Chapter 24: The Plan

We planned it at the steel table, with the lights off in the clinic and the kitchen door closed.

Marla had drawn the cathedral on the back of a prescription pad.

The old woman sat at the end with her boots up on a second chair, supervising.

Eamon stood at the window with his arms crossed.

"No," he said.

"You haven't heard it yet."

"I don't need to. You walk in alone, and she has a hundred guards on the floor. No."

"I'm not alone. I have you."

"You'll be on the dais."

"I'll be at the back, in the crowd, until the moment I choose."

"Hazel."

"She buried me in front of that territory," I said. "I'm walking back in front of the same one."

He turned from the window.

His jaw was tight and his eyes were hurt, and I understood that he was not arguing with the plan.

He was arguing with the ceiling of a cathedral and the glass in my hand.

"If something goes wrong," he said quietly, "I won't be near you."

"Then don't let it."

"That isn't a plan."

"This is the plan," Marla said, tapping the pad. "Listen."

She pointed.

"Lydia wants the whole territory in mourning for Hazel before the crowning. It makes the new Luna look generous."

"So she's having the pod dug up from the ridge and carried into the cathedral crypt."

"For a public blessing," Eamon said bitterly. "My captain told me. He thought it was a kindness."

"The pod is full of sandbags," I said. "Marla opens it in front of everyone."

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