward Gemma and Christian.
“Not the one I was born into. And I’d rather die with them than live one more day under the Systems with their chains and my parents’ expectations around my throat. ”
A few voices rose in agreement, ragged but sincere. Yet they were quickly drowned beneath the sharper calls from others.
“She’ll bring the Systems down on all our heads!”
“We’ve seen her arm. She isn’t human anymore!”
“You heard her screams last night. She’ll lose control, and it won’t be their soldiers who pay. It’ll be us!”
The command tent was a storm now, voices overlapping until it was impossible to tell which belonged to friends and which to enemies. Fear and fury churned together, pushing the crowd closer to breaking. Christian stepped back to stand in front of Gemma and Lysa, his hands shaking.
Across the press of bodies, Nadine and Cho locked stares, the camp itself straining between them like a rope pulled to snapping.
Nadine’s face was angry and red. “This debate was never up for discussion. Gemma has my protection. If any of you lay a single finger on her—”
“You’ll what?” Cho snapped. Scoffing, she returned her attention to the crowd. “See? Nadine’s not protecting us. She’s protecting her. Give her the chance, and she’ll burn the whole camp down to save her precious sister.”
Nadine’s chin lifted, but Christian caught the tremor in her jaw. “If any of you think for a second I’d sacrifice Perileos for one person, then you’ve forgotten everything I’ve done to keep you breathing down here.”
Cho grinned widely in that vicious way Christian knew too well. She’d found her opening. Christian’s fists clenched, already knowing Cho’s next move.
“Then prove it,” Cho snapped at Nadine. “Hand her over. Show us where your real loyalty lies.”
The mutters surged into shouts again. The word “weapon” rose like smoke above the crowd. Behind him, Gemma’s breath was ragged. Imara spat on the ground as she and Hawk positioned themselves between the crowd and their chosen family.
“I dare you to take one more step,” Hawk warned, angling his body like a shield.
For one heartbeat, Tent City seemed to hold its breath. Then someone in the crowd shoved forward.
“Enough talk!” the man roared, surging toward Nadine with a jagged blade. One of her protectors slammed into his chest and knocked him to the ground. But the spark had caught.
Shouts broke into screams. Another body lunged at Nadine from the side, fists swinging. And then it wasn’t a debate anymore.
It was violence.
Half of them surged toward Nadine or Gemma, weapons raised or fists clenched. The other half tried to hold them back, shouting for reason, for restraint.
Christian pointed to Gemma but spoke to his sister. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”
He ducked the first swing of a man desperate to get to Gemma and drove his fist into the man’s gut, sending him staggering back into two others.
Hawk drew his dagger, the blade reflecting violet in the lamplight as he slashed the air between the fighters and his friends, driving them back with sheer ferocity. Imara stepped behind him, tapping the bracer on her wrist to bring Karma to life.
“Stop this!” Nadine shouted, but her voice was drowned by the clash of bodies and the vicious echo of Cho’s cry: “Hand her over! Hand her over!”
“Christian!” Lysa cried as a glint of violet flashed off Hawk’s blade again.
His heart stopped when he spun around.
Gemma was on her knees, sobbing, her tattoo shimmering brightly and moving up her arm. Her eyes were nearly all violet.
Christian reached for her. “Don’t give in, Gem—”
Someone slammed into his side. He went down hard, breath knocked from his lungs. Dust rose around him as his attacker’s fists descended, and he barely got his arms up in time.
Instinct took over.
Christian grabbed the man’s arm on their next strike, popping a knee into their temple and forcing them onto their back. After a solid hit to their face, they went limp.
Another fighter lunged with a sweep of a blade. Christian twisted, catching the woman’s wrist and ripping the knife from her hand.
He turned to look at Gemma—
A hit to the back of his skull sent him to the ground.
Darkness framed the edges of his vision. He blinked away stars, shaking his head as he pushed off the ground—
A wave of violet energy burst outward, rippling like liquid flame. It slammed into the mob with a sound like thunder, hurling men and women back as though they were weightless.
Christian gasped, half-blinded, as the haze solidified into a dome around him, Hawk, Imara, and Lysa. All of them were inside the shimmering shield, its surface writhing with streaks of purple light.