Deal with the Devil - Kit Rocha Page 0,132
who loved you, missed you. Someone who had your back.
“I love you.” Knox’s whisper was barely audible beneath the sudden flurry of activity and sound in the bunker’s main chamber.
Smiling, Nina echoed the words, and it didn’t matter if he could hear her or not. She’d tell him again later, when she could show him, too.
MACE
Mace was in hell.
It felt like a cliché, but it was the only explanation that made sense. He couldn’t escape, and nothing felt real anymore, but it didn’t have the dreamy, detached quality of a nightmare, either.
He’d never expected hell to be so damn cold.
Mace tried to mark the passage of time by the artificial lights in his cell. Twenty-seven times, they had clicked on, harsh and blinding. And twenty-six times, they had gone out, plunging him into utter darkness. But he didn’t know if those were hours or days or years.
He experienced the world in flashes—words that drove him to catatonia or blistering rage, cold water sluicing over his skin, food he could barely taste.
Hot blood gushing under his bare hands.
No, that last one was wrong. Familiar, yes, but wrong. His brain stuttered, and his fingers began to move from muscle memory.
Isolate the artery. No clamps, so I’ll have to apply manual pressure. Fuck, where is all this blood coming from—
“He’s doing it again.” The flat voice made Mace jerk. Shudder.
Another man sighed. “I don’t get it. He’ll make it halfway through a kill, and then a switch flips, and he starts trying to save them. It’s like he can’t help himself.”
“He can’t. It’s how he was wired.” The voice slithered through the room. Mace knew that voice. He loathed that voice. “You’re supposed to fix that. He’s no fucking good to me if he can’t properly eliminate a target. We might as well let him rot here.”
Yes. Mace grabbed at the words, clutched them close. Cold comfort, the idea of dying alone in a box, but he didn’t mind. Because somewhere, deep down, in the sick, cold knot in his gut, the one that never eased, he knew it was better than what the man with the flat voice wanted him to do.
“Let me die,” he croaked.
“We might as well, Richter,” the second man said. “What’s the point now that the rest of the Silver Devils have been killed?”
“The point, in fact, is that I’m not so sure they have.” Silence. Then, “Clean it up. We’ll start again fresh tomorrow.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every book is a journey, and this one was especially epic. After a decade in the business, trying something new can be scary. We are deeply grateful to our agent, Sarah E. Younger, who held our hands every step of the way and turned scary into fun. Thank you for every excited dancing gif.
Working with a new editor for the first time in years can be daunting, too. But from the first moment we talked to Claire Eddy, we knew she got us. It’s thrilling to have an editor who wants more of all your favorite parts of the story. The questions she asked made this book so much better.
Alyssa Cole listened to a million versions of this book’s pitch, read a million versions of the synopsis, and offered endless support as we sat down to write it. It is no exaggeration to say it exists in great part because of her. (Just the good parts, though.)
Eternal thanks go to the people who have helped us get this far: Lillie Applegarth, keeper of bibles and timelines. Sharon Muha, eagle-eyed proofreader of legend. Angie Ramey, the most patient assistant in the world. Jay and Tracy, our wonderful community moderators. And to all our friends on Patreon, whose support gives us a little breathing room to concentrate on writing. Special thanks to Packy and Nikki for reading an earlier version of this book and cheering us on through revisions.
Thank you to every librarian who has helped connect a child with a book. Librarians are why we’re here today.
And, as always, thank you to our readers. From the old school O’Kane VIPs who have been with us from the beginning to any new readers joining us for this book: we wouldn’t be here without you.
Finally: our sincerest apologies to Ms. Rosalind Franklin. When we originally named the Franklin Center, it was supposed to be a relatively friendly place, an homage to a woman whose vital, fundamental work in the field of genetics was tragically obscured by ambitious, predatory colleagues. As the book evolved, so did the Center bearing her name. I suppose it’s oddly appropriate that bad men came into our book and messed up her legacy again, but please don’t hold that against her.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KIT ROCHA is the pseudonym for the author duo Donna Herren (@totallydonna) and Bree Bridges (@mostlybree). They are best known for their gritty and sexy dystopian Beyond series, and were the first indie authors to receive a RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award. They currently live three miles apart in Alabama and spend their nonwriting time caring for a menagerie of animals and crafting handmade jewelry, all of which is chronicled on their various social-media accounts. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Maps
One
Two
Three — Rafe
Four
Five
Six
Seven — Dani
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve — Maya
Thirteen — Conall
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen — Gray
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six — Rafe
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine — Maya
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Epilogue
—
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
Copyright © 2020 by Kit Rocha
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Colin Anderson
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-20936-8 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-250-25629-4 (hardcover )
ISBN 978-1-250-20935-1 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250209351
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: May 2020