Blossom pulled my hair back in a severe French braid and rimmed my eyes in kohl once more.
I stared at myself in the mirror. All the kohl made me look psycho. “Is the make-up necessary?”
“Lord Aspen insists you look your best. There will be drones filming your visit to your family. Lord Lowland has ordered coverage of your activities leading up to the blood trials. Holoscreens across Middale will be screening the event and snippets of your activities in the lead-up.”
Anger bubbled up inside me. It was bad enough that Aspen had thrown me back into the pit, but to steal my private moments with my family, too? No.
“I need to speak to Aspen. Now.”
“I’m afraid he left to attend to some urgent matters an hour ago,” she said.
Fuck. “When will he be back?”
“I’m not sure, but your transport to the outer district is waiting.”
Double fuck.
Blossom met my eyes in the mirror. “The drones won’t follow you into your family home. You’ll have some privacy once you’re indoors.”
Once again, there was something in her eyes that mimicked compassion and…empathy. I was going nuts. Imagining things. Seeing what I wanted or needed to see.
She dropped her gaze. “I’ll escort you to your transport now.”
I stood and studied myself once more, stripped of what made me…well, me. The silver glint of Timothy’s pocket watch on the dresser caught my eye. It was one of the few things from my life before the games that I still had. I picked it up and tucked it into my pocket. Having it with me felt right, a reminder of what I’d been through and lost. What we’d all lost.
She led me out of my room and down the tunnel-like corridor outside to a shuttle lift I’d seen several times but hadn’t had the privilege of using. She entered a code and stepped back as the doors opened.
The inside was crimson with slender silver pipes lining the walls vertically. “What is this?”
“Fast transport to the surface.”
“The surface…. Wait… Are we underground?”
Once again that sharp blink. “The majority of the Keep is below ground.”
Wait a second, so the domes of the mothership that were visible to us were just a fraction of the whole? How big was this fucking ship?
“The pod will take you to the surface. Your transport awaits.”
Fuck, I guess it was time to get this over with. I stepped into the weird pod thingy. As the doors began to slide shut, Blossom stepped forward.
“They’ll be waiting for you,” she warned.
The doors closed.
What did she mean? My family?
My stomach shot into my chest, and bile stung my throat. The doors opened to bright sunlight. I lifted my arm to shield my eyes before stepping out of the pod.
A low hum surrounded me, and as my eyes adjusted to the natural light, I caught sight of the three drones hovering at various heights around me.
They’ll be waiting for you.
That’s what she’d meant.
I resisted the urge to give the drone the finger. Ignore them. Just fucking ignore them.
“Winter’s Blade.” A bulky Danaan guard with short horns on his forehead and chestnut hair pulled back in a queue strode toward me. “Come with me.”
He was dressed in the regular Winter Guard uniform, but it stretched across his chest and hugged his shoulders like a second skin. His bottom lip protruded slightly where two short tusks jutted up to kiss his upper lip, and a five o'clock shadow gave him a dangerous air.
I noticed the sleek black car behind him for the first time. “Is that our ride?”
He glanced back at the car as if to confirm. “Yes.”
The car looked tiny in comparison to him. “And you can get in there?”
The corner of his mouth twitched as if he was suppressing a smile. “Yes.”
He walked over to the car and held open the back door. I noted the barrier between the backseat and the front seats. I was done being penned in.
I strode to the front passenger side and opened the door. I expected him to say something, to stop me, but he didn’t object as I slid onto the soft leather seating.
I didn’t know shit about cars. The general population of Middale didn’t use automobiles for transport. We had the trams and bikes and our legs to take us where we needed to go. Cars and vans were the shining ones’ tools, as were the fancy carriages pulled by baku. Although, the old history books I’d managed to sneak a look at showed humans as the architects of much of the technology that the shining ones now claimed as their own.
The monolith Danaan climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed his door closed. I kept my eyes ahead, ignoring the drone that buzzed outside my window.
It hovered in the periphery of my vision for a moment before shifting position to the front windshield, so it was in my fucking face. My face, which would be on every holoscreen right now, streamed live for the world to see.
I gritted my teeth. “How fast can this thing go?”
The Danaan started the engine. “How about we find out?”
The Danaan could drive. He wove effortlessly through the streets, avoiding the other cars on the road, and when we hit the outer districts, he was careful to avoid the pedestrians that were used to treating the roads as an extended path. Although I couldn’t help but note how light the foot traffic was for this time of day. Then we passed through the market square, and it was obvious why.
The holoscreen was lit up, and my face dominated it, eyes wide as I stared out of the window. A crowd of people was gathered, watching the screen, unaware I was right there in the car behind them.
I thought we’d left the drones behind, but I should have known there would be more stationed at various points along our route. They dropped out of the sky now to hover a meter away, scanning me from all angles.
Someone cried out my name.
“It’s here. She’s here. Look!”
People began to turn toward the car.
“Fuck,” the Danaan said.
We slowed as the crowd surrounded us.
“Dani!” a female voice called out from the crowd. “Danika Khatri!”
The crowd parted, and a woman broke through. I recognized her slender, ragged form. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been hugging her son.
The son I’d been unable to save.
Timothy’s mother approached the car. “Dani, what happened to my boy?”
I reached for the door release.
“Don’t,” the Danaan said.
I glared at him. “Why the fuck not? She deserves to know the truth.”
“You think knowing her son died painfully will make her feel better?”
“Knowing he died a hero might.” I made to climb out again, but he stalled me with a hand on my arm.
“Wait.”
He got out of the car, and the crowd backed up to give him space as he walked around the bonnet to my door. He was obviously meant to be some kind of bodyguard. I’d have scoffed at them sending me with only one guard, but he was huge, and he was Danaan, and his fierce looks and the fact he was one of the shining ones would be enough to keep the humans in line.
“Airm Marfach,” someone said.
“Airm Marfach,” several others echoed.
They knew him? How did they know who he was? It didn’t matter as long as he kept the crowd in control so I could speak to Timothy’s mother. But as I opened my door and got out, the crowd surged toward me, as if drawn by a magnetic pull.