compared to the shacks the prisoners were forced to live in. Another building was most likely the mess hall and another was a laundry used specifically for the vampires. I’d seen the meager prisoner washhouse, which was made up of little more than tin wash bins with cakes of lye soap. This place, however, looked like it held a variety of modern industrial washers and dryers, along with pressing machines to ensure the guards had knife-pleats in their pants while they beat the prisoners.
I reached Six when she was almost at the flagpole. Before she saw me, she’d already paused and was staring off in the fourth direction, which I had yet to observe in my rush to reach her. I paused beside her. She didn’t look at me, but I felt sure she knew I was there. I didn’t want to speak first, so I followed her gaze.
The fourth edge of the square held a large cinderblock palace. The Troika’s symbol was on display at the top of the building, like a marquee, but that wasn’t what had captured her attention.
A massive banner hung over the building’s door. On it, Meridian Six looked up toward the sky, as if looking to the future. Her hair was tied back into a bun and she wore the gray uniform of a high-ranking human slave—the kind that was trained in the special “education” centers in Nachtstadt. The slogan underneath the image said, Freedom through blood. Life through labor.
That’s when the shame hit me. I pulled my gaze from the image to look at her face. The sharp contrast between the clear, unblemished skin of the beauty on the banner versus the swollen and bruised face of the woman next to me was painful. I’d just told her that she was being used, as if it was something that might never have occurred to her. But now I understood that being used was all she’d ever known.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You were right.” She didn’t look at me.
“I know. I’m still sorry.”
She tipped her chin. I wasn’t sure if she was accepting my apology or simply acknowledging that she’d heard me. Either way, I didn’t feel better.
“I have to kill him.” She said it simply, like stating a fact, such as “I need oxygen to live.”
“Why?”
She turned to look at me then. Her eyes shone like new nickels. “I was…shared with him.”
Suddenly I needed to kill him too.
“Let’s go.” I started to walk toward the building with its banner that displayed Six like some sort of blood trophy.
She grabbed my arm. “Wait. Don’t you have to help Tuck—”
I jerked my hand out of her grasp and stepped toward her, getting close enough to whisper. “We are all getting out of here. All of us. Got it?”
She looked taken aback, as if she hadn’t suspected I was capable of anger. I wished I could tell her exactly how I was feeling. About how the idea of her being passed around by the bloodsuckers made me want to burn the entire world down. About how I wanted to grab her and hold her until she believed that there were people in the world who didn’t see her as a thing to be used. About how I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t just a kid for her to patronize. But I also knew that she’d laugh and reject all of those thoughts. Instead, I’d have to show her what I meant. How I felt.
She watched me with an unreadable expression for a few tense moments. I braced myself for the arguments I knew she was formulating. But she surprised me.
“Suit yourself, but when the time comes, I get the kill on Dr. Death. Understand?”
I didn’t understand why she needed to be the one, but I didn’t argue. “Let’s go.”
Nineteen
M eridian Six
T he good thing about having vampires as an enemy was that they loved tunnels. Whenever the Troika took over a new city or town, the first thing they always did was turn the Earth under that town into an underground maze—like a rabbit warren. In fact, the first time I met Dare and Icarus was in a set of tunnels under the Sisters of Blood convent. The abandoned tunnels
I reached Six when she was almost at the flagpole. Before she saw me, she’d already paused and was staring off in the fourth direction, which I had yet to observe in my rush to reach her. I paused beside her. She didn’t look at me, but I felt sure she knew I was there. I didn’t want to speak first, so I followed her gaze.
The fourth edge of the square held a large cinderblock palace. The Troika’s symbol was on display at the top of the building, like a marquee, but that wasn’t what had captured her attention.
A massive banner hung over the building’s door. On it, Meridian Six looked up toward the sky, as if looking to the future. Her hair was tied back into a bun and she wore the gray uniform of a high-ranking human slave—the kind that was trained in the special “education” centers in Nachtstadt. The slogan underneath the image said, Freedom through blood. Life through labor.
That’s when the shame hit me. I pulled my gaze from the image to look at her face. The sharp contrast between the clear, unblemished skin of the beauty on the banner versus the swollen and bruised face of the woman next to me was painful. I’d just told her that she was being used, as if it was something that might never have occurred to her. But now I understood that being used was all she’d ever known.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You were right.” She didn’t look at me.
“I know. I’m still sorry.”
She tipped her chin. I wasn’t sure if she was accepting my apology or simply acknowledging that she’d heard me. Either way, I didn’t feel better.
“I have to kill him.” She said it simply, like stating a fact, such as “I need oxygen to live.”
“Why?”
She turned to look at me then. Her eyes shone like new nickels. “I was…shared with him.”
Suddenly I needed to kill him too.
“Let’s go.” I started to walk toward the building with its banner that displayed Six like some sort of blood trophy.
She grabbed my arm. “Wait. Don’t you have to help Tuck—”
I jerked my hand out of her grasp and stepped toward her, getting close enough to whisper. “We are all getting out of here. All of us. Got it?”
She looked taken aback, as if she hadn’t suspected I was capable of anger. I wished I could tell her exactly how I was feeling. About how the idea of her being passed around by the bloodsuckers made me want to burn the entire world down. About how I wanted to grab her and hold her until she believed that there were people in the world who didn’t see her as a thing to be used. About how I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t just a kid for her to patronize. But I also knew that she’d laugh and reject all of those thoughts. Instead, I’d have to show her what I meant. How I felt.
She watched me with an unreadable expression for a few tense moments. I braced myself for the arguments I knew she was formulating. But she surprised me.
“Suit yourself, but when the time comes, I get the kill on Dr. Death. Understand?”
I didn’t understand why she needed to be the one, but I didn’t argue. “Let’s go.”
Nineteen
M eridian Six
T he good thing about having vampires as an enemy was that they loved tunnels. Whenever the Troika took over a new city or town, the first thing they always did was turn the Earth under that town into an underground maze—like a rabbit warren. In fact, the first time I met Dare and Icarus was in a set of tunnels under the Sisters of Blood convent. The abandoned tunnels
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