As Vladim moved to turn the locks, I heard Genya whisper. "You definitely owe me a kiss after all this, Don't think I won't hold you to it."
I laughed lightly. "We'll see."
"There is no seeing, you will, if I have to be the one to do it then so be...
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THE KETTLE'S MASSIVE DOORS SLAMMED SHUT, and I heard the lock turn. I tried to put aside the sick twist in my gut and make sense of what I was seeing. Nadia and Zoya— two Squallers—Mal, and David, a harmless Fabrikator.
"I'll ask you again, priest. What is this? Why are our friends in custody? Why are they bleeding?"
"These are no friends of yours. A plot has been discussed to bring the White Cathedral down around our very ears."
"What are you talking about?"
"Alina Starkov, you have seen the boy's insolence today—"
"Is that a problem? He doesn't tremble properly in your presence?" Alina hissed.
"The issue here is treason!" He drew a small canvas pouch from his robes and held it out, letting it dangle from his fingers.
I frowned. I'd seen pouches like that in the Fabrikator workshops. They were used for—
"Blasting powders," the Apparat said. "Maybe by this Fabrikator filth with materials gathered by your supposed friends."
"So David made blasting powders. There could be a hundred reasons for that."
"Weapons are forbidden within the White Cathedral."
I arched a brow at the rifle currently pointed at Mal and the Grisha's. "And what are those? Ladles? If you're going to make accusations—"
"Their plans were overheard. Stand forward, Tamar Kit-Bataar. Speak the truth you've discovered."
Tamar bowed deeply. "The Grisha and the tracker planned to drug you two and take you to the surface."
"We want to return to the surface."
"The blasting powders would have been used to ensure that no one followed," she continued, "to bring down the caverns on the Apparat and your flock."
"Hundreds of innocent dead? Mal would never do that. None of them would." Alina said.
Not even Zoya, that wretch. "And it doesn't make any sense. Just how were they supposed to drug us?"
Tamar nodded to Genya and the tea that sat beside us.
"I drank the tea myself," Genya snapped. "It isn't laced with anything."
