𝐄𝐤𝐤𝐨 | 𝐃𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕪 𝐋𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝐀𝕟𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕤

16. Redemption

My stomach dropped.
"What?" I asked, stunned.
"Are you joking? I didn't—"

"Finn's dead," she interrupted, her words hitting me like a wall slammed in my face, and I blinked.
I was trying to process what she'd just said.
Finn? Dead? That couldn't be right.
I'd just spoken to him a week before.
He'd mentioned something to me about siding with him, sure, but I'd dismissed it— I was too distracted with everything else.

"Dead?" I echoed with barely a whisper.
I wasn't even sure why it was impacting me so greatly, maybe because I actually cared about him. Sevika nodded, her tone grim.
"He tried to get me to join him. Promised all kinds of bullshit about taking down Silco and making Zaun his. But he wasn't just scheming, he made his move— tried to make me end Silco, so sure of himself— and I killed him for it."

Her words felt distant, as if they were coming from underwater. My mind reeled, unable to connect the dots. Finn was dead. A man I'd known— someone I'd once worked with, even if I didn't trust him fully— was gone.
Just like that.

I staggered back a step, my legs threatening to give out from the weight of all that knowledge— Smeech's betrayal, Finn's death, and Sevika's accusations— piled onto me.
Although, nothing of that situation stopped the woman before me. Her eyes narrowed as she inched closer, the looming presence of her distrust suffocating.
"So you didn't know Finn was dead..." her voice cold, cutting, the statement as if considering various chances.
"Funny. You're usually better informed than most."
I shook my head, throat tightening.
"I've been out of it," I said, struggling to keep control of my voice, keep it steady.
"I told you, I was left to die."

"Spare me the sob story, Shark," she was too suspicious.
"If you weren't with Finn, then where the hell have you been? And don't try to lie, because it would be a load of crap. You'd have found a way back. You always do."
My heart pounded. The truth clawed at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down. I couldn't say anything about the Firelights, not to Sevika. Not when Scar was right, and I wasn't even sure where I stood myself.

"I—" My voice came faltered, and I clenched my fists.
"I have been trying to recover. I didn't have anyone looking out for me, Sevika. No one came. I thought I was on my own."
Her eyes stayed locked on mine, unrelenting.
"You're hiding something." She said, dangerously.
"Finn's gone, Silco's been on edge all week, and now you show up, alive and well, acting like you're still with us?"

"Yes, because I am with you!" I almost shouted, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. But they felt hollow, even to me. Mostly when I had said something similar just moments before to Scar, that had all of the reasons in the universe to want my head on a stick.

Sevika's gaze didn't waver.
"Prove it," she challenged.
"Tell me where you're been. Tell me what you've been doing. You think you're going to come back without answers? Silco's already got enough people gunning for him. He doesn't need traitors in his ranks."

My chest tightened, mind scrambling for a response that wouldn't expose the Firelights, wouldn't put Ekko in danger. But all I could do was meet her gaze in silence, unable to find the right words. Her lips curled into a sneer.
"Precisely," she huffed, like she had been expecting this her whole life.
"You better figure out whose side you're really on before someone else decides for you."

Her threat hung in the air like a warning, heavy and unshakable. I stood frozen, unable to form a coherent thought.
The woman I had looked up to ever since I was a child, had just threatened me, and talked to me like I had become her worst enemy.
I watched her leave, giving me the time to run as far as I could before she'd announce finding me, and Silco would unleash his beasts after me.