Yes, she knew Cassian had made other clones. That was precisely the reason why she had to see them.
“You’ll have to kill them,” Lucas said.
Wren winced at the thought. “Kill… them?”
Vash nodded and let go of the sponge. “All of the women… the omegas in the clubs, in the test facilities, in the barracks… If you want change, and I mean if you really want it, you have to be willing to annihilate what’s wrong with the present.”
She hadn’t thought about that. “Do they feel?”
“Do you?”
Wren’s heart bled. “More than you.”
“I have to go, Wren,” Vash repeated the matter at hand.
Wren nodded, but didn’t want to fall into the trap of hoping that he’d stay. “Fine. Go.”
“I was going to leave tomorrow,” he said.
Wren rolled and stood, water collecting over her belly. “If you’re going to leave, you might as well do it now,” she said.
Nodding, he leaned over her glistening body. Scenting her before he left, he cupped his lips around the crook of her neck. “Goodbye, Precious. I love you. All three of us do.”
Worst of all, Wren loved them too.
15
Part Two
In the world of clay
A hidden treasure are we.
The kingdom of our sway
Endures eternally.
Since we have passed
The night of the flesh at last,
We are ourselves the Guide
And life’s immortal tide.
-Rumi
Chapter Sixteen
Cassian stepped over the mash of freshly cracked bone and oozing tendrils of mind matter. The trader looked down at his partner’s lifeless body and swallowed feverishly. “They’ve been spotted outside of Dagon in the Minx Province,” the man said.
Shivering with abjuration, Cassian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Why was he being told this? Did they want to drive him mad?
“They’re… nesting her,” the trader said.
Cassian couldn’t hear any more of it. Quickly unsheathing his blade, he drove it into the idiot’s youthful heart. His chest blossomed into a blackened mess of red, a bitter lake for the man to choke on.
“You alphas breed like rats.”