Page 131 of Even Robots Die
I know she’s not helpless, and that she made sure she would go in armed to the teeth even if no one seems the wiser so far, but that doesn’t change the relief I’m feeling at not leaving her alone in this.
I take out my guns and the knives I have displayed on my body. They’re the first things the birds will want gone, and we need to get this going so that we get out quicker.
I don’t want to stay here any longer than we need. This is going to be a shit show soon, and I want Florentine as far from the castle as possible. I know it’s wishful thinking, because it’sherplan. She’s going to want to see it through, but if I had my way, she would be tucked away very far from here when this battle starts.
Sadly, it also looks like I can’t refuse her anything, it seems, because here we are about to go all in for the world’s destiny.
I wanted to bomb Versailles’ palace—the historical building be damned—but Christina made us aware that the cells under the castle were currently full.
It didn’t really come as a surprise
. The city—hell, the country—has been on lockdown for weeks now, and the French people aren't really known for staying quiet when they disagree with something. They go on strike like it's a national sport. It stands to reason that they wouldn’t let the birds destroy the city and the people without doing something.
When Aléa collided with Earth, their leaders tried to stay in power for as long as they could—they were an atheist government after all—but the global pressure from much more religious countries made them fall in line. But I don’t think they ever completely stopped fighting. The birds only trusted other birds, so it didn’t take them long to decide they didn’t need the French armed forces anymore. I don't know where the armed forces that were disbanded went, though.
Or, more accurately, I didn’t know until yesterday.
I know exactly where they’re supposed to be positioned right now, and even if Florentine handed over the blueprints for the wings more than twenty hours ago, there is no wayLibérationmanaged to print enough of them in time, not with the size of Christina’s army.
That’s why we need to go in.
We need any little edge we can get.
“So the reports are true,” Raphaël says. “Little Miss Beaumont caught herself a vampire. To say I was surprised when four days ago it was reported to me that she was seen with a bat leaving her house is an understatement. All our reports until then indicate that she is a fervent defender of the human cause, so why she would mix herself up with a shifter was beyond my comprehension, but now I see it. She has you wrapped around her finger and you would do anything to keep her safe. It makes me wonder if she would do the same.”
I don’t like the wicked light I can see in his eyes. Not for me. I don’t care if they torture me. It wouldn’t be the first time and maybe not the last either. I’ve survived so far.
No, I’m not worried for myself.
I’m worried for Florentine. What would it do to her if they tortured me under her eyes? I know that she’s stubborn and that she wouldn’t give them what they want, but how much would that break her? Would she survive her own mind?
Fuck. I was too eager to go in with her and now, that edge that we were chasing? I think I gave them their own.
No.
I can’t think like that.
We’re just going in and getting out. We’re not staying. This is temporary. There will be no torturing or any nightmare the birds can conjure. Everything is going to be alright.
I double back on what he said, though. His reports aren’t even talking about me. They saw her leave her place with a bat four days ago. That’s when she and Daniel killed the sentinel patrolling her neighborhood. That’s when she got shot. If Daniel has been being cozy with her I need to have a word with him, but that’s not what’s important here.
They don’t know she’s been spending time with more than one bat. They don’t know that she currently has ties with the whole shifter world now. They think it’s only me.
She has been spendingalone timesolely with me, so they aren’t completely wrong either.
The primal part inside of me that already claimed her rears its head inside of me.
This.
This is the reason why I’m too obvious when it comes to Florentine.
It’s really not the right time to show the world that she’s mine, but the dark beast that has been awakened when the birds toyed with my brain—or was it when she arrived in Blois?—is having noneof it.
“So?” I’m torn away from my thoughts when Raphël speaks again.
Was he expecting an answer to his conjectures about Florentine and me?
I slip my hands in my pockets without saying a word. He can try to guess whatever he wants. I’ve given too much ammo to use against us already, I’m not adding anything to the situation.
