After the Walls

Chapter 28

Edward writhes against my arm, which holds him firmly against the wall. "What the hell? You going to burn me to dust, Elle?" The fire glimmers in his eyes.

"You have hurt so many people," I say through gritted teeth.

"And you haven't?" His mouth grows into a wild smirk. "Look at yourself, love. Didn't you abandon the man you love? Lead him to kill his father? Ignite a revolution that killed hundreds? You're no better."

I slam his head back into the wall. "At least I didn't go out of my way to make people suffer because I desperately wanted to find a phantom cure for a disease with an almost perfect mortality rate."

"And now I'm the god of immortality." His low laugh slides along my bones. "Funny how things change."

The heat of the fire roars around us, whooshing like a wild wind, crackling like lightning. "Do you think the shadowteeth blood will save you against the flames?" Sweat drips down my scorching hot face. The fire crawls up the walls, consuming the fur rug.

His face glistens with sweat too, gleaming pink and tight with rage and terror. "We should leave, Elle. Unless you wish to burn alive together." He coughs, the smoke forming a haze around us.

"Why?" I say, boring my eyes into his, refusing to be the one to break the stare. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't leave you to burn?"

He swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "Because... because..." A war rages in his blazing eyes. "Because I have yet to make my mother proud."

The smoke burns in my eyes, making them water as my jaw clenches. "And you haven't thought to try earlier? You've had twenty-two years to create such a moment. Only in the face of death do you squirm."

"But you don't really want me to die." His lip curls and terror splinters into his face. "Do you, Elle? Please."

My nose scrunches as I let out a growl, and I grab his wrist, yanking him out of the room and into the hallway where guards immediately hasten into the room with buckets, drowning the flames. Sooty smoke hisses out of the door as I shove Edward away from me. He stumbles, regaining his balance against the wall.

"Why don't you make her proud by letting Ruben go?" I say through gritted teeth. "Show mercy. Show compassion."

"I can't," he says, his voice wavering. A cough rips through his body. "I grew up with no family. Can you imagine what that does to a person? The loneliness has crippled me, and turned me into this... this monster who doesn't know how to make people love me. Everyone I ever loved has left me. Now, I have a brother who will never leave my side."

My shoulders slump forward as exhaustion sweeps through me. "But it isn't a real connection, Edward. It's fake. Forced. Besides, how can you live with yourself knowing you are tearing loved ones away from others? You know what the feeling is like. How can you bear to torture someone else the same way?"

He opens his mouth to respond, but his face turns alabaster. Is that shame?

I click my tongue, pointing at a painting of Ruben as a child hanging on the wall at the end of the hallway. "Why don't you start from the beginning? Get to know your brother? You could have been best friends had you known each since childhood."

Edward gulps and his eyes water. "I tried. I reached out many times, but he turned me down." He runs his fingers over the corner of a frame mounted to the wall. "Ruben didn't want anything to do with me."

"He was coming around." I shake my head, and turn away from him, stalking back the way I came. "You will let my friends and I leave the palace in peace. Or I will burn you."

I stalk down the stairs, hands clenched at my side. My throat scratches from the soot and smoke and heat. Ajax and Aston meet me at the bottom of the spiral stairs.

"Meet me at the stable house," I say to them, hardly louder than a whisper as I nudge them towards the end of the hallway, towards the next set of stairs.

"But, Elle," Aston protests.

"Promise me," I cut in, grabbing both their shoulders, and yanking them to a halt. "You will remain hidden."

My eyes blaze into theirs and Ajax tugs at his linen shirt. "What are you doing, Elle?" He wrinkles his nose at the distant smell of smoke.

I draw in a breath, feeling the watchful eye of the guards at the end of the hall. "Do you trust me?"

The pair exchange a look and I huff.

"You haven't been... exactly stable." Aston taps his temple.

"Are you going to kill the shadowteeth?" Ajax cringes but stretches his mouth into a tight grin that doesn't at all meet his eyes, his face straining.

"No. Not yet."

Ajax rolls his eyes and drags us into another hallway as the guards march in our direction, looking like they want to drive us right back into the dungeon. "We must think this through. If you kill the shadowteeth, Edward will go feral. The Red Movement will lose their supply of the cure."

"Don't you think I know that?" I hiss, ducking behind an extravagant sculpture of Edward in military uniform. The sight makes me want to scream. "It would ignite a war between the Red Movement and our kingdom... a civil war now, I suppose."

"We can't break the treaty, Elle," Aston says, crouching next to us.

We pause, earning a flurry of strange stares as a gaggle of maids scurry past. Ajax coughs and we press ourselves against the wall like a group of petty, common thieves.

"Look," I say. "The shadowteeth blood did something to you, Aston. And to you, Ajax. It's now destroying Ruben. And Edward. The very thing... the cure he so desperately wanted, is nothing but poison. We need to either kill the source or learn how to wield its power. That is what I'm going to do. To save both brothers. Neither is perfect. But neither of them deserves to fall victim to its... dark magic."

"So, what are you going to do here, Elle?" Ajax says, his brows arched as he almost topples over from his awkward crouch. "Go out into the river and ask the shadowteeth to be your pet? Your friend?"

"No, Ajax. I told you. I'm going to figure out how to wield its power and save them both."