After the Walls

Chapter 8

Edward huffs and smirks. "You are either stupid or sick yourself." His eyes blaze into Ajax. "I think you are forgetting who granted your freedom, Ajax."

Ajax scrunches his face and yanks himself back. "You want friends? Do you want a community? Prove to us you are a leader worth following and fighting for. Because forcing someone to do the worst thing possible is not it."

Edward narrows his eyes and straightens his white shirt, which is covered in crimson droplets. "If I helped the Convex villages, would you choose to side with me?"

Ajax lets out a dry laugh and shakes his head. "Why do you want people to like you so badly?"

Edward tightens his jaw. "Would you?" he presses. "Do you think they'd like me?"

Ajax blinks. "Prove to us there is something about you to like. Prove to us you have one redeemable quality."

Ajax casts me a darkened gaze, nods, and then stalks out of the dungeon. Edward pants, staring after him. Then he clears his throat. "I will see him out. Then you and I will take a trip across the river. I have an idea, Elle."

He leaves me with the corpse I created. The man's lifeless eyes stab my guts and I stumble, smacking into the wall. Panic billows through me and I vomit into his pool of inky blood.

Finally, Edward returns. He grimaces at the putrid stench permeating the room. "Let's get us both cleaned up. Then we will go."

I hasten after him as he marches down the hall and mounts the stairs into the palace. "What is your plan?"

He throws a grin over his shoulder. "Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. But I think even you will approve."

"Can I trust you?"

We emerge into the bright, candle-flickering hallway. "I don't want the kingdom to fear and hate me, Elle. I think I know how I can convince them to like me. Then maybe we can become one big... family."

"Family?" I quirk a brow.

He turns around and stops. "Clean yourself up. Meet me at the foyer in half an hour. We will take a carriage across the river."

--

Moonlight glints off the freshly polished marble as we step outside later that evening. My cargo pants swish around my boots as I plod down the stairs. My breath forms a mist before me. The carriage creaks as I climb inside, and Edward hauls himself in after me. He clutches a suspicious dark bottle.

"You are cherry," I say as the horseman orders the horses onward. Their hooves clatter against the paved path as they lead us toward the palace gates.

"You will be too." After a pause, he tilts his head. "I hope you learned your lesson today."

My insides twist. "What lesson?"

"Of the consequences that occur when you don't choose me. When you go behind my back trying to snuff me out, I will know, Elle." He heaves a sigh. "You can't plot against me. You are better being my friend."

I school my face into a smile but fearing the bobble of my throat gives away my terror. "As I said, I want to be your friend, Edward."

His smile teeters on the verge of bared teeth. "We will see, Elle."

The silence fills the space between us, pressing against my chest as the carriage winds its way through the city and across the bridge. I peer out the window. Dust swirls around the rattling wheels as we move through the tight-knit streets, steering in the eastern direction, towards the farming fields. Even with the window closed, the pungent scent of rotting potatoes seeps into the carriage.

Even Edward gags. He quirks a brow, gnashing his teeth. "My father was a monster, wasn't he?"

I tighten my jaw. "Yes. He let thousands of people starve to death and misery for his entire reign."

Red creeps up his taut neck. "I want to create a better world than the one my father left behind. I feel it's my responsibility."

"Let's just focus on the task at hand, Edward," I say, scrunching my brow. "We can look at your redemption story when you actually prove to us there is something to redeem."

After another agonizing chunk of time, the carriage jolts to a stop. "We're here," he says.

I almost fall out of the carriage from climbing out so fast, desperate for air and to get as far away from Edward as possible.

The stench of the potatoes permeates the air, however. I scrunch my nose. Moonlight glints and fractures across the expanse of fields, ebbing and flowing as the wind rustles the shriveled-up leaves.

Edward trudges forward, stepping onto one of the straw-paved paths. The soil sinks under his boots. Sludge seeps to the surface. We meander down the path, deeper into the field. Wisps of my hair tickle my cheeks as the wind sings in my ears. Several fields away, healthy fields of corn, potato, carrots, wheat, and various fruits flourish.

"So, when your friend Ajax became leader of the kingdom, he tried to heal these fields, didn't he?" Edward asks, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Yes." I cast him a wary glance. "But we struggled to figure out the cure for the blight. So, we had to share the healthy crops with the entire kingdom."

He clicks his tongue. "That would not have been enough for everyone."

"Hunger persisted throughout the kingdom, but this time, the Concave people felt the strain. Ajax abolished the class split. But of course, the former Concaves had rarely known the struggle for as basic a human resource as food." My voice is tight and sharp, dripping with disgust. He flinches as I glare at him. "But when you stole the kingdom for yourself and reinstated your father's beloved Concaves versus the Convex, you returned us to the dark days of Convex famine."

Crickets chirp near us. Frogs croak in the nearby pond. I plant my feet and cross my arms over my chest, frowning at him. He drags his feet to a gradual stop. But his piercing green gaze remains somewhere across the fields, lost in the darkness of the distant southern forest.

"Do you think they will forgive me for all I've done?" he says as if the words spilled from his guts.

"Why do you ask?"

His head snaps towards me. A sigh heaves from his chest as he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out the bottle of shadowteeth blood. It glimmers in the ghostly light.

"This." He holds up the bottle. "This will heal the fields."

The wind blows a putrid gust of rotten potatoes into my nostrils. I raise my brows. "I suppose if it could heal people from the drown, it must be able to heal diseased plants."

He grins as he unscrews the lid. "Would you like to do the honors, Elle?"

I hold my hands up. "It's all yours, Edward."

A sharp nod. The wind whistles as he splashes some of the shimmering monster's blood onto the potato roots at our feet. For a split second, the wind cuts. Then, green seeps into the shrubbery sticking from the earth, which darkens and moistens with richness. The roots bounce and stretch to life.

A gasp slips from my lips as I jerk the roots from the soil. Edward curses as I unearth a large edible potato.

"It worked," I whisper. My heart pounds in my chest and a grin flicks on my face.

Edward remains in silent awe for several moments. Then he grins. "Elle," he says. "How would you feel about a harvest festival?"