Rebel Born (Secondborn #3)(59)

A deep exhale comes from Reykin. His leg bounces in agitation. He has his hand wrapped around his water glass, and I’m afraid he might shatter it at any moment. Pain clouds his eyes. I reach out and brush my fingers over his.

“I don’t remember any of it,” I say. “Nothing.”

He lets go of the glass and threads his fingers in mine.

Cherno’s deep voice resonates as he says, “I’ve been called ‘monster’ numerous times in the span of my vast life, but after what I’ve seen inside Spectrum, I know that no one has ever embodied the term more egregiously than Crow.”

“Not even the goddess Roselle you once knew?” I ask.

“Not even her.”

Edgerton grimaces. “Woo, this is some freaky crap you’re slingin’ here.” He whistles low, then scowls and slaps his palms on the table. “Are we gonna hunt that blackbird or what? Cuz I’m personally offended that he’s still alive.”

Cherno levels a sinister stare at Edgerton. “Yes, let us hunt that bird.”

I reach for my glass of water. “We can’t hunt him until we have a weapon to fight him with.” They all gaze at me as if I’m missing something. “What?”

Reykin studies me. “We have a weapon,” he says tentatively. “We have you.”





Chapter 11

Cassius Cometh

I nearly choke on my water.

“You think I’m your weapon?” I utter the question in a normal tone, but my clenching teeth, the downward slash of my lips, and the sharp daggers of my stare convey my outrage at Reykin’s suggestion.

“Ahh, hell,” Edgerton swears under his breath. He’s studying his wrist communicator with a frown. “I can smell a fight comin’, and as much as I want to get in on it, I have to go see what’s keepin’ my wife. She should’ve been here by now, and she switched her communicator to ‘Do Not Disturb.’ I hate it when she does that. It was a stupid option to put on these things, Reykin. We never had privacy before, and now I know why. You cain’t never get no one to answer you when they oughta. I’ll be right back.” Our captain sets aside his napkin and rises from his seat, gives me a conspiratorial wink, and retreats from the dining room.

My hostility grows. “Umm, were you not on the beach with me?” I hiss at Reykin. “Crow yanked me right off my feet—with his mind.”

“You didn’t even attempt to fight back,” Cherno interjects.

I gaze between him and Reykin. They’ve been talking without me. When did this happen? When I was resting?

“You need training to prepare to battle Crow,” Cherno says, “but you’re not ill equipped. We need to find Cassius. He has awakened.”

“Cassius—the god Cassius?”

“The same.” Cherno stacks yet another empty plate on the pile and moves on to the next entrée. “Although, it may be impossible for me not to kill him the next time I see him. He’s the one responsible for the form I had to take.”

“The so-called egg?” I ask, remembering that Ransom said the DNA they had extracted had been from an egg.

“It wasn’t an egg!” Cherno hisses back. “It was me. The Lord of Raze and Ruin used his considerable power to crush me into that form.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. But what makes you think the Lord of Raze and Ruin is alive?”

“He made this ship, did he not?” Cherno asks. He gazes around at the dining hall. “It bears his crest everywhere.”

“I’m not following . . . I thought Cassius’s crest was a rose. All I see are clamshell-shaped tables.”

“Walk to the top of those stairs. I will wait.”

Over my shoulder, the glass staircase sparkles with reflected light. “Why?” I ask.

Cherno ignores me and continues chewing. I slide from my seat, walk to the steps, and climb to the top, where more diners converse around their tables. Reykin follows me closely. The balcony’s twisting wrought-iron railing has a black-coral feel to it, but I peer closer and notice its blunt, thornlike nubs. Leaning on the cool metal, I peer at the floor below—and I see it. The clamshell tables reveal themselves to be rose petals. They’re arranged to form a lush white flower.

But, it’s coincidence, right? It must be. Clifton isn’t a god. He just pretended to be Cassius at the Gods and Goddesses Ball in Virtues. If he were a true god, I never would’ve been able to kill him, would I?

“Is Clifton Salloway dead?” I ask Reykin, who has joined me at the railing.

His eyebrows lower in confusion, and he frowns. “No, he survived the massacre at the Secondborn Trials. I thought you knew that. You never asked about him.”

“Did I kill him after that?” I demand with growing anxiety, and even worse, hope. “I was told that I murdered him during a battle at the penthouse suite, where I used to live.” My breath comes out in shallow pants.

“He was wounded in that battle, but he survived it. He escaped through a subterranean passage into the sea. What is this about?” He reaches for me and holds my upper arms.

Dazed, I stare at him as if he might turn out to be a stranger, too. “No one thought to tell me Clifton was alive? He’s my fiancé.”