ten, the other is six.”
“I thought Petra was a widow.”
“Well… yes. It obviously didn’t stop her from growing her family,” Valaine replied, her cheeks as red as rubies. My face burned. “Obviously, she’s always been particularly fertile, though we’re not sure why.”
“Point is, Ansel, as a middle child, was a perfect target for the Darklings. Always in between, stuck between elder, stronger brothers, and younger ones, the latter getting more of their mother’s attention, while the former get more of their mother’s praise. Ansel is basically a teenager, still looking for his place in the world. Whoever recruited him for the Darklings… they knew what they were doing.”
Valaine looked at me, her eyes wide and glimmering with understanding. “I completely agree. So, you don’t think he should be branded as a traitor?”
“No. But he should receive some kind of punishment. He has to understand that what he did was wrong. He turned on his own family. The empire. Everyone. There must be repercussions. That being said, he can still learn from these errors. With the right guidance and a lot of patience, I’m certain Ansel might one day become a productive member of the Aeternae society.”
As the moon continued its voyage across the starry sky, I found myself wondering who had found Ansel for the Darklings, in the first place. I worried about Esme in his presence, too. She and Kalon were in danger, since there were bound to be other Darklings looking for Ansel. But I also had high hopes for the boy. Had he been fully indoctrinated, he would’ve poisoned himself. Esme had removed the glass capsule from his hidden pocket preemptively, shortly after their riverside stop. However, Ansel could’ve ended it before that particular moment.
This told me that the boy wanted to live. That he wasn’t ready to sacrifice everything for the Darklings. It meant that there was definitely still hope for him, and maybe he wasn’t the only Darkling in this situation. How many more could we eventually reach out to and pull away from the faction’s radical hold?
As we made our way up the Green Road, I kept that thought close for future Darkling encounters. Maybe, just maybe, we might save more lives in the process by talking them out of this madness before accusing them of treason and throwing the key away.
Nethissis
The more time I spent with Zoltan, the better I understood his motivations. The guy actually believed that he was serving the Aeternae empire. He thought that he was doing the right thing, while the rest of us were ignorant fools.
One of his underlings had stood out, recently. His name was Veliko, and he frequently sought Zoltan’s advice and approval. They spent the better part of the afternoon consulting about Seeley, in his presence—which, of course, made everything all the more awkward for the Reaper.
“Will you turn him?” Veliko asked.
Seeley didn’t say a word, occasionally glancing my way, his galaxy eyes filled with meaning. Zoltan shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Why not?” Veliko replied. “He’s a liability.”
“We don’t have the space or the conditions we need to push him,” Zoltan explained. “Not right now. We need to focus on finding a new home for the ghouls we already have, some of which we still need to train.”
Veliko cursed under his breath. “All this because of those strangers…”
“I thought I had trained Ignatius better than that. I don’t know what in the world got into him with the snake lady,” Zoltan muttered.
“Had Ignatius not killed her, the strangers would’ve just gotten their protein and left, none the wiser,” Veliko spat, standing up and taking out his scythe, its blade glinting beneath the milky moonlight.
“What are you doing?” Zoltan asked, his brow furrowed, his gaze fixed on Veliko’s blade.
“What you didn’t have the balls to do yourself!” the bulky Darkling replied. He stormed into a nearby cluster of ghouls and yanked the chain of the one who’d killed me. Ignatius. I recognized him with great ease, my entire spirit trembling and freezing as I remembered the moment he’d snapped my neck.
This time, however, Ignatius didn’t frighten me. He looked scared as Veliko pulled him out of the ghoul cluster and dragged him forth. He clawed at the dry ground and pebbles, desperate to get away from the Darkling, but it was no use.
“Don’t be stupid,” Zoltan warned him. “We need every one of these creatures for what lies ahead.”
“You’re taking your frustrations out on a ghoul?” Seeley muttered, eyeing Veliko suspiciously. Something didn’t feel right about