Page 7 of A Sweet Destruction

One brave soul, one of the class I was drafted with, had the guts to ask me if I was alright. “Thank you, Mark. Just didn’t like the idea of all my jewelry melting,” I said with a wry, practiced smile.

He was convinced, of course, prancing off after his Match to help her clear the debris of another burned cabin and yelling at her to keep a cloth over her mouth for the smoke.

It was far too easy to spin the lie, to slip a little hint of mischief into my gaze, along with a self-deprecating tilt to my smile that I’d be so concerned over something so trivial.

By the time I got to the Bridge, I was fuming with a nasty combination of self pity, fear, and astonishment. The once beautiful, haunting cave that held the path between worlds was collapsed in on itself in a pile of rubble, remnants of the land that had gone untouched for centuries blasted into pieces.

The fall of hanging leaves and flowers that obscured the entrance were nowhere to be found, save for a few burnt pieces. Jumping off Sky’s back, I knelt and picked up one of those burnt leaves, once a bright, vibrant green—rarely found outside of nature, except for a pair of observant eyes that—

The point was, the leaf was not supposed to be an awful burnt brown and everything sucked.

“Oi, Esme, plan on brooding or do you plan on helping?”

I stood, flicking the leaf away and nodding at Sky to make himself happy chomping on any fresh leaves he could find. He wouldn’t go far, not with tensions still high and tears still stinging the back of my eyes. I tossed a treat in the air for good measure, which he caught with a loud crunch.

“Hand me something to work with and I plan on being helpful,” I snapped at Alec, an eighteen-year-old kid who had been drafted two years ago and looked far older than his years.

Alec laughed, leaning forward to hand me something that looked vaguely like a sledgehammer. Whatever its original purpose, I would be using it as a weapon against my emotions.

“So we’re just…” I trailed off, using the hammer to point at the mass of rubble under our boots.

“Breaking everything apart so it’s easier to shovel away, yes,” Alec responded. “Easier on the horses once we figure out some type of system to help them haul it away.”

I laughed under my breath, “So Freya is…”

“Currently ordering people around in a way that makes Peter look like a ray of sunshine,” Alec responded, a laugh in his voice.

That was enough cheer for the moment, I decided, as I looked down at the large rock in front of me and decided the carving lines reminded me of Ford’s jaw. A second later it was in pieces at my feet.

“Damn, okay,” Alec muttered.

That was all I saw for a while, focusing on smashing rocks and relishing in the burn in my muscles. My limbs shook and my cheeks warmed and sweat built on my brow. Old wounds, pushed so far down they were on the edge of forgotten awoke with a vengeance.

A high-pitched whistle was the only thing capable of cutting through my focus, making me stop to rake in heaving breaths.

Two figures were approaching in the dark, illuminated by the bright stars on a clear, cloudless night. As they approached, I realized that it was Peter and Ella, walking close together and speaking between themselves.

They were clearly walking towards me, and I had a moment of sheer, blinding panic. The same panic that always arose when Peter forced me to discuss this. Maybe three times over the course of five years, plus the stunted conversations he’d forced me into with a doctor who needed updates on the medication’s effectiveness.

I made myself take a breath. If I couldn’t handle this conversation, I was in for a rough ride.

"Ella, Peter,” I greeted as they approached, forcing a smile to my face. My cheery disposition was betrayed by the collection of shattered rocks at my feet, and the fact that everyone else working the wreckage was giving me a wide berth, scared away by the force of my strikes.

“Esme,” Ella said with a soft smile and nod of her head. She knew, of course she did. She wouldn’t admit it, or treat me any differently, and that was more of a gift than I could ask for. The pity was what scared me the most.

“Please let me do something,” I rushed out, looking for any sort of tangible update to help cut through the anxiety building in my chest.

Ella chuckled under her breath, her stark brown eyes softening, just the barest bit. “I think you’re doing a good job of helping right now. You’ve made some progress.” Her head nodded towards the center of the rubble, where someone had placed a pole marking where they thought the Bridge’s powerful core lied. A little too much guesswork for my liking, seeing as someone could accidentally fall straight through back to Vir.

I smiled at Ella, but then turned to Peter, the only person I really needed to plead with. “Peter,” I said, letting my tone taking on a beggar’s note.

Peter shook his head from sheer disbelief, barely seeming to understand me. “I can’t tell if this was just to show us that they could destroy us if they wanted or something deeper.”

“A distraction,” I supplied. It would be smart, making us focus all our energy and resources on rebuilding so we’d miss something bigger forming in the background.

“Likely,” Ella said with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

I nodded quickly, my mind firing a million miles a minute trying to come up with a plan.