Rage and Ruin | 2

6 | 4

G I G I

      "How much longer is this going to take?" I asked as we trekked over yet another flat plain. We were somewhere in the United States now, flown back by a plane Imperium had supplied. Benny hadn't told me what we were doing here yet. All I knew was that we were in the middle of a dry, scorching desert, where cracked white sand and cactus-like plants were as far as the eye could see.

      "We're close," Neve said when Benny didn't answer.

      "Close to where?" I snapped. Benny promised to help me kill Delphinium and if this wasn't working toward that goal, I didn't want any part of it. I could practically feel my mother frowning down on me.

      "To the group we're meeting with."

      I narrowed my eyes. What was she talking about? Stopping suddenly, I told Benny's turned back, "Our deal was clear: I'd help break you out of the ONNT building and you'd help me kill Delphinium. I'm not here for some Imperium quest of yours."

      He finally turned around, eyes flashing in anger. "This 'quest', as you put it, is going to give us a significant lead over Delphinium and your friends. Don't you want to see them burn?"

      Yes, say yes. "I do."

      "We're now gathering the matches that will light the fire under their stakes." He turned back, as if that answered anything about where we were or why we were here.

      We continued on in silence for a while. Neve walked beside me; I kept her in my sight at all times. She may have been on Benny's side, but that didn't mean she was on mine. If she was with Imperium, who knew what she might do to me if I wasn't careful?

      When Benny had gained a bit more distance than we had, Neve asked in a soft voice, "I can practically see the fire burning in your eyes. What did Delphinium Tesla do to you?"

      "She murdered my mother." My voice was as hard and flat as the landscape around us. Would I ever get used to saying that?

      "How do you know? I mean, were you there?"

      "Benny worked with the man who gave her the assignment. When I confronted her about it, she couldn't deny it."

      "Benny told you?" She shot a glance toward the dark-haired man ahead of us. "Do you trust him?"

      "Enough to believe he knew the truth about Delphinium Tesla."

      "I've heard of her," Neve said thoughtfully. "Everyone has. She's something of a legend, especially inside the walls of the Imperium fortress. People talk about how she used to be Orion's perfect soldier, taking the lives of anyone he commanded her to. Her kill count...it's unrivaled."

     I frowned, not wanting to hear about how supposedly legendary she was. "She almost killed me back in Romania, nearly chopped my head clean off," I hissed, anger flaring up in my chest at the memory.

     "I'm not surprised," she said softly, as if she was trying to not hurt my feelings. "You were both trying to murder each other. I saw a bit of your fight."

     "And what? Was she every bit as horrible as the stories painted her as?" Yes, yes, tell me that she was.

     Neve thought for a moment, her dark kohl-lined eyes set on a point in the distance. "She's very skilled in battle and she was able to survive your torture. But...horrible? I expected her to be monstrous, radiating evil, ugly as the black heart she supposedly has."

      "She is," I interrupted, not looking over at her. "Take it from someone who used to be a friend of hers." I hated how bitter my voice sounded.

      But Neve shook her head, her pin-straight hair swishing. "She was fighting with your friends on the side that protects people, the side that stands against evil."

      "There are no sides anymore. Not to me. There's only me and her. Only one can come out alive."

      She raised a dark eyebrow. "Are you sure it'll be you?"

      "It has to be me." It had to. It had to. It had to. I couldn't lose. I could already feel the guilt and disgrace crushing my chest. This was my responsibility, given to me by my dead mother. I would succeed.

      I felt her gaze on me but she didn't ask any more questions. We caught up to Benny and for the first time, I noticed how she didn't get too near to him. She was supposedly with Imperium, so why had she been bordering on taking the crew's side?

     Shaking my head slightly, as if that would clear my thoughts, I realized that it didn't matter. I wasn't here for anyone but my mother. Not Benny. Not even myself.

All three of us turned when three dark cars appeared on the horizon. My first thought was that it was the crew. But that was impossible: they didn't know where we were. It had to be the people Benny said were going to help us.

      We waited for the cars to approach us. When they parked, at least twenty people got out and walked to the three of us. Most of them were big—much larger than my small frame and even Neve's taller one—and looked menacing, like they'd break my neck if I got in their way. I hated the way they eyed me as if I was a piece of meat or a sweet, innocent child. Little did they know, I could feel their steady heartbeats in the palms of my hands, the echoes of the beats faintly echoing in my brain.

      "Took you long enough," Benny said cooly, eyes half-closed under the beating sun. They all stayed at least three feet away from him—either a sign of respect or self-preservation, I wasn't sure which.

      "Apologies, sir. We came as soon as Orion commanded us to." My eyes narrowed. Perhaps Benny was higher up in the Imperium ranks than I'd thought.

      "All that matters is that you're here now," Benny said, running a smooth gaze over the group. "We're finally prepared to attack."

      I nearly rolled my eyes. I was still unaware of what we were doing here and these brutes already knew? Benny was using me for Imperium's purposes, that was crystal clear. I'd tolerated it only as long as I could use him in return, and it seemed that his usefulness was wearing thin.

      But I had nowhere else to go as of now, so I stayed at Neve and Benny's sides as they led the group back toward the cars. Whatever we were about to do, I had not signed up for it. But if I had to do whatever this was, I would. It was clear that I was going to be forced to. Either way, I would do anything for another chance to appease my mother.