Page 26 of When We Lost The Moon

“You spoke to him already?” Trevor asked, his expression hardening, searching my face for confirmation.

“We reached an arrangement,” I said. “He’ll give us rides, all of us.” I hadn’t known until that moment whether I’d be accepting Augustine’s offer, but once I said it out loud, I felt a sudden calm.

“Where to?” Luke asked.

“Well, that’s the question. We didn’t get that far yet.”

“What did you have to give up?” Trevor asked.

“Nothing I couldn’t afford. Basically more future promises, like the other compounds,” I lied. “We get a ride back, and some of his soldiers, and some of his elite. They’ll help us. But unless we actually win, well, I can’t pay what I owe if I’m dead. Can’t collect from a corpse.”

“Jeez, Em,” Trevor frowned.

“Sorry, I’m nervous. There’s a lot to do.” Now that the decision was made, my mind was racing with plans for what would happen when we actually returned to the kingdom.

“Other elite,” Camina said, glancing down the busy streets. “How many do you think are here?”

“Just a handful, I guess. Maybe six?”

“Against hundreds?”

“It’s a lot better odds than we had a few days ago.” Trevor said. “What’s our plan?”

“Well, if Damien is still alive, we’ll have to try and save him first. If not… I don’t know, maybe kill Nigel and put Tobias on the throne? Kill all the elites and start over? One thing at a time. We can’t just rush straight into the citadel of lights, all at once. And first we need to contact everyone or regroup or something.”

“We should split up,” Luke said, holding up three fingers. “Iklebot, the shire, Harpoon. Fill them in and then travel with them, all meetup somewhere central, not that far outside the citadel, to finalize plans.”

“I don’t think we can count on Denvato,” I said, “Not with Farrah in charge. You saw her. She’s not on our side.”

“Let them burn,” Camina agreed, with a hard glint in her eyes.

“But there’s four of us?” I asked.

“Well, someone should also set up a base camp,” Luke said. “Somewhere we won’t be found.”

“What about Algrave?” Camina suggested. “It’s empty, we saw it being evacuated. We should be fine there for a few days, even with larger numbers, because of all the standing buildings.”

“That’s not the worst idea,” Luke said. I lifted my eyes to Trevor and he nodded.

“Then I should go in first,” I said. “I know it best. I can scope it out, prepare the space a little.”

“Not on your own,” Trevor said.

“Tate or Augustine could go with me, I guess. The elite probably won’t take the scooters. Or maybe they’ll meet up with us later, at night. Or when one of you reaches the shire, you could send Penelope ahead after sunset. You know how fast they move.”

I paused briefly, to study their faces. Was I taking their support for granted? We hadn’t really discussed it.

“I need to ask, do you even want to do this? It’s not like we can just, it’s not like nothing happened. Losing Jazmine…” Camina flinched. “I mean if it’s too soon, if you don’t want to fight, I understand. You can stay here or we can drop you off. There’s no obligation—”

“Shut up, Emily,” Camina said. “We’re in this. All of us. Until the end.” I glanced at the boys and they nodded.

“Then we leave tonight, or more probably, tomorrow. Augustine has something else planned for tonight.”

“A sending off party?”

“Not exactly. Something else, something about entertainment. He mentioned Trevor, I don’t know, but it starts at midnight.”

“Wait, what about me?”

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