Free LEGACY BETRAYED by Rachel Eastwood

told him where she was, it must have meant that he was trustworthy.
                  Legacy opened the door and Liam Wilco strode inside, pale and all clenched up, which wasn’t an unusual countenance for the man. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Did something happen?”
                  “I did it,” he told her.
                  “Did what?”
                  “I betrayed you. And –then –Dyna didn’t even run the story. She traded it to the damn duke for a position in his court. ‘Personal relations’ or some tripe.”
                  “Ah,” Legacy replied, glancing at the radio with a nod. Though quiet, it was constantly on. “Now it makes sense.”
                  “I don’t understand how or where or when it all got so messed up,” Liam went on, heavily pacing away from her, then treading back. “I mean, if the rebels have the duke, and the duke has the media, and the media has all the damn people of Icarus, then the rebels have won, haven’t they?” He paused and shot his former Companion a searching gaze of mild panic.
    Legacy glared. “We haven’t won, Liam. We don’t have the duke. I –‘had’ the duke. That was all. It wasn’t political, you know. Trimpot didn’t make –I’m not a whore, Liam! It was personal.” Liam glared back, but Legacy forged ahead. “And so is the revolution. None of this is subterfuge. It’s honest. Real people who want genuine, open change. We’re not seducing the crown to push some secret, self-serving agenda. I just kissed Kaizen because I kissed Kaizen. It was before I was even in the CC, you know.” She shook her head. “And trust me, the duke is not interested in doing any favors for the rebels. He’s got a trap set for all of them this Friday. I know that much.”
    “You know about the fake rally?” Liam asked.
    “Yeah, I know about the fake rally,” she replied. “Kaizen is alive, and Malthus is dead, and Trimpot defected, and the rally is an ambush.”
    “Then you know about the disinformation campaign we’ve been running through Dyna Logan all damn week. It’s killing me. Pretending that Malthus is alive. Pretending that no one knows where Trimpot is. Oh, but I can tell you where Trimpot is.”
    “Oh?”
    “Lion’s Head, that’s where,” he snapped. “Dyna let it slip during a rant about her new neighbor, who is a ‘security risk’ that the duke had shoehorned into the community, that she could hardly sleep at night, because ‘there might be some kind of CC arson or vandalism at any moment.’ It’s enough to make me sick. Royals in bed with rebels all around. Lies on the news. Me, forced to write them all down and act like nothing is happening. I don’t know where the line is anymore between the two sides.”
    Legacy almost smiled. Liam was finally having his doubts.
    “At least he’s going through with that rally-ambush,” Liam added. “He hasn’t totally lost his senses.”
    The near-smile dropped from her face. “Liam!” she snapped. “If those arrests happen, it could mean the deaths of a hundred innocent people!”
    “Innocent? They’re murderers!” he countered.
    “They’re members! They didn’t have anything to do with that assassination plot against the duke! There were only two members out of that hundred at the entire coronation. The real murderer is Neon Trimpot, the mastermind, and he won’t even be there, will he? No, he’ll be at his cushy mansion in Lion’s Head, won’t he? Letting everyone else take the fall.” What she said next, she knew wasn’t true, but she pushed the suggestion anyway, because it was the one way she knew she might be able to enlist Liam’s help. There was nothing he hated more than a scheme. “You know, this could all have been an intricate rouse between Kaizen and Trimpot to oust Malthus all along. Trimpot whips up some disenfranchised commoners to frame, Kaizen receives the crown, and