A blanket of sunshine withered down upon the city. A car slept on its side, buildings scattered their old bones and what glass was left was shattered into claws.
Drones watched us above like Divinities.
As I stepped out of the van and into the city of death, my breath caught.
“Magnus!” I ran to him.
My brother hopped out of a black SUV donning his crisp white jacket. He popped his silver shades upon his oiled hair and opened his arms to me.
The inmates were herded into a cluster and looked on as the officers did not stop my run.
I stopped in front of Magnus, inhaling his vanilla shampoo. “Please tell me you got me out?”
He did not speak.
His body tightened. Stiff and cold as rock.
I lifted my head, looking up at my brother who had the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth as mine. While I smiled, he clenched his jaw.
“Duckie,” he said. His voice, soft and brittle.
My smile cracked. “You got me out? Didn’t you? Magnus? Didn’t you?”
He looked down at me with glassy eyes. Under my hand, his heart thumped quickly.
“Duckie, I tried. I couldn't do it.”
It felt as if the world had been pulled out from under my feet. My knees bent. I almost collapsed if it were not for Magnus, holding me up.
Dig Graves stepped toward us.
Pure anger rippled across the features of his face, but for once, he was not looking at me. This anger was curated for my brother. Dig Graves balled his hands into fists and was about to step forward again until an officer held him back with a baton.
I settled the dread in my belly and looked back to my brother, clasping his arm, digging my nails into his skin. “What about Tommy? Did you get Tommy out? He is more innocent than I. He’s just a boy.”
“Who? Oh.” Magus scrunched up his nose as if he had smelled something rotten. “Duckie, that boy is Soulless. I cannot get him out.”
I frowned. “He is not. You know as well as I do his situation is wrong.”
“He killed his father.” Magnus laughed as if I were stupid. “Duckie, only Soulless commit murder.”
“It was an accident.”
“It was not.”
“It was.” That single tear bubbling up in Tommy’s eye had been birthed by guilt and grief. “We must save him.”
“We must save him?” Magnus heaved out a laugh. “How long have you known the boy?”
“Two days.”
He laughed again. “Oh, Duckie.”
“Magnus, he is innocent, it’s morally wrong to keep him here. You must save him.”
“I’m not saving him!” Magnus ripped the words from his throat. “You need to be thinking about yourself not some worthless boy.”
I let his arm go, blinking. There was a subtle greed in Magnus.
