His Red Queen

Chapter Thirty-six

Farley rattles on and on about her plan. A dangerous, lethal, absolutely brilliant plan. Evangeline gawks at her the whole time she speaks, her perfect face pale. Elane remains by her side, her delicate hand on Evangeline's iron covered arm.

"I don't understand how we're going to go about this," Evangeline grumbles. She leans against the transport and rubs her temples.

"Farley just told us," I say. If Evangeline wants to be a part of this, she had better figure out a way to be useful. She did help me get away from Maven and his infernal tour though, so I guess she has her uses.

Farley chuckles darkly. "Colonel Farley now."

"Good for you." I pat her on the shoulder. Even better. Having the colonel of the guard on my side can be even better than any Silvers.

"So, what now?" Elane asks.

Farley lays a scarred hand over her belly. "We rest. We can't raise hell without sleeping first." She turns to me, her expression hard as stone. "Come with me, Mare. There's some things we need to go over without extra eyes and ears around."

"Okay." I ignore Evangeline's disgruntled murmurs as her and Elane climb into one of the more spacious transports.

Farley leads me to her transport, a large, boxy vehicle with tinted windows. She motions for me to step inside before her and I do so. She shuts the door behind us then claps her hands. A light comes on and standing in the corner is—

"Kilorn," I gasp. I run to him before he can say a single word. I throw my arms around my best friend and he hugs me tight. He feels stronger now, his formerly lanky body hardened by muscle.

"Mare," he says. "They got me out of prison. They couldn't break me in there. And this girl, Cameron, one of the Newbloods, is awesome. She's incredibly powerful. I wish you were able to train with her."

"What's her ability?"

"She silences Silver abilities." Kilorn cracks his knuckles and winces at the sound. Prison clearly took it's toll on him. "She broke out of Corros Prison. She saved so many people." A pause. "Including me." He looks down as if inspecting the dust on his boots.

Farley nods grimly. "It's true. But we can't get her to cooperate."

I lean against the wall. "What do you mean, cooperate?"

Kilorn glances sidelong at Farley who is now biting her lip. The oh so confident colonel now looks as if she is going to bolt out of here. But she straightens her spine a takes a deep breath.

"We have a bit of a situation," is all she offers.

"Obviously." I'm tired of them beating around the bush. I didn't just participate in an attack my husband, and thus myself, in order to have information withheld from me. Especially if they all need my help so desperately. "So, are you going to keep mentioning there is a problem, or are you going to tell me what it is?"

Kilorn's face darkens in the shadows. "Don't talk to me like that," he breathes.

"Like what?" I demand.

He throws his arms out to the side. "Like you're in charge of me." For a second, I can almost see the skinny boy from the Stilts. Memories of kicking each other around town and quarreling in the mud fill my brain. I push them away, reminding myself that I have saved him not once but twice and that even if I am his queen, we will always be friends first.

I ball my hands into fists. "You wanted me in on this plan, then tell me what is going on with this Cameron girl. I can't afford to waste any more time because my husband will be looking for me." The Fish Boy flinches at the mention of Maven.

Farley steps between us, breaking up a fight before it begins. "We had to kidnap her."

I blink. "You what?" Unsure as to whether I heard her properly or not, I repeat it back to her. "You kidnapped a teenager?"

Kilorn swears under his breath.

"Yeah." Farley shrugs. "You would've done the same thing had you been in our situation."

I nod slowly, considering how to go about responding without creating any extra issues. After a long moment of mulling over Farley's statement, I regretfully realize she is not wrong. But that does not mean I will tell her that.

Instead, I sidestep her remark by asking, "How can we convince her to work with us?"

"We tried everything," Farley sighs. "Promising her safety and protection against all Silvers." She counts on her fingers, adding another one each time she adds to the list of offers she tried to give this child.

"Food. I thought after being in jail she'd want to be well-fed. But, no. She spat in my face. Then, I told her she could become a Scarlet Guard operative. Nope." She continues going down a list of promises that would not have been kept anyway.

"And nothing," I finally say. The two of them nod. "So you blackmailed her and kidnapped her, forcing her to work for you all in exchange to not die at the hands of the Silver Elite." My hands become clammy as I speak.

Kilorn frowns. "Yeah."

"I want to meet her."

"She's not here," Farley says. "She's back at one of our bases. Training with the Newbloods." She yawns and sits down on the floor, groans as she shifts to get comfortable.

"All right."

Kilorn's eyes meet mine. I expect him to look happy or even sad but there's such a cold blankness on a face as familiar as my own. Not cruel, but certainly not kind. A soldier—that is what he's become. What we have all become.

And I know he doesn't trust me.

"I should go," I say, breaking the silence. Though I don't know where I am supposed to be right now.