“Make sure you aren’t,” Cadel says. “Go before I change my mind.”
I slip out of the door and into the dull grey light of day. The city is quiet, but the blood smell is in the air, and it smells stronger, more metallic.
I carefully climb up the side of the building using the vines and broken bits of the wall until I’m on the roof. I can’t see anything moving, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t inside.
After a while, I belly crawl my way across the roof and slither into the ceiling. I find a hole and peer into the school, but nothing moves, and I can’t hear a single sound that might indicate that there are people alive.
Did the Beta’s Path just wipe out the Resistance?
I drop into the school.
I have to find out.
Chapter 27
Alpha save you
I take a step, and my boot slips. With a smothered hiss, I windmill my arms and manage to keep my balance, but in the dark on the floor is a deep and dark, sticky pool of liquid that smells like blood. I turn my head and find an omega I’d seen once or twice. Her throat has been cut and the omega brand burned into her dead flesh.
I wish I could say something or do something, but the living have to come first, so I walk away, trying to keep my steps light. I get to a double door and find that they have chained it shut. On the other side are a whole heap of bodies, like they died where they fell. I push the door, wincing when an alpha falls sideways, his head hitting the ground with a dull thump.
I squeeze through the gap, contorting myself until I’m on the other side, standing on an omega’s hair. As quickly as I can, I move away from them. The first door on my left is the place where I hid the alpha. A voice inside of me tells me to leave it, but I need to know. I push open the door and almost throw up. The stench is horrendous. I don’t have to go into the room. The alpha has been eviscerated, his insides pulled out and smeared around him like he’s an art piece.
I back out of the room, pulling it closed.
Room after room, all I find are the dead. Pale, lifeless corpses lying in their own blood and filth. The air is heavy, like the weight of all their ghosts lingers still.
They never stood a chance. The room that Mia had appropriated for her kitchen looks like they came in with swords and just cut everyone to pieces.
There are too many people among the dead and dying, too many that I know.
I walk through, checking everyone, looking for familiar faces. I find an omega named Emma on the ground. Her beautiful, silky black hair is tangled and hard with dried blood. She’s lying on Waylan. They almost look peaceful but for her missing arms and legs.
Towards the back of the room, I find a whole heap of bodies lying on top of each other. I move them off, and underneath, I see Marshall.
I crouch down and reach out to touch his hand. His eyes spring open, staring at me, wide with shock, horror, the nightmares that will live in him forever.
“Marshall, oh, gods, you’re alive!”
He lets out a moan and coughs, spraying me with blood. I reach out, sliding more of the bodies off him.
“Come on, we need to get you…” I trail off, looking down at the massive wound on his stomach. His insides are outside. I can’t help him. No one can help him.
“Keres,” he breathes.
“I’m here, Marshall.”
“They got out. Not everyone, but enough. Your warning, we should have listened, by the time we did, we only got half of everyone out.”
I close my eyes, letting that wave of relief roll over me.
“Bear? Taryn?”
“Gone,” he whispers, and his eyes roll.
“I don’t want to go into the darkness. I want to walk beside the Night Alpha,” Marshall whispers. “Why did the gods forsake us?”
I take his hand, holding it and trying to ignore the cold of his fingers. His life is leaving him.
