Page 18 of The Last Hope

He’s afraid—I think Court is so afraid that he’ll send Mykal and me to our doom, that this could be a life-ending trap, but we’re not leaving without him. And we’re not letting him die.

It’s a risk that Court would’ve taken for Mykal and for me.

So we’re taking it for him.

Court swallows hard, maybe feeling our concrete decision, but he turns to Bludrader. And he asks once more, “Who or what are you loyal to?”

Bludrader clips a loose buckle of his chest armor. “I willingly serve the Republic of Gaia, which means nothing to you because you’ve never heard of it before. Honest to the grave, I’m going to help you leave, but youhaveto come with me.”

Court lets out a breath of annoyance.

“Look, I don’t like theRomulusany more than you do.”

Court thinks and then asks, “How are we escaping?”

“We’re walking out.”

I snort. “We’re justwalkingout?”

His brows rise as mine arch at him. “Yeah, I’m not joking,” he replies. “There’s been a trade, and you’ve been released into my custody. I know it’s difficult to answer to a stranger, but you need to follow my lead.”

I know Court would rather die than have us all return to the place and people we escaped, but I want to believe that the gods are taking us where we should be.

So I nod.

Mykal nods, and we wait for Court.

He blinks and blinks, as though he’s remembering his haunted past and the horrors that could await outside the brig, and Mykal whispers in his ear. I can feel the words on his lips.

I’ll be keeping you safe. Until my very last breath.

Court inhales, looks up at Bludrader, and he nods.

Ready to live.

FOUR

Franny

We dress in our black-and-gold rancid StarDust uniforms, and Bludrader ushers us down the sleek-gray empty corridor.

Before we left the brig, Mykal rifled through the cloak of the unconscious, spiky-haired cadet. Searching for his confiscated hunting knife, something that theRomuluscrew had taken on day three. When Mykal tried to cut the cadet’s finger off through the hatch.

He found the weapon in the wart’s back pocket. Grenpale emblem still etched on the rosy hilt.

With the knife tucked safely in his boot, Mykal trudges onward, and he keeps an arm around Court to brace him from stumbling. From sight, it’d be hard to tell that’s the reason he holds him. They just appear fond of one another.

Which is true too.

Though I hear Court and Mykal bickering about it behind me, they quiet as Bludrader instructs, “Stay calm, don’t fight anyone, and try not to look at their ugly mugs.”

I make a scrunched face. “Why would we want to stare at their drinks?”

Bludrader almost falters a step, and he peers over his shoulder to give me a look like I’m impossibly dumb. And he nearly laughs. I can’t tell if he’s laughing at me or at the situation.

I cross my arms.

He may be helping us escape, but I’m beginning to dislike him very much.