“How did she know what Mullins sounded like?” Meridan said, her tone clearly distressed.
“I don’t know.”
A pair of humans, starved and sickly, rushed to the side of the wagon, one of them missing an arm just like Addison had said. I used the pistol to smash one across the head, unwilling to waste bronze slugs on men and women who could easily fall to my fist alone. When a Kroan woman leapt up toward Addison, I spun, firing on her. She flew backward, writhing in pain on the road behind us. Nox quickened his trot to a gallop. The wagon jostled back and forth, the wheels slamming over pebbles and rubble. I prayed they didn’t break as another human tried to leap into the back, wielding a shovel like a weapon. Meridan kicked, her foot connecting with his chest and sending him flying into a siren directly behind him.
“We’d better have a way out of this port when we get to the docks!” Addison shouted.
“Just get us there!”
I turned back around, trying to keep eyes on all sides, when a pair of skinny arms wrapped around me, shoving me over the edge. My shoulder hit the hard road and once I was on my side, equally strong, thin legs coiled around mine from behind, pinning my limbs.
“Dahlia!” Meridan screamed.
“Go!” I shouted back as bony fingers pulled at my hair, restraining me.
The wagon sped toward the docks, most of the pursuers slowing once I was no longer on it. I struggled against my captor, but her grip was solid as iron.
“There, there,” a voice said. Lyla. Her stale breath licked my neck before her tongue traced the length of it all the way to my ear. “Don’t worry. You’ll see them again.”
Don’t let your ears deceive you
They are ghosts, nay, imitations
~ The Traveler
It felt wrong to be sitting on the sand of a quiet beach, our boat hidden in the brush, while Dahlia ventured into a town likely infected with bloodthirsty sirens. They’d kill her as quickly as any of us and I knew it.
Mullins was leaning up against a tree scraping at the ground with a stick. David had his pistol in his hand, his thumb stroking the metal plates on the side. James sat on a rock, his teeth gnawing at the inside of his cheek. We’d all been waiting for some time. Not knowing what was going on was killing me. I wasn’t one to sit out when things got dangerous, but I found myself willing to do plenty of things I never would have before because of Dahlia. She wanted me to stay near the docks, so that was what I was doing.
No matter how unnatural it felt.
The silence was deafening and by the look on the men’s faces, it was making them just as uncomfortable as it was me. It was the kind of silence that had eyes, like something was watching us.Something unseen and menacing waiting for the right moment to pounce.
“Don’t sound like anyone’s here,” James muttered. “This place sounds deader than a skeleton that’s dried up in the sun.”
“If that’s true, they’d have been back already,” I said. “They had to have found something.”
“Or something found them,” David added, drawing all our eyes.
We were all thinking it.
Mullins ran his hand over his head with a hiss. “She looks frail, yeah?”
I knew he was talking about Meridan. She did look frail, but we all knew she was not. Perhaps she wasn’t as hard-edged and imposing as Dahlia, but she had hidden ferocity, which we all saw her use to get Dahlia and me out of Gilly Pine.
I reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. “They’re far from helpless and you know it.”
He slumped lower against the tree, tossing the twig he’d been toying with like it offended him.
“Vidar,” Gus said.
I whipped my head around at my name only to see the beach and the rocking waves creeping up the sand. The others all turned to the water as well… as if Gus would be there.
But we’d left him on the ship.
The four of us shared in a moment of confusion and exchanged looks. We’d all heard it, but none of us wanted to admit it aloud.
Then he laughed. Gus laughed like our puzzlement was amusing.
