Page 206 of Rite of Unity

“Promise me she’ll be okay.”

I had turned them over a hundred times, pressed against the wall in my towel, heart hammering.I’d thought they were the words of a scared mother about to lose her daughter to a Rite.Justifiable for any parent.

But she hadn’t meant that at all.She was a general asking her field agent to protect the asset.He’d always been taking orders.

I stood, staring at the wall, rearranging every memory from my entire life.

The way her fingers had stilled on my friendship necklace.I had thought she was afraid Ruth would take my chance.It had never been aboutmyfriendship at all.

The morning she watched my match with Elias on the Monday recap.The fear on her face when she saw who had chosen me.Not fear for me.Fear for the mission.

She’d run from the room when Paul arrived with his cameras.She was gone every time Paul came.Every time a camera was present.

And my dad.Had he known?Had any of it been real?Or had I been the only one in that apartment who believed we were a family?

My grip tightened around the poison in my hand.

She had spent years positioning herself.An Elite husband.A daughter trained in secret.Waiting for a son that never came, until she found another way inside.Two decades of patience, and she had finally done it.The rebel leader was inside the wall.

I looked down at my closed fist.

The scent reached me before the thought did.Jasmine.A scent that meant Monday mornings and the black bamboo teapot.

I thought of the snakes.The ones I’d caught and carried to the kitchen, heart still hammering.She always had the knife ready before I asked.We used the bodies for soup.Nothing was wasted in our house.But the heads.The heads disappeared while I washed my hands, and when I came back, they were always gone.

The vials in my bedside drawer had always just been there.

I had been wrong about everything.

Years of killing serpents, never knowing the real snake had always been under my roof.

I stood in that small, bright room and didn’t recognize a single thing about my life.

The door swung open, and Elias stepped inside.His grin was wide, eyes sparkling.“You don’t have cold feet, do you?”

His laugh died on his lips as he searched my face.“What’s wrong?”

On the outside, I was still, frozen, the perfect daughter.Inside, I screamed, tore at my hair, ripped my clothes.Was Lucen even my real father?Or was he recruited to feed me her carefully constructed lie?

I was tired of being a pawn.Done playing their game—hergame.My mother had handed me a president and called it a mission.

I had a different plan.

I blinked, coming out of my daze, tucking the vial in my pocket, and stared at Elias.

“Maryn?”

I reached for his hand, lacing our fingers together and straightened.“I was the spy.I let the rebels in.”

“What?”He laughed, trying to tug his hand free from mine.

My fingers tightened around his, squeezing the way he had squeezed me all night.

“They killed your father, and they’ll kill you next.”My broken nails pierced the fabric of my glove as I squeezed harder, tiny flecks of red soaking the tips.“Unless you walk through that door and marry me.”

Elias stopped struggling, doing his own mental calculations.

He dropped my hand.