A finger tightens on a trigger, and I dive in. In one forceful leap, I emerge into physical form, tackle Peri as gently as you cantackle anyone while trying to save their life, and yank her with me back into the shadows.
The bang of a gunshot reverberates in her wake. Peri presses close to me with a sound like a sob.
“What’s going to happen if they won’t listen?”
As I tug her with me out of the cabin, I think of all the ways she’s spread her light so far, all the people she has brought around. “Maybe we shouldn’t be talking to the soldiers. There are a lot more humans out there who’d want to have a say, aren’t there?”
26
Periwinkle
The clustered news vans have dwindled in number as some have followed the refugees to their new homes, but there are still several scattered along the edges of the camp. I watch a reporter interview a couple of men in hunter gear, the back of my neck prickling.
“Why do they want to talk to those jerks? Shouldn’t they be focusing on the rift?”
Jonah lets out a short sigh from where he’s standing next to me, peering around an abandoned tent. “That’s the news cycle for you. As far as they’ve noticed, nothing about the rift has changed in the past couple of days. Telling everyone ‘Things are still the same here’ doesn’t make for great news. I mean, it’s not new.”
A shudder runs down my spine. “Things will change a lot if the army starts dropping bombs. Are they even going to warn the other people still here?”
Jonah’s mouth tightens. “They probably won’t give any details, just evacuate the area.”
“Of everyone except us,” Hail mutters behind us. “They’re hoping we all get caught in the blasts.”
I’d like to tell him he’s being overly cynical, but from what I’ve seen of Hueber and most of his soldiers, I’d guess he’s probably right.
I draw my chin up. “We’ll just have to let the other humans know now. Once the whole country finds out what the army is planning and how bad it’ll be, they’ll have to stop their plans.”
Despite Jonah’s comment about the news cycle, I assume it won’t be too tricky getting back on camera. The reporters have seemed happy to film us lots of times before.
I wait until the interview with the hunters is finished and the jerks have walked far enough away that they won’t see us, and then I march up to one of the other news vans nearby. No point in talking to people who like chatting with our enemies.
Jonah walks beside me, and my other mates follow through the shadows, along with most of the other beings who spied on the soldiers with us. Gnash stomped off to tell Rollick when I announced my intentions, and I have a feeling the demon is going to go straight to the nuclear option.
Destroy them before they can destroy us—and, well, most of their own world too. I can see the argument for it, but I can’t shake the suspicion that going on the offensive against the humans is only going to make themmoreeager to bomb us.
If even one aspect of the memory wipe goes slightly wrong, then we’re still screwed, just more so.
So why not end the conflict before anyone’s bombing anyone? I won us a whole lot of support before.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Jonah’s comments about fresh material apply to me too.
The first reporter I walk up to gives me a onceover and shakes her head before I’ve gotten one word out. “We’ve already done an interview with you. Got plenty of footage. We’re moving on to other stories—sorry.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard an apology that sounded less apologetic.
“We’ve got huge news!” I say with a broad gesture of my hands. “An even bigger catastrophe is coming. You need to?—”
The reporter cuts me off with an upheld hand. “Colonel Hueber spread the word that some of… your kind of beings might try to create a panic. Is there anything you can actually give me that we can show our audience?”
What, do they want me to cart the bombs over as proof?
I grope for the right words to convince her. “It isn’t happeningyet. But we heard them talking?—”
“Nope, sorry, that doesn’t cut it. My producer says we need to stick to what’s vivid and concrete.”
She turns away.
When we head over to the next news van, I decide to get straight to the point. I stride up to the reporter who’s drinking from one of those ever-present cups of coffee. “The army is going to bomb the city!”
