We’re guided onto a caged cart and tied to the inside of it. A team of horses lets out complaints as they are forced to wait while we’re shoved up. I’m tied in front of the massive alpha, with Bear in front of me. There’s no roof on it, but we’re not going to be able to escape these cuffs. There’s nowhere to go. Especially when I count the barons and pledges that are gathering with the twelve guards.
They are sending us with an army.
“Move out!” Warden says calmly.
The black-haired alpha that I found in the streets’ gaze darts everywhere as he takes in what’s going on, but just as he opens his mouth to say something, the horses start moving. I’m thrown forward into Bear, who hits the front of the cart hard.
“Better hang on!” one of the barons says with a sneer. A few of the people around him laugh, but I mark this masked asshole in my mind, noting the scar on his lower chin.
Barons are little more than shit kickers in this place, but I’ve discovered some of the most evil people are the ones who don’t have much power, but they wield the tiny bit they do have like it’s a sword. I watch him as he disappears into the crowd.
Lightning flashes across the sky and, as if the world has just decided to join in our punishment, it starts to rain. A drenching soak that has me shivering in seconds.
Why? Maybe so they can’t see us crying, maybe it’s a mercy from the gods.
As soon as the gates open, I look back. Part of me is grateful to be out, but another part of me wonders if my family is rotting in those cells. I dare not even let myself think about those hanging bodies.
The splendor of the Beta’s Path Citadel disappears as the gates slam shut, and now we have to face the people.
The first apple thrown hits the black-haired alpha who lets out a feral snarl. He grunts and pulls against the ropes, his eyes narrowed, furious.
A barrage of rotten fruit and rocks is thrown at us, and I brace myself, only to find the massive alpha leaning over me, curling his body around mine as best he can. My heart stills and then races fast, nerves bubbling up. I twist so I can look up at him, trying to find the words and get rid of this complete desire to give up everything and lay at his feet, offering myself to him.
“You don’t have to—”
He just looks at me, icy eyes that flash through my mind. I can hear him laughing. I’m lost in memories that aren’t mine.
The dark-haired alpha shoves against me from the other side, and I’m sandwiched between the two of them, protected from the missiles that are being thrown at us.
It takes an hour to get through the crowd and out of the city. Every minute is torture. Outside the city is different; it’s untamed and wild out here.
“When people started dying of the Ravage, they went to new places, new cities, abandoning the old ones and leaving the dead and dying to their ghosts. They stopped coming out because there are things out here that can’t be explained. The Ravage changed the world, and humanity learned how to live in tiny little nests,” Bear says loudly over the rain. “My mama would say that we don’t know even half of what’s out here now because we’re so scared we’ll anger the gods and the virus will return.”
“What a load of shit,” the alpha I found in the city spits. “The gods are gone. There’s no one left to pray to.”
I stare at him, at the bitterness that feels too close to grief. “What’s your name?”
He thinks about it for a long time.
“Cadel,” he whispers as if trying it out. “I will be Cadel.”
I exchange a puzzled look with Bear, but he turns back as the Warden gets close on his massive, monstrous horse. The rain is a drizzle now, but he looks even more impressive soaked than he does dry.
“Enough talking. I don’t care about what theories you have for why the world is the way it is. I want silence,” Walker says in a bored tone.
“Funny, I want my aunt’s sugar cookies and my mother’s remains, but I guess we don’t get what we want,” I snap at him.
Walker recoils. I straighten and stare at him, at the tiny quiver of his lips. He still remembers! He still cares! I lunge closer to him, holding onto the cage, staring and noting every tiny little clue in his body language.
“Is my mother dead, Warden?”
He presses his lips into a firm line.
“Is my aunt dead?”
He urges his horse to walk faster.
“WALKER! Where is my nephew? He was two years old! What about the baby? Where’s the baby?”
