Restored (A Caleo Selection)

37 ~ A Resolve So Unyielding

Instinctively, I kicked.

I was lucky enough to catch my attacker in the knee. She hissed, and I swung out at her face, rolling in an attempt to divert her weight.

Her hand closed around my throat, and I choked, scrabbling at the pressure of her fingers. Her grip was too strong.

In the moonlight streaming through the window, I got a good look at her and almost stopped struggling entirely. My attacker was Khione, the Selected and the traitor.

She smiled, seeing the recognition on my face. "Yes, I'm back again. And unfortunately for you, you've got maybe thirty seconds to live, and that's if I'm feeling good."

"How did you get in?" I croaked, my head pounding from the lack of oxygen.

"Your guards aren't bad, but they're less capable than you'd like to think." Khione relaxed her grip slightly, and I sucked in air. "It was easy enough to get a few of the more skeptical protesters to help sneak me into the passages after today's events. The trick was waiting for the right time to make a move."

I coughed, twisting away from her arm. "Your people are gone. Your cause is dead. Why do this and doom yourself?"

"Because I hate you," she whispered. "Because you came along and ruined everything we could have done when you should've been on our side. You condemned your own father today. Is there a worse crime than that?"

"Yes." I spat at her. "Being complicit in treason."

Her knife dug into the thin skin of my throat. "What, no plea for mercy? No noble attempts to save yourself?"

"I'm not stupid enough to believe you'd pay any attention."

"Good. I'd hate for you to be that dull."

I frantically searched the room for anything I could use against her, eyeing the lamp just a few feet over. "You know you'll never be able to get out of here once it's done."

"I know," she replied coldly, "and I don't care. You killed us all, sure as if you lit the mine yourself. You ought to pay for that. And since life brings no justice, I'm taking the responsibility myself."

I snorted. "And who are you to decide what is and is not justice?"

"Bold words from a girl who just condemned her own father to life in prison. Quite possibly more torture." Khione's voice was nothing more than a soft hiss, but it held so much malice that I shuddered. "Do you realize what they've done to him?"

"I know," I responded quietly. "But in the end, he brought his punishment on himself."

Her lips curved. "As did you, my dear cousin."

"Fine." I closed my eyes. "Do it, then."

Her weight shifted. "So meek. I guess you never did have the spine to stand up for yourself. Who knew that could be fatal?"

I felt her arm lift, raising the knife. I forced my trembling body to remain still as it hovered there, taunting, ready to snatch my life away from me far too early.

Khione tensed, and that gave me all the signal I needed. As the knife dropped, I shoved with all my strength and rolled out of the way as she drove it into the pillow beneath me. I drove my elbow into her ribs as she yelped in surprise.

I had knocked the breath out of her, but she was quick on her feet. Her newly retrieved knife opened a gash on my leg as I scrambled backwards, and I cried out. She snatched at the edge of my nightgown, but the soft fabric slid through her fingers.