Page 38 of Lies That Blemish
When I pulled back, her grin grew wider. “I plan on it, Empress. I’ll fly out, or they’ll bring me out in a body bag.”
She deserved this. She should have been chosen before.
“I’m happy for you,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she said and then got on the bus.
When I slipped back to stand next to Alek, I felt his gaze on me and turned to face him. What I saw made me a little uncomfortable. He was peering at me with adoration, a deep longing in his gaze.
“You did amazing in there,” he told me. “Do you want to have dinner together?”
“I can’t,” I said too quickly, trying to ignore the hurt that crossed his face. I wasn’t ready for what he wanted from me. I wasn’t sure I would ever be.
“I have a date with Tetra,” I added, and he nodded.
Trying to rifle through my father’s old files and find out if he tried to murder me, I wanted to say.
“Alright, well… I’ll see you soon.” He shuffled awkwardly and then leaned forward to kiss my cheek. I flinched a little, hating that I was in this fake arrangement with him, but he had real feelings, and I could, too. If Jace hadn’t ripped my heart out, and Kohen hadn’t ran it over with a train. I was too broken inside foranything real with him, and I felt like I might have led him on the other night. But before I could say anything about it, he was gone.
I sighed.
Elaine joined me, and we both waited until the last bus left before Verik drove around with the car.
Elaine turned to face me, squeezing both of my shoulders. “I’ll have Verik take me to Sky Reach and keep an eye on the girls. You do what you need to do with Tetra. I’ll get you survival numbers as cadets start exiting the Wilds.”
Survival numbers—because I’d just sent a bunch of young kids to their deaths. Liana descended from the sky, where she had been waiting, and I nodded to Elaine. “Keep me informed.” I’d had a house phone installed so she could call me there. We couldn’t speak about anything classified, as an operator could always be listening.
With that, I headed to my house to continue the dreaded investigation of my own father.
Chapter 13
Aisling
The first nightof the Lottery candidates being in the Wilds, Tetra and I found nothing incriminating on my father. Into night two with no promising evidence, my anger for Kohen was brewing hotter and hotter with each passing minute.
He lied. I knew he lied.
I tore open the lid of a box of old notes and telephone messages and started to angrily rifle through them. But when I saw his handwriting on one note, I stilled. It was a copy of a message that he left with the operator to give to someone at the training center. There were coffee stains on it, but it clearly read.
Just get the job done.
My heart picked up speed in my chest.
“This could mean anything,” I said out loud.
Tetra hobbled over to where I was and picked up the note in my hand, her eyebrows rising as she read.
“What do you think?” I asked.
She shrugged. “It could mean, ‘get the job of killing my daughter done’. It could also mean, ‘get the job of training those new recruits done’.”
I sighed in relief, actually laughing that I’d been paranoid for a minute.
“Totally. That’s what I thought.”
Tetra frowned at me. “Do you really think your dad will have evidence lying around his office that he tried to kill his own daughter? Isn’t that something he would plan in person?”
She was right. We had an operator phone system, and every phone call was monitored. I flashed to the day he drove me to boot camp. I’d been so proud he wanted to see me off, but then he’d almost left without saying goodbye. He was talking to some of the drill instructors.
