Page 53

FORTY-TWO

C risto raised his hands, as if in surrender.

Then, he sighed.

“I’m a dreamer, Kelyn. Not a fool.”

Faster than a phoenix strike, Cristo ducked his head, latched onto her arms and thrust her forward. The pen flew to the floor as Kel tumbled through the air, over Cristo. She landed in front of him with a hard thud . Her hip spasmed, sharp and hot. Black spots danced across her vision.

Kel sucked in thin, agonized gasps. Splayed on her back, she felt like someone had rammed her lungs with a hammer.

Cristo reached out a hand to her. “If we had more time, I believe I could convince you of my cause.”

She had no breath and no defense—and still, Kel fought. She flipped onto her hands and knees and crawled toward the pen, reaching it before Cristo.

She wanted to jump up, to stab Cristo wherever she could, to make him feel her pain, until he promised to free her family.

But Kel couldn’t grasp the pen.

She tried and tried, but her hands kept shaking. No matter how hard she focused, she couldn’t steady them enough to tighten around the pen. She flexed her knuckles and curled her fingers. The pen was right there —

And then a boot kicked the pen from beneath her trembling fingers, and hands seized her, pulling her to her feet.

Two men stood behind her, restraining her arms. The lack of sleep, the fear, the rage—it was all catching up with her. The familiar static was in her head and the room spun around Cristo.

As he moved toward her, she spat, “You’re evil.”

Cristo shook his head. “The kindest people in this world think they’re the cruelest, and the cruelest think they’re the Alchemists themselves.” His jaw clenched. “I am neither cruel nor a god. I simply have the stomach for hard choices and the resources to find a cure.”

“At what cost?” Kel spat.

“For her, I’d bleed Salta dry.”

“ Who? ” Kel sneered, though the word turned to a yelp as one guard tightened his grip on her arms.

Cristo turned back to the screen and exited the file.

With the guards holding her upright, Kel was forced to watch.

The screen switched to a strange, annotated map of Cendor, covered in red and black dots.

A large cluster of red hovered over Fieror, and a cluster of black just north of Vohre, in the forest. The red seemed to crowd Cendor and Ascira, while Ebrait and Dresva held most of the black.

The map was gone before Kel could decipher the annotations, the guards jostling her back toward the exit.

“ Alchemists! Why tell me any of this if you’re just going to lock me up?” Kel screamed.

A muscle in Cristo’s jaw feathered. “Rahn convinced me that you and the other Howlers could be trusted. She wanted me to tell you all when you first signed your contracts. Contracts …” Cristo paused, “… that clearly state that if you reveal any of this to people outside Cristo Industries, you’ll be serving a prison sentence long enough that many phoenixes will live and die without your guidance. ”

“Rahn… Rahn knew ?”

She’d suspected it, but the confirmation still knocked the air from her lungs. For all the times Kel had doubted the girl, all the nights she’d spent worrying over whether Dira could trust her, she’d let herself believe that Rahn was a friend. A Howler.

She’d been wrong about Cristo and Rahn. She’d been so wrong about everything .

Cristo drummed his fingers against his folded arms. “Of course she did. Now, if you’ll excuse me, this has taken up more of my morning than I planned for. Estra has only days left. I have to resort to my last measure. Savita will rebirth by tomorrow evening.”

Something echoed in the back of Kel’s mind. Estra. Was that who was sick?

“You can’t know that,” she spat, her anger simmering, threatening to melt her from within. “There’s no way to control her rebirth.”

Cristo’s silence made it clear he disagreed.

She wanted to keep screaming, demanding more answers—but the fire was eating her alive.

As the guards tried to tug her away, she fought with every ounce of strength she had left.

“Wait! Stop! You can’t do this! Don’t you dar e touch Savita!

If I ever meet this Estra , I’m going to do to her what you’re going to do to—”

“Stop,” Cristo said, short and clipped. The guards paused. Kel dangled from their grips.

Silently, Cristo marched toward Kel. He paused just an inch away, lifting her chin with a single finger. “What did you say?”

Kel sneered. “I said, if I ever meet Estra, I’m going to—”

“What do you mean, if ?”

His tone wasn’t threatening. His features sharpened with a cold, calculating curiosity.

Kel merely frowned. “What are you getting at?”

The name conjured a fleeting sense of familiarity in Kel but nothing else.

Cristo’s mouth parted. He stepped back and looked over her, slowly.

“I see,” he breathed, throat bobbing. “I am so sorry to hear that, Kelyn. I truly am.”

Before Kel could demand an explanation, Cristo instructed the guards, “Take her to the cell. As soon as her phoenix is dead, move her to the hospital wing. Make sure she’s as comfortable as possible.”

Kel’s heart pounded. Was he going to experiment on her, too? Chain her to a bed? “What—”

Cristo turned toward the other end of the hall. The guards dragged her from the room and down the hall. No matter how loud she screamed or how hard she kicked, no matter how much her body ached to lay down and rest , the guards didn’t stop.

As they dragged Kel back to the cell, they passed a small window. Through it, Kel saw the soft rays of the early sun.

Savita didn’t have long.