“Just hold on. I’m coming for you,” he said. Underneath him was the clone, and she stood staring at the cold depths of water below. It seemed as if nothing mattered to her at all. Suddenly, a chill ran through her.
“Noah, why did you bring me here?” Rae asked.
“Keep still!”
Rae’s throat was unbelievably dry, but she attempted to swallow, despite the roof of her mouth sticking together like sandpaper. “Noah, answer me. Why are we here?”
Noah stopped climbing and glanced up. “We wanted you to see the complexity of the situation. It’s just that—”
Rae interrupted him and moved an inch. Pain ruined her, but still, she kept twisting her body out of the metal frame. “You led me here for a reason, and it wasn’t so I could stop this bomb. You knew I’d run to the top. You assumed what I’d see up there.”
And then, from the very top of the structure, she heard them. The sharp cries of her children rang out above their heads. She forced herself out of her entanglement. It didn’t matter how many broken bones made up her body. She felt every tormented cry from her children, and it gave her the strength she needed to continue.
“I didn’t tell you for a reason,” Noah said.
Rae ignored him, glancing up. But before she climbed a second time, she looked back at Noah and the sad clone. “You led me here because you wanted this bomb to go off, didn’t you?”
“No,” Noah said.
“Don’t lie to me!”
Noah shut his mouth and huffed out his nose. Shaking, he stopped climbing and stayed still. “This thing is going off, whether we want it to or not.”
“Don’t give me this ‘world is doomed’ crap, Noah. I’ve heard it one too many times,” Rae said, climbing a foot up.
The pain. Fuck. The pain.
It still wasn’t worse than losing her children. Wasn’t worse than having everyone in her entire family taken away from her.
“The ones who hurt the world... let them fight! Vitriol has always coiled within their genes. But you... you are something else. We are something different,” he said.
Rae nearly scoffed. “We are all the same. The only thing that sets us apart is how we act, but even then, I understand my enemies. They reacted to the lot they were handed when I was restrained. That is the only difference.”
One more step up was all it took to get back to the last metal edge, but this time, Noah shut his mouth. He stopped climbing and watched in defeat.
Instead, the clone called out to her. “Rae, pause for one moment.”
Before she could pull herself up, she stopped.
“Please, Rae. There’s a bunker underneath the water where we can survive. The explosive is on a timer. It’s the only way to safety.”
Rae took another deep breath and stared calmly at the woman who was exactly like her. She didn’t wish her or any of their group an ounce of animosity, but they had to know that not everything could be lined out like a simple card game. If Severin were the parlor master, he would have planned for her escape. He would have met her down here to explain it all himself. Instead, he used Virgil’s group as a means to finish what he started.
Still, where was Severin? By all accounts, he appeared to be far away from this section of the world, perhaps gazing proudly at the burning city of Dagon, an effigy of a two-year reign. Perhaps he’d locked himself in his quarters to prepare his national emergency speech.
Or, maybe he was dead.
The only thing Rae could be sure of was he wasn’t down here to see her die. If he were the world’s parlor master like he acted, he would never let her live to see her children again. No, the babies she was watching... her babies... they must have been left there by Virgil. He left her one last gift. To her, that meant the old man was the real puller of the strings, and that’s precisely why he allowed himself to die. It was much better to be an agitator than the one who was forced to keep the empire whole.
“Go. I will meet you there. I need my children,” she said.
Rae pulled herself up, rolling gently against the metal platform. Each defining ridge pressed against her back, and though the pain was almost too much to push through, she had been through worse. She turned her head and her heart nearly exploded with warmth. It was like finding her body again and diving into the familiar smells and senses of family. For Rae, it was everything.
The three toddlers were tightly tucked in a sizable wooden basket, reaching toward their mother. At first, all she could do was stare, but as the strength came back to her, she crawled and gathered them in her arms. “My children,” she said.
She couldn’t stop gazing at the two boys. Their eyes had already started to wander and search for adventure, and Rae wondered if they didn’t resent her for what had happened. She kissed them and whispered, “Someday, you’re going to take on the world’s sins. And once you do, please don’t forget about me. Don’t make the same mistake so many other alpha men have in the past. Allow yourself love. Strive for hope.”
And then, taking the young girl into her arms, she ran her hand softly across her cheek. Her eyes did not fall away from her mother. Did she even remember her mother? She hoped that she did. “And you, my little bean. You’ll feel it the most, but you keep pushing, okay? The world needs more women with voices.”