Blind Eyes Open - Katharine Jericho Book 1

Chapter Thirty-Two

I followed Ramses in silence out to the room of the twelve doors. He entered one that was four to the right of the conversion chamber. This door was royal blue, but I could have sworn they were all white the first time I'd entered the room earlier with Khalil. Did the Citadel change itself like fucking Hogwarts? 

Maybe that's what Leo had said about me feeling my way through this, because my eyes were confusing the shit out of me. God, why was I still considering anything he'd ever said or done like it was sage advice?

More doors lined this hallway, and more flowers dangled down from the arched ceiling, trailing over my shoulders as I passed through them. They were caressing, grabbing, as if both enticing me forward and ready to prevent my retreat. The fresh fragrance and dreamy place might have lifted my spirits if I wasn't so far down the rabbit hole.

Ramses opened the last door where the hallway ended, went in, and stopped inside, waiting for me. I studied him, looking for signs that he was about to screw me over. He just watched me with those beautiful, unguarded eyes that relayed his regret and maybe hope. Was it a trick? Cautiously, I peered inside, making sure there were no more altars or shackles hanging from chains in the ceiling.

Finding nothing worrying, other than the maker of beasts, I stepped inside. "Leave the door open," I said. Leo had given me a new phobia of shut doors.

"Very well," Ramses said, glancing down the hallway to make sure nobody had followed us. "I'm about to break the rules for you, because you need to know the truth about what's going on in the world before you can understand what we all face."

"What we all face?" I said, incredulous. "You don't seem to falling on hard times right now."

"Look at what I have to show you, and you may change your mind about that." An image popped up in the middle of the room, like a hologram, and a large image of a world map appeared there. I moved closer, and like an impending collision between my forehead and a semi-truck, I didn't want to look at the carnage that was about to happen but was compelled to watch it bearing down on me.

There were outlines in different colors, some not following country borders or any land divisions pre-drawn on maps. Some of the areas were vast in size, like the red border around Russia and half of Kazakhstan, and another yellow one encompassing everything south of Russia, including China, the Middle East, and Australia. 

A green one marked India, dipping up to grab parts of Spain and Turkey, and a purple one claimed everything north of India, including the UK and the Scandinavian countries. Pink marked South and Central America, the USA was blue, and Canada, along with Greenland and Alaska, had an orange border.

Squinting at the image, I moved closer still, seeing the finer details. There was a tiny turquoise border around Pennsylvania and New York.

Growing colder under the skin, I said, "These are all territories, and those little golden dots are Citadels just like this one."

"Yes." Ramses came in beside me, his arms inked together, sadness in the wilt of his posture.

"Your siblings are here, too."

He nodded. "And you remember what I told you about them."

"Power hungry assholes."

"That's putting it mildly."

I turned to him, terrified I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. "Leo said a war was coming, and you mentioned giving up your place in 'the rights' back at the restaurant. I feel like I'm looking at a giant playing board for the game Risk where the human race will be literal armies you're about to command. Are you about to duke it out with your siblings for what, power?"