Heartless

❆ Two ❆

TWO

My heart crashed against my rib cage.

    I sucked in shallow breaths to try and process Bromm's words. Another sob erupted from my chest. I sat up to meet his gaze. "What?" The world tilted from under me. From far away, I felt his hand grip my arm to steady me, ice crackling from his fingertips. He opened his mouth, the muscles of his throat bobbing as he spoke, but the sound didn't reach my ringing ears. "That's not possible," I slurred. The noise of my surroundings came blaring through my echoing head. I leapt from my chair with a panicked jolt. "You can't nominate him. Hendric is sick, Bromm. You can't do that!"

    He stood to tower over me, holding his hands out to supposedly calm me down. But I didn't want to settle down— I couldn't. "Let me explain." His eyes flicked over my shoulder. I followed them to find Sazi standing at the entrance to their room in the very back. Her hand was crossed over her mouth, her eyes filled with tears as she gaped at me. Pity. That's what that look is. I sucked in a gasping breath. Her arms were suddenly around me, crushing me to her chest as she rubbed my hair to smooth it down. I stood stiff in the circle of her embrace, frozen. "I'm so sorry, Ada," she croaked through choked gasps.

    I pulled out of her arms and stood back, staring numbly at both of them. "You're wrong," I blubbered through lips that were suddenly a thousand pounds heavier. My tongue swelled inside my mouth. "That's not possible. You can't nominate the sick!" Hot tears poured down my cheeks. In the deep parts of my mind, I knew it was somehow harder this way. At least with the blood rose, there was a chance that I could heal him, help him get better. No one had ever come back alive from the disease, but I was willing to try if it kept him alive long enough for me to salvage enough money to get us to the city over the mountains. But now that chance was gone. His death was sealed. Not by the cough of the blood rose, but by the pluck of a ballot.

    Hendric was going to die.

    Bromm was speaking when I pulled myself from my thoughts. He stepped toward me, arms outstretched to hold me like he used to. "Adaira, please listen to me—"

    "No!" I screamed. I shoved at his chest. "No, I should have been there. I should have been at the meeting."

    He shook his head. "Sweetheart, you're not eighteen."

    "Two months!" I shouted, flailing my arms. I ignored the pain in my hip when I bumped the edge of the table, keeping my eyes on them as I moved toward the door. "No! You're lying! You can't elect a sick person!"

    Bromm's fist crashed down on the countertop. "He volunteered!" His roar deafened me, but not by his volume. The word reverberated inside me. "Hendric nominated himself for the offering."

    Volunteered... I glared at him. "You lying son of a bitch," I growled. My hands clenched into fists at my sides. "He is dying. He can barely sit up in bed, much less walk." How dare he lie to me, the filthy bastard!

    Bromm narrowed his eyes at me, shocked at my anger. "Hendric walked himself through those doors last night and lifted his hand to volunteer." He stormed behind the counter and reached at something. Coins jingled when he walked. He threw something at me; my traitorous hand lashed out and deftly snatched it up. "That is the recognition money. Volunteers are able to make final requests as long as they're within sensible reason. Per his demands, we doubled it to one hundred." He frowned down at me. Sazi wrapped her arms around his round stomach and rested her red face against his chest. "The men will be there before sundown to help him prepare." I stumbled my way to the door. His voice caught up to me before I could step outside. "I'm so sorry, Adaira." I staggered out into the cold.