“I said no screaming.” His mouth hangs open, drawing ragged breath past his teeth. He’s so close I can see the blood vessels spindling through the whites of his eyes. They’re red. An illusion, a trick, rings again. But memories of him come with the warning. How many times did he meet me alone? How many weeks has he worked with us, passing information, relaying with the blood-Red Corporal Eastree? How many times did he have the opportunity to spring a trap?
I can’t. I can’t make sense of this.
“And no one followed me. Obviously no one can follow me. They found out about you on their own. Something about spies in Rocasta, didn’t quite catch it all.”
“So you’re still safe in Corvium, still working for them? As one of them?”
His patience snaps like a twig. “I told you, I’m not Silver!” he growls, an animal in that quaking second. I want to take a step backward, but force myself to stand firm, unmoving, unafraid of him. Though I have every right to be.
Then he shoves his arm out, drawing back the sleeve with shaking fingers. “Cut me.” He nods, answering my question before I can ask. “Cut. Me.”
To my surprise, my fingers shake just as badly as his when I draw the knife from my boot. He flinches when I press it to his skin. At least he feels pain.
My heart skips a beat when blood swells beneath the blade. Red as the dawn.
“How is this possible?”
I look up to find him staring at my face, looking for something. By the way his eyes flash, I think he finds it.
“I honestly don’t know. I don’t know what this is or what I am. I only know I’m not one of them. I’m one of yours.”
For a blistering moment, I forget my team, the woods, my mission, and even Shade standing in front of me. Again, the world tips, but not from anything he can do. This is something more. A shifting. A change. And a weapon to be used. No, a weapon I’ve already wielded many times. To get information, to infiltrate Corvium. With Shade Barrow, the Scarlet Guard can go anywhere. Everywhere.
You’d think, with all my breaches in protocol, I’d try to steer away from breaking any more rules. But at the same time, what’s one more going to do?
Slowly, I close my fingers around his wrist. He still bleeds, but I don’t mind. It’s fitting.
“Will you oath yourself to the Scarlet Guard?”
I expect him to smile. Instead his face turns to stone.
“On one condition.”
My eyebrows raise so high they might disappear into my hairline. “The Guard does not bargain.”
“This isn’t a request to the Guard, but to you,” he replies. For a man who can move faster than the blink of an eye, somehow he manages to take the world’s slowest step forward. We stand eye to eye, blue meeting gold.
Curiosity gets the better of me. “And that is?”
“What’s your name?”
My name. The others don’t mind using their own, but for me, there is no such thing. My name holds no importance. Only rank and designation truly matter. What my mother called me is of no consequence to anyone, least of all me. It is a burden more than anything, a stinging reminder of her voice and the life we lived in early days. When the Colonel was called Papa, and the Scarlet Guard was the pipe dream of hunters and farmers and empty soldiers. My name is my mother, my sister Madeline, and their graves dug in the frozen ground of a village no one lives in anymore.
Shade looks on, expectant. I realize he’s holding my hand, not minding the blood coagulating beneath my fingers.
“My name is Diana.”
For once, his smile is real. No jokes, no mask.
“Are you with us, Shade Barrow?”
“I’m with you, Diana.”
“Then we will rise.”
His voice joins mine.
“Red as the dawn.”
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE HAS BEEN DECODED
CONFIDENTIAL, SENIOR CLEARANCE REQUIRED
Day 34 of Operation RED WEB, Stage 1.
Operative: Captain REDACTED.
Designation: LAMB.
Origin: On the move.
Destination: RAM at REDACTED, COMMAND at REDACTED.
-Leaving CORVIUM, heading to DELPHIE. Stopping at WHISTLE points along route.
-Plan to be in Stage 2 within a week.
-Advise CORVIUM operation that CORVIUM officials believe there are “bandits and deserters” in the woods.
-Enclosed is detailed information about Air Fleet grounded in DELPHIE, procured by newly oathed operative Aide B (designation: SHADOW) still in CORVIUM.