Page 105 of Rapture's Edge (Night Prowler 3)
Eliana swallowed around the lump in her throat, big as a fist, and repeated a quote she’d once read, attributed to Gandhi. “Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”
“Your father,” the viscount went on, his voice acid, “was a mass murderer. Would you have us believe you knew nothing of that, as well?”
Eliana closed her eyes for a moment. Shame. Shame so hot and rancid and total it was like being submerged in a lake of vomit. Like a full-body tattoo, she would never be free of it.
“Yes. I—know. Now. I’m sorry.” She opened her eyes and looked at the Queen. “I don’t share his…ideas. I wanted to live with humans, not—”
“Live with humans?” The Queen jerked forward in her throne, her hands wrapped tightly around its carved arms. Her expression was incredulous. “You believe we can live together with humans, openly?”
It was evident from her reaction, from the restless shifting and blanched faces of the others, that this was a topic of monumental importance. She knew nothing of their ways, if they interacted with humans in the same way as they had in the Roman colony, some allowed to come and go, some—like her—confined, but judging by what little she’d seen so far, she’d bet they
weren’t exactly revolutionaries, espousing equality and the abolition of segregation.
Would this be the truth that would get her killed?
She stared at the Queen and decided she’d rather die from this truth than from all the lies they’d accused her of. At least—here at the very end of things—she could be brave.
“Yes,” she said simply. “In fact, some of my best friends are human.”
More gasps from the gathered men, these louder than before. She’d never heard so many gasping ninnies in her entire life, and she wondered if they might suck all the oxygen out of the air and she’d suffocate to death.
But the Alpha wasn’t gasping. He wasn’t even moving. He was just inspecting her with a pair of glittering, malice-filled eyes. His voice came low, and very dark. “You’ve already been living together with them.”
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, vibrating with menace.
I will not be intimidated. She lifted her chin. “We’re no better than them. And they’re no better than us. There’s no reason we shouldn’t live together.”
A look passed between the Alpha and his Queen.
“No more hiding, is that what you propose? No matter the consequences?” The expression on the Queen’s face was indecipherable.
Gathering her courage like armor, Eliana said quietly, “Hiding is for mice. And we are not mice.” She looked at the viscount. “At least, I’m not.”
The Alpha’s mouth fell wide open. The Queen gave a small, astonished laugh.
“This is ridiculous!” the viscount shouted. “Why are we listening to this nonsense? Just this admission is enough to confirm her guilt! My lord,” he entreated the Alpha, “please! Can we not move on?” And he pointed to something Eliana had not noticed before in her pain and her panic, something large and bulky in the corner of the room, partially hidden beneath a drape of black fabric.
A machine. Some kind of tall, wooden machine—with blades.
But it wasn’t the Alpha who answered, it was the Queen, and her green eyes burned.
“Yes. Let’s get this over with.”
With hard fingers digging into her arm, Keshav yanked Eliana to her feet.
But she wasn’t taken to the draped machine, as she’d assumed. The Queen ordered, “Bring her to me,” and Eliana was led across the cold floor and up the steps of the dais, then forced to kneel before the Queen’s throne.
The Queen proffered her hand.
Eliana stared at it, confused. What did this mean? What was expected?
“Take it,” the Queen said. “If you are innocent as you claim, take it.”
She lifted her gaze and stared into her brilliant, searching eyes.
“Or let them have their way with you,” the Queen murmured with a glance at the viscount, the machine. “You decide.”
So Eliana did as she was told and slid her hand into the cool, soft hand of the Queen.
