“I will.”
The room gasps. I feel Warner go stiff beside me.
“Damn, princess,” Kenji says quietly.
“And then?” Castle asks, ignoring everyone but me. “After that?” His eyes are worried. Scared, almost. “You’re going to kill whoever else stands in your way? All the other sector leaders, all across the nation? That’s 554 more wars—”
“Some will surrender,” I tell him.
“And the others?” he asks. “How can you lead a nation in the right direction when you’ve just slaughtered all who oppose you? How will you be any different from those you’ve defeated?”
“I trust myself,” I tell him, “to be strong enough to do what’s right. Our world is dying right now. You said yourself that we have the means to reclaim our land—to change things back to the way they were. Once power is in the right place—with us—you can rebuild what you started at Omega Point. You’ll have the freedom to implement those changes to our land, water, animals, and atmosphere, and save millions of lives in the process—giving the new generations hope for a different future. We have to try,” I tell him. “We can’t just sit back and watch people die when we have the power to make a difference.”
The room goes silent. Still.
“Hell,” Winston says. “I’d follow you into battle.”
“Me too,” Alia says.
“And me.” Brendan.
“You know I’m in,” Kenji says.
“Me too,” Lily and Ian say at the same time.
Castle takes a deep breath. “Maybe,” he says. He leans back in his chair, clasps his hands. “Maybe you’ll be able to do right what I did wrong.” He shakes his head. “I am twenty-seven years your senior and I’ve never had your confidence, but I do understand your heart. And I trust that you say what you believe to be true.” A pause. A careful look. “We will support you. But know now that you are taking on a great and terrifying responsibility. One that may backfire in an irreversible way.”
“I do understand that,” I say quietly.
“Very well then, Ms. Ferrars. Good luck, and godspeed. Our world is in your hands.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
“You didn’t tell me what you thought of my plan.”
Warner and I have just stepped back into his room and he still hasn’t said a word to me. He’s standing by the door to his office, his eyes on the floor. “I didn’t realize you wanted my opinion.”
“Of course I want your opinion.”
“I should really get back to work,” he says, and turns to go.
I touch his arm.
Warner goes rigid. He stands, unmoving, his eyes trained on the hand I’ve placed on his forearm.
“Please,” I whisper. “I don’t want it to be like this with us. I want us to be able to talk. To get to know each other again, properly—to be friends—”
Warner makes a strange sound deep in his throat. Puts a few feet between us. “I am doing my best, love. But I don’t know how to be just your friend.”
“It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” I try to tell him. “There can be steps in between—I just need time to understand you like this—as a different person—”
“But that’s just it.” His voice is worn thin. “You need time to understand me as a different person. You need time to fix your perception of me.”
“Why is that so wrong—”
“Because I am not a different person,” he says firmly. “I am the same man I’ve always been and I have never tried to be different. You have misunderstood me, Juliette. You’ve judged me, you’ve perceived me to be something I am not, but that is no fault of mine. I have not changed, and I will not change—”
“You already have.”
His jaw clenches. “You have quite a lot of gall to speak with such conviction on matters you know nothing about.”
I swallow, hard.
Warner steps so close to me I’m actually afraid to move. “You once accused me of not knowing the meaning of love,” he says. “But you were wrong. You fault me, perhaps, for loving you too much.” His eyes are so intense. So green. So cold. “But at least I do not deny my own heart.”
“And you think I do,” I whisper.
Warner drops his eyes. Says nothing.
“What you don’t understand,” I tell him, my voice catching, “is that I don’t even know my own heart anymore. I don’t know how to name what I feel yet and I need time to figure it out. You want more right now but right now what I need is for you to be my friend—”
Warner flinches.
“I do not have friends,” he says.
“Why can’t you try?”
He shakes his head.
“Why? Why not give it a chance—”
“Because I am afraid,” he finally says, voice shaking, “that your friendship would be the end of me.”
I’m still frozen in place as his office door slams shut behind him.
THIRTY-EIGHT
I never thought I’d see Warner in sweatpants.
Or sneakers.
And right now, he’s wearing both. Plus a T-shirt.
Now that our group is staying in Warner’s training facilities, I have a reason to tag along as he starts his day. I always knew he spent a lot of time working, but I never knew how much of his time was spent working out. He’s so disciplined, so precise about everything. It amazes me.
He starts his mornings on a stationary bike, ends his evenings with a run on the treadmill. And every weekday he works out a different part of his body.
“Mondays are for legs,” I heard him explain to Castle. “Tuesdays I work chest. Wednesdays I work my shoulders and my back. Thursdays are for triceps and deltoids. Fridays are for biceps and forearms. And every day is for abdominals and cardio. I also spend most weekends doing target practice,” he said.
Today is Tuesday.
Which means right now, I’m watching him bench-press three hundred and fifteen pounds. Three forty-five-pound plates on each side of what Kenji told me is called an Olympic bar, which weighs an additional forty-five pounds. I can’t stop staring. I don’t think I’ve ever been more attracted to him in all the time I’ve known him.
Kenji pulls up next to me. Nods at Warner. “So this gets you going, huh?”
I’m mortified.
Kenji barks out a laugh.
“I’ve never seen him in sweatpants before.” I try to sound normal. “I’ve never even seen him in shorts.”