Burn (Pure #3)(63)

“So let’s pretend this meeting went well,” Foresteed says. “I will stop subduing the wretches—as if following orders—and I will even stop the torture program that you interrupted. And you will go along with the wedding. You will concentrate on cake tasting and registering for blenders. I hope you’re taking this all in, Partridge. Because if you don’t do what I say…”

Partridge feels the blood pounding in his face. “What?”

“You know your father’s collection of enemies, all locked up in their frozen chambers? His ‘little relics’?”

Partridge turns his head. He can’t look at Foresteed’s tan face and gleaming teeth.

“You know why your father kept his greatest enemies alive?”

Partridge shakes his head. He doesn’t want to know.

“He’d bring them out every once in a while to torture them, for old times’ sake. Sometimes the mood just struck him. I believe in people being punished for their crimes. And if the crime is truly abhorrent, I believe the punishment should be painful.” Foresteed leans forward. “Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll have a collection of ‘little relics’ of my own.”

“Sounds like something to look forward to.”

Foresteed rubs the leather on the arms of the chair once more and then stands up. “Well, this was pleasant. Let’s do it again soon.”

“Yep,” Partridge says. “Real soon.”





EL CAPITAN





BOY




At first, El Capitan thinks the kid is following them because he’s lost and dazed and has nowhere else to go. He ignores the boy—a gimp with one stiff leg and his face half-burned. They’re looking for orphans as it is, though he knows they’re likely dead. Still, they don’t need any more lost souls hanging on to them.

He also doesn’t have the heart to tell the kid to shove off, though—not yet.

But then Bradwell says, “Where’s Pressia? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

El Capitan and Helmud both look around. It’s still raining hard, the wind pushing it across the streets. Hastings freezes and sniffs the air.

“Hastings,” Bradwell says, nervous suddenly. “Where’d she go?”

Hastings climbs onto some rubble to get a better view.

“Hastings!” Bradwell says impatiently.

And the boy walks closer. He tugs on El Capitan’s sleeve.

“Not now,” El Capitan says.

The boy cowers but then says, “I got a message from her.”

“Who?” Bradwell says, walking to the boy, who’s afraid of Bradwell’s hulking frame and large wings. He takes a few steps away, and El Capitan has to step in, talking in a quiet voice and getting down on one knee.

“Tell us,” he says.

“Tell us,” Helmud repeats in a soft singsong.

“The one you’re looking for. Pressia Belze.”

He’s got her full name, which means a lot out here. Hastings clambers down from the rubble, and they all gather a little closer.

“What’s the message?” El Capitan says.

“She had to go. She had to head out.”

“Where?” El Capitan shouts.

“We know where!” Bradwell yells.

“Where? Where?” Helmud says to the boy, again using his singsong.

“She didn’t say. She said you’d know.”

“We know,” Hastings says.

“She said she’d send you a message once she got there,” the boy says. “She said she’d find her brother, and he’d help her send it.”

“What kind of message?”

“She said she’d tell you to take it down or not. She said you’d know what she meant and that she’d draw a picture on the message.”

“A picture of what?” El Capitan asks.

“She wouldn’t tell me, but she said you’d know by the picture that it was a message from her.”

“See what you did!” El Capitan shouts at Bradwell, who runs his hands through his wet hair and backs away from the kid.

“See what you did?” Helmud says, shifting blame back to El Capitan.

“Listen to your brother for once,” Bradwell says, shaking rain from his wings.

“You told her she couldn’t go. You acted like you owned her,” El Capitan shouts, standing back up. “She left the way she did so she wouldn’t have to fight you!”

The boy takes a limp backward and crouches behind some rocks, one straight leg propped to the side, watching.

“You were willing to let her go,” Bradwell says. “You’d let her do whatever she wants because you want her to be in love with you.”

“You want her to be in love with you,” Helmud says to Bradwell coldly.

“What did you say, Helmud?” Bradwell says.

“Helmud means that you want her to still love you so you can punish her with it. At least I told her how I feel,” El Capitan says. “If you weren’t so scared, maybe you would.”

Bradwell charges him, driving his shoulder into El Capitan’s sternum. They hit a brick wall, ramming Helmud into it. El Capitan feels his brother’s ribs contract, airless.