“I could hand it over to Marlow instead,” Vin suggests calmly. “Absorb it into The Hive.”

“The other Colonies won’t just let that go. They’ll take it back.”

“We’ll find out.”

I stop pacing, my eyes landing on his unnaturally calm face. “When?”

“Soon,” he says quietly, watching me too. “In the next half hour or so.”

“He’s on his way, isn’t he?”

“He’s been spotted. He’s bringing an army. Just like you said he would.”

I square my shoulders, standing tall and defiant. “You don’t think that I—”

“Why would I?”

“But you don’t trust anyone.”

Vin looks down at his desk where his hands are clasped together loosely. He’s absently spinning his ring on his finger the way he does when he’s thinking, only I wonder if it’s as unconscious an act as I imagine. He pauses, pulling the ring from his finger and looking it over thoughtfully.

“Today is as good a day as any to start,” he mutters.

“What’s the plan?” Ryan asks curtly. “What will you do when Marlow gets here?”

“I haven’t decided,” Vin says on a sigh, slipping the ring back on his finger. “I’ll open the doors. I’ll let him in. I’ll listen. From there, I don’t know.”

“Letting him in is pretty much letting him have this place,” I remind him.

“It’s better than letting the Colonies have it back.”

“They’ll probably take it back anyway.”

“Maybe. But they have bigger things on their mind right now.”

“Like what?”

“Like the mess you started with the Vashons.”

I scowl at him. “We didn’t start anything. Marlow sent us to them and—”

“He sent the Colonists there too,” Ryan says.

“What?”

Vin is nodding at Ryan. “I think so. The timing is too perfect. He sent you there and days later the Colonists attack an enemy they’ve left alone for at least four years? Pretty convenient.”

“But why?” I ask.

“Because he’s not strong enough to attack them himself.”

“The Colonists or the Vashons?”

“Take your pick. He hates them both. Now they’re busy fighting each other.”

“The Hive boat,” Ryan says bitterly. “He sent us sailing down the river in the dead of night in a bright white boat, straight past the Colonies, heading for Vashon Island. He probably gave it a day, and then went to the Colonies and told them he’d been to a meeting with the Vashons. A meeting they called about joining forces and overthrowing them.”

“It’s not completely a lie,” I say.

“But it was the other way around. It was him bringing the idea to the Vashons.”

“Intent is everything,” Vin agrees.

“So now Marlow has the Colonies fighting the Vashons, two of the largest forces left in the city. His two biggest rivals.”

“And one of his closest men is on the inside of an undefended Colony building,” I say, looking to Vin.

“He thinks he’s coming here to take this place,” he says quietly. “He has no idea it’s already been taken.”

“He’ll kill people,” Ryan warns.

“Not if I throw the doors open and go out to meet him.”

“That’s why you’re opening the doors to him?” I ask skeptically. “To save the lives of the people inside?”

“Well, that and I don’t want him damaging my home.”

“You still think you can hold onto it?”

He stands suddenly, his eyes hard. Determined. “Either I keep what’s mine,” he says severely, “or I’ll watch it burn.”

“And what happens to the people inside? The ones following you? Trusting you blindly?”

“We all have our own paths to follow,” he replies coldly.

I scoff at him. “You’re full of it.”

“Usually, yes.”

“You won’t leave these people to die and you won’t leave them to Marlow. You’re not that selfish.”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “Since when?”

“Since you tasted real leadership. Not control, not fear, not power. They follow you because they love you and you get off on that more than anything.”

“I wouldn’t say more than anything. I’m still a man, Kitten.”

“Then act like one.”

He grins slightly, eyeing me. “Gladly.”

“Stop.”

Vin and I both look at Ryan. He’s standing just behind me, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes locked on Vin. He’s not himself—not the warm, funny guy I’ve come to know and love.

He’s Arena Ryan, made of stone and fire.

“Stop talking to her like that,” Ryan warns Vin, “or I’ll show you what a man looks like.”

Vin’s grin doesn’t falter, but his eyes change. They’re amused. “I understand it’s meant to sound like a threat, but I feel like you’re flirting with me, Hyperion.”

“You’re not my type and she’s not yours, so back off.”

“Is that how it is? You’re finally staking your claim on her?”

“She’s not a piece of property to be claimed.”

Vin snorts. “That’s cute, but it’s a lie and you know it. Things aren’t like they used to be. Resources are scarce. She’s one of the rarest items I’ve seen in a long time and if you don’t hurry up and mark your territory, someone else will and it won’t be sweet and it sure as hell won’t be pretty.”

Ryan tenses. “It won’t happen like that. Not as long as I’m alive.”

“You’re walking around with a diamond in your hand hoping a city of thieves will let you keep it. Once Marlow marches through that door, you won’t be able to keep her any more than I can keep this Colony.” Vin’s voice lowers, softening slightly. “We’re both about to lose everything. I’m willing to destroy what’s mine to keep it from being taken. What are you going to do?”

Ryan stares back at Vin for a long time. I don’t bother speaking up. I don’t tell them I’m my own person and they don’t need to defend me, that I’m no one’s property, blah, blah, blah. They wouldn’t listen to me, so why bother? And here’s the real bitch of it: I don’t know that it’s necessarily true. I don’t know that they’re wrong.

I remember the way Marlow looked at me when I was in his Hive. I remember what it felt like to tell him I was a Benjamin, the reaction he had and the feeling it gave me in the pit of my stomach. I know what it means, I’m not an idiot. I understand what Vin can see, what Marlow wants, and what Ryan will die to protect it.

“I’ll kill Marlow.”

I close my eyes, feeling defeated.

Ryan is completely calm, completely certain, and completely out of his friggin’ mind.

“Ryan, you—” I begin tiredly, opening my eyes.

“Give me an opening and I’ll kill Marlow.”

I feel sick to my stomach, but Vin is grinning.

“Hyperion,” he says slowly, “you got yourself a deal.”

Chapter Eleven

“He’s playing you!” I shout at Ryan.

My voice echoes off the hard, gray walls of the showers. We’re waiting for the line to form outside—the line of Colonists being rounded up and sent away down the tunnels to hide from Marlow and his men. Vin has a lot of confidence in his ability to talk Marlow down from killing everyone inside, but he’s not insane. Confidence does not equal a sure thing, so the entire place—aside from the Guard—is being evacuated. Trent seems pretty sure we can find our way out without getting lost and dying in the dark. As much as I trust his wicked sharp eyes and bizarre computer brain that probably mapped every inch of tunnel we’ve seen so far, I have my doubts. About everything.

Right now as I stand in front of Ryan shouting, I know people can hear us—especially the guards just outside the door—but I don’t care. I’m angry and they can all know it. I hope they feel it, taste it. Choke on it.

To my surprise, Ryan laughs. “Of course he’s playing me.”

“Then why did you agree to it?”

“Because it needs to be done.”

“You can’t kill Marlow.”

“He’s a man. All men can be killed. Vin will find me the opening to make it happen.”

“He’ll screw you over is what he’ll do.”

“Not on this. He needs Marlow dead just as much as I do.”