Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

by Victoria Aveyard

We hold each other’s gaze, simply because there’s nowhere else to look.

Cal takes my hand. He quivers like I do, afraid to die. At least he’ll have a chance to fight. “I’ll protect you as long as I can,” he whispers. I almost don’t hear him over the tramp of feet and the pathetic beat of my heart. “I don’t deserve it,” I mutter back, but I squeeze his hand in thanks all the same. I betrayed him, I ruined his life, and this is how he repays me.

As we enter, I see we’re not the only ones waiting to die. “Lucas!”

“Lucas of House Samos, for crimes against the crown, for collusion with the terrorist organization known as the Scarlet Guard, I declare you guilty. I sentence you to die. Submit to execution.”

Lucas was only the beginning, the opening act. We are the show.

Through the gate, I watch Lucas’s body be dragged away, leaving a streak of silverblood across the sand. A wave of sickness passes over me, and I have to bite my lip.

A strongarm Rhambos to tear me apart, the Haven son who will disappear and choke me like a shadowed ghost, and Lord Osanos himself to drown Cal’s fire. Arven as well, I remind myself. He stands at the gate, his eyes never leaving my body. Don’t forget the other two. The magnetrons. It’s almost poetic, really. In matching armor, with matching scowls, Evangeline and Ptolemus stare us down, their fists bristling with long, cruel knives. Somewhere in my head, a clock ticks, counting down. Not much time left.

Behind me, almost in my ear, Arven laughs to himself. “Who has the advantage?” he sneers to himself, repeating his words from Training. My muscles ache and twitch, begging for it to be over. I just want to lie down, to admit defeat, to die. They called me a liar, a trickster, and they were right. I have one more trick left up my sleeve. Rhambos takes aim, setting his feet in the sand, and I know what I must do. He hurls his spear with such strength it seems to burn the air. I drop, throwing myself to the sand. A sickening squelch tells me my plan has worked and the scream of electricity surging back to life tells me I might win. Behind me, Arven collapses, a pipe speared through his middle. “I have the advantage,” I tell his corpse.

Silver and Red, and stronger than both.

It’s not fair. We won. We showed them. It’s not fair. I want to scream, to shock and rage and fight, but the bullets will get me first. Hot tears of anger well in my eyes, but I will not cry. Not in these last moments. “I’m sorry I did this to you,” I whisper to Cal. No matter how I feel about his beliefs, he’s the one truly losing here. I knew the risks, but he was just a pawn, torn between so many playing an invisible game.

He clenches his jaw, twisting and turning as he looks for some way out of this. But there isn’t one. I don’t expect him to forgive me, and I don’t deserve it either. But his hand closes over mine, holding on to the last person on his side. Slowly, he starts to hum. I recognize the tune as the sad song, the one we kissed to in a room full of moonlight.

“Good-bye, little lightning girl.” When he raises his hand, I think he might be shaking. Like the little girl I am, I squeeze my eyes shut, expecting to feel the blinding pain of a hundred bullets ripping me apart. My thoughts turn inward, to days long past. To Kilorn, my parents, my brothers, my sister. Will I see them all soon? My heart tells me yes. They’re waiting for me, somewhere, somehow. And like I did that day in the Spiral Garden, when I thought I was falling to my death, I feel cold acceptance. I will die. I feel life leaving, and I let go.

When he feels my gaze, his eyes snap to mine. Life sparks in him again. “Mare,” he murmurs, and some of the hot anger breaks. Some. My head spins when I try to sit up, but a comforting hand pushes me back down again. “Lie still,” a voice says, a voice I vaguely recognize. “Kilorn,” I mumble. “I’m here.”

But if Kilorn is standing there, with the rest of the Guard, then . . . My neck turns sharply, moving to look up at the person above me. “Who—?” The face is familiar, a face I know so well. If I were not already lying down, I would certainly fall. The shock is too much for me to bear. “Am I dead? Are we dead?” He’s come to take me away. I died in the arena. This was a hallucination, a dream, a wish, a last thought before dying. We are all dead. But my brother shakes his head slowly, staring at me with familiar honey-colored eyes. Shade was always the handsome one, and death has not changed that. “You’re not dead, Mare,” he says, his voice as smooth as I remember. “Neither am I.”

“The mutation,” I say, letting my hand graze his arm. “They killed you for it.” His eyes seem to dance. “They tried.” I don’t blink, time doesn’t pass, but he’s moved at a speed beyond my sight, beyond even that of a swift. Now he sits across from me, next to the still-shackled Cal. It’s like he’s shifting through space, jumping from one spot to another in no time at all. “And failed,” he finishes from his new seat. His grin is wide now, pleasantly amused by my openmouthed stare. “They said they killed me, they told the captains I was dead and my body burned.” Another split second and he’s sitting next to me again, appearing out of thin air. Teleporting. “But they weren’t fast enough. No one is.”

Her words slide out between clenched teeth. “No matter what he did for you, the prince is not on our side. And I won’t risk what’s left of us for your little romance.” Romance. We flinch at the word. There is no such thing between us anymore. Not after what we did to each other, and what was done to us. No matter how much we might want there to be.

Our shared memories flash before me, parading every second of our time together. But now our friendship is gone, replaced by the one thing we still have in common. Our hatred for Maven. I don’t need to be a whisper to know we share a thought. I will kill him.