Through the Lies

Prologue

AN: This is a finished story, so you dont have to worry about investing yourself to be disappointed. I'll post every week on Saturday. 😉

Maven reaches out his hand, grabbing at me between the bars. When his fingers close over the bare skin of my wrist, I feel my heart jump. He holds me tight, like I’m some kind of lifeline. Something has snapped in him, revealing a desperate boy, a pathetic, hopeless child trying to hold onto me.
“I can save you.”

I feel my pulse pounding against his thumb on my wrist. I’m afraid he sees the longing in my face, how much I want to be with him. I feel tears prick the backs of my eyes and my rage comes back. 

“You betrayed everyone! How- how can you expect me to come with you after everything-?” My words are cut off by sobs. Sobs of confusion and hate and anger and love; love for the person I thought he was for so long.

But when I look back at him again, there is shame in his crystal blue eyes, and I catch a glimpse of the boy I fell in love with. He was still there.

His grip on my wrist falters, turning gentle. He looks like how I feel, wanting to say something but not knowing what.

“Was everything a lie?” My voice quavers.

A sad smile pains his face at my question, but he doesn't answer, instead, he tugs me forward and kisses me gently through the bars of the cell.
I pull away though, frustrated at my weakness for him.

"I can save you Mare," he repeats, "I am king."

Yes he is.

 I think about the things he could do, and prevent with the right persuasion. I could use him just like he used me.
I could save the Reds doomed to the new measures through him. I could save the innocent newbloods. I could give my family peace.

I'm doing this for them, I try to convince myself.

“Will you save me?” I whisper, we really are so much alike.

I hear Cal’s defeated voice behind me, “No.”

Maven ignores his brother and smiles, stepping away from the cell. He orders security to open the cell and the magnetron from House Samos obeys, the bars screeching at his will.

Maven reaches for my hand and I know that if I take it, I’ll be betraying everything and everyone I know. I hesitate, and the words my mentor had warned me so long ago run through my thoughts.

Anyone can betray anyone.

It takes all of the self-control I have to not glance back at Cal, when I reach for Maven's hand and let him pull me out of the dungeons.