Free Sweet Desire (Tales of Dystopian Decadence Book 2) by Finley Blake Page A

wait.
     

Chapter 7
    The nights grew increasingly longer as the Alaskan winter settled across the tundra, until the forsaken land existed in perpetual dusk. I imagined anyone else, especially someone isolated and alone, might have gone crazy. Part of me wondered how Nicholas had managed to keep any shred of sanity in the fourteen years he’d spent in this deep, dark solitude.
    We kept each other warm night after long night. We also stayed busier than I would have ever expected, me on my projects and Nicholas on his. News trickled in and Nicholas seemed more and more hopeful every time he learned something new. Just as the Regime had overthrown him, he believed he could now overthrow the Regime. As much as I hoped for the same thing, I had reservations, especially when he told me Constitutionals were actually moving against the Regime.
    “I think it’s wonderful,” I told him one night as he pored over a handful of new messages, while I worked on a new quilt, “but it scares the crap out of me.”
    “Why?”
    “Well...” I set the knitting needles on the sofa cushions and tilted my head to one side. “First, Adette disappeared right after the DeVille murder. Why? She’s nobody important, but she was matched with his son. Did she do it? Did the son do it and somehow implicate her or get rid of her? It worries me that someone I know is involved. I lost my father – I don’t want to lose a friend or a lover too.”
    Nicholas looked down his nose at me, then said, “I realize you’re worried about me, but I’m not the only person in this fight. There’s all kinds of possibilities with our numbers. What if I told you Adette did commit the murder, with Icharus’ help?”
    Although my question had been rhetorical, I gaped at him. My chest felt hollow at the thought of my dear friend harming – killing – another living creature, even one as vile as a Regime supporter. “But why would she do such a thing?”
    “She wanted revenge. Don’t you know how your friend ended up at that school?”
    The way he peered at me gave me a chill and I shook my head. “I thought she was a legacy student, admitted because her mother attended the school.”
    “Adette’s mother was both a well-known courtesan and fairly vocal Constitutionalist. DeVille had her assassinated for her views. Knowing the headmistress and her strategy, not to mention the information I’ve come by, I’m pretty sure Adette was placed with Icharus for the sole purpose of killing his father and giving the revolution a fighting chance.”
    “So she’s a fugitive from the Regime now?” I pressed my fingers to my lips. This meant death for Adette if they ever found her, death to my dear friend. On the one hand, I couldn’t blame her for her actions. Even knowing just a bit of the story, I also knew Regime supporters were a sadistic group. Still, as courtesans we should have been immune to the problems of politics. We should have been able to simply hang on a man’s arm, feel wanted by him, pretend our world’s problems did not exist…
    “That’s probably why you haven’t heard from her,” he said, pulling me from my thoughts. “But she’s not just a fugitive. She’s a catalyst for change.” He waved the sheaf of papers at me. “From Washington to L.A., people are rising up against the Regime. All it took was DeVille’s death to incite that change, underground at first, but I see more each day. Your friend isn’t the murderer or traitor the Regime will paint her as. She’s a hero and as we move against the Regime, everyone will know the truth.”
    Something in his eyes made me catch my breath and the chill took hold of me once more. I wrapped my arms around myself and whispered, “What are you going to do?”
    “Whatever I have to do,” he answered.
    I lowered my gaze to the floorboards and tapped my toes against them. My father would have joked, “Them’s fighting words,” but I knew they were no joke coming from Nicholas. Something