“Fine.” I exhaled heavily. “But let’s give it some time. See how the situation in town plays out. We’ll stand a better shot of getting out of the area if they lift martial law. And until then, we’re safer here, with our friends, than on the road.”
Gallagher nodded. “You should get some sleep. I’ll stand watch.”
“We’re standing watch now?”
“I’mstanding watch. And burying the body. No one else will get to either of you tonight.”
I didn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that, though Gallagher always told the truth, he wasn’t always right. And this time, he was wrong.
He hadn’t just sworn to protect me. He’d sworn to protect me so I could fulfill whatever purpose fate had bestowed on me.
If I ran from the surrogates, I would always be running, because they would always be drawn to me. And they would kill on the way. They would be like a giant, murderous arrow, pointing right at me. And at Alina.
One way or another, thefuriaewould get what it wanted from me. I could either kill the surrogates one at a time, putting Gallagher and Alina at risk as both the monsters and the authorities hunted us around the globe.
Or I could kill them all at once.
Delilah
The next morning was brutal. By the time the sun came up, I felt like the walking dead, and I looked even worse.
Gallagher seemed tired, but he insisted he was okay, so I talked him into going hunting with Claudio, Genni and Zyanya, since there were more of us in the cabin than ever, and we couldn’t go into town for supplies.
Mirela and Lala took Rommily out to look for berries, hoping both to supplement our food reserves and that being out of the cabin for a couple of hours would be good for their grieving sister. Which left Lenore alone with me and Alina.
She walked the baby around the bedroom in circles while I indulged in a long shower, then I took Alina into the kitchen to nurse her while Lenore made breakfast for us both.
When she sank into the chair next to me and set an omelet in front of each of us, I turned in my seat to face her. “Lenore, I need to ask you a huge favor.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“It’ll be dangerous, so I feel like I should tell you that it’s okay to say no. Except that it isn’t. I have to do something. And you’re the only one who can help me.”
She gave me a nervous smile. “If this is your way of asking me to change a diaper, you’re leaning just atadtoward melodrama.” When I only exhaled, her smile faded. “Okay. What’s going on?”
“The surrogates are converging on us. Because of me.”
“Because of you?”
“Gallagher thinks this is my purpose. The reason fate made me afuriae. He thinks that Rebecca Essig’s sacrifice was the ‘how.’ But the surrogates and the second reaping are the ‘why.’ And I think he’s right.”
“Wow. So you’re, like, humankind’s sword and shield?”
“Something like that. Only honestly, right now I feel like I’m staring down an army, wielding nothing but a plastic spork.”
“First of all, that’s not true. I’ve seen what you can do. Second... I cry foul. Humankind doesn’t deserve a sword and shield. Or even a plastic spork. Not after everything they’ve done to us. You should be fighting forus.”
“Lenore, I’m not choosing humankind over cryptids. This isn’t us versus them. Thesurrogatesare the enemy. And the only way humankind will ever understand that is if we show them that the rest of us are all on the same side.”
She nodded slowly. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Basically. And we can’t do that if I’m just killing them one at a time, out here in the woods. Unseen by anyone who would benefit from clear evidence that we’re fightingwithhumanity, not against it.”
Our omelets were growing cold, but she didn’t seem any more concerned about that than I was. “How can I help?”
“Do you remember that thing you used to do at the menagerie, after the coup? Over the loudspeaker?”
“Directing everyone toward the exits?” She shrugged. “I just gave them a little push.”
