His urgency turns my blood icy. They explode into action, and I follow, knowing right now, I’m useless and a liability. Cadel leads, shoving open a door, revealing a huge marble-floored foyer covered in dirt and leaves. He grabs Jarek’s wrist and drags him through, his nostrils flaring.
He turns and kicks open another door, revealing the corpse of a woman clutching a man. They haven’t been dead long. Blood has dried on their wrists.
I swallow hard. It’s not like it isn’t an option. But it isn’t an option until all other options are gone. Not for me.
“I’m going to die,” I say calmly.
Cadel grabs my chin and forces my head up, staring intently into my eyes.
“No, you aren’t.”
I stare at him, so fierce and otherworldly.
“Okay. I won’t, then.” Another mad giggle escapes me.
Cadel curses as he lets me go. He’s careful to make sure I’m following as he leads us through the building, unerringly finding his way to a massive arched window that’s long since given up its glass. We step out, and he pauses before looking up and pointing to a single window.
“That room. If we need to, we can jump into this tree.”
I look at the tree in question. It’s huge, with branches that go in all directions and plenty of leaves. We would be hidden, but as I follow the branches, I see it leads onto the roof of the building we just came out of and goes to a third and fourth. Lots of escape routes.
“Hmm,” Jarek purrs. “I like the way your mind works, Cadel.”
I go to the building and pause when I realise that the bottom is completely blocked off. The only way to get to that window is via the tree.
He’s good.
I climb up and scurry easily up into the window, crouching and waiting to see if anyone pops out. Luckily, there is no one in here, alive or dead. I tumble through the window and land heavily with a groan of pain. It hurts so much.
I crawl to the wall and pull myself up so I’m sitting and wrap my arms around my legs. I can hear a scream from someone far away. It’s inside my mind and out.
The past and the now doubling over each other. Who is screaming? It’s everyone.
Mordecai lands next and turns to pull Jarek in. Cadel slips in easily and sits beside me, his thigh touching mine.
“You’re sick, Omega.”
“I know,” I whisper. “Don’t let me scream.”
At some point, it starts raining, and they carefully catch water in Jarek’s flask, and we drink sparingly, but as the hours creep by, the screams grow louder and closer.
There are a couple of times I become conscious of the alphas holding me still, hands wrapped across my mouth.
I expect they will leave me, and I fear sleeping because I don’t want to be alone anymore, but every time I open my eyes, the scent of these alphas is stronger than ever, and they are still here.
It becomes clear that whatever is going to happen, it’s going to be bad. Whatever I thought was the worst that could happen isn’t going to come close. Even in my illness, I realise my imagination couldn’t imagine how bad the Culling Grounds are going to be.
A scream comes from outside and travels up the street. I want to look out the window; I want to hide. Cadel puts a hand on my thigh. I lean into the rich scent of him, letting it soothe me, while I try not to cry.
I hurt so much. Inside and out.
Jarek silently crosses the small room and sits on my other side. He takes my hand and strokes it.
And I know it’s stupid, I know it’s dumb to be thinking about it right now, but I can’t believe I’m going to die and not find out what happened to my family. I’m never going to know.
Did she hate me at the end?
Did she scream for me?
