Greyson shook his head, his grip on me tightening. “You need to keep it together,” he whispered. “Just for a few more hours. Please.”
“I need to get out of here.” I crossed over the spot where Jonathan Mercer had executed Scotia, who had been the rebel leader inside the prison camp before dying right before the Battle of Elsewhere. Everything was a memory. Everything was a reminder of my failure. And I couldn’t do this anymore.
Daxton must have gotten what he wanted out of me, because the guards didn’t stop us as we boarded the plane. I spent the next twenty minutes cleaning ash off our shoes, and by the time Daxton finally returned, looking entirelytoo smug and satisfied, something inside of me had broken.
Maybe Lila had been the lucky one after all. She would never have to wade through the ashes of the people she’d cared about. She wouldn’t have to put up with Daxton’s sadistic games. She wouldn’t have to look over her shoulderwith every step she took, wondering when the ax was going to drop. No wonder she’d been so willing to take the risk of stepping onto that helicopter and putting her fate in Daxton’s hands. For her, death was freedom. And a pardon from the life she would have had to live if she’d survived.
“Now that Elsewhere is gone, what will you do with citizens who commit crimes?” I said as Daxton passed us. I’d meant it as a challenge—as a way to point out one of the many flaws in Daxton’s path toward a stranglehold on the country. Instead he paused halfway back to his private quarters at the tail section of the plane, and he regarded me as if I’d just told an amusing joke.
“They’ll get what they deserve, of course.”
A lump formed in my throat. “You’ll execute them. Even the people who do nothing more than look at a Shield the wrong way.”
He shrugged. “Laws must be enforced. Perhaps the Blackcoats should have thought through the consequences of their actions before overtaking Elsewhere.”
My entire body went cold, and before I could stop myself, I snarled, “Burn in hell.”
He flashed me a wink before turning on his heel. “No need. Your friends are doing a marvelous job of that for me.”
Greyson grabbed me by the shoulders before I could leap out of my seat and claw Daxton’s eyes out. Only once he was tucked safely away in the back of the plane did Greyson finally let me go. He sat beside me and took my hand, clasping it tightly between his. “You know that’s what he wants from you.”
“I don’t care.” Tears stung my eyes, and my breaths came in wet, noisy gasps. It felt as if a boulder was pressed against my chest, and even Greyson, with his steady gaze and warm touch, did nothing to help calm me down. “All those people—he doesn’t care. Their lives are nothing to him as long as he’s still in power.”
“Their lives will never be anything to him,” said Greyson gently. “It doesn’t mean they weren’t worth anything at all.”
“As long as he’s running the country, that’s exactly what it means.” I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. “When we get back to D.C., we have to find a way to get him alone.”
“We will,” he said softly, and though he was holding himself together far better than I was, there was a break in his voice that said more than words ever could. It would have been simple for him to go over to Daxton’s side—tobe his ally, his pet, his heir. He would have been safer. Happier, probably. And he would have had far more freedom than we did now.
Instead, he remained resolute in our mutual goals: to find a way to overthrow that monster, and to finish the war the Blackcoats had started. He was on my side—Lila’s side, even though Lila wasn’t here anymore. We were in thistogether.
I didn’t remember much about the rest of the flight to D.C. Greyson remained beside me on the sofa, but neither of us said anything. Hours felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours, and when we finally landed, all I wantedto do was curl up in bed and never get up again.
As our chauffeured car drove through the streets of D.C., part of me realized I was expecting to return to Somerset, where I had spent my months as Lila. But it was gone now, too, and instead I looked at Greyson. “Where are wegoing?”
He looked up from the scribbles he was making on a notepad. “What? Oh. Daxton said something about—reclaiming Minister Creed’s manor. That it belonged to the state now, and since we didn’t have anywhere else to stay...” Greyson frowned.
I rested my head against the cool window, watching the buildings and pedestrians slide by. Creed Manor. Of course. Because he hadn’t tortured me enough already.