I took a bite of stew, trying to quell my nausea. Being in the same room as Daxton would have been enough to make me sick on a good day, but the thought of supporting him after the war made my stomach roll. “How long do you think it will be before you’ve—before we’ve—won?”
Though Knox didn’t tell me much about what the Blackcoats were doing, he did tell me enough to reassure me that we were getting closer and closer to overtaking the government every day. In fact, hearing him tell it, Daxton wasonly a few key battles away from losing. I was much more willing to believe Knox than I was Daxton or the media, so when he casually lifted his wineglass and murmured, “Minutes, Lila,” I nearly dropped my spoon.
“What?” I had to have misheard him. He was sitting at the other end of a dining room meant to seat fifty, after all.
“Minutes,” he repeated, his mouth twisting into a gleeful smirk. “With all the trouble they’ve been causing, I thought to myself, why bother trying to reason with them? Clearly they aren’t interested in civilized discussion, so I’ll simply have to take care of Elsewhere myself.”
The edges of my vision went dark, and I clutched my spoon. “How?” I choked out. “What are you going to do, Daxton?”
“Oh, it’s been done,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I ordered the strike hours ago. The bombs should reach Elsewhere...” He checked his watch. “By dessert.”
There was still time. I stood shakily, and the room around me spun. “I need—I need to lie down.”
“You won’t be staying for the show?” said Daxton, disappointment saturating his voice. “I promise you, Lila, you won’t want to miss this.”
I caught Greyson’s eye, and he stood as well, hurrying around the table to help me. “She hasn’t been feeling well for a few days,” he said. “I’m sure the shock isn’t helping.”
“Shock? And here I was, thinking you’d be pleased to know you’re almost free.” Daxton sighed and threw his napkin down. “Fine. See if I try to do anything nice for you again. Go take your nap. I’ll have my guards alert you when the Blackcoats are nothing more than a pile of charred remains.”
Knox was in Elsewhere. Rivers. Strand. Thousands upon thousands of prisoners who had stayed to fight with us. It took a moment for my muddled mind to remember that Knox had moved Benjy, by some miracle—he was in another Blackcoat safe house, far away from Elsewhere and the massacre that was about to occur. No, not just a massacre—there was no word for the sadistic deaths of tens of thousands of people on the orders of a single madman.
I let Greyson lead me out into the hallway, and I leaned heavily on him. Two guards followed, and he glared at them. “I know how to get back to our room.”
“Sir—”
“You’re making it worse,” he said, his grip tightening around my shoulders. “Go.”
They exchanged a look and, reluctantly, they returned to the dining room. If Daxton knew that we were now wandering around the Stronghold without a chaperone, he must not have cared, because they didn’t return.
“Knox.” A lump formed in my throat, and I fiddled with my ear cuff. “Knox—please, you have to be there. They’re going to bomb you. Right now. It’s happening now. You have to get out of there.”
Silence. I looked at Greyson, desperate and panicked.
“It’s not working. It’s not working, Greyson—”
“We’ll go back to the room and use mine,” he said calmly, but I could hear the nervous edge to his voice. “Just take a deep breath and—”
“We don’t have time to go back to the room.” I looked around wildly. The elevator was only a few yards away. “The office. We’ll be able to send them a message from Daxton’s office.”
“But—”
I slipped out of his grip and darted toward the elevators, hitting the down button over and over. It took ten infinite seconds for the doors to open, and I leaped inside. Greyson remained in the hallway, hesitating.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said, my heart pounding. If Daxton caught me, he would execute me for sure.
Muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a curse under his breath, Greyson jumped inside the elevator as the doors closed. “I know I don’t have to, but I will.”
Clenching my jaw, I nodded once, gratefully. It would be easier with someone who knew how to work the equipment.
Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as the elevator descended, and at last the doors opened. Daxton’s office was only a short walk away, and I raced down the hallway, ignoring my bad foot.
The door was locked, but I had my necklace off in an instant and passed it over the sensor. The red light flashed to green, and I turned the handle, my hands trembling. “I don’t know how to work any of these things,” I said asweboth slipped into the office, and I closed the door firmly behind me.