52

Tiv

Thursday 1st October, Year 828

I was awoken abruptly the next morning by Alayna dragging me from her bed and pushing me into her closet. She wrapped a robe around herself, its tattered fabric whispering against her skin, which brought to my attention my own lack of attire. I had not had any intention of falling asleep. I didn’t ever accidentally fall asleep without the aid of alcohol; it usually took hours despite my recent exhaustion. I should have returned to the old library hours previously. No doubt Xander would have told Marco where I had gone.

Still confused as to why I was in the closet, naked, I watched Alayna darted around the room picking up my things and throwing them at me before grabbing the knife and putting it in her bedside drawer.

My lips parted to question her actions, but the sound was strangled by another voice.

“What are you doing?” Ben's voice sliced through the calm like a blade, sharp and demanding.

“Getting dressed, it’s six in the morning and I do sleep you know,” she barked.

“Alayna, just open the door,” a lower, unrecognisable voice said. “We have news.”

A strangled squeak escaped Alayna's throat as she shot me a glance filled with terror.

“Why are you here?" Her distress was palpable.

"You jokin’?" the voice replied—stiff, incredulous.

“Aaron, can you two sort your lover’s tiff after we’ve updated her?” Ben groaned.

Lover’s tiff?

Alayna, face torn, mouthed the word “sorry” and I put my head in my hands. Of course she had someone else. How could she not? Regardless of the hole it punched in my chest, now was not the moment to let those thoughts overtake my head. I was a dead man if she opened that door. I couldn’t see how the situation could get worse.

She tightened her grip on her robe at the neck, concealing the wound I had inflicted, then closed the closet with a soft click that plunged me into darkness. I started trying to silently dress but only managed to get underwear on before Alayna opened the bedroom door, forcing me to freeze in place.

"What's this about?" Alayna's demand broke through the ensuing hush like shattered glass.

Footsteps padded into the room—soft thuds muffled by bare carpet.

“We tortured the two captives,” the man called Aaron hissed at her.

I blanched, wondering which ones of us he had hurt.

“I didn’t even know we had captives. I only saw one alive,” she whispered. Her cadence was pleading; she was telling me that information. Not them.

“We didn’t tell you after your lapse in judgement yesterday,” her boyfriend barked.

I felt an immediate loathing for Aaron—the cold dismissal in his voice when he referred to her as if she were insignificant. Like she was not the best damn thing that would ever happen to him—

I thought about what I’d done to Alayna over the last day and silenced my hypocritical inner monologue.

“Az, drop it,” Ben interjected.

“What do you want?” Alayna hissed.

“Do you have any idea how valuable Tiv Hawes would have been as a hostage?” Aaron's fury seeped through the room, a venomous murmur destroying the quiet. “You haven’t told me a lie in three years but for him, that all goes out the window, does it?”

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“Aaron, I said pack it in!” Ben barked.

“Hawes killed Michael. Then you let him go,” Aaron pressed on.

My heart sank deeper…

I wanted to defend myself but there was no way around it. I killed a man yesterday and it made perfect sense that Alayna would have known him well.

“That isn’t true!” Alayna yelled.

“Keep your voice down,” Ben ground out.

“I watched him do it. The same guy that followed you and the blonde girl down the corridor broke Michael’s neck,” Aaron said with chilling calmness. “He was about to come for me then he saw you had the blonde. He chased you instead. He would have killed you too if you hadn’t given him an easy exit.”

I realised Aaron was the strategist from Thruck’s Harbour, the one orchestrating yesterday's chaos. If he led them and shared Alayna's bed, what hope did I have that she'd not trust him? Ben and Aaron kept filling her head with lies about me and I begged her silently not to trust what they told her. If she did I was going to die.

“Alayna-” Ben began tentatively.

“Don’t,” she cut him off sharply. Silence stretched until she shattered it with three heavy words, “Tiv murdered Michael?”

Her disbelief tore at me.

“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed.

“Little brat probably wanted revenge for Michael fining him,” Ben chimed in.

A distant memory surfaced of chasing Alayna down Main Street after she found out about Marco’s bet. A Guard sent her home and fined me. The dejavú from moments before I snapped the man’s neck made sense now. Regret and guilt washed over me like a tsunami.

Alayna, doubt them, please.

I held my breath.

“I gave Tiv an exit because I was surprised to see him. You are right, if I’d known about Michael…” Alayna trailed off.

There was a sudden movement and a curse under her breath.

“Just go,” Ben ordered tersely.

Footsteps receded with anger in their wake.

“Don’t let him leave,” Ben ordered. A third voice mumbled a response and also left. “I’ve kept him out as long as possible. He wanted to break the door down two hours ago.”

“Can’t you give me a few hours free of all this?” I could hear the plea in her voice.

“No. We need to plan a counter-attack,” Ben explained. “The captives told us they’re hiding in the old Central library.”

The insane impulse to confront him surged within me, but I remained concealed in shadowed silence.

“No,” Alayna implored. “Ben, please don't do this. I’m begging you—just once—let it go.”

“Alayna, are you even listening to yourself?” Ben's voice softened into a whisper laden with grief. “He killed Michael. They killed Sydney. And Riley… Dan died during the night. We still haven’t found Ghost.”

Alayna’s breath hitched, stifling the sorrow threatening to erupt.

“They will come again and again until we’re all dead. We need revenge,” he sighed.

“Revenge doesn’t work and you know that. You’ve spent years trying to get it. Do you feel you’ve avenged her yet?” she whispered.

With that, Ben's tone hardened like ice. "I'm done talking. I’m telling them all to burn the place to the ground. We’ll do it with or without you.”

I wondered who Ben had lost to make him the lunatic he was.

“I won’t let Aaron-”

“He doesn’t get a say either sweetheart but, trust me, he won't be by your side this time. Not after yesterday. The rebels do what I say,” he seethed maliciously.

The puzzle pieces clicked into place then—I should have seen it all along. Ben was not just another rebel. I had watched Ben set fire to buildings on the news; had heard Alayna say she couldn't sway him; she had said we had been trying to kill him for years and failed. Ben Jameson led the Harroworth Rebels. Not Aaron.

“You said last night you didn’t want this,” the pleading in her voice brought bile to my tongue. “Please, Ben. Please! Let them leave.”

There was a long silence as Ben contemplated Alayna. Yet her pleas, the pain in her voice, did nothing to move him as he said, “You lost your mind years ago.”

Alayna’s immediate response was nothing less than loathing, “So did you. Get out you fucking monster.”

“Monster? They’re the monsters, Alayna! The only way to stop them from sending more soldiers is to kill the ones that arrive at our ports,” Ben uttered with hollow justification.

Her voice broke as she whispered, “Please don’t make me kill them.”

My heart palpitated uncomfortably.

“They’re going to die. Get on the right side.”

She slammed the door in his face. The moment I heard the click of the lock, in a single fluid motion charged by adrenaline and fear, I burst from the closet. My movements were uncoordinated as I stumbled trying to free my leg from the entanglement of fabric that had bunched around my ankle in my haste to pull my pants up.

Alayna whirled around and yanked open a drawer with practised speed, her fingers wrapping around the cool steel of a gun. She spun toward me; her stance wide and firm, one hand pointing the barrel at my heart while her free hand thrust forward signalling me to halt. My own hands rose instinctively as I backed up until cold wood pressed against my spine.

I was in trouble.