WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 42

~March 31st, The night before the wedding~

Mare

I walk below Whitefire with Davidson, in the tunnels of the city.

A traitorous, vile feeling brews in my stomach as I behold the hundreds of soldiers that we've snuck into the city through the hollowed-out passageways. And Davidson's only shown me the beginning of it.

We pass the soldiers, some disguised as Silver Sentinels, while others wear traditional black gear, scarlet bandanas crowning their heads. Either way, they smile as we pass, laughing quietly amongst themselves. In certain areas, the tunnels are twenty feet wide, and soldiers relax in circles, cards in hand. In others, too tight to do much more than walk through, they've abandoned stores of food and weapons.

The tunnel systems extend far and wide, for miles on end. Right below Archeon most of the passages are newly renovated and white, but further out towards the rural High Houses, they bleed into sandstone and mildew. Mold or not, Davidson's made sure to use every inch of these tunnels to his advantage.

"How many are in the tunnels?" I ask.

He pauses, noting my hidden terror. "Twelve-thousand."

"And there are more in the forests."

"Yes."

Our conversation lapses into silence.

^^^^^^^^^^

With shaking fingers, I twist the knob that leads to Mareena's bedroom. Tyton blessedly isn't here, but somewhere in the tunnels.

Silent tears slip out of my eyes as I numbly lie down in my bed. The salty water stings, like blood flowing from fresh wounds. And my clothes are suddenly too restricting, and I can't breathe-

Nothing can be done now to fix what I've become a part of.

But I don't regret it. I don't regret meeting Will Whistle all those years ago when I was just a girl who wanted to sell stolen buttons and knickknacks. I don't regret joining the Scarlet Guard when I met Farley because of Will. I don't regret anything that I've said or done for the sake of the Reds.

But I regret meeting him, I know now.

I remember it so vividly. My attempts to pickpocket the Silvers in the Summerton markets had gone so, so horribly wrong, and I was walking back to the house that is now burnt to ashes. But along the way, I made a mistake. A stupid, irrelevant mistake that somehow turned out to change my life forever. I knew to pickpocket the stranger wouldn't fix my problems, but I reached into his pocket for not reason at all.

His eyes were fire, and they still are.

And tomorrow, when we're stripped of our masks and true colors are revealed, Cal will know it wasn't the Silvers that were the deceivers, but it was us all along. The Reds. I can only imagine the hatred and betrayal that will burn through his fiery eyes until the fire's been muffled by all that rage.

I lied to him so perfectly and effortlessly that night at the pavilion. But something tells me, had Cal been anybody else, he wouldn't have believed me. Which means, somewhere deep down, he trusts me, loves me.

He shouldn't. Cal's beautiful enough to have anyone in this whole damned world, yet he chooses to love the one that in the end, will betray him. If only he hated me; that would make everything so much easier.

My body shutters with dampened sobs and I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, willing this existence to go away.

But he can't be king. Nobody can or should. Not when the last five-hundred years of this country's history has been mutilated by glorified kings and the violence and travesties they've created. Men are not designed to rule single-handedly. The power, in the end, always gets to them, like a delicious poison.