Bryce trembles so bad beside me that I grip his hand and offer him a reassuring smile. He looks petrified, but manages a weak nod.
“Pazely, you will be the prey. The checkpoint is a red-ribboned tree straight on from here about a mile away. I hope you can run fast. Your five second head start begins in three, two, one.” Adams barely finishes saying the last word and Bree is kicking off as fast as she can into a dead sprint. Snow and dirt fling up with the force at which she pumps her legs.
“Run, Bree!” I shout, unable to hold myself back from encouraging her. That earns me a nasty glare from Adams, but he resumes looking forward. At the five second mark, he hands a combat knife to Arnold and signals him to give chase.
Arnold is almost as tall as Cameron. His legs are long and he’s all muscle.Fuck, I hope Bree can fight him off.He’s going to catch her quickly. A knot forms in my throat and grows as the minutes pass quietly.
A sharp scream pierces the air and sucks all the oxygen from my lungs.
The terror that gurgles through the treetops is tangible and makes my eyes burn.She’s okay.She knows how to handle someone twice her size. Bree is intelligent and kind.
Bree can’t die. My fists clench at my sides, and I battle with the knot in my throat. Fresh tears are threatening to form in my eyes, but I hold tightly to the belief that she’s fine.
The silence that follows that bloodcurdling sound wears holes into my mind, as I try not to think of what made her scream like that.
No one says a word.
We wait patiently where we are until Arnold reappears from the forest, dragging a lifeless body behind him. Her dark hair drags behind her, and red streaks the snow like paint.
Vomit rises in my throat, but I swallow it down and choke back the trembling wail that rises within me.Shut it off.I try to force myself to dissociate. I can’t be emotional right now. I curl my hands into fists so hard that my nails dig into my palms. I can’t tell if it hurts, but the pressure takes some of the forming tears from my eyes.
Fury and hatred coil deep inside my chest. The Dark Forces are truly for the scum of the earth. I can’t imagine being teamed up on a squad with either Arnold or Wraith. I’d probably kill them in their sleep.
I can’t fight the tears anymore. They stream down my face and crash into the snow.For Bree.I will fight as hard as I can, for all of us.
I force my face the other way as he leaves her body at the edge of the soldier-line. Adams congratulates him as he moves back to the group. I take little solace in the fact that Arnold looks traumatized from what he just did. His eyes are sunken, and for once he doesn’t have that stupid grin pulling at his lips.
“Bale, you are the prey. You have five seconds,” Adams shouts. Instead of taking off right away like Bree did, Bryce spares a second to look at me, acceptance and fear dancing behind his youthful eyes.Please not like this,I can hear him plead. Then he throws himself into a full sprint and makes for the forest.
The seconds feel like minutes. I don’t want to chase after him. I don’t want any of this.
“Maves,” Adams mutters nonchalantly, handing me the same blade Arnold used to kill Bree. Her bright red blood still wet on the edge. My eyes flick to her lifeless body on the ground and my heart seizes.
Her lips are already purple from the cold, and her eyes are distant as she stares up into the sky. A grim emotion spreads throughout my soul. This can’t be how her story ends, and yet it’s undeniable that this is her conclusion.
Cam’s words soak into my flesh.“It’s either you or them.”
It’s either me or Bryce.
I don’t want to die.
My grip tightens around the knife, and I swallow all my emotions, letting them fall behind me like severed hands trying to keep me tethered to a harsh reality.
Hunting is something I’m unfortunately good at, but I’ve never had to kill someone I’d formed an acquaintance with.Dissociating is the only way I’ll make it through this.
I sprint as fast as I can after Bryce, tears spilling from my eyes once I break the forest wall where no one can see me. I let the tears crash as I run faster than I knew I could.
Because I don’t want to die.
I don’t want to die, and I will kill Bryce a thousand times if it means I get to be with Cameron.
After a minute, I see Bryce’s fawn, curly hair as he moves quickly through the underbrush. If I caught up this fast, he likely left poison traps in his wake. I divert my path and give ten feet of distance from where his footprints are.
He notices me in the corner of his eye and raises both hands.
I grit my teeth.What the fuck is he doing?I can’t afford to stop and he knows that. If he’s trying to save himself, it won’t work.
Bryce makes a grunt as I tackle him to the ground, pinning his arms and readying to swiftly kill him. Those big hazel eyes pierce me as his breaths stagger.
