Everyone should be safe inside.
Still, I hesitate. What if I’m wrong?
Helga can’t help me. She’s busy with Gunnar. Where is Father when I need him? Better yet, Idris. He would know how to stop this from becoming another massacre. But neither of them is here. This is on me now. My responsibility. I reach for the canister of lupine. I can’t keep hesitating. I have toact.
I rip the pin off and hurl the canister.
Purple smoke pours out, clouds billowing through the gym.
I can’t see anything past the purple plumes, but I can hear the berserkir yelping and chuffing. It won’t leave lasting damage, but it should incapacitate them temporarily and buy us time to retreat.
“Everyone, get inside the locker room!” I shout, squinting through the smoke.
Every few seconds, strobe lights flash through the haze, illuminating the silhouettes of people rushing to the back of the gym in a panic. Val and I grab whoever is close by, pulling them toward safety.
Once everyone we can find is inside, I give the gym a final scan.
The smoke is settling. Some of the berserkir are starting to recover.Damn it, already?At least it seems like only the boars are so far. We’re running out of time. I search for any stragglers—
Bea.
She’s huddled in a corner with her terrified foster parents.
For some reason, Bea hasn’t transformed yet. She’s still human.
“We have to get Edith’s family,” I tell Val, tipping my chin in their direction. With this many berserkir, I won’t be able to rescue them bymyself. Even if I’m asking my best friend to risk her life too.
“On it,” Val says without hesitation.
We cut across the floor, racing for the opposite side of the gym. Snarls and screams fill my ears. A stray arrow whistles past my head. Some hunters must still be out here too, trying to pick off the berserkir. Fools. A boar barrels after us, so I run to the right while Val makes a beeline for Bea and her parents.
The boar is right on my heels as I topple one of the nearby tables, slamming it on the ground and standing it up like a shield. The boar hits the table so hard it squeals in pain, temporarily stunned. But the sound draws the attention of the other boars. They start charging through the smoke toward us.
“Val!” I shout. “Hurry!”
She slips in, pulling Bea and her parents behind the table quickly.
We barricade ourselves in the corner.
“We need to get to the locker room.” I lean against the table, hoping the wood will hold as more boars batter against it. The force of the impact travels through me, making my shoulder ache. Tusks scrape over the table, desperate to get to us. “I don’t know how long this table is going to last.”
“The question is how,” Val says. “We aren’t going to make it with this many boars, and it’s only a matter of time until the rest recover. We’re trapped now.”
“What’s happening?” Bea asks, clinging tightly to her parents. “Why did everyone go berserk?”
“We don’t know,” Val admits.
Bea’s mother rubs her shoulder. “You’re still human, honey. Don’t worry.”
Why is that? The question nags at my mind. All the berserkir transformed, so why hasn’t Bea? I saw more than a few smaller cubs and pups among the berserkir, so it can’t be only that she’s young.
There must be something else…
I fight to keep the table from crushing us as boars ram against the wood. Wait. This all began shortly after Helga’s toast. All those glasses shattering right before they lost control.
“Did you drink the punch?” I ask through gritted teeth.
Bea frowns. “No, my mom wouldn’t let me.”
