mercury recoiled the moment another voice piped up, taking a stuttering step back from the kid like he’d been burned. “the hell would you know?” mercury spat, anger boiling inside him. his brows furrowed, fists twitching at his side – and he might have taken a swing were it not for emerald, calling him back to the present. she cleared his head, ripped his thoughts away from the pain swirling within. hesitantly, almost afraid of what it might mean, mercury took hold of emerald’s hand, and flashed a glare at the rest of the group, daring them to say a word.
“thanks to watts, tyrian’s got a lot of surveillance scattered around this place. he’ll be on us in minutes if we aren’t careful.” he didn’t know why he was telling any of them this. he didn’t know why he’d crumbled so easily, but the thought of summer, alone in her cell and terrified before — he couldn’t even finish the thought, it was too painful. all he knew now was that someone was going to pay, and it seemed like he and emerald were choosing salem.
he leaned in close to emerald, lowering his voice. “you don’t seriously trust these guys, do you?”
to emerald’s relief, oscar didn’t press mercury for information — she almost admired the kid for speaking up at all. almost, if not for how fucked they were. she physically placed herself between mercury and the others to keep as much space as possible, vaguely slowing down to walk behind them. ’ sounds like a task. if you can tell me where he set things up i can probably shoot them down. he’s going to start looking for you as soon as you don’t show up. ’
scarlet eyes settled on mercury, her jaw set. when tyrian came after them, emerald already swore to herself she wouldn’t hold back. his dedication to salem and destroying the entire gods damn world was unparalleled, but emerald knew vacuo. she grew up here before cinder found her. she could use the land to her advantage. with a hiss - like sigh, she finally responded. ’ i don’t know if i can trust anyone. on the other hand ... they put their trust in me. i gave them a fuckin’ pep talk, mercury. we aren’t friends, but we’re better off with them than we are alone. ’
ALONE. emerald realized how strange it sounded after the fact, briefly glancing down at her shoes. their reality was that they were alone now, even if the hunters momentarily accepted them into their broken ranks. what were they supposed to do now? where did the other portals lead out ? if hazel were here — no. he wasn’t here. emerald would never see him again. ’ they ... we can’t tell them about summer. i didn’t tell yang her mother was there. i fucked up. ’