I picked up the photographs, my hands shaking violently. “Oh, God.”
“What is it?” asked Zahra.
“Art supplies,” I stammered, a tear spilling down my cheek. “Fucking betrayal is what it is.”
It was a photograph of Samael—one that looked exactly like the one Ludd had brought to me. Except he wasn’t smiling, and more importantly—he wasn’t holding my sister’s severed head. No, he was simply pointing at something.
I gripped the photograph hard, but the one beneath it was more shocking. It was my sister—Alice. Her eyes were closed, and she was kneeling.
She was also unmistakably alive, because she was kneeling in something like a studio, with a white sheet behind her. A man in a black shirt was gripping her hair, holding it up like a severed head.
She’d posed for this. She was alive. What the fuck? Was she part of this? Setting me up. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy or full of rage. Though I seemed to be settling on rage, and I wanted to hunt Alice down right now and slap the living shit out of her. Then perhaps toss her in the river.
Patriot. I guess that meant you betrayed your family for the cause.
“Lila!” Zahra cried. “What is it?”
“Finn faked the photograph of Alice’s execution,” I stammered. “And Alice helped him. I thought she was dead … He said to me … before I went to the castle he told me he wanted to become one of the Free Men. But that he had to prove himself, first. I guess he did.”
“See!” Ernald shouted, victorious.
“What in the world?” said Zahra.
“Why was he doing all this here?” asked Ernald.
I glanced at the fake window painted behind Ernald’s head. “Because there’s not a single source of light in here if the doors are closed. He was using the office as a darkroom. An artist’s studio.” I couldn’t breathe. “He was probably showing off his work to the other Free Men. He printed and painted over the original photograph of Samael. I knew he was skilled, but I didn’t know he was that skilled.” Horror was splitting me open. The bomb. Samael could be dead already.
“What did he ask you to do?” asked Ernald. “Exactly how much shit am I in right now?”
Part of me was thrilled to learn that Alice was alive. The other part of me wanted to murder her myself.
She’d done this to me, too.
My mind was a storm of darkness.
She’d always called herself a patriot, just like the Free Men. She’d told stories of Albia in the old days, the old folk tales. But I didn’t imagine she’d be capable of this.
And more importantly, she’d tricked me into murdering Samael.
“I need to get back to the castle,” I blurted.
“Why?” Ernald demanded.
I wanted to be sick. “You don’t want to know.” I dropped the photographs, and ran for the door.
46
Lila
I was out the door, flying through Dovren’s streets, my feet hardly touching the ground. I rushed from one lane to another, taking sharp turns, the fastest routes toward the castle.
As I ran, I kept seeing Samael’s gray eyes in my mind, no fire in them. Just his mournful expression, or the line between his eyebrows that made him look perplexed.
A strange fluttering above me distracted me for a moment. I looked up, shocked to see a silver hot air balloon drifting along in the sky. Someone was throwing tiny pieces of paper from it, littering the streets.
I picked up one of them, and there was the picture of Alice. The faked picture of Alice.
I couldn’t clear my head enough to read the text, but I knew what it was anyway. Pure propaganda.
Around me, people were picking up the papers, clamping their hands to their mouths. I crumpled up the picture, and kept running.
“It’s not real!” I shouted, to anyone who would listen. “It’s not real!”
I looked like a madwoman.
I felt like my heart was shattering, and I just had to keep moving.
But when I saw bright blond hair and a crow perched on a shoulder, anger lit me up. There was Finn—walking next to another Free Man, black shirts buttoned up, cufflinks gleaming. They were walking fast, heading for the castle. Probably going to see if the bomb had gone off.
I wanted to beat the living shit out of him.
“Finn!” I shouted.
He whirled, eyes wide. His friend turned to face me, too.
Darkness slid through me as I rushed toward them. My fingers twitched, and I deeply