“I’m going to do it,” Ash says quietly to me and Elijah. “I’ll be the vessel.”

I stop scrubbing. “No, Ash. You don’t have to; it was wrong of us to ask.”

“There’s no one else,” he says. “We don’t have any other option.”

“I don’t want you to,” I say.

Ash tucks a finger under my chin, tilting my face so I’m looking up at him.

“I love you,” he whispers. “That isn’t going to change, you know that?”

“I know,” I say. “But this is your heartbeat we’re talking about; I couldn’t live with myself if you lost it again. And it’s not just that. The more I think about it, the more messed up it is. You’ll be his Blood Mate.” I shudder.

The front-door bell chimes, startling everyone.

I shoot a panicked look at Ash. Is it possible one of the security guards decided to do his job and actually came up here, and heard us moving about?

Ash turns to Amy. “Get rid of them.”

She nods and hurries over to the front door, while we all hide behind the furniture. Those who have weapons draw them. Amy opens the door.

“Can I help you?” she says.

“I’m here to see Sigur,” a girl’s voice replies.

Sigur stands up and smiles. “Ah, that will be my guest. Let her in, Amy.” He turns to the rest of us as we come out of our hiding places. “I hope you do not mind, but I took the liberty of contacting a good friend of mine, who I think can help us.”

Amy stands aside, letting in the guest. A girl sweeps into the room, wearing a long blue robe. She lowers her hood, revealing waist-length black hair that ripples like the surface of the oceans, and sparkling eyes the color of the night. She fixes her gaze on Ash, and my heart cramps.

“Hello, Ash,” she says.

He lets out a breath of surprise. “Evangeline.”

29.

NATALIE

JEALOUSY SNAKES THROUGH ME as Evangeline and Ash embrace. They look so perfect together—both tall, dark and devastatingly beautiful—but that’s hardly a surprise. They were supposed to be Blood Mates, but when I was a child, I needed a heart transplant, so Dr. Craven ripped out her heart and gave it to me, and as a result Ash and I formed the connection instead.

Even though Ash loves me, it still hurts knowing he was destined to be with another girl, especially when that girl is five feet eleven inches tall, with pouting rose-blushed lips, flowing ebony hair, alabaster skin and sensuous curves. I wrap my arms around myself. I have curves too, but because of my height—or lack thereof—I don’t carry them off as well as Evangeline. I suddenly wish I’d brushed my tangled hair. Day looks at me anxiously. She knows how deadly Evangeline is. As if sensing us staring at her, Evangeline’s black eyes shift in our direction. There’s a chilling, dangerous edge to them.

“Hello, Natalie,” she says coldly.

“Hi,” I reply, equally stiff.

When we were living in Black City, Evangeline stalked me for a while. She murdered my bodyguard and my cat, ripping out their hearts, and she threatened to rip out mine too. I have to admit, I wasn’t sad to hear she’d left Black City. I secretly hoped she’d never come back. Looking at the delighted look on Ash’s face, he obviously doesn’t feel the same way. I glance down at his hand, which is gently resting on her narrow hip, and jealousy flares inside me again.

“My beautiful Evangeline,” Sigur says, opening his arms wide.

She races into them and Sigur spins her around. The Darkling Ambassador raised Evangeline after her parents were killed during the war.

“I was so relieved when you called me,” Evangeline says when he puts her down. “I’d been following your trial on the news. I didn’t know what to do; I had no idea how to save you. Then I’d heard rumors you’d escaped, but I wasn’t sure.” She throws her arms around him again. “I’m so happy to see you.”

He kisses her forehead. “Me too. Thank you for coming.”

“Anything for you,” she replies.

“How did you get past security?” Ash says.

Evangeline laughs. “Those goons? Pur-lease, Ash,” she says arrogantly. “I was able to sneak around Black City all the time without getting caught, so I know what I’m doing. I’ve been in Centrum for weeks, and no one’s spotted me yet.”

Sigur briefly introduces her to everyone as we take our seats. Elijah leans against the fireplace and idly scratches his fingers through his wavy hair, his topaz eyes following Evangeline. She catches him watching her and he flushes, looking away. Evangeline smiles a little. Dr. Craven and my mother wisely keep their distance from Evangeline as she sits down on the rug—they were the ones who took her heart, after all.

I slump down on one of the chairs and Ash sits on the floor in front of me, leaning against my legs. I gently stroke his hair. Evangeline shoots an icy look at me, and I stop. It’s not fair to flaunt our relationship in front of her, despite everything she’s done. At that moment Lucinda and Yolanda enter the room again. Lucinda stops in her tracks when she sees Evangeline and looks quizzically at Ash. He explains who she is, and the women embrace.

“I thought you were searching for more twin-bloods,” Ash says to Evangeline.

“I was,” she says, playing with a strand of her black hair. “I’ve been traveling all over the country in search of them.”

“And did you find any more like us?” he says tentatively.

Evangeline frowns. “Not yet, but there are still plenty of places to look.”

Ash turns toward Sigur. “How did you know Evangeline was in Centrum?”

“Before I was captured, Evangeline and I had been keeping in touch,” Sigur replies.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ash says, clearly stung.

“I asked him not to say anything. I thought things would be less confusing if I wasn’t in your life,” Evangeline says, flicking a look at me. “So why was I summoned here?”

Shadows from the fire dance across her pale skin as we tell her the story of Edmund Rose and Theora and our plan to transplant his beloved’s heart inside a twin-blood. Anger darkens Evangeline’s beautiful face as I explain our theory about Rose’s plot to convert everyone to human-Lupine hybrids using the drug Wings. This gets a few surprised looks from my parents and Garrick—we were all so exhausted and in shock after the attack on the Sentry rebel stronghold, we fell asleep in the Transporter, so I never got a chance to tell them. Father grips my mother’s hand, and she passes him a worried look.

“But why hybrids?” Evangeline asks.

“His grandfather and his Blood Mate, Theora, were hybrids,” I say. “He loved them more than anyone.”

“He’s trying to bring his family back,” Evangeline says quietly, catching on.

When we’re finished telling her everything we know, the sun has started to set over the city, turning the sky a brilliant orange and making the giltstone buildings shimmer gold. I’ve missed Centrum. It really is beautiful. Evangeline takes a deep breath, digesting everything.

“So you want me to be the vessel. Will it work?” she says, directing her question at Dr. Craven. It’s the first time she’s acknowledged his existence. I can’t imagine how hard it is for her being around him, when he’s the man who ripped out her heart while she was still conscious and gave it to me.

“I honestly don’t know,” he says. “The heart is very old, and may be too badly decayed even for a twin-blood to regenerate the tissue. Not to mention, it’s a Lupine heart.”

“I can help with that,” Yolanda adds. “Our main issue is getting access to a hospital.”

“There’s a private doctor’s office downstairs, below the gymnasium,” Amy says shyly. “Patrick had heart troubles, because of his weight, so there’s all sorts of equipment down there.”

Sigur turns to Evangeline. “I know it is a lot to ask. But will you consider it?”

Evangeline sighs. “Yes, I’ll do it.”

Ash leans over and gives her a hug. Her arms linger around him for a heartbeat longer than I’m comfortable with. I tear my eyes away. He loves me. We spend the next hour discussing what to do next, while Beetle and Lucinda head into the kitchen and prepare some food for everyone. They bring back plates of ripe fruit, even riper cheese and some glasses of Synth-O-Blood. Emissary Bradshaw must’ve had some left over from when he had Darkling servants. Everyone hungrily tucks into the food while Amy flicks on the large, wall-mounted digital screen. It immediately turns on to SBN news.

February Fields smiles back at us in that blank way of hers as she reads the headlines: a reminder for people to attend the Cleansing; Purian Rose’s upcoming birthday banquet being held in the Golden Citadel; a devastating “explosion” at a smelting works in Gallium, which they’re blaming on Humans for Unity (Ha! So typical of the government to twist the story to suit their agenda); plus there’s been a “reorganization” of the Sentry cabinet. Reading between the lines, I’m guessing that reorganization involves the execution of several ministers that Rose suspected were involved in the Sentry rebellion. The streets of Centrum will be running red tonight.

Elijah leans down to get some grapes from the tray, his hand brushing against Evangeline’s as she reaches for the Synth-O-Blood at the same time. She looks up and their eyes meet. They both flush, quickly glancing away. A small smile plays across Evangeline’s lips. Our conversation eventually turns toward Wings.

“So let me get this straight,” Evangeline says. “Purian Rose has been making his men take this new drug Wings, which is a combination of Haze, Night Whisper and some retrovirus that turns people into hybrid Lupines?”

Dr. Craven nods. “But the formula’s not stable. Some people are dying.”

She frowns. “If Purian Rose intends to turn everyone into hybrids, how’s he planning to do it?”

“He’ll have to infect everyone with Wings at the same time,” Garrick says, grimacing slightly. He’s still slouched in his seat, gripping his injured stomach.

“How could he do that?” my father says.

“Water supply?” Lucinda suggests.

Sigur’s and Yolanda’s mouths twitch. I remember Sigur telling us a few weeks ago how Lucinda attempted to poison Black City’s water supply during the first war, before Sigur and my father stopped her. Shortly afterward, Lucinda was sent to the Barren Lands camp and the Four Kingdoms disbanded.

Mother shakes her head. “The waterworks are designed to immediately shut down if they detect any viruses. We had to add that feature after your failed sabotage attempt.”

“You’re welcome,” Lucinda replies dryly.

“Besides, the water would weaken the effects of the Haze and Night Whisper in the drug. Rose has added them to Wings for a reason, so it would seem to defeat the object to dilute it,” Dr. Craven says. “No, the drug needs to be delivered in its concentrated format to be effective.”

As the former head of the Anti-Darkling Science and Technologies Department, and the creator of Golden Haze, he knows a thing or two about delivery systems. He takes off his glasses and wearily rubs his eyes. It catches me off guard sometimes how much he looks like his son, Sebastian—they have the same wavy hair, the same olive skin and slim face, the same green eyes—except, I recall, Sebastian’s eyes weren’t green when I saw him at the rebel base. They were silver, just like the Pilgrim in Thrace, and the men I saw in Scott’s shop in Gallium.

The memory of that visit sends shivers down my spine as I recall the homeless man I saw outside the chapel next to Scott’s shop, with his rotting face and . . . Oh! I bolt upright, startling Ash, who is sitting beside me. The homeless man had been surrounded by glass bottles with a milky-silver residue in them. Just like Wings! I’d thought the bottles were Scott’s garbage, but I realize now they weren’t. They belonged to the church next door. I recall the sound of the church bells chiming as the Pilgrims were being called in for—

“The Cleansing ceremony!” I say excitedly. “The public Cleansing ceremony! That’s how Purian Rose is going to infect everyone. He’s making them drink it as part of the ritual.” I briefly explain my theory to the others, telling them about the Pilgrim in Thrace with the silver eyes, and the homeless man in Gallium.

“Yeah, I remember him,” Elijah says, shuddering.

“The homeless man was really sick,” I say, turning toward Dr. Craven. “Just like the girl from the patient-trials video you showed me back at the rebel base. He must have drunk some Wings without realizing what it was, and got ill.”

Roach sinks back in her chair, her blue dreadlocks falling around her freckled shoulders. “Fragg, millions of people are expected to attend that.”

“How did that Pilgrim in Thrace get infected?” Day adds. “I thought Rose had only given Wings to his own men.”

Dr. Craven is the one who answers. “I’m sure Rose would have wanted to do some trial runs to make sure his plan worked, before trying it out on the national stage. It’s what I would have done, anyway,” he says. “Chances are he sent vats of Wings to a select number of churches across the country, like the one in Gallium, and ordered the Pilgrims to take it during their daily Cleansing ceremony. That’s probably how that poor Pilgrim in Thrace got infected too. He was a lab rat.”

“Wouldn’t the Pilgrims have noticed they were drinking a blend of Haze?” Beetle says.