Clemency

These poor fools. It was almost funny, the way that they thought they could overpower me, even two against one. I had fled my room as quickly as possible to preserve the nice, antique furniture, not to mention my own personal belongings. I figured that the roof was a good place for a confrontation like this. Higher stakes, for certain.

While most of me was thinking in that cold, logical way, another part was seriously worried and confused and freaking out. I wasn't used to fighting like this. This was, after all, only my first serious encounter with the Coalition. How had they even gotten in? How had they gotten past the guards? How had they found me? Were the guards hurt or worse? What about Carrick? It was times like these that I needed him most.

My mind was racing, but not as fast as my body moved. I never realized how liberating fighting like this could be. Duck, kick, spin. It was almost like ballet, except that my partners' faces were gushing blood. I was coated in it, but I, myself, wasn't bleeding.

I finally saw the opening I'd been waiting for and managed to reach behind me for the taser that I always wore belted behind my back. Here was hoping they would think it was a real gun and flee. I didn't want to have to hurt them any more than I already had, but if they kept going in for the necklace and my head, they were going to get it.

I looked down my shirt, checking to make sure that the necklace really was there. It glinted sorrowfully at me, seeming to realize the same thing that I already had.

These guys weren't leaving until I made them or they had the Stone. And I couldn't let them get it. That would let everyone down. Not only Carrick, but the community. They were my family now, ever since I'd had to move away from Dad- a sacrifice I made for him to keep him safe right after I got out of the hospital. Carrick had performed a memory wipe on him so that he didn't even know he had a daughter anymore. Aaron, too, would have forgotten all about me. Maybe in the future I could be reunited with them, but for now it was just too dangerous.

I still had sleepless nights where I lie in bed yearning for home.

And it was thinking about home and how these bastards had torn me away from mine that gave me the strength to charge the one straight off of the roof.

The other didn't blink twice, and I realized just how heartless they really were. He didn't seem remotely concerned for his partner.

"Impressive, pretty girl. I suppose you're going to try and do the same to me now, eh? Don't count on it. That trinket on your neck will be mine," the remaining goon taunted. A flash of some emotion I couldn't identify glinted in his eye and, before I could figure out what it was, I was being grabbed from behind with a cold blade against my neck.

"We've got to make this fast," a breathless female voice said. "They'll be here soon and then it will be impossible to get the Stone."

I knew that voice, I realized with a jolt. "Marie?" I whispered roughly, afraid to say anything lest the blade cut my throat. She laughed, but the sound was chilling. Apathetic.

"Did you miss me, darling?" She asked in the perky, cheerful, totally fake tone that I was used to. How had I ever for one moment believed that she was harmless, normal? I struggled against her, but that only had her holding me tighter. "Ah, what do you think you're doing? Wriggle much more and you'll cut your pretty neck, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?"

"I would," the man I'd just been fighting put in stupidly. Marie hissed.

"Can it, moron!"

An idea flashed in my head. Maybe it wouldn't work, but it was all I had. "You're going to talk to a member of your team like that? Aren't you supposed to be equals, fighting for the same side?"

"Yeah!" the thug threw in.

"Ernie, don't agree with her!" Marie objected.

"Don't tell me what to do. Who do you think you are, Arden?" Ernie was getting genuinely mad, just as I had hoped he would. His fists flexed dangerously, making the tattoo of a dragon on his upper arm writhe.

"Please. I'm ten times smarter than Arden will ever be," Marie said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Just wait until the boss hears you said that about him. It'll be the end of you and he'll have a new favorite."

"Who's that going to be, you? You can hardly even tie your own shoes. You don't have what it takes to be in charge," Marie snapped. She was growing more distressed, with her voice racing through several octaves. The threat Ernie made had really gotten to her. This was good news for me.

Soon, they were both shouting at each other incoherently. I didn't dare try to get away, not yet. As Marie tensed up, so did her arms. They were a rigid prison, and they were growing ever tighter. I could feel a trickle of blood sliding down my neck.

The door to the roof burst open and Marie and Ernie's argument was forgotten. Marie whirled around, dragging me with her and cutting me even deeper. If it got any worse, I would need a doctor. I couldn't heal myself, only others.

"Marie, let her go!" Someone shouted. Carrick. I was going to be okay now. He was here and he was going to rescue me, and after that he wouldn't be able to argue anymore that leaving was for the best. Carrick was going to stay, and I was going to live. My heart raced faster in anticipation and stupidly, I wished that it would slow just so that I wouldn't bleed so much. I could feel it collecting on my chest now, on the necklace.

"Sorry, love, that's not part of the plan here."

"It's not too late to do the right thing," Carrick said to her, creeping closer. The people who had followed him up here stayed back in the shadows, tense and ready but not willing to get between them just yet. I recognized one of the girls, Sara. We normally sat together at dinner because of her interest in Nelly. She was deathly pale and her wide, terrified eyes were fixed on mine. I tried to give her a reassuring look, but I wasn't exactly in the best position for that.

A deep tremor passed through Marie. "Yes, it is." Her voice had lost some of its anger. I recalled what Carrick had told me, that she had once been his partner. This had to be hard for them both.

"No. Just let Jade go and we can work everything out. Look at my eyes. See that I'm not lying to you. No one will hurt you. We can protect you from Arden and this fool. Please, Marie, I'm begging you. Come back. Don't do this."

"You always were a little too forgiving. Who's to say that I wouldn't turn around and betray you?"

"You wouldn't. Marie, I know you. You're a good person." I really had to disagree with him there, but I decided not to voice that particular opinion, considering she quite literally had my life in her hands.

"No, I'm not. And there's no going back. This is all that's left for me. I have to stay, don't you get it? I have to stay, and if I don't give Arden what he wants…" I heard in those words the echo of a lost, scared little girl and got the feeling that there was some part of the story here that was missing. What could make someone as strong and fierce and cold-blooded as Marie sound that way?

"Then what? What could he possibly do that would be so bad?"

"Don't. Just don't ask. We've dragged this out too long already. I need to take what I came for and get out. But in order to honor those years of friendship we had, I'm willing to give a little. You have a choice, Carrick, and I'm trusting you not to choose wrongly. I'll leave with the necklace, or I'll leave with Jade."

Carrick went as pale as his hair, which shouldn't have even been possible. "Don't do this," he said tightly. His eyes, for the first time, met mine. They were panic-stricken, agonized. I jerked my head once, digging the blade even deeper into my neck. It was worth it, though. I had to show him that it was okay. He might have been my protector for a time, but it was always the Stone that he was really protecting. He had to let me go.

"Don't take too long to choose or I'll kill her here and now, right before your helpless eyes," Marie warned. Her fingers gripped the hilt of her dagger, showing that she was absolutely serious. She didn't care if I ended up dead. She just wanted her game with Carrick.

"Don't make me do this." Carrick's voice, astonishingly, broke. I could see him consciously withdrawing himself from the situation, bracing himself for the blow to come. For the decision that had to be made. I braced myself, too. It wouldn't be easy, hearing Carrick speak the words that would be my death sentence.

"Tick tock," Marie taunted.

Carrick lifted his head up to the sky. I looked up, too, but whatever wisdom he gained from the clouds wouldn't come to me. When he looked back over at us, his eyes met mine for a brief, charged instant before he looked over to Marie. "Let her go." Immediately, there was a clamoring from our audience. Exclamations of disbelief, of disgust.

"No!" I protested. "Carrick, I'm not worth it."

"Do you realize what this means?" The disbelief was evident in Marie's voice, and there was another emotion underneath it, something far more human than I had believed her capable of.

"Let her go," Carrick repeated in a hard little voice. "Now."