Fallen City by Adrienne Young - 42

The first to die for the Citadel was an old man, a highborn legionnaire who’d chosen the wrong side.

I stood over his body in the catacombs as the cell door slammed shut behind me, the shadows of my liberators like ghosts in the dark. Vale had come for me, like he said he would. And there was no going back now.

“Come on.” His voice echoed in the stone corridor ahead.

Behind him, another legionnaire was on his knees. Asinia had his blade to the man’s throat, the blank expression on his face enough of a threat. He didn’t need to use words when the old man was lying dead beside them.

My heart was beating hard in my chest, my stomach turning with the gravity of what was happening. This wasn’t an act of protest, like what Rhea had done. We were defecting. Turning on our own brothers and fathers. And soon, all of Isara would know.

Vale took me by the arm, pushing me ahead of him, and I led us up the spiraling steps. The legionnaires who’d pledged their loyalty were silent behind us save for the sound of a few prayers on their lips.

The most devout of the soldiers had joined up with Vale, the sight of that halo over my head enough to convince them it was worth it. But the gods wouldn’t repay their fealty. I’d seen that with my own mother.

The air warmed as we rose up out of the catacombs, and Vale pressed a hand to my chest to stop me when we reached the top of the stairs. There wasn’t a single official in the Citadel who didn’t know who he was. No one in the entire district who wasn’t compelled to obey him. He was the son of the Consul. A shining example of what it meant to be Isarian. And now he was a traitor of the worst kind.

He checked the hall, a knife discreetly poised at his back, before he motioned us forward. The legionnaires flanked me on either side and we moved as one entity as the light of the oil lamps fell upon us.

“Saturian?” a Magistrate named Ovidia called from the doorway of his chambers.

His eyes moved over us, from face to face, and when they landed on me, he stumbled backward. As soon as his mouth began to open, I shoved past the legionnaires, the knife steady in my hand as I brought it through the air. I closed the distance between us quickly and he teetered backward, catching the door with his hand. But my knife was already buried in his gut.

I clamped a hand over his mouth, pressing him into the door, and his legs gave out beneath him. It wasn’t until his jaw was slack that I let him drop, and his head hit the floor with a crack.

The legionnaires dragged his body inside and shut the door as I wiped the blade on my tunic. I had no pity for anyone who’d turned their judgment stone against Rhea or the Lower City. If I could cut them down one by one, I would.

Three more men would die before we made it out of the Citadel, and we moved through the district in silence, listening for the moment they realized what we’d done. We didn’t have much time.

The lights of Villa Casperia were like a beacon in the dark, and I walked toward them with my heart in my throat, following the river. No one stirred as I climbed the balcony of the gardens and slipped through Maris’ window. And as I stood there, watching her sleep, I almost didn’t wake her. I almost kissed her with a silent goodbye and slipped back into the dark.

Later, I would wish I had.

I lowered myself beside the bed, letting my hands slide under the quilts. Her skin was hot beneath my cold fingers. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting as her vision adjusted, and when she sucked in a breath, I pressed a finger to my mouth.

Slowly, she wound herself into my arms, pressing her cheek to mine. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

I let my hands move down the curve of her, the line of her body fusing to mine. Like there were places we’d been made to fit together. I didn’t want to forget that feeling.

“You need to leave the city, Maris.”

“What?” She was unraveling herself from me now, leaning back to look into my eyes. Whatever she saw there made her afraid. “What are you talking about?”

“The legionnaires are coming with me. We’re crossing the Sophanes and we’re not coming back.” She struggled against my grip and I tightened my hold on her. “You can’t be here when we take it from them.”

She went still. “Take what?”

“The Citadel.”

The fear in her eyes was a wild thing now, snaking into her body and turning it to stone. “What did you do?”

The cold, numb feeling I’d had as I stood over the dead Magistrate was far away now. Maris was a fire that made it impossible to reach.

“Whatever you did, we can find a way to—” She pulled at my tunic, desperate.

“It’s done. It was already done when Vitrasian died.”

Maris’ eyes jumped back and forth on mine as she let out a shaking breath. “This isn’t your fate, Luca. You have to see that.”

“I have no fate.”

She shook her head, weary. “You do. With me. ”

I put my arms around her when she began to cry and her forehead came to rest on my chest as I held her. “Promise me you will leave the city.”

“I’m not leaving.” She wept. “I swear by the names of the gods that I’m not leaving unless you’re with me.”

A low whistle sounded outside the window, and I pulled myself from her arms, peering out to see Vale. He stood on the path that edged the river, looking up at me before his gaze drifted east. Toward the Citadel.

I could hear the distant, low hum of chaos. A rupture in the stillness of the night. They were coming for us.

“Don’t do this,” Maris said, hands clutching me. “ Please don’t do this.”

I drew in a deep breath, trying to take the scent of her into me. Trying to bind her soul to mine. She held on to me so tightly that her fingernails dragged painfully against my skin, and when I tried to let her go, she wouldn’t let me.

“ Please, ” she whispered through broken breaths. “Luca…”

I kissed her softly before I touched my forehead to hers, and I didn’t meet her eyes again. I broke her hold on me and I didn’t look back as I went to the window, a bloody, gaping hole tearing open where my heart had once been. That was the last time I felt it beating inside me.