Black City by Richards Elizabeth

Author:Richards, Elizabeth [Richards, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2012-11-03T07:00:00+00:00

19

ASH

I WAKE UP to a blinding light. Is this paradise? My dad always described his vision of heaven as a bright white light. No. My kind don’t go to that place, we go to the Elsewhere. Darts of pain shoot through my skull where I’ve been hit. Definitely not in paradise. I blink twice and try to adjust my eyes. At first I think I’m outside, the light is so piercing. Then things begin to come into focus: a door, UV strip lights, polished metal walls.

I howl as another white-hot pain strikes me, like a thousand hands ripping me apart. My body has been stripped naked, and it’s red raw and blistered where the UV rays from the lights overhead have scorched my skin.

I try to move and realize I can’t; my left foot is bound to the wall by a heavy silver chain. Oh fragg, oh fragg, oh fragg . . . I yank on the chain, which sizzles into my palms and ankle, but it doesn’t budge an inch.

The metal door clanks open, and Natalie’s mom, the Emissary, appears at the threshold. Her pale hands are clasped in front of her sickeningly thin body, her breastbone clearly visible beneath her stretched skin. There’s nothing of Natalie’s warmth and softness about her; there’s no resemblance at all, except the cornflower blue of her eyes. In the corridor behind her, Martha—the Darkling housemaid I rescued at the market—is mopping a stain off the floor. A worried look flits across her face when she sees me. The Emissary impatiently shoos her away.

Emissary Buchanan enters my cell, and the guards shut the door. She holds a sachet of Synth-O-Blood in one hand, while the other is closed around a small object I can’t see.

“I didn’t kill Chris,” I say through cracked lips. “I didn’t even know he was dead.”

She contemplates me for a long moment, then opens her hand to show a two of hearts playing card. My calling card! I’d given it to Chris earlier this week.

“Does this look familiar to you?” she says.

“You can’t keep me here. I have rights.”

“You don’t have any rights, twin-blood. You’re not human.”

I pull against my restraints, a low growl escaping my lips.

She steps back warily. “I recommend you control yourself.”

“I didn’t kill Chris,” I say again, desperation creeping into my voice.

“Chris Thompson died of a Haze overdose. You’re the only twin-blood registered in the city, and he had your playing card, which I’ve been informed you give to your ‘clients.’ That’s all the evidence we need.”

A cannonball drops in my stomach. I can’t believe this is happening! I’m going to get executed for a crime I didn’t even commit.

“Just confess to the crime, and this will all be over,” she says icily.

“I didn’t do it!”

She makes a signal with her hand, and a second later the UV lights turn up to full power. I howl again as my skin explodes with pain.

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