It didn’t escape Keira’s notice that they’d referred to her as “it.” She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from protesting.
The Reformer paused. “The fact that you accomplished the first part of your task while abandoning the remainder is more offensive to us than if you’d simply never found the Experimental at all. What you have done is beyond disobedient. It is treason. Moreover, you knew that having more than one Experimental moving back and forth through the barrier would create unsustainable levels of damage to our world, but you wantonly disregarded that danger. You have ruined the Hall of Records in your home province. The information from entire generations is lost to us because of your careless actions. That alone would be enough to render you unforgivable.”
Walker gave the smallest possible nod. Keira wanted to say something—defend him somehow—but she didn’t understand the formalities of the situation. Any words she spoke would be as likely to damn him as they would be to save him.
“Walker Andover. As punishment for your transgressions, you are sentenced to die.”
Keira couldn’t breathe. Every detail in the room came into perfect focus. The sagging folds in the Reformers’ robes, the way one of the guards had his head turned ever so slightly to the left—the details etched themselves into her mind. She would never be able to forget anything about this horrible moment. It didn’t matter if they killed her now. Once they’d condemned Walker, she was already lost.
Keira managed to turn her face toward Walker.
Walker’s lips parted as though he were about to say something but he stayed silent, clenching his teeth.
All along, Keira’d known that if the Reformers caught them, they would be facing death. Hearing the words said out loud, though—it was too much. The reality of it had a texture and weight that Keira wasn’t sure she could endure.
Walker couldn’t die. They hadn’t had enough time to kiss yet. She hadn’t told him about the time she’d fallen off her bike when she was five and cut her knee nearly to the bone. She hadn’t played him the Beethoven Allegretto.
A sob rose in her throat, keening through her vocal chords and slipping out into the room.
“Silence!” The roar came from the tallest of the Reformers. “We have not invited you to speak.”
So that was why Walker hadn’t tried to defend himself. They hadn’t invited him to speak. Keira lifted her chin. She was not going to be condemned to die without having a chance to explain herself. And if they decided to kill her—the thought dropped into her arms, too heavy to hold. She locked her knees beneath her and straightened her spine. She forced herself to think it.
If they decide to kill me, I’m not going to go without defending myself and Walker, too. They won’t kill me without hearing me first. I won’t let them.
Chapter Fifty-One
THE REFORMER WHO HAD sentenced Walker turned to Pike. “Your failings were nearly as great as his. It was you who created the Experimentals in the first place. It was your ‘vision’ that we followed, marching blindly toward our own destruction. When it became obvious that your Experimentals were wreaking havoc on our very existence, you refused to come before us and answer for it. What have you to say for yourself?”
Pike scurried forward. “Your Honors. Thank you for the chance to speak. I’ve been saving up my words. A whole pile of them.”
He cleared his throat, rubbing his hand over his face repeatedly. He looked even more unstable than he had in the cave.
“Your Honors,” he began again. Pike’s voice was stronger this time. “It’s true. The early parts of the Experimental Breeding Program failed. They hurt things. Damaged Darkside. I regret that. Really, really more than almost anything in my whole life, I regret how much damage was caused. I still believed in the program, though. I could have fixed it. But the program was stopped before I could finish my experiments.”
There was a dry murmur among the members of the Tribunal. Reddening, Pike barreled on. As he talked about his work, he seemed less scattered. More like the Pike Keira remembered—quick and intense.
“All of the Experimentals we’d created had been raised here in Darkside, force-fed music education. They were deluged with human-made instruments that deteriorated all too quickly in our Dark environment. As you know, the continual passage back and forth between our realities to bring new instruments only caused more damage.”
“Even here!” The smallest of the Reformers had a distinctly feminine voice, though it creaked and popped. “When one of your fool Experimentals tried to cross over during his pre-elimination hearing, he created a rip in this very chamber. Do you have any idea how outrageous it is that your creations have damaged our compound?”
Keira knew there was nothing on the other side of the room—the earth side—but the ocean. Crossing over would be suicide.