Page 143 of Caging Darling

A moment later,and Tink has glided across the room. She crouches before me as she unties the ropes binding my wrists.

“Please,” I whisper, though I can’t bring myself to finish the sentence, to ask her to leave them on. Panic fills me as I remember the pouch of rushweed in my pocket. The one the Nomad supplied me with should I be forced to face Tink alone.

I look up and find Tink, determination twisting the muscles of her forehead as she tugs and the bonds fall loose and thud against the floor.

I start to cry. “Please, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

I kick and flail, but I only have a moment of resistance in me before I find myself working with Tink and not against her, assisting her in pulling me up.

My feet hit the cold marble floor of the office with a thud of finality, knocking the wind out of me. “Run,” I want to whisper to her, but can’t.

That was it. Tricking Lady Whittaker into ending me was all I had. It had worked, since it technically had been a plan to get Tink to the Nomad. A bad plan, but a plan nonetheless. Without it, I have nothing, no resistance. No barrier between me and betraying my friend.

I reach my hand into my pocket. Feel the pouch of rushweed against my shaking fingertips.

My legs are wobbling, but I stand all the same. There are tears in my eyes, but my mouth is already fighting for the words to convince Tink to come with me. I could tell her I’ve come to warn her that the Nomad is coming for her, that I know the way out to avoid him.

I’ve clamped my hand over my mouth and am biting into my palm to keep from doing it, sobbing into my hand, when Tink kneels on the floor next to me and presses something into my palm.

“I KNOW.”

Tears wring from my eyes as I gaze into her beautiful blue stare. The stare that my brother adored.

“Tink, I can’t control myself,” I say, pulling my hand from the open pouch of rushweed, its powder coating my fingertips.

She just closes my hand over the tiles and squeezes, ignoring my rising other hand.

“You deserve such a better life,” I say. “What you’ve done for Michael…”

She squeezes my hand so hard the tiles cut into my palm. “I KNOW.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand. Why don’t you run?”

Why don’t you fight back?

Her lips twitch into a pained smile, and she fishes another tile from her belt. “TOGETHER.”

I gag, the idea of handing Tink over to the Nomad, shoving her into a cage, like I’ve been caged the past two years, making me sick.

But I don’t have the strength to resist her.

There’s sweat on her brow as she glances at the rushweed on my fingertips.

“Please. You see. You can see.”

She nods, breathing out slightly. “I GO.” Then shrugs. “IF NO, YOU DIE.”

My heart wilts. “Would that be so awful at this point?”

Tink smiles and closes my fingers over my fist, pushing my hand full of rushweed gently away from her. “TO ME YES.” But then her smile turns conspiratorial. She plucks another several tiles from her belt. “GIVE IN FIRST. THEN FIGHT. TOGETHER.”

“You want to kill the Nomad,” I say. “After I’ve handed you over?”

She nods, tapping her finger against the back of my neck.

“But if you go now, you could save yourself.”

Tink shakes her head. “I SAVE BOTH.”

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