MAVEN
Nearly an hour has passed.Humans are still arriving from the Nether, but now a far more organized system is in place to get them helped and situated.
All thanks to my quintet members.
I can only assume Everett funded all of this as I watch more vans arrive to transport yet another massive group of shell-shocked Nether humans to safety far away from the unstable Divide. Others are being treated for dire injuries, or they’re hesitantly accepting food and water with trembling hands, confounded by the hospitality that has greeted them here.
It will take time for them to adapt to freedom in this world.
But gods—they’re here.
It’s working.
I’m finally fulfilling my blood oath.
So why can’t I shake the dread rising in my gut?
As I remain on the lookout for danger and any sign of Lillian arriving through the waypoint, another group of humans passes me. When one of them sees me, he whispers to the others that I’m Amadeus’s daughter and quickly bows his head in respect.The others follow suit, a strange mix of gratitude and terror as they hurry away from me.
A badly bruised girl pauses in following after them, clutching her bleeding elbow. Like the other Nether humans, it looks as if the color has been bled from her, so her big blue eyes are more of a gray. She can’t be older than ten and looks at me with moisture on her hollow cheeks.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
Crying still makes me really fucking uncomfortable, but I offer a smile. “Stay right here.”
I hurry to one of the nearby supply crates brought by the vans earlier and return to her with a roll of bandages. Grateful for my gloves since they provide a buffer against skin contact, I quickly wrap her injury.
“Is…is Amadeus really your father?” she whispers.
“No.” I meet her eye briefly. “My father was a human named Pietro Amato.”
She watches as I finish bandaging her arm. As with most people from the Nether, her expression is guarded as if, aside from the tears that escape, she’s afraid of showing how she feels. Probably because in the Nether, excessive emotions end with getting devoured by the Undead.
She sniffles slightly. “S—someone told me thetelumis a monster. But…I think you’re so pretty.”
I study her, noticing the way she’s hugging herself and shivering. “Thanks. And I think you’re freezing. Go get warmed up, all right?”
She thanks me again and hurries to follow a cluster of other humans, wrapping herself in an emergency blanket. Fewer humans are crowding around the supply vans now as the exodus finally seems to slow.
I tuck the remaining bandages in the pocket of the hoodie I’m wearing, which Silas grabbed from his pocket void and gave tome earlier. Glancing nearby, I watch as Crypt cheers up a group of several sullen, wide-eyed children. He hands them blankets and leads them across the giant field toward one of the food-distributing trucks. Everett, Baelfire, and Silas are also in the midst of the exodus, directing and helping wherever they can.
Watching my quintet like this makes that same fluttery sensation rise in my stomach—that tender, consuming feeling I have tried and failed to fight whenever I’m around them.
There’s just something sorightabout being bound to all of them now. A completeness I’ve never experienced before, like something that was always meant to be a part of me is now finally in place.
It’s a bizarrely incredible feeling.
But still, as that unspeakable emotion mixes with my growing apprehension, I turn again to frown at the Divide.
With how weak it is right now, thin enough that even humans can pass through with some magical assistance, I expected to fight off constant surges as the humans escaped.
So why the hell hasn’t an attack happened yet?
I don’t realize Felix has emerged from the Divide again until he clears his throat beside me.
“There are monsters on their way. And shadow fiends.”
I nod, still frowning. “Odd that they haven’t come sooner.”
