Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The sun started to rise, the hazy November light barely brushing at the buildings as they appeared like a Monet painting, but underneath the strokes were more of a Picasso. Broken up and stitched together in pieces, colored with blood.
Bodies still lay underneath the remains, trapped in a tomb where they would stay. Life in the Savage Lands meant no time to mourn or bury the dead. You had to keep going to protect those who were still alive.
In the distance, hyenas sang their warrior cry, their howls a warning they would be coming to pick off the weak and claim our dead.
“Fuck,” Warwick grunted, his warning shooting to Andris. “We have to go.”
“Zuz, Maddox, Wesley?” Andris whistled, motioning for his men to start moving. “Head for the new base.”
“It’s not ready yet,” Zuz replied.
“Doesn’t matter. Get everyone going, quickly!” They reacted instantly to Andris’s order, helping those in need and rounding up what was left of the army.
“Scorpion. Birdie. You are in charge of them.” Andris motioned to Caden and a figure a few yards away, and I did a double-take. I hadn’t even seen Hanna there, but the way she watched me, I had no doubt she saw my assault on Caden, who was her friend and the boy I was supposed to love.
Covered in dust and wounds with her hands cuffed and her wavy blond hair matted in a ponytail, she glared at me with utter abhorrence, knotting my chest with shame. Scorpion pushed her to get moving, her feet tripping over each other, then she finally looked away from me, rolling her head high.
A young fae assisted Birdie, both helping Caden up and getting him moving inland.
“If Istvan is the culprit . . .” Andris turned my attention back to him, his feet retreating as Ling came up to him, his hand touching hers. “He’ll be sending out people soon to do a sweep, making sure the explosion did the job, and if it didn’t . . .”
“He’ll finish us off.” Warwick peered in the direction of HDF.
A sweep. Both Andris and I were familiar with those. In training, Bakos had us simulate doing sweeps for months. How to split up and come in from all sides, what to look for, what dangers and situations to expect. How to pick off the survivors.
We were sitting ducks here. Weak and vulnerable.
“Just imagine if he finds we have Caden,” Andris added before taking off after his army, heading for their new location.
Istvan would rain down unimaginable wrath on us if he discovered we were holding his only son hostage.
Two reasons I knew Istvan didn’t know we had Caden: First, he would have never risked his son by bombing the building in the first place.
Second, Istvan wouldn’t have waited this long to do a sweep.
This would have been a recovery mission.
They would have descended on us with a full sniper team coming in to take Caden back.
Howls of the hyenas grew louder, their bloodthirsty cries licking the air with their proximity.
“Guys?” Ash yelled, tugging his pack straps tighter, the fae book safety on his back. I could see him, Kek, and Lukas over Warwick’s shoulder, waiting on us. “Decide.”
Without a word, Warwick grabbed my arm, tugging me toward Ash, in the opposite way Sarkis’s army was traveling.
I yanked my arm free with a violent jerk, stopping him. His brow lowered as he peered back at me. He didn’t even bother asking what I wanted or where I felt I needed to be. I was not his chess piece to move around how he saw fit.
“What are you doing?” His nose flared, annoyance and rage shooting from his eyes.
I glared back, my stance burrowing into the ground. Defying the mighty Wolf.
The tension between us weaved and expanded. It was living and breathing, while the link between us was lifeless. Was it gone for good? Another victim, burned and buried with the other bodies we lost tonight?
“I’m going with my uncle. They need me.” Need us, but I didn’t say that. “You can go.” I laid the challenge down at his feet. “But I’m not leaving Andris or any of my family.”
Warwick’s expression turned to stone, but I could sense the fury under his skin. The way he breathed, how his hands curled and shoulders inched forward.
Lukas and Kek came to my side, their path with me, but my eyes stayed locked on the legend, neither one of us giving an inch.
“Come with me or don’t. You’re free to do what you want.” The jab hissed off my tongue. The truth feeling like a cut across my chest, making it hard to breathe, which caused my anger to swell.
There was a good chance the feelings he thought he felt for me were only from the connection. Now it was gone.
Before he could see my emotions, I turned away, jogging after my uncle, the demon and half-fae beside me. We turned the corner out of sight, and more of my heart shattered when he didn’t follow.
The touch of morning light drew deep-shaded curtains through the streets and alleys, presenting easy hiding places and blind spots. Half of what was once Sarkis’s army moved through the silent streets, the hour still too early for many to be up, and making us even more of a target.
The back of my neck prickled. The sensation of eyes on me from the buildings had my gaze darting around with my gun out, primed to shoot. The howls of the hyenas in the distance spread goosebumps down my arms.
Though, it wasn’t them that had my heart beating in my ears; they would go straight for the easy meals. The ones that were already dead.
It was something else.
Intuition. A decade of training. Knowing the enemy so well I could feel them creeping in.
Surrounding us.
Lukas’s head snapped to the side, his muscles constricting. His reaction needed no explanation. He could feel it too. Besides his fae senses, his training was laced into every fiber of his being, ready to respond to a threat.
A disturbing growl emerged from Kek, her eyes darkening as her demon senses picked up on the danger.
Shit.
My mouth opened, ready to warn Andris, but it was too late.
A zing swooshed through the air, the sound of metal splintering through flesh and bone as one fae in the very front went down without a sound. The bullet went through his brain, killing him, before he could even cry out.
The reaction was instant. Andris’s soldiers dove for him, shielding their leader. Yells and commotion pinged off the buildings on either side. Weapons drawn as our group condensed together, trying to find the source of the threat.
It was silent for a moment. Even the air seemed like it was holding its breath as all of us coiled together.
Pop!
A girl behind me dropped to the ground, a bullet between her eyes.
Pop!
A shot came from one side. Then the other side. They were moving in, but able to hide among the narrow alleys.
Another one of ours dropped.
They were picking us off one by one.
“Go! Go!” I screamed, motioning everyone to head down a passage.
We learned to sweep in training, but Bakos also had us do simulations where we were the ones being surrounded.
To flip it around and get them all on one side, you had to break through one way hard and fast, spilling out of their circle like liquid, forcing them to regroup behind you.
Our movements flipped everything into chaos. Gunfire and figures darted everywhere, the shadows easily fooling the eye. Our group barreled forward, trying to break HDF’s line.
“Help! They have me and Caden as hostages. Help!” Hanna’s voice spiked up with the barrage of bullets bouncing off the buildings.
Scorpion grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand.
She struggled against him, but he kept her pinned to his chest, trying to move her down the path, kicking and flailing against him.
“Stop shooting, or I blow your pretty prince’s head off.” Birdie shouted, clean and sharp, her words somehow making it above the pandemonium. Her gun cocked, the sound snapping loudly as she pressed the barrel to Caden’s temple. “Make a move, and you will be scooping up his brains with a shovel.”
A muscle under Caden’s puffy eye flexed, his jaw clenched so hard I could see the veins in his neck.
The firing stopped. The silence was louder than the volley of bullets.
I had no doubt they were struggling with what to do. We were taught to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good. One soldier was not worth the lives of our mission, but Caden was no ordinary soldier. He was HDF’s prince. Their future leader. Istvan’s only son and heir. They would not risk him.
Taking up the cue, our group made our escape down the alley, forcing Andris to move, though I could tell he wanted to be the one to make sure all his people made it first.
“No!” Caden bellowed. “Shoot now! Kill them!” Fury danced in his eyes, and I knew he hated that they waved the white flag for him. Caden was proud. He never wanted to be treated differently from the other soldiers. He wanted to earn his place, even if it didn’t really matter if he did or not.
“That is an order!” he screamed as Birdie and another guard yanked him back, practically dragging him. “Shoot them!”
They still hesitated.
Caden fought against Birdie and two other guards trying to silence him and move him away. “Sarkis’s ex-general, Andris Takacs! He’s alive! A traitor working with the fae. Kill them now. I command you!”
My stomach sank, knowing Istvan would learn his old friend was still alive—not only alive but leading the insurgent group against him and detaining his son.
Caden’s last instruction did the trick. Shells lobbied into the passage, zipping by my ear as I saw HDF uniforms hiding behind dumpsters and walls, progressing toward us.
Kek grunted next to me as a bullet nipped across her arm and blood began pooling out, her eyes going down to the injury. “Your little boyfriend is starting to piss me off.” She frowned at the wound. “And I liked this shirt.”
Another shell skimmed her blue hair.