Ignite Me

SIXTY-ONE

We’re running through the courtyard and right through base, and as soon as we’re out of sight, Kenji pulls back the invisibility. He darts ahead of the group, leading us toward the training room, winding and twisting and darting through the storage facility and up the shooting range until we’re all toppling into the room at once.

James has been waiting for us.

He stands up, eyes wide. “How’d it go?”

Kenji runs forward and flips James into his arms. “How do you think it went?”

“Um. Good?” James is laughing.

Castle claps me on the back. I turn to face him. He’s beaming at me, eyes shining, prouder than I’ve ever seen him. “Well done, Ms. Ferrars,” he says quietly. “Well done.”

Brendan and Winston rush over, grinning from ear to ear.

“That was so freaking cool,” Winston says. “It was like we were celebrities or something.”

Lily, Ian, and Alia join the group. I thank them all for their help, for their show of support at the last minute.

“Do you really think it’ll work?” I’m asking. “Do you think it’s enough?”

“It’s certainly a start,” Castle says. “We’ll need to move quickly now. I imagine the news has already spread, but the other sectors will surely stand down until the supreme arrives.” Castle looks at me. “I hope you understand that this will be a fight against the entire country.”

“Not if the other sectors join us, too,” I say.

“Such confidence,” Castle says. He’s staring at me like I’m a strange, alien being. One he doesn’t know how to understand or identify. “You surprise me, Ms. Ferrars.”

The elevator pings open.

Warner.

He walks right up to me. “The base has been secured,” he says. “We are on lockdown until my father arrives. No one will enter or exit the premises.”

“So what do we do now?” Ian asks.

“We wait,” Warner says. He looks around at us. “If he does not already know, he will within the next five minutes. The supreme will know that some members of your group are still alive. That Juliette is still alive. He will know that I have defied him and stood against him publicly. And he will be very, very angry,” Warner says. “This much I can absolutely guarantee.”

“So we go to war,” Brendan says.

“Yes.” Warner is calm, so calm. “We fight. Soon.”

“And the soldiers?” I ask him. “Are they really on board?”

He holds my eyes for just a moment too long. “Yes,” he says. “I can feel the depth of their passion. Their sudden respect for you. There are many among them who are still afraid, and others still who are rigid in their skepticism, but you were right, love. They might fear, but they do not want to be soldiers. Not like this. Not for The Reestablishment. They are ready to join us.”

“And the civilians?” I ask, amazed.

“They will follow.”

“Are you sure?”

“I can be sure of nothing,” he says quietly. “But I have never, in all my time in this sector, felt the kind of hope in my men that I felt today. It was so powerful, so all-consuming, I can still feel it from here. It’s practically vibrating in my blood.”

I can hardly breathe.

“Juliette, love,” he says to me, still holding my eyes. “You have just started a war.”