The Agrista (Between the Lines Book 1) (23 page)

  “I too have wondered about that. Cailene has throngs of powerful armies at her fingertips. She exacts loyalty by ruling with an iron fist, and most people are too afraid to do anything but comply. If she really wanted to find us, we’d be dead by now, especially considering that we haven’t upheld the most discretion,” Alex admitted ruefully.

  “What’s inside the Agrísta that’s so important?” Marie finally asked. It was a question that had been burning inside her since she learned of its existence.

  “What if it’s something
worse
than Cailene? Oh god!” yelled Bria, chewing her nails down to bloody, shredded cuticles.

  “I don’t know,” Fallon raked an angry hand through her unruly caramel locks. “What I do know is that we’re not going to find any answers by sitting on our hands and speculating. We need to take action!” Fallon drove the point home with a peremptory cheer.

  “Don’t be so quick to spill our blood just to save Cayden’s head and your arse.
You
were the one that sent him away,” Alex muttered bitterly.

  “He had a choice!” Fallon’s voice broke on the last word, and she sharply turned away. Raeph and Cerin had been dying to inquire about his absence, but knew better than to push Fallon over the edge.

  “I agree with Fallon.” Everyone turned to Marie in surprise. “I’m tired of being kept in the dark, afraid. We need to go back to the castle and talk to Gustav. We can’t abandon Cayden, and we can’t abandon our quest. We’ve come too far, and there’s too much at stake.” Much to Marie’s shock and awe, Fallon actually smiled at her. It was weak and fleeting, but it was there.

  “Who’s ‘Goof-off’?” Bria interjected awkwardly.

  “Gustav,” Marie corrected with a laugh. “He’s the palace slave who gave me the Agrísta. He
must
know more about it than we do.”

  “We all knew we’d have to return to Quinque eventually, if not for the sake of the people, then simply to face our own demons,” Alex spared Laylia a sympathetic side glance. “I’ve felt it in my blood for quite some time now. It’s time to face the past. It’s time to put an end to Cailene’s cruelty.”

  “I agree that returning to the castle is the next logical step, but we can’t simply walk in there,” Cerin stammered. “Laylia and Marie will be safe, but what about me and Fallon? If you haven’t noticed, Cayden and Aruzhan aren’t present.”

  “You’re the brilliant one, or so you’ve told us time and time again. Figure something out. After all, you managed to stay hidden on Anthros, did you not?” Fallon gibed.

  “Yes, but I cannot accredit my success to my own intellectual prowess. That was due to Aruzhan’s insurmountable power, and nothing else.” He sank lower in his chair at the thought of his beloved Umbra and what she must be going through right now. He felt like such a coward.

  “Insurmountable, eh? Yet you’ve begun to doubt her?” Fallon mockingly cocked her head to one side, goading him.

  “Of course not!” Cerin barked. “But I don’t understand how the ring works. I fear what I don’t understand, as should you. The ring is unstable, at
best
!”

  “I’m afraid you’re overthinking it. The Clamans ring is really quite simple,” An unfamiliar voice drew everyone’s attention the doorway.

  Marie knew that voice anywhere. She had only ever heard it mutter a few words of warning, but its soft, gentle reproach stuck in her memory like flypaper. Johanna. She blanched at the sound of it, quickly turning away and positioning herself behind Alex as she cowered in the flickering edges of his shadow.

  She couldn’t face Johanna after what she’d done to her sister, Tajana. She had a hard enough time facing herself every day. Alex sensed her distress and gently smoothed the stubborn knots of her hair with his callused palm, mindlessly twisting his slender fingers through her unruly ebony tresses. The subtle distraction filled her with warmth as she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to his hand. Much to her surprise, he didn’t pull away, but he refused to look at her.

  Cayden soon stepped in after the young girl. He was etiolated almost beyond recognition, and greeted everyone with a weak smile that wavered at the edges. Fallon’s quivering lips and furrowed brow fought the impending rictus creeping into her features as she grew flush with anger, but to no avail.

  Fight as she might, she couldn’t hide her overwhelming joy upon seeing Cayden’s massive form hovering in the doorway. He looked like hell, but he was here; with her, as it should be. With a strangled gasp that tore through the room and danced along the hollow interior, she forced her way through the crowd, shrouding her face in fleeting whispers of shadow as she ran past him.

  The mere sight of him made her heart feel like it was going to explode out of her chest, shortening her breaths and weighting her steps. Without hesitation or explanation, Cayden quickly followed suit and trailed her erratic footing, chasing her into a gloomy grove of naked trees just beyond the encampment.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” Johanna said shyly as she paid an abnormal amount of attention to her shoddy footwear. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, and it made her want to wriggle out of her skin.

  “Fallon’s certainly not too happy about it,” Bria guffawed. “Who are you, anyway?”

  “J-Johanna,” her voice cracked on the last syllable.

  “Pay them no mind. We can be outcasts together.” A subtle blush crept into Johanna’s cheeks at the sight of Cerin. “You were saying, about the ring?” he smiled encouragingly.

  “It’s quite simple, really,” she repeated with an embarrassed smile. “My mother taught me how it works with a rhyme.

‘Those that love you

Will know you’re there

But those that wish you harm

Will search everywhere’

It’s a silly little rhyme, and not entirely revealing. Basically, if you’re anywhere near someone who is a danger to your life, you are invisible, even to your friends,” she laughed softly to herself, trying not to think about how terribly she missed her mother, Iloria.

  “It’s a simple concept, but if that’s true, why couldn’t the others see me at first, when I was on the ship?” asked Cerin.

  “Probably because most of us wanted to kill you at the time,” Alex said, half-joking.

  “How does your mother know about the ring, Johanna?” asked Raeph.

  “I don’t really know. She gave me a Clamans ring when I was taken away, years ago. She could do naught to stop it,” she reminded herself acerbically. “She told me that it would protect me for as long as I had it. That was the last time I saw her,” Johanna flashed a nervous smile as she frantically rubbed away a stray tear rearing its ugly head. “My friend Mary told me that they’re made from an Umbra’s tears. Absurd, I suppose,” she pursed her lips and brusquely looked away. Mary had been taken away too, much like everyone else she’d come to care about.

  “And has it protected you?” Laylia couldn’t take her eyes off of Johanna. She looked so much like Laylia had at that age, which frightened her down to her core. She was a fragile girl, ripe for the picking.

  “Yes.” Johanna and Laylia exchanged a brief, knowing look.

  Laylia exhaled a gentle sigh of relief that curled into a shudder. If only someone had given
her
a magical ring to protect herself, she might know some semblance of normalcy today. Maybe she’d actually feel something other than fear and contempt. Maybe she wouldn’t hate her parents and herself. All of the
ifs
and
maybes
were irrelevant. She had no one then and she had no one now. She would forever feel alone, despite her constant struggle to connect.

  Bria had wanted so many times to rip Marcel’s throat out, but doing so would’ve meant taking the life of her sister, Arécia. In the end, it might come to that. If only she’d done her job and protected Laylia instead of selfishly clinging to the life of another. Instead, she taught Laylia to run, and they’d been running ever since.

  Somehow, Laylia had found it in her heart to forgive Bria. Laylia was the most kindhearted person Bria knew, but she kept that part of herself hidden for fear that someone might desecrate that too, and she’d lose herself for good.

  Back then, Bria went by
Brian.
To pay homage to Laylia’s selfless grace, she too kept the deepest part of herself hidden. She wore her abysmal failure like a dress – quite literally – for how could she call himself a man when she failed to protect the person dearest to her heart?

  Bria and Laylia skirted the perimeter of the building, wincing every time the crackle of broken twigs and dead foliage rustled underfoot. They slithered through the grass like the surreptitious snakes they were, giggling endlessly all the while. It was a miracle they didn’t get caught.

  Two telltale silhouettes came into sharp focus at the center of a copse of trees just ahead. Laylia and Bria went suddenly still, listening in rapt attention.

  “…were you thinking? How could you bring
her
here?” Fallon’s voice was strained with heavy emotion, wearing her words down until they were nothing more than a raspy whimper.

  “No one has to know,” Cayden reasoned softly, slowly reaching out to touch her.

  “
I’ll
know!” She took a sudden step back as he curled his fingers into fists and let them fall defeated at his sides. “Everyone else will, too. Great Lucidus, Cayden! She looks
just
like you!”

  Bria and Laylia took advantage of the awkward silence that followed and conferred with one another.

  “That little girl, Johanna…” Laylia began.

  “...is Cayden’s daughter?” Bria gasped. “Great Lucidus, I can totally see the resemblance! I knew I wasn’t the only delinquent!” she snickered, pantomiming a victory dance. They quickly resumed their inconspicuous positions when the sound of Cayden’s plea rallied their curiosity.

  “I had nowhere else to bring her, Fallon. I suppose it comes as no surprise, but Cailene found the rebels. It took no time, for they immediately turned themselves in. Some got away, but most of them,” he inhaled sharply. “There was no war. No negotiation,” he scrubbed a shaky hand over his overgrown hair, rumpling it into a mess of tangles. “She cut their tongues out before they had a chance to speak. She cut them down at the knees before they had a chance to run. They were murdered on the spot. Slaughtered! They didn’t stand a chance. Children. Whole families! It was like nothing I’d ever seen.” He shuddered at the memory of what he’d seen in the mountains on that frightful day at Alee. He was helpless to stop it, yet unable to turn away. Alee, once a stronghold for refugees seeking sanctuary, was now forever painted red with the blood of the innocent.

  “I might not approve of Cailene’s methods, but it certainly makes my job easier. I’m an officer of Milités. I don’t mourn my enemy. Why should you?”

  “How could you say that?” Cayden fell to his knees and dug his fingers into the soil, channeling his rage into the shredded roots of a fallen tree as it moldered to cinder. “Iloria’s dead!” Fallon knew not who Iloria was, but it didn’t take her long to figure it out. She was Johanna and Tajana’s mother.

  “Stop being so selfish!” The sound of Fallon’s palm cracking across the sharp crest of his cheek startled the birds flitting through the nearby trees, causing them to seek refuge elsewhere with a swell of angry twitters. The wind fell eerily still upon their departure, as if the world were holding its breath, waiting to see what happened next.

  Fallon slowly drew her hand to her face. She examined the red, throbbing flesh of her palm as the phantom prickle of his swollen cheek pulsed beneath her fingertips.

  Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, and she began to twitch in rhythm with the rapid pulse. She tried to focus on her breathing. Slow and steady, like the calm before a storm.

  “Why did you leave?” The words were hurled out of her like bile. It was a question her soul desperately needed to purge in order to heal. It had been devouring her insides like a deadly toxin, slowly worming its way to the surface. “You’re the
only
thing
that matters to me!” She fell to her knees and dropped her head forward, masking any glimmer of emotion with a muddle of shadow.

  Cayden didn’t know what to say. It took just over forty years, but Fallon had finally shown him her soft underbelly. He always knew it was there, but never once in his lifetime had he expected to see it. Seeing her so fragile and exposed illuminated her in an entirely new light; one that was beyond inappropriate when the death of his heart was so near.

  They embraced suddenly. They used one another as an anchor in the storm as the sky began to weep with them, washing away any harbored resentment.

  “Wow. Fallon’s going to be so embarrassed when we tell everyone what we just saw!” Bria irritably flicked fat drops of rain off the butt of her nose. “Better yet, let’s use it to blackmail her!”