Page 23 of Lies That Blemish (The Ember War #3)

Aisling

Whitney kept doing that thing where she would pinch the outside of her thigh every so often. I was now convinced it was for a purpose, and I’d started doing it, too, practicing with certain thoughts as I did it.

I hate you, Ricov, you bastard. I hope you eat cow dung for the rest of your life , I thought as I inflicted pain on myself.

Ricov stared uncaring out the window, and I peered at Whitney. Her gaze flicked down to my thigh, where I had just been pinching, and she nodded once.

Aha!

So this was the way to keep him out. I felt immense relief at knowing there was a way to keep my thoughts to myself when I wanted to. I wasn’t breaking the skin, just enough to give my system a jolt of pain. A small price to pay to be able to strategize and think on my own. I’d have to let normal thoughts through every so often, so Ricov wasn’t suspicious, but I was feeling marginally better about my situation.

The drive took over an hour before we reached a remote stretch of land, where we pulled off the main roadway and into some sort of military installation. Throughout the drive, I’d allowed normal curious thoughts of the scenery to come through loud and clear and then inflicted small amounts of pain on myself to have private thoughts. Thoughts of escape, of getting word to Kohen, of my sisters.

I felt a bond with Whitney through our shared experience, though we hadn’t even had a conversation. Our sisters were both captive. We were in this together, even if we were on opposing sides of the war.

There were soldiers and creatures all over the military base as we pulled up to a gate. The trees had been hacked down so that it was just a wide-open field in the middle of the forest. No homes or towns stood nearby, and there was only a single large industrial building.

The guard at the gate saluted Maxim as we passed, and I watched as each soldier on base turned to face the red car, saluting as we drove by.

Their boss was here.

I found myself wondering if Elaine had pulled through surgery. If Virtue and Valor had made it to Imbria okay. If my people were being evacuated in the off chance this whole thing with Maxim ended badly. Which I was a hundred percent sure was going to happen. All these thoughts I kept to myself by digging my fingers into my palm.

“Why are we here?” I asked Maxim in a calm, curious tone.

Maxim peered at Whitney with a grin. “Sergeant Whitney has a big role to fulfill. Don’t you?”

She paled, fear flashing in her eyes. “Sir, with all due respect to your authority and final say, I still think having a weapon of this level of destruction is contrary to the ongoing survival of humanity.”

My stomach dropped at her statement. The survival of humanity was threatened by a weapon they had? Stars , was that the one from his letter?

“Your disagreement has been noted. But so long as we wield this weapon, Luska will survive just fine. I’m not worried about anyone else, and if you want your sister to remain safe, you will activate it for testing.”

Whitney nodded curtly, but I noticed the way her nails dug into her palm. I allowed my trepidation of this new weapon to leak into my thoughts so that Ricov wouldn’t know I was hiding them.

What was it? Was it the same bomb that Maxim had written about in his letter to me? The one that could flatten Amersea?

Had he bluffed when the weapon wasn’t even fully ready yet? It sounded like it. And I’d played right into his hand. Not that I’d had a choice. He had Victory.

When the car parked, we stepped out. Maxim immediately grasped my hand as soldiers craned their necks to look at us.

I wondered what they thought of me. About to surrender my lands and my people. Did I look weak? Did they know it was to save my sister?

We stepped inside the large warehouse building. A large circular metal object sat in the middle of the room, looming ten feet high. It looked like a huge cannonball. There were rivets at the seams, but even so, I could see something glowing inside.

Ember.

“Ember isn’t combustible,” I said in confusion. We’d tried to make ember bombs, but when struck, it just broke apart into smaller pieces. It was like coal but burned much longer and naturally.

Maxim grinned, finally letting my hand go. “That’s where our lovely Whitney comes into play. Her gift is that she can mutate the properties of something, and we recently learned she can make the smallest piece of ember explode like a firework. Isn’t that right, Sergeant?”

Guilt and shame washed over Whitney’s face. “Yes, sir.”

“And now we get to see what happens with a big piece.” Maxim rubbed his hands together and began to walk over to his men. I had planned on staying back, but my legs began to move, unbidden by me, and I followed him.

Controlling bastard.

“Everything all set for the test?” Maxim asked one of his men, who was screwing some lid on the top of the metal ball.

“Yes, sir,” the man said, his gaze flicking to me. He glared at me, not even bothering to hide his hatred.

Maxim seemed to pick up on it. Leaning into me, he whispered against my neck. “When you blew up the Red Palace, you killed Sergei’s father, too.”

Crap . My stomach dropped. I was probably not going to survive long here. If Maxim didn’t kill me, someone would.

Maxim looked surprised, and I realized I hadn’t hidden that thought, and Ricov was lurking in his usual lurker ways.

“Oh, my little pet. I won’t let anything happen to you. Ever. You are my greatest trophy.”

Maxim leaned in to kiss my cheek. I tried to move away, but he held me there. His cold, slightly damp lips pressed to my cheek, and I inwardly cringed.

Clenching my fists, I dug my nails into my palms. I missed Kohen. I missed his kisses, I missed making love to him for the first time, and I missed being his wife. This new reality was devastating. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take it.

You are my greatest trophy . Normal people collected painted rocks. Maxim collected people. Liana was right when she said he didn’t have a soul. This demon was dead inside. I was sure of it. And as long as I was alive, he had my power. I couldn’t even die because he had my sister.

It all felt so hopeless.

We walked outside, my steps in perfect synch with Whitney’s as Maxim’s soldiers rolled the giant spherical bomb out behind us.

I watched as Whitney walked over to the bomb with puppet-like steps and laid her hands on it. A single tear slid down her face as she bowed her head and rested it on the bomb. I hadn’t noticed it before, but an eagle creature screeched above us. Was it hers? It seemed agitated, as if warning her not to do this. Her hands glowed a sickly green, and I wondered if it was really her doing this, or Maxim, or a little of both. I wasn’t judging. I’d do the same for Victory or any one of my sisters.

The metal glowed that same sickly green, and then Whitney staggered backward, breathless. The eagle above us cried out, and now I was sure it was her creature. Heat washed over me like an invisible fire, and I stepped forward, Maxim clearly allowing it. I was shocked to find the source of the heat was the ember ball. She’d… definitely activated it in some way.

“Professor,” Maxim said, and an older man wearing civilian clothes stepped over to the ball, holding his hands out.

I cocked my head to the side, curious as to what was going to happen, and then Maxim forced my legs to step backward. I hated the feeling of my body moving without my permission.

“You can ask me to move,” I growled at him.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he sneered.

That sick feeling was back in my stomach. I dreaded being alone with him and began to panic. Then the ball started levitating, and all thoughts flew out of my head.

The professor had his hands up and seemed to be guiding the giant bomb up and out into the open field.

“Sir, we should go back inside. There could be debris,” a soldier told Maxim. He nodded, and then Whitney and I were walking in tandem, against our will, at Maxim’s side. Now I saw why she was so important to him. His dangerous weapon was nothing without her. And he couldn’t control anyone without me.

I realized I was digging my fingers into my palms so hard that I’d drawn blood. Relaxing, I wiped them on my pants and took a cleansing breath. Once we were back inside the building, they pulled down a rolling steel door with a small viewing slit inside of it.

The professor was still concentrating on moving the sphere, but he was also backing up closer to the building we were in. I watched as he slipped inside through an open side door. Sweat beaded his brow, as if doing this was taking tremendous force out of him. I could imagine it was.

When the bomb was a speck on the horizon, hovering over some thick, uninhabited forest, Maxim nodded. “Drop it.”

The man hesitated for a second, as if weighing the consequences of those actions. We all peered through the slit in the metal door in anticipation.

“Drop it!” Maxim shouted so loudly I startled. The ball plummeted and was lost in the trees. I braced myself. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.