❝ An exile should remember that they will die in these lands and there is nothing they can do but fight. ❞
[complete | editor's pick | book 1]
The Reaper's Curse has come, the gods have foreseen death and people are helpless to fight it. Those infec...
Alicia finds Galya sitting atop the walls with a rifle in her lap and her hat lowered over her eyes. She climbs the ladder that leads to the platform, admiring the hard work and blood that went into such a wall, but the same could be said for most things in this place. The people here have had to sacrifice more than most.
"Galya," Alicia says on a breath once she stands next to the woman. Galya glances up at her from her seat, smiling.
"Alicia. Good to see you up and about after that nasty business with Grayson."
Alicia sighs, touching her hand that's still bandaged and required stitches. A few days aren't going to cure the wound, but Alicia just wants to put the whole ordeal behind her and move on. "Has there been any trouble from him?" she asks, nodding to the trees beyond the wall, the land quiet and still.
"What? Like him tossing rocks at us or something?" she laughs, and Alicia manages a smile, the nerves in her stomach unwinding. "No, he's probably off eating poisonous berries. The kid was never too smart."
Alicia just presses her lips together and nods, hoping that's not the case. No matter how much Grayson hurt her, she doesn't want him dead. She just wants him to forget about his revenge and find a better life. If one can even find a better life in the Dead Lands. "That's all I wanted to know." Alicia tilts her face towards the breeze that kisses her bruised skin.
"Alicia?" she says and Alicia hums to show she's listening. "I know it's not right of me to ask, you don't owe us anything after..."
Alicia glances down at the woman who lowers her chin, her mossy eyes shadowed by the brim of her straw hat. "What is it?"
"The supplies," she says and a lump forms in Alicia's throat. "Sam may have lied about Kathryn planning to give them to us, but she's not lying about the fact that we need them." Galya glances up at Alicia, her brows pinched together. "I can't even stress how desperately."
Fiddling with the bandages around her hand, Alicia contemplates what to say. She saw those suffering, yet can she really continue to stand by and do nothing? How many years did she spend in the slums wishing she had the power to do something? But what did it cost her when she finally decided to act?
She yanks at a thread of her bandage and pain sparks up her forearm.
It cost her everything. So, what does she have to lose now? The remnants of her family are safe within the walls, cushy on their mountains of coin that she bled for. Alicia can't hurt them out here.
"Kathryn didn't tell me much before she..." Alicia closes her eyes, Kathryn's blood flashing behind her eyelids like black ink in the darkness of the forest. "All she said is they're in a ruin somewhere."
Galya sits up, her lips parting. "You'll help us find them then?"
Nodding, Alicia folds her arms over her chest. "Sure. It's better than them falling into Warren's hands."
"Talk to Oliver. He was the soldier after all." She looks down at the gun in her lap, her mouth twisting. "I was just a dancer."
Alicia nods before climbing back down the ladder, knowing she's doing the right thing, but hoping the Reaper doesn't make her pay for it.
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