“No, it’s done. Lower your weapon,” I hiss in his ear.
He growls in anguish and then tosses his sword.
“Kill any who can’t march. We’re going back to Foreen,” the Warden says coldly.
I’m punched in the face and my knives taken from me forcefully. Mordecai, Cadel, and Jarek are beaten while I watch in a daze. Mia screams and sobs, but other than a beta backhanding her, she remains untouched. So does Legion.
I’m put in strong steel cuffs again and chained to Legion, who is in front of me, and Mordecai, who is behind.
Not many people survived the slaughter, and the people who did are sobbing or staring with horror-blank eyes, the kind that just stare, seeing worlds that don’t exist. I hate that I am so familiar with them. This kind of night never gets easier.
We trudge through the cliffs, before long we’re in the cool night of the forest. I inhale and smell blood and the sharp scent of fear, pain, and pleasure. My skin crawls, and I step back into Mordecai, but there’s nowhere to go.
Legion lets out a whine of distress. His scent bursts through the scent-suppressing drug and into sharp, nose-burning notes of fear.
Chains rattle, but I step to the side so I can see past Legion’s trembling body.
Theo is hung between the trees. At first, I think he’s wearing a weird crimson suit, but then I realise he’s naked. They’ve peeled his skin from his stomach, chest, and thighs. He’s not screaming, not anymore.
“Why?” I whisper and turn as my stomach jolts violently. I turn my head away and vomit before I can ask anything else.
“He betrayed your location,” Walker says as he walks past on that massive black horse.
Everywhere I look, I see dead bodies. It’s not everyone, but it’s enough. Banks is lying on his back, an arrow sticking out of one of his eye sockets. People I recognised from Foreen who laughed and somehow made it out. Omegas and alphas that were in the camp, twirling and dancing with us. They were alive, so alive, and how quickly their lives are snuffed out.
For what?
Anger is a hot coal burning in my stomach, one that has me staring intently at Theo, wishing there was something, anything I could do.
A familiar figure slides between us, and I recoil. He sees and smiles widely. His black-striped gold mask catching the torchlight.
“You’re next,” he whispers to me.
I stand in the cold of the pre-dawn and shiver at all the death, while the Beta’s Fang watches me and slowly, meticulously steals Theo’s life from him. We’re helpless, and this execution is a display, an example.
“There are only fifty,” Mordecai whispers to Legion.
“I know,” Legion says back, though he never turns around.
“He got the rest out and led the Path back here so the Resistance could escape, didn’t he?” I ask.
I feel guilty for having doubted him now. Theo is a hero. He volunteered to come back, buying time and saving the bulk of the Resistance and its children.
“Are you incapable of actually killing him or are you trying to bore us to death?” I say coldly. If there is anyone who can goad him into ending it faster, it’s me.
The Beta’s Fang’s head snaps around and, like I knew he would, he stalks towards me, shivering with fury.
“No one suffers quite the same as you do, snow, I so do look forward to having you back on my rack.”
I yawn.
His jaw twitches.
“Sorry, I didn’t realise you were talking.”
His hand lashes out, slamming across my face. I let out a whimper despite myself.
He steps towards us, and before I can react, Cadel breaks the chains holding him, grabs his head, and twists. The pop has an echo. It runs up and down every person in the line, every person in black.
