AN: 3 chapters left! I'm getting so excited for you guys to reach the ending. And thanks for blowing up my email with reviews this week. It really made it much easier to get back to school and find the energy to write this chapter. I'm going to start working on chapter 28 as soon as I finish my two assignments I started last night. Then tomorrow I will try and finish writing the story and publish the chapters here and there for the next week. :) Enjoy!
Maxon's POV
I headed down to the Report, ready for my last one with Kriss by my side. I didn't know how the country was going to react when Kriss got sent home. I knew that they had grown to care for her as the princess—or at least admire her in some sense. She had a lot of good ideas about the country and I wanted her to stick around and at least be able to continue to work on those ideas. I hoped she would stay and take on a new job as one of my Education Advisors. But other than that, I didn't mind that she was on her way out. Tonight, I would be announcing the peace treaty with New Asia and showing some of the photos that had been captured in that glorious moment. Then I would start to explain some of the agreements I had to make in order for the peace treaty to go through—including the end of the Castes. I straightened out my tie as I headed out onto the stage, taking my seat across from Gavril. On the other side of the stage I saw Silvia pushing Kriss out onto the platform to join me. Her expression was one of complete hesitance as she came and sat down next to me, smiling softly at Gavril as her hand slowly placed itself on my knee. I couldn't tell if I was imaging her being so reluctant but I hoped that I wasn't. If she was over me, I wouldn't be breaking her heart when I told her mine still belonged to America.
"So we will go over any little wedding details you have added to and then we will go to the plans about New Asia." Gavril said, looking through his agenda for tonight's broadcast. "Then anything else you feel like adding, your Majesties."
"Sounds wonderful, Gavril," I replied, sitting back against the sofa. The movement removed Kriss' hand from my knee and she wasn't overly eager to put it back. I looked around the stage as some members of the Council began to file into their seats. My eyes started to search for America out in the crowd but I couldn't find her anywhere. She had told me she would come to the live broadcast, just so that we would be able to be in the same room at some point in the day. I sighed, hoping that my eyes were just missing her in the sea of people and all of the bright lights. After all, why would she lie about coming? I didn't see Scott in the crowd either. Perhaps she was still ending things with him and they were just going to be late coming down here. I looked up at the balcony and saw my mother sitting behind me and Kriss. She gave me a soft smile and I nodded back at her as I turned back to the forming crowd.
"Are you ready to brag about your accomplishment?" Kriss asked, her hand sitting next to my leg on the couch. She looked sadly at her hand, then back up at me. I put her hand back on my knee, letting her lean slightly into me but the look didn't seem to get any happier. There wasn't the usual shine in her eyes that I had gotten accustomed to. She had to know now that this was all for looks, this was all for keeping up appearances until this evening.
"I don't know if I'd call it bragging," I said through gritted teeth, a little offended that she assumed I was like that. My father was always making trophies out of his accomplishments but this wasn't going to be something that I picked up following in his footsteps. "But I am very happy to be able to tell everyone that the war in New Asia is over. And that the Castes are on their way out," I whispered the last part, making sure that not even Gavril had heard what I just told Kriss. I didn't know how he was going to respond but I assumed that he trust my judgment more than some of my own delegates. She gasped, covering her mouth in complete shock that I didn't understand.
In that moment, I thought I heard a faint echo of a gunshot being set off. I paused and looked around, trying to see if someone in the crowd had set off a gun. I didn't see anything and no one else seemed to have heard it. "I must be stressing out so much that I'm hallucinating", I told myself, making my heart rate calm down from the fear. If anyone else had heard it, the Rebel alarms would have sounded and we'd all be on our way down to the Safe Rooms. There was no way that a gun could have been shot off—unless it was a military practice round with a blank—without the alarm being raised. I looked back at the crowd and to Kriss and Gavril one last time, making sure that I was the only one who had heard the sound go off. I leaned back into the sofa more, rubbing my temples while I fought the urge to run my hand through my hair. Fake or not, I was worried that if it had been real, it would be somewhere near wherever America was and I hoped that she hadn't heard the noise herself.
"You're Majesty," Gavril said, calling me back from my thoughts. "We'll be beginning in three minutes." I nodded, sitting up straight and sorting myself out so I looked professional. Clearly if the Report was going on, there was no way that there had been a gunshot within ear range of the platform. I relaxed, getting ready to talk about all my recent success and the wonderful things I had planned for the future of Illéa. I smiled at Kriss and patted her hand as the final countdown to filming started.
"Hello Illéa!" Gavril's voice rang like a song. Sometimes I really forgot just how much he loved his job. "Tonight we will be hearing from our King Maxon about his recent trip to New Asia and what news that he has that has come out of that. But first, we have some wedding details coming straight from the happy couple themselves!"
In that moment, there was a loud boom as one of the cameras blew out. I looked around confused. Technical difficulties like this had never happened before. I heard the sound of something rolling as the lights started to dim throughout the room. I looked around, trying to find the source of what I heard when I turned around and saw that there was an image projected on the wall. The other two cameras kept rolling for a moment as it captured my kiss with America at the Leger wedding. Then like the one before it, the second and third cameras blew out, cutting the broadcast short. I looked at Kriss whose face wore a look of pure confusion but not much else. I tried to get up to look for the source of all the commotion. We were clearly under attack, I just didn't know by who.
The lights flicked back on and I saw a group of at least twenty men standing behind DeLisle at the front of the platform. He snickered as my eyes followed his sneer down to his outreached arm, a gun pointed straight at me. "I warned you against your plans to end the Castes, your Majesty," he said, a mock tone of respect coming across his voice as he spat out my title. "Now the whole kingdom knows you have been unfaithful to their princess and when they see you next, you'll be in a body bag." His voice rang, pure joy radiating from his laughter at my expression.
In the background of the audience, there was several guards who had been stabbed in the darkness, others who had begun to try and take aim at some of the other assailants in the room. It was only then that I realize how many Southern Rebels had filled the audience tonight. So DeLisle was in control of them, too. "I am so sorry," I whispered from the corner of my mouth to Kriss. "I didn't want you to find out this way."
She just nodded quietly, her body frozen at all the guns pointed at the pair of us. I didn't think they would actually shoot Kriss but I knew that they didn't want her trying to run for help either. I looked up at the balcony and anger boiled in my blood as I saw two Southerners grabbing my mother at gunpoint. "Leave them alone," I growled, turning back to face DeLisle who was now playing with the gun in his hand. "You can kill me for all I care but leave the rest of the people here alone."
"That's very kind of you to offer, Maxon," he taunted, as he looked down at his gun. "Unfortunately, I don't think that it would do you any good to protect everyone else. You see, you won't be the first victim of the attack."
My heart stopped. Who had he already had the time to kill? Then it started to race again. There was only one person I could think of that he would hate more than me. The one person who had started all these changes from inside of me. The person who had inspired me to be better and get to know all of the lower Castes and their needs. I looked up at him, wanting to rage at him and attack but knowing it would do me no good. "America," I whispered hoping that I would be wrong. She had to be alive, she just had to.
"Yes, she's dead." He said, smirking proudly. I fought the urge to sink in my seat. She had to have survived whatever they did to her. She had to. My heart shattered into a million pieces as I realized the gunshot that had gone off earlier, the one that only I had heard, was the sound of my beautiful America being shot to death. A single tear slid down my face, my body fighting to show the strength I knew I had to have. "It's alright though, you'll be joining her shortly," he replied as he cocked the bullet back into his gun.
"Hit the ground!" Aspen yelled as he charged onto the stage, firing his own gun at the crowd of people on the platform. The Northern Rebels followed behind him, joining the fight in the audience and beginning to take shots at the crowd in front of me also. I grabbed Kriss' arm and started to run with her, knowing that I had to get her to a Safe Room. I looked into the balcony and saw August taking care of my mother and rushing her towards the one on the second floor. Scott took off after me and Kriss, rushing with us to the Safe Room.
I heard footsteps following behind us as we rushed around corner after corner, trying to reach a Safe Room. We came backed against a corner, having taken a wrong turn in the process of trying to outrun the assailant that had managed to escape the scene on the platform. Scott stood defensively in front of Kriss and I, and my arms instinctively pushed Kriss further behind me. If we were going to die, then I would die trying to save her. They didn't want her, they just wanted me and I wasn't going to destroy the Ambers family by letting their daughter get killed.
DeLisle stood sneering as he and Scott exchanged gunshots. I could tell that both were skilled but each bullet was also craftily dogged. Until I heard a piercing groan as Scott hit the ground, his stomach having being clipped by a bullet. His gun dropped to the floor and I stood face to face with DeLisle, pushing Kriss to the side so she wouldn't get hit if a bullet traveled directly through me. "Kill me then, but let her live," I growled, putting my arms out as I got ready to hit the ground. I knew that I was going to die but perhaps he would let her live.
The air rang with two gunshots. I groaned in pain as my body was thrown to the ground, my shoulder full of heat. I looked across the hallway to where DeLisle had once stood but now his body had sunk onto the ground. Kriss threw the gun to the ground and sat holding Scott's head in her lap. Tears whipped down her face as she begged him to keep his eyes open. I looked at the pair of them and at my shoulder. We were both going to bleed to death. Maybe if we could make it to a Safe Room then she could at least bandage him up. I didn't care to live in a world without America. But that didn't mean that Scott had to die too.
I stood up and helped Kriss put his weight on my uninjured shoulder. "You're going to have to carry most of him," I said to her, making her get her act together. "If we can make it to a Safe Room, there might be something for you to stop the bleeding. The bullet will have to wait to come out until someone comes to get us. But you have to keep your act together," I ordered, wincing through the pain. I bit my lip as I forced myself to walk. Scott's weight was making my body uneven, making the blood pour out of me more quickly. But I didn't care.
Somehow we made it to the Safe Room and I laid on the floor after getting Kriss the first aid kit. There was hardly enough bandages in there for his wound, but it would have to work. I laid in the corner of the room, listening to her beg him to keep her eyes open as she took care of him. I whimpered in pain in the corner, feeling the blood still pour out of me from my make-shift bandage I had created from my shirt. "Before, before I die," I whispered, looking over at Kriss. I knew I had to calm her down if she had any chance of saving Scott, "Do you think, do you think I could hear your love story. I think I deserve it, you know mine, mine." I whispered.
"Yeah, I guess you do," Kriss whispered, drying her eyes as she lightly kissed Scott's head before going back to bandaging him. "I'll tell you."
Sorry this chapter is a little on the shorter side. The last two will be a little bit longer, but I don't think chapter 28 will be among my longest chapters either. Sorry! But I don't think you really mind because there will be a lot off Kriscott in the next chapter.
