Ruby wiped away the last bit of blood and handed him a fresh shirt from the linen closet. The ravaging sounds of beasts outside the towers echoed loudly through the window. “Maybe so, but everything has changed now. Maybe you can’t forgive me, but there’s more to this than you know.”
Killian sat up and tried to relax, despite the gut-wrenching pain. “Such as?”
“You were the one who shut down the power grid, right? That was some good thinking on your part. Now, our military won’t be able to piece together what has happened, but it doesn’t mean Severin didn’t account for what might happen next,” she said. “I’m asking you to trust me on this, Killian. After this is over, you won’t ever see me again. I’ll be gone. You can lead the world further into oblivion. Power isn’t worth the pain it brings.”
“The symbols of the past must be eradicated, but it is not my job to lead the future world. After this, you’ll have to face what you’ve started,” he said.
“We should go. They’ll be coming for us soon,” she replied.
Killian swiveled out of the hospital bed and wiped the sweat that had built across his forehead away. He was thankful for her help, but he still didn’t trust her. “Go ahead,” he said, in good faith. “I’m following your lead, Prime Minster.”
She stopped near the doorway, lips twitching with disgust. “Do me a favor. Never call me that again,” she said.
Back at the Cathedral, Noah rolled the carpet until the wooden floorboard underneath was clearly visible. Dropping the rug, he wiped his hands clean and knelt, pointing at a small locket that held wood shut. He unlocked it.
“It appears that you already know about the tunnels Severin built underneath the cities. Virgil took the liberty of studying their architecture. Night after night, he visited the dark, underground pathways. He drew up his own maps until he had every route memorized by heart.”
“He did this all for me?” Rae asked.
“For the sake of humanity,” he answered. “It has been so long since our first fall. You saw the second. People may tell you that there’s no such thing as a utopia, but it was right in front of our eyes the whole time. A beautiful, blue and green world, full of wonderful and engaging ideas. Mankind lived in peace for centuries…”
The clone knelt beside the entrance below. “Man told their stories to tell the tale of love. But a devil was born. Everything changed.”
She sounded stupid. Stories meant nothing to her, and she was skeptical of any talk of utopia. It was a surefire way to reward oneself with delusion, but she supposed it was a better alternative to the current.
“But… why?” Rae asked, curious enough to listen.
“Mankind wasn’t built to destroy. We were built to come together and love, to build families. I believe in my heart that we were built to coexist with nature. We have spent far too much time hurting one another.”
Rae glanced down at the door below them. Noah unlocked and opened it, revealing the dark shafts below. Rae wanted nothing more than to stay above ground, but people were counting on her now.
Rae suddenly remembered that Virgil agreed to sew up her prized blackbird trophy. There was a reason why she related to the beautiful animal. In a sense, all of his efforts had been gearing up for her escape, the point in time she could stitch herself back up and forget the past. No, she wasn’t only an omega. She was the special one, the girl who would save the world.
Holy shit, that was a lot to take on...
“The world is in danger, Rae,” Noah said. “You were only a distraction. Severin used your likeness to make sure he’d be able to keep power. The more your portrait was shown, the longer he’d keep you enslaved.”
“But it backfired,” the clone added. “You escaped. As far as we know, Ruby is still alive. And above all else, your alphas are the ones with the detonators this time.”
Rae swallowed, throat tightening. Her chest hurt as the realization sank in. “And so now, Severin only has one option left...”
Both Noah and the clone nodded. “To end the world.”
“Take me where I need to go,” she said.
“You already know where to go. It is where Severin drowned you,” he said.
Rae didn’t waste time speculating on what could be. She jumped into the floor space below, hoping to God that this might be her last time taking them. Backtracking through the tunnels, they followed close behind her. She found the wet footprints she’d left behind. They were near where she had to go, but her stomach shifted with worry. Truthfully, she couldn’t get her mind off of her children, and she wondered if this was all for nothing.
“I see it in your eyes,” Noah said. “You’re worried, but you don’t need to be. We’re almost there. You saw it, I’m sure.”
They traveled far down into the cavernous depths, dropping deeper than she thought she had ever traveled before. Rae’s eyes lit up as they turned the corner. She ran toward the metallic structure, the one Severin kept her in for the entire world to see. She remembered all the alphas laughing carelessly at her pain and torment. When Severin raised the water to drown her, he’d stared deeply into her eyes as if to say, “This world of pain is your fault. I am only doing what the people ask me to do.”
If he had said those words, he would have been right—the people wanted vengeance. No matter what, every society finds their way to get it. No, she didn’t believe in Noah’s utopia. Nor did she truly believe that humans ever lived in peace and harmony. Even before evolution turned the lot of them into twisted beasts, there was no getting along between tribes. The green patch of forest that she found so peaceful was also full of death and degradation. Hunters hunted their prey, and that was that.
Glancing upward, she gulped. Though they were underground, the structure rose at least fifty feet high. “This thing,” she panted. “It’s the bomb of all bombs, isn’t it?”
Noah and the clone nodded. “The strongest bomb known to mankind. If Cassian’s great work was you, this is Severin’s great addition.”