I should never have come here without Rook, but...how the fuck could I let her see this? See this horror and filth and learn that these people suffered because of me?
I almost retched—
“You okay, mister?”
I grunted as the little girl placed her tiny hand on my shoulder. “You can vomit if you want. I can clean it up. I know how.”
The fact that she asked ifIwas okay.
That her eyes swam with worry even as her belly growled for food.
I couldn’t fucking do it.
Scooping her up in my arms, I shot to my feet.
I needed to get back to Rook.Now.
But...I couldn’t leave without these people.
Clutching the girl close, I ordered, “Get up. All of you.Move.”
The woman giving birth screeched as she delivered in a gush of blood.
Her baby joined her, its tiny lungs the loudest things in the cave.
And slowly, as if waking from a nightmare, the men and women blinked and looked down. Tears glossed their eyes as they noticed they were no longer chained. Nothing else mattered. Not the how or why...just that they were finally free.
Raw, animalistic hope made them stagger upright. The cave filled with the noise of limping, racing feet.
Slinging the girl onto my hip, I followed them.
She broke my motherfucking heart as she linked her skeletal arms around my neck and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You finally came.” She beamed the most breathtaking smile, complete with blackened teeth. “I knewsomeonewould come one day.”
My throat closed up.
The fire devoured yet more of my insides as she thanked the very man who was the reason for her nightmare.
Had she been born here? Did she carry the R gene like me and Rook? What did all of this mean—?
A scream echoed down the tunnel where people had fled. Hurrying forward, I chased after them. “Wait! I’ll come with you. Don’t—”
The crack of gunfire cut me off.
Hot, lancing pain punched into my shoulder like a giant wasp.
The vaguest acknowledgement that I’d been shot came and went as I spun to my left. A swarm of guards poured into the cave. Two, six, ten, twenty—
They kept coming, appearing from a different pathway, hopefully giving the prisoners time to escape.
Spreading out, they trained their guns on me.
The woman who’d just given birth clutched her newborn baby, while the man clutched her. They were the only two left, including the animals too sick to move. The panther that reminded me so much of Whisper wobbled out of its cage, its shoulder blades almost cutting through its skin as it fought to stay breathing.
“We were told you might stop by.” The guard who’d fired glowered at me. “What a fucking mess you’ve made, but...your timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Mr. Ward is on his way. He’ll be so happy to see you.”
I bared my teeth. The fire grew fangs and the little girl made a sound that wrenched my soul right out of my chest. My gaze snapped to hers. To the hole where her heart used to be.
The bullet that’d lodged into my shoulder had torn straight through her, blending my golden-tinted blood with her muddy-amber life-force.
