Meridian Six

I frowned at her. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Don’t you get it?" Icarus said. "The daughter of Alexis Sargosa is finally on the rebel’s side and she’s declared war against the Troika."

My mouth fell open. "That’s not what happened—"

Icarus laughed humorlessly. “Doesn’t matter. They’ll believe what we tell them,” he said, sounding too much like the vampire we’d just killed for my comfort. “We’ll have to start calling you Carmina, though. Meridian Six has too many bad associations.” He narrowed his eyes at me. I didn’t like the speculative glint I saw there. “Carmina Sargosa,” he tested the words on his tongue. “Yes. It’s got a noble air to it. The kind of name people rally around. A leader.”

I looked over toward Rabbit, who lay watching us. His skin was pale and his eyes were feverish, but he was alive. I moved toward him and cradled his small body, careful not to hurt his wounds too much. I pretended I was trying to comfort him, but I needed it, too. Icarus’s words had left me feeling both hollow and dirty, used. He didn’t want me to be a leader. He wanted me to be his puppet.

How could I have been so naïve to think I could start a new life on my own terms? Hadn’t I already learned that the world was made up of two types: The Users and The Used. I’d tried to use the rebels to earn my freedom, but I’d ended up being a pawn. Again.

Sure, I wanted the Troika to pay for everything it had taken from me, everything it had withheld. In that sense I guess I was on the rebels’ side. But listening to Icarus speak, an icy hand skittered up my spine. I’d let myself get carried away kicking the hornets’ nest and I was pretty sure before this was all over, I’d be the one to feel the Troika’s sting. "What have I done?" I whispered, mostly to myself.

Icarus smiled that smile that transformed his ravaged face. Only this time it scared me. “You just gave us the weapon we need to defeat the Troika.”

I frowned at him. “What kind of weapon?”

“The same one that’s been at the center of every good revolution.” He tilted his head. “A good story to inspire the troops.”

With that, he rose to check on the cockpit again. Dare nudged me out of the way to get to the kid. I dropped onto a bench across the way.

Through the side window, the stars were laid out like a blanket of diamonds. At that altitude it was easy to forget all the destruction and violence, the hopelessness so common on the ground. Up there it was easy to imagine a future where Rabbit could grow up healthy and happy. One where I was able to live on my own terms without someone wanting to use me for their cause.

I looked down at the red lotus totem Sister Agrippa had given me. The one that was a symbol of her faith. Faith that terrified Castor so much it cost him his life. I squeezed my hand around the red disk until it bit into the palm. Maybe it was time for me to have a little faith, too.

Through the rover’s cockpit and toward the horizon, I saw another sign of hope. While behind us The Factory still burned like Hephaestus’s forge, up ahead another fire glowed, one far more dangerous to the Troika than any man-made inferno. Dawn streaked across the lavender sky in a fury of orange, yellow and red, announcing the sun’s imminent arrival.

The sun was the enemy of every vampire—a fire demon. But I was a human, and to my kind the sun was an angel of life. It nourished our crops and our livestock. It warmed our skin and helped us see. It provided us with energy and a reason to rise every morning.

I closed my eyes and imagined absorbing its heat into my pores and filling up my chest cavity with its awesome power.

My name was Carmina Sargosa, daughter of Alexis Sargosa. And like the sun, I would rise above the Troika and finish the work my mother began. I would burn every last vampire to the ground.

Red means life.