Page 74 of Of Daggers and Deceit

“Do not ask me anything further on this. Whatever happened, don’t tell Bodhi either. It is safer for him not to know.”

I reared back. “Do you not care what happened to me?”

She stopped in her tracks, her fingers fumbling on a broken shard of glass. “I care, Raya. I care so damn much, but I am afraid. I am terrified you will endanger others with this information, but more importantly, you will endanger yourself by passing it on. Please, don’t tell anyone.”

My gut turned. I was hurt by her words, though they were truthful. I wanted comfort. I wanted someone to tell me it would all be okay.

“We need to leave this city.”

That was what made her finally freeze in her movements. “I cannot.”

“Why?” I demanded, trying to keep my voice down so Bodhi couldn’t hear. He didn’t deserve to be involved in this mess.

“Because these people need me, Raya. They need hope.”

I gritted my teeth. “This city is a lie. Everything is a lie. There is no hope!”

She shook her head as she looked at the floor again, her shoulders slumped. I needed to think of a new strategy. My mother was stubborn.

“What if we left to get resources to save people here? What if we went beyond the shield at the next thinning to get help or find a solution to our problems?”

She kept moving, picking up another bit of glass as she listened. I needed more ammunition, so I asked a question that would prompt her. If the love of her life couldn’t, who would?

“What if we found him?”

She looked towards me. “Who?”

“Dad. What if we found him?”

She smiled sadly at me. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“But we could do it. We could start somewhere. You know what he looks like. You’ve lived beyond before…”

She tipped her head in consideration, and my heart thumped.

“With my gift, we could do so much more than just tolerating and enduring this city. We could truly find a safe haven and rebel.”

That was when her ears pricked.

“What of the Dominants on the other side?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow in challenge. Damn it, she didn’t truly believe I was serious. My lips thinned in response.

“We could outrun them. We would only need to last at most for a week if it was bad. If it is not survivable beyond the shield, then it is only a week between the third and fourth thinning. We would come back to the Haven and accept this fate as being the best this life would offer us.”

She stared at me, her fingers fumbling over one of my more decorative celestial maps I’d drawn a few years back. It was now torn, another thing those assholes ruined.

“If you want to give them hope, then what’s better than finding a place where they could start an entirely new life? One where they would be valued and equal. A life where they do not have to fight to find food, water, or shelter?”

A strand of hair fell out of her bun, and she tucked it behind her ear as silence reigned. I persisted, taking her silence as encouragement.

“They are going to enslave you. Not as a wife, but as a consort. That is your future if you remain here. That is what I know.”

I was desperate now, my arms outreached towards her, my voice pleading as I implored her to understand, to accept and do this with me.

Her face had gone ashen, but I could tell in the rigidity of her posture that she knew I was telling the truth.

“I’m not giving up on this. We have to go,” I reiterated, firmer now than ever before. I think she could see it clearly now, the truth of it all as resolve slackened her shoulders, and she subtly dipped her head in agreement, though I didn’t know what it was that had tipped her towards it.

“Okay.”

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