“And then what?” Juliette asked. “Juliette Cai, Princess of Shanghai, killed by random worker. The textbooks on the revolution will be sure to mention it. I come to you, offering you my life side by side with my husband, and you throw it away?”
Dimitri tilted his head now. Her words registered.
“You mean to say—”
“I’m not trading my life for Roma’s,” she confirmed. “For Marshall Seo and Alisa Montagova. Let them go. They didn’t need to be dragged into this fight.”
“What?” Marshall exclaimed. “Juliette, you’re out of your mind—”
The nearest worker pressed his rifle into Marshall’s neck, shutting him up. Dimitri’s gaze, meanwhile, swiveled to his captured subjects, a notch appearing in his brow as he tried to consider the matter. He didn’t look like he was entirely buying it. Perhaps Juliette was not acting this right.
She met Roma’s gaze. He didn’t believe her either.
Perhaps the only way to convince Dimitri was to convince Roma first.
“I made a vow to you, Roma.” She took a step forward. No one stopped her. “Where you go, I go. I will not bear a day parted. I will take a dagger to my own heart if I must.”
Her shoes clicked down on the ground—on gravel, on tram-line metal, on a drain covering. With every step, the crowd continued to part and shuffle. There was confusion, hearing her words spoken to Roma, to her enemy. There was panic, not wanting to be caught in her path, fearful of her even when her hands were in the air, even with rifles pointed at her head from three different directions. It was as if she were partaking in the most bizarre wedding march, if the groom waiting on the other end of the aisle was Roma tied and bound for death.
“No,” Roma whispered.
“This city has been taken,” Juliette went on. The hitch in her voice was not feigned. The tears that rose to her eyes were not feigned. “All that is good is gone, or perhaps it never existed. The blood feud kept us apart, forced us onto different sides. I will not allow death to do the same.”
By then Juliette had come to a stop right before Roma. She could have tried to break him out in that moment, snatch a rifle and slash the sharp part over his rope bindings.
Instead, she leaned in and kissed him.
And from under her tongue, she pushed the vaccine into his mouth.
“Bite down,” she whispered, just before two of the armed workers yanked her away. The crowd around them murmured in utter bewilderment. This had been a public execution, and now it was appearing more like a ground for scandal.
Juliette whipped her hand out, closing her fingers around one of the rifle ends and pointing it straight at Dimitri. The workers scrambled to stop her, but Juliette wasn’t doing anything except keeping her hand near the barrel. She was nowhere near the trigger. The rest of the rifle remained strapped to the poor worker, who had frozen in confusion.
“You don’t know what I am capable of,” she said, her voice ringing loud in the night. “But I am honorable. Let them go. And I will not resist.”
The scene was still for a long moment. Then:
“I tire of these dramatics,” Dimitri announced. “Just tie her up. Let go of the other two.”
Alisa cried out softly in protest, her eyes drawn wide. Marshall, meanwhile, leaned forward with a vicious curse. His face would have been red with exertion if the light were better, wanting to fight Dimitri himself and put a stop to this.
“You cannot be serious. Juliette, you cannot trade your life. What’s wrong with you—”
Juliette said nothing. She said nothing as they untied Alisa and let her stumble away. She said nothing as Marshall was released from his bindings too, his expression utterly rattled, looking up at Juliette as they dragged her to the pole and looped her tightly to it. He was bouncing on his toes—a second away from lunging at Dimitri, all the armed workers be damned.
“You cannot be serious,” he said again. “You absolutely cannot—”
“Go, Marshall,” Roma said roughly. He didn’t know what he had swallowed, but he had to know now that it meant there was a plan. “Don’t make this all for nothing. Take Alisa and go.”
Go, Juliette wanted to add. Go, and Benedikt can explain everything.
Marshall visibly hesitated. Then he took Alisa’s hand and hurried away with her, charging through the crowd as if afraid that they would shoot him in the back as soon as he turned around. Juliette let out a breath when they disappeared from view.
She had almost been afraid they would shoot.