Page 106 of Trials of Dusk and Dreams
I blink, taken aback. “Bodin . . .”
“It’s me I don’t trust, not you.” He hits his chest. “Me.”
“I—”
“Let me finish. If anything happened to you . . .” He swallows hard. “Even without my memories, I know. Losing you would break me. Break us. More than we’ve ever been broken before.”
My lips part, but he’s done listening. His mouth crashes on mine. He kisses me with wild, desperate need, pinning my face between his hands. I can do nothing but submit to his tongue, his taste, his emotion. This is everything he struggled to say. It’s that feeling I get between my ribs—the one when my mates are close. It’s fate. It’s home. It’s also reckless with everyone watching, but at this moment, he doesn’t care. I don’t care. I drop my sword and cup his face, returning his kiss with the same unhinged passion.
A twig snapping breaks us apart. I rest a hand on Bodin’s heaving chest, silently pleading for him to trust me. His eyes, usually so guarded, are wild with fear and anger. His hands tremble slightly as he grips my arms, betraying the depth of his concern. But he allows me to take him back to the others.
Geraldine and Max stand sentinel, shrewd eyes on the dissenters now gathering into a pitiful group around Becky and her children.
“Explain,” I say softly. “Please.”
Becky glances around, still looking for an escape. It draws my eyes to the carved marks on the trees, the same crude symbols we found outside the keep on the way to the Nexus. A moon, a star. Now, they seem benign, like children’s drawings. Like my sisters’ drawings back home. Then I notice small trinkets hanging from branches—bits of cloth, twisted metal, even a child’s toy. They’re offerings, I realize, to old gods worshipped by the Folk. These humans cling to any hope they can find.
“What’s going on here?” I ask, head spinning.
Max sheaths his sword at his hip and says, “They’re old-worlders, Willow. Like me and Gerrie.”
Geraldine’s eyes are haunted as she looks at Becky’s children clutching her with dirty fingers. “They’re starving. We’ve been in their position.”
“So . . . you’re not dissenters?”
Becky glances at my palm on Bodin’s chest. Her shoulders slump, and the fight leaves her. “We are. I guess. It’s a long story.”
“Tell me,” I urge.
“I woke up in this time with my arms around my twins. The Folk . . . they want to split us up, enslaved us. We chose to stay together, even if it meant starving. Last year, I joined the military, hoping to earn enough to send food back. They barely survived the winter. So this year, I volunteered for the exhibition, hoping to win, to at least find a way to feed my kids and—” Her voice cracks as she tugs one of them close—the boy. My heart leaps when his little hand clutches her shirt, displaying his webbed fingers. The abnormal trait is enough to have him sent to the Subterranean.
My throat clogs as I ask Bodin, “Titania wouldn’t send children down there, would she?”
His bleak look is all the confirmation I need. His gaze darts between me and the dissenters, his body tense like a coiled spring. His protective instinct is intense, but there’s something else there, too—a flicker of uncertainty, as if he realizes the world isn’t as black and white as he thought.
My heart aches. These people are my responsibility, even if they don’t know it. I want to tell them everything, to beg for forgiveness, but the words stick in my throat. Would they understand? Or would they hate me even more?
“We’re not here to hurt you,” I say, meeting Becky’s eyes. “I promise.”
“Why should we trust you? I’ve been nothing but rude to you.”
More than that, I want to add. But there’s only one question I need answered. “Do you hold any loyalty toward the other Shadows?”
Her eyes narrow. “I do what I must to survive, but the only people I’m loyal to are my kids—these humans.”
My mind races to come up with a solution for them. Could we smuggle them back to the Nexus? No, that’s too risky, and there’s not enough space. Maybe we could set up a secret supply line? But how would we keep that hidden from the other Houses? What if we found a way to petition Titania directly? I almost laugh at that thought—as if she’d care about the plight of humans. For a wild moment, I consider giving up my wish, but I know that won’t solve anything in the long run. There must be a way to use my position, my connection to the Six, to help these people.
“Switch allegiance to the House of Shadow,” I urge Becky.
“Willow,” Bodin warns, “It was hard enough convincing Legion to allow your friends to stay at the castle.”
“But what if it’s the Tower?” My wild eyes dart to my friends. “What if Becky, Colin, and the others all move in there? We can funnel food and supplies out.”
“We’ll figure something out,” he sighs, scrubbing his face. “But we need to return to camp before our absence is noticed. The only reason it hasn’t is because we’re at the end of the line. The Hollow Hunt is due to sweep our airspace soon.”
He tries to herd us back to camp, but Becky resists. I have to admire her tenacity, strength, and devotion. I see a flicker of the fierce competitor I know at the Nexus. Her shoulders are slumped with the weight of her responsibility, but a maternal fire in her eyes refuses to be extinguished.
“What assurances do we have you won’t return and kill—” She chokes off her words, eyes pleading with me.
