Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1)(57)
Author: Aimee Carter

The helicopter touched down in a clearing surrounded by mountains. The sky was the kind of gray that announced the approaching dawn, and this high up, there was already a swirl of snow in the wind. I drew my coat tighter around my body, but it didn’t help keep out the biting cold.

“You’re sure this is it?” said Lila as we stood together beside the helicopter. It blocked out the wind from one side, but it was still freezing. I shivered and slipped my hands inside my sleeves, but when I glanced at Lila, the cold didn’t seem to bother her.

“Yes, I am sure,” said Augusta, checking her watch.

“It is not quite dawn. Give them a moment.”

I searched for any sign of Celia or Greyson, but I only saw bare trees and frozen ground. “How could they survive out here?” I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.

“The family has a cabin a few miles from here,” said Lila. “There are hiking trails all along the mountain. I don’t get why you didn’t send guards to flush them out, Grandmother.”

“Because I don’t trust your mother not to kill Greyson,” said Augusta. “Now hush.”

My feet grew numb while we waited, and I had to stamp them against the ground to get the blood flowing again. It smelled like winter up here, crisp and cold and dry, and I breathed deeply in an effort to keep myself from panicking.

At last, when we’d waited so long I thought my fingers would fall off, one of the guards pointed to something in the distance. “There,” he said. “I see them.”

Augusta motioned toward us. “Girls, on either side of me.”

I moved next to her, and this time the numbness that washed over me had nothing to do with the cold.

I squinted at the tree line, and finally I saw them: two figures arm in arm trudging over the hard ground, one with dark hair and the other with a knit cap. Celia and Greyson.

“Hello, Mother,” called Celia. She and Greyson stopped twenty feet away from us, both wearing thick winter coats, scarves, and gloves. At least Celia hadn’t made him freeze to death getting here. A gun holster hung at Celia’s hip. “I see you brought both of them.”

“So I did,” said Augusta frigidly. “And now you have a choice, my darling. You get to pick the one you keep.

Isn’t that exciting?”

Celia’s expression hardened. “I want my daughter.”

“I know that, dear,” said Augusta. “But which one is she?”

I frowned. The only differences between us were so minor that there was no possible way Celia could see them from a distance. I couldn’t even see them when Lila and I were both looking into the same mirror.

The solution was simple. I glanced at Lila, hoping she would tell Celia the truth, but she was strangely silent.

I opened my mouth to do it for her, but before I could make a sound, Augusta cut me off.

“Choose wisely,” she said, her voice echoing as it carried through the clearing. “Because whichever one you leave behind will die.”

Chapter 18

My confession that I wasn’t Lila died on my lips.

The moment Augusta announced one of us wouldn’t be leaving the clearing alive, I understood why Lila had chosen to run rather than risk death. No matter how much I’d prepared myself for dying at the hands of this twisted family, the thought of it happening now made the world spin and the edge of my vision go dark.

With Augusta between us, I couldn’t see Lila’s reaction, but I did feel Augusta’s hand wrap tightly around my shoulder.

“Not a word, girls,” she said. “Else I promise you both a slow and painful death.”

Engulfed in mind-numbing fear, I could barely breathe, but that was nothing compared to the look on

Celia’s face. Her mouth hung open, and she looked between us wildly.

“Grandmother, you can’t do this,” called Greyson.

“Celia will let me go, and there’s no reason for anyone to die. Think about what you’re doing. She’s your daughter.”

“Celia is no longer any daughter of mine,” said Augusta, her voice rising. “She tried to kill my son, and she kidnapped my grandson.”

“Only because she thought you’d killed her entire family,” shouted Greyson. “If you do this, Grandmother, you won’t just lose her. You’ll lose me, too.”

Her grip tightened on my shoulder, and I winced. If I survived this, I’d have a nasty bruise. “You don’t understand now, but you will in time,” she said. “Now, Celia—you have ten seconds to make your choice, or I will make it for you.”

The guards drew their weapons. When the one beside me pressed the barrel of his gun against my neck, all I could think of was Benjy and how he’d stormed off before we’d had the chance to say goodbye. Would he hate himself for it, or would he eventually forgive himself? Would my death save his life? Or would he be sent Elsewhere so Augusta wouldn’t have to worry about him, either?

“Five,” said Augusta. “Four. Three. Two—”

“The one on the left,” cried Celia.

The crack of a gun echoed off the mountainsides around us, and I instinctively ducked, covering my ears with my trembling hands.

I was still standing.

My eyes flew open, and Augusta smiled cruelly down at me. She set her hand on the back of my neck and traced the three ridges underneath my VII. “Go, Lila,” she said.

“Go to your mother.”

On the other side of her, crumpled in a heap, was Lila.

My stomach twisted violently, and it took everything I had to put one foot in front of the other. But as I walked away, I noticed a tiny blue plume sticking out of her neck, and her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.

She was still alive. Would that have been me if Celia had chosen Lila? Had Augusta known which of us was which?

As I crossed the clearing, Greyson knelt on the snowy ground and gathered up Celia, who had collapsed. She’d kidnapped him and threatened to kill him, and he was hugging her.

“Greyson,” said Augusta sharply. “Come.”

The look he gave her could have melted steel. He helped Celia to her feet, and without wasting any time, she reached for me. As she wrapped her arms around me, I looked at Greyson, and he touched the middle of his chest—right in the place where the silver necklace rested against mine.

As the guard led him away, I gave him a small smile, and he returned it. Even if I never saw him again, at least he was safe.

Celia held me so tightly that she nearly broke my ribs.