We stood there, listening to the wind rattle the storm windows, until the world felt calm again.
I wanted to tell her it would be all right, but I didn’t believe in that kind of lie. Instead, I took her hand, and she let me.
Back inside, the lights burned all night, and the house was a beacon in the prairie dark.
We were barely healed, but for the first time in weeks, I felt something close to hope. We had the fiercest pack in the South. Hell, maybe in the entire country. Greenbriar was about to get a taste of the pain Iron Valor delivered.
Menace’s healer—a coven witch named Claudia, maybe forty, half-patched hair and a voice like a pack-a-day smoke—worked through the house with a box of vials and a notebook. She wore latex gloves, which was funny, since all the Iron Valor guys had immune systems that laughed at bacteria and normally bled out toxins like beer through a shot glass. But she was thorough, checking temps and pupils, making each of us swig something clear and stinging from a conical flask. It tasted like vodka with notes of gasoline and sweet basil, but whatever was in it, it did the job. By the time Claudia hit me, I was back to normal—more or less.
“You’ll live,” she said, pressing her thumb into my wrist until I flinched. “But if you see blue light again, call a doctor, not your local exorcist. That goes for all of you.” Her accent was somewhere between rural Wisconsin and straight-up witch. She moved to thenext patient—Juliet, who grumbled but choked down the tonic, then wiped her mouth on her sleeve and grinned at me like a hyena.
The Iron Valor guys filtered in and out throughout the afternoon and early evening. Gunner first, still favoring his left side, but with that crazy look in his eye that said he’d been waiting for an excuse to shoot someone all week. Arsenal next, carrying a duffel with at least three illegal rifles poking out the top. Then Doc, who nodded at Claudia. Clearly he respected her ability despite what he called “witchy shit.” They ended up comparing notes and swapping recipes for ten minutes before Bronc smacked the table with the flat of his palm and called the war council to order.
The kitchen was already full, so they moved to the big front room. The table was gone, replaced with a plywood slab on sawhorses, covered in maps, printouts, and a tray of mostly eaten sandwiches. Bronc stood at the head, arms folded, shoulders broad enough to block the lamp behind him. When he started talking, everyone shut up.
“Here’s the play,” he said, voice steady as an anchor. “We assume Greenbriar will send its main column through the south road at dawn. They’re going to try to draw out anyone who is still healthy enough to fight. They won’t expect a full fighting force. We’ll put Arsenal and Gunner on the south line, with the heavy stuff. Tyler and the new guys will cover the west and east. Everyone else is on fallback in the compound, or on quick-reaction. If you’re not a fighter, you’re in the bunker. No exceptions. By the time they get off their first volleys, they’ll know they’re fucked.”
He looked around the room, letting the weight of it drop. “If anyone from Greenbriar makes it past the perimeter, we cut them down. No mercy. They want to end us; we’ll show them what that means.”
Arsenal grinned. “Copy that.”
“Questions?” Bronc asked.
Juliet raised her hand, mock-innocent. “What about the demon? Or Parker’s brother? What if they try to double back or sneak in from the north?”
Bronc nodded to me. “Wrecker and Parker are on that. They’ll be running the cams, the drones, and if Axel shows, they get first shot.”
I wanted to say I hoped Axel would just run, that maybe he’d finally grown the backbone to cut and bail, but I doubted it. In my heart, I hoped he’d catch a bullet early, save Parker from having to see it.
Tyler, who’d been silent up to now, spoke: “What about the women and kids?”
“They’re already in the storm bunker,” Bronc said. “Armed and ready if anyone tries to breach. Maddie and Doc took them down earlier, and Menace’s healer, too.”
The room buzzed with low talk—banter, old jokes, a little gallows humor. I caught Parker leaning in close to Maddie, the two of them laughing at something on a phone screen. The sound hit me right in the chest, the same spot that used to ache when I thought about my real family. The old one.
As the night went on, the house shifted from war council to barracks. Juliet, Pearl, and Maddie turned the living room into a patchwork of blankets, sleeping bags, and couch cushions, so everyone could crash in the open together. It was an old Iron Valor ritual: before the worst battles, everyone packed into the same room, so you could see the faces you’d die for or live for, all in one sweep of the eyes.
The air was thick with breath and hope and old, unspoken fear. Some of the younger guys started a poker game on the corner of the plywood slab, betting cigarettes and loose cash. Gunner and Arsenal took apart rifles on the floor, metal clicking like teeth in the quiet. Menace stood at the window, one eye on the road, the other on the night. Savannah drifted between him and thekitchen, always in his orbit, always ready. For a princess, she was as tough as they came.
I found a spot at the edge of the blankets, Parker curled against my side. Rocket wedged himself between us, snoring like a freight train. I ran my hand through her hair, found the spot behind her ear where the angel’s mark still glowed faintly in the dark.
“You nervous?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not as much as I should be.”
“Good. You’ll need that tomorrow.”
She kissed my jaw, then burrowed closer. “If we get through this, I want to go away for a while,” she whispered. “Like, the ocean. Or the mountains.”
“Deal,” I said. “Wherever you want.”
The lights went low. The last sound before sleep was Pearl telling a dirty joke to Juliet, both of them cackling. I closed my eyes, the warmth of the room wrapping around me. Tomorrow, the nightmare might finally be over.
Or it might just be the beginning. But tonight, I had my pack, my girl, and a reason to live.
It was maybe more than I deserved. And certainly more than I thought I’d ever have.
Chapter 28
