“That doesn’t matter. It’s the past, and we’re here now.”
“It doesn’t make sense. How are we in a photo from seven hundred years ago?” I almost shout.
Jarek puts a finger under my chin and tilts my head back. “I don’t know, but what I do know is that you are perfect, and you are here, and I amsorry for everything that happened, but it’s not happening this time. We are going to survive this.”
He pulls me to my feet, lifting me into his arms. I stare at the green of his eyes, the shape of his nose, and the bow of his lips.
“Jarek,” I whisper. “How do I know you?”
He shakes his head and keeps walking.
“None of this makes sense. My mother knew I was coming; she knew what was going to happen with the fight with the Warden; she showed me how to escape. How is that even possible? There was a book, an entire book, with photos of us!”
Jarek and Mordecai exchange a look that says they know more than they are willing to say. Cadel doesn’t even turn around; he just keeps scanning for danger.
“Don’t do that. Don’t keep secrets and be all weird.”
“It’s not that we’re keeping secrets; it’s that it sounds crazy, and we all know it.”
“Know what?” I growl.
“What if she knew about what was going to happen because your mother was a prophet or seer?” Jarek asks quietly. He shrugs. “Just an idea.”
“What if we know each other because this isn’t the first time we’ve met?” Mordecai asks just as casually.
Cadel stops and turns his head, watching us intently. “It’s a whole big, elaborate plan.”
I almost laugh, but his expression makes the words die in my throat.
“What?” I ask, startled.
“But if it is, I can’t see it. I can’t figure out how it all fits together, but we’re all pieces in a game being moved by a hand smarter than ours,” Cadel says and turns away again.
“That is not a comforting thought,” I say to Cadel.
“No, it’s not, but it’s the last chance that alphas and omegas have to survive this. I would be surprised if the gods had decided not to interfere. Alpha, beta, and omega designations are sacred to them. They would not have been pleased to watch this unfold.”
I stare at him, wondering if I should try to delve deeper and ask more questions.
The world explodes, the sound booming through the city. Glass breaks, buildings collapse and crumble, and then a wall of dust hits us. Jarek throws me to the ground and covers me with his body.
“Where did that come from?” I shout.
Jarek squeezes his arms around me. “I don’t know.”
It takes forever, but then it stops, and we’re left in a dusty brown world with a very limited view.
“No!” I hiss and search the sky, staring at the now missing spire. Tingles crawl up my spine, and before I can think it through, I’m flying in that direction.
Jarek catches me before I run out onto the street, but he stops right behind me, staring in dismay. The spire is gone, but so are the buildings on either side of the temple. All that remains are their collapsed ruins, which sit on the temple, flattening it into a mound, the secret exit is buried deep underneath it all.
I can feel the panic that goes through each one of us.
“Does anyone have any other ideas to escape?”I whisper.
There’s silence, heavy and void of hope. There is only one way out of Foreen, the only way anyone has ever gotten out in seven hundred years. We have only a day, maybe two.
No one has an answer, and our one way out of the city is now under a mass of bricks and rubble. The path to the underground river is buried. There is no way out.
