Free Love and Decay by Rachel Higginson Page B

fight.
    But I would carry this kiss with me forever.
I would remember the feel of him and the taste of him and every
second of his touch until my last breath.
    Miller had finally come back to me.
    I didn’t have to worry about losing him
again.
     
    ****
     
    The man stared out at his kingdom through the
dimness of night. Stars blinked overhead and a thin moon faded
somewhere in the sky, but the man’s gaze was fixed downward, out of
his high tower.
    His fingers ached, but he moved them over the
wheels of the chair he was confined to, pushing himself closer to
the window. He didn’t always have to use the chair, but tonight he
couldn’t find the will to stand. Everything hurt. Everything always
hurt, but tonight it was even more unbearable.
    His once able body had been burned and beaten
until it was a shadow of its former glory. He had been stripped of
his strength and power.
    Only his mind remained.
    Although some might argue that was his real
weapon. At least his deadliest.
    He didn’t see anything below that interested
him. His people stayed inside their homes after curfew and not a
peep would be heard before dawn. His best men guarded the wall and
if there were Feeders lurking about, they would be taken care of
soon enough.
    His life had become a well-oiled machine that
ran as smoothly as he could have hoped for. Unlike his failing
body.
    Bitterness and simmering rage surged in his
blood. He should be able to enjoy his reign. He had worked hard to
get where he was. He had sacrificed everything .
    His life should be his reward.
    And yet…
    A knock at the door pulled his attention out
of his darkening thoughts. “Come in,” he yelled, not moving from
his place at the window.
    One of his men stepped inside, followed by a
spy. The spy looked bedraggled enough. A few months on the road
would do that to a person. But there was something wild in this
one’s eyes, something cagey and frightened.
    Adrenaline spiked in his chest. What could
have scared a seasoned soldier at this point during the
Apocalypse?
    “Jim is dead,” the man wheezed before he had
been given permission to speak.
    The man allowed him this one insult because
he was clearly worked up about something. But if it happened again,
his head would adorn the spikes outside his wall. He wouldn’t allow
insolence twice.
    The spy realized his mistake and dropped his
gaze to the floor. A sign of respect.
    A symbol of justified fear.
    “Feeders or Mexicans?” he rasped through his
tortured vocal chords. His own ears hurt to hear the broken sound
of his voice. His men never reacted, though.
    They knew the consequences of reacting.
    “Neither,” the spy rushed to say. “By someone
new. Someone we’ve never seen before.”
    Adrenaline now pounded his heart and
invigorated his withered muscles. “Did you hear a name?”
    “No,” the spy promptly answered.
    “Can you describe him?”
    “It was dark. T-too dark. And I tried to stay
hidden otherwise they would’ve killed me too.”
    “Then how do you know it was someone we’ve
never seen before?” His patience drew thin, a reedy weed that
threatened to snap the second this man said one more thing he
didn’t like.
    “I could hear them. I could hear ‘em talking.
The man said that he knew you. Said he even looked like you.”
    The adrenaline turned into a blazing fire
that burned through him. Matthias could feel it eating him alive on
the inside and his skin prickled with the memory of a different
fire, one that had destroyed his body and tried to take his
life.
    He managed to keep his voice even when he
asked, “You said them.”
    The spy nodded. “There was a girl too.”
    “His sister?” Matthias asked.
    “I-I don’t think so,” the spy answered. “But
maybe.”
    No matter. One was enough. Matthias turned
back to the window.
    The spy’s tentative voice broke through a
whole new train of thoughts. “Should I do something about
them?”
    When Matthias’s lips curled into a smile, it
surprised