Page 130 of A Cruel Kindness

“Thank you, baby,” Soren said. It was horrible, but I felt okay in his arms. Even with everything.

My peace was cut off a second later by the most blood curdling scream I’d ever heard. Soren and I sprang apart to find Esme sprinting towards us, her face filled with horror.

“No, no, no,” she kept shouting, her focus so singular. Ford was on her heels, but was seemingly letting her run. That was until she kept moving, looking like she was intent on running into the flames.

Ford’s arms came around her stomach, holding her back and she screamed and fought him.

“I got some of your stuff,” I said, thinking that she was upset over her belongings. It was a little more intense of a reaction than I expected from her, but I wasn’t one to judge what panic made you do.

Esme turned toward the bag at my feet, stuffed with whatever I could grab of hers. She pushed out of Ford’s arms and collapsed to the ground, riffing through the bag.

Her jewelry box was discarded to the side like it was worthless and she dug and dug and dug, clearly looking for something.

We all stood in horror, watching as she searched for something that clearly wasn’t there and as her screams got louder, more panicked with each passing moment.

Ford’s face was stoic, if not frozen in fear. Even if there wasn’t a Bond between them, no person with a heart could hear the pain in Esme’s screams and not feel something.

“Esme,” I said, crouching down in front of her. “What are you looking for?”

She looked up at me and I realized she had tears streaming down her face. “Did you grab anything from the bathroom?”

I shook my head, my eyebrows creasing together. “No. The fire already got to it.”

Esme’s face crumpled so thoroughly, I thought I might start crying alongside her. She pushed to stand, turning on her heel so fast, I couldn’t drag her back.

Ford stepped in her path, picking her up as she tried to run right through him, muttering, “No, you don’t.”

Esme’s screams were so loud, so commanding, that I hardly noticed the arrow shooting in front of us until it implanted in the ground, reverberating from the force of its descent.

Soren jumped in front of me, blocking me from another incoming attack.

“Don’t you dare,” I snapped at him, fighting his strength to get him out of the way. At first, his defenses were strong, barely able to move him an inch. Eventually, his strength started to fade and I was able to muscle my way in front of him.

I realized then why he’d stopped fighting me.

There would be no more arrows. This was a singular message.

Attached to the end of the arrow was a rolled up scroll, tied with a deep purple ribbon. The same color as the seal that had sent the Prince’s offer of peace to my father.

Soren grabbed it before I could warn him away from any poison. He unraveled the scroll slowly, revealing a promise, scrawled in someone’s handwriting, as if the message was so personal it needed to come from their own hand, rather than a machine.

The Bridge will be ours.

Epilogue

Bellamy

It took until dawn for all the fires to be put out.

Everything was destroyed. We maybe had enough saved to get us through the week. Hopefully that was enough time to break through the rock hiding the Bridge and go back to Vir for reinforcements.

Muli had all but ended us, and it didn’t even seem like they were trying that hard.

The message they’d sent— The Bridge will be ours—added to the panic.

They’d started this war. We’d been the ones to protect from their invasions.

Now that story seemed like it was deeper, darker.