Queen (The Blackcoat Rebellion #3)(40)

“Kitty, can you hear me?”

I saw Greyson moving his lips, his brow furrowed as he fiddled with his sleeve. He thought it didn’t work. But then our eyes met, and a look of horror passed over his face.

He knew.

At that exact moment, a strange whistling sound echoed across the mountain range, and Greyson turned white. Confusion coursed through me, and I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay.

But then I saw it—a trail of light in the dark sky, whirling away from us at a horrifyingly fast pace.

And just as I put the pieces together, that trail of light reached the helicopter in the distance, and a fiery explosion lit the horizon.

“Mercy is terribly overrated,” said Daxton calmly, and as he walked away, I watched in silent shock as the burning helicopter fell from the sky and crashed into the mountains below.





IX

Ghosts

I didn’t remember how I got back to Lila’s bedroom. Someone was screaming—it might have been me, or it might have been Greyson—and I vaguely recalled strong arms around my torso, carrying me somewhere. But when I came to, I was once again lying in bed with no real memory of how I got there.

Lila was dead. If there was anything left of her, it was scattered on the side of a mountain now, and I was the only person who knew it was her. Everyone else thought it was me. It should have been me. I should never have traded places with her. I should have seen this coming. Daxton was never kind or generous—he was only cruel and sadistic, and of course he never intended to let any of us out of here alive. Of course he wanted to permanently silence the mouthpiece of the opposition, as soon as I’d told the country everything he’d wanted me to say. I should have known. I should have known.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid.

And Lila had been the one to pay the price.

“Was it her idea, or—or was it yours?”

I looked over at the couch, and my heart shattered into a million pieces. I was wrong. I wasn’t the only one who knew it had been Lila.

Greyson sat on the sofa, his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking. His sleeves fell to his elbows, and I spotted red impressions of hands much larger than his own on his forearms. “I just want to know,” he said thickly.“She was so angry at me. She knew it was the right thing to do, and she knew—she knew she had to play along, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to leave. She wanted out of here so damn badly, and—”

“It doesn’t matter. I went along with it. I let her take my place,” I whispered. My throat was sore. Maybe I’d been the one screaming after all. “I didn’t know—I had no idea Daxton would—”

Greyson let out a choking sob, and I sat up, not knowing what to do. I had no right to cry over Lila’s death. She’d never liked me, not really. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have liked someone living my life, either. But Greyson loved her, and he’d already lost her once, when they’d had me Masked in the first place and we’d all thought Daxton’s assassination plot had worked. And now he’d had to watch her die for real, right in front of him, and this time there was no possibility that she’d managed to sneak away. We’d both seen her get on that helicopter. Whether or not they ever bothered to find her body, there was no question she was gone.

Greyson stood at last and came to sit on my bed. He made no move to hug me, but he leaned against the headboard beside me and pulled his feet up next to mine, and we sat there together in silence for more seconds than I could count. I didn’t dare say anything. There was nothing I could say to make this any easier for him, and if I hadn’t already lost him completely, I didn’t want to hurt him even more.

“Thank you,” he said hoarsely, and he sniffed. I turned my head to look at him, my brow furrowed. “For—for giving her that chance. You didn’t know it would end like this. And Lila—” His voice caught in his throat, and he cleared it. “She didn’t feel any pain. It happened too fast. She probably didn’t even realize...” He wiped his eyes. “All she wanted was to leave. She died happy.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, either, so instead I took his hand. He didn’t pull away.

“You gave me a second chance with her,” he said. “And the past few months...they’ve been a gift. I got to say everything I wanted to say. I got to tell her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me. But she stayed because of me. She let Daxton catch her because of me. I was always holding her down, and I’m glad—” Another sob escaped him, and it took him a moment to regain his composure. “I’m glad she finally had the courage to leave me. Shedeserved to be free.”

“She didn’t want to leave you,” I said softly. “She loved you, and she made sure I knew how important protecting you was.”

“She was always trying to protect me, but she should have been protecting herself.” Greyson turned to me, his eyes red and puffy. “I don’t care what promises you made her. Promise me you won’t make the same mistake.”

My throat tightened, and I swallowed hard. “I can’t make you that promise. I’m sorry.”

He closed his eyes wearily and leaned back against the headboard. Another minute passed, and at last he whispered, “We’re going to kill him.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We are.”