Rane
I can’t sit down.
I’ve tried. Twice. Both times I lasted about forty seconds before I was back on my feet because sitting down feels like giving up and I’m not giving up, I’m just — there’s nowhere to put any of this.
There’s nothing to do with it. We’re in this hall and Nova is gone and Locke is on his back.
Kyron is god knows where up in the sky being a dramatic feathered bastard and I want to grab him by the wing and drag him back down here.
Then I want to shake Locke until he gets up off his ass.
I want to do so many things and I can’t and it’s bullshit.
Trey said his piece.
He’s right. He’s completely right. I’ve known he was right since before he said it and it still didn’t give me anywhere to put my hands.
Because I can’t think about how she’s not here. How they have her.
I open my mouth.
“Don’t,” she says.
I close it.
Zoe looks at Minerva. Something passes between them — I don’t know what, except that Minerva built this town from nothing and she is not someone who steps aside for anyone. She nods.
Zoe turns, looking at all of us.
“I was there,” she says. “When they finally left. When Silas and all the shifters he brought walked away and the street cleared.” Her voice is steady but her hands aren’t.
She’s got them pressed flat against her thighs.
“We got to you as soon as we could. Me and Eli and the others. And you were all on the ground.”
I don’t want to hear this.
“None of you were moving. No sounds… nothing. All of you, in the dirt.” She swallows. “And Nova was already gone. The vehicles were already gone. And the last thing she saw before that bag came down was all of you on the ground not moving.”
Beckett’s eyes close.
“She doesn’t know what those darts were,” Zoe says.
“She’s never been inside the system. She doesn’t know the difference between something that puts you down and something that—” She stops.
Starts again. “She saw you fall. She heard the rest of you go down right after she agreed. And then she was in the dark.”
The hall is very quiet.
“The sound that came out of her…” Zoe shakes her head and I can tell she’s trying to hold it together.
“She thinks you’re dead.”
Locke swears. Low and quiet. We all hear it.
“She’s in there right now carrying that,” Zoe says. “Thinking she gave herself up and it didn’t even work. Thinking she lost all of you anyway.” Her voice cracks. Once. She pushes through it. “And you’re all in here, doing what… feeling sorry for yourselves?”
She looks at the window. At the sky. “And Kyron is up there deciding she abandoned you when she walked into that vehicle thinking you were already gone.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Brent interrupts. He’s not wrong.
Cal nods.
At least we’re all in agreement.
Then Vaelor in the kitchen doorway. Dish towel in his hands. Eyes red.
He looks at Zoe for a long moment.
“What do you suggest?” he says.
I stop moving because what Zoe said actually hits me.
She was there. She saw what Nova saw. And hearing it from someone who was standing on that street makes it real.
Nova thinks we’re dead.
She’s in there alone. With Silas, and probably Laith too eventually.
And we’re the only ones who can tell her she’s wrong.
I drag a hand through my hair.
Zoe looks at me. Trying not to show how scared she is.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” she says back.
“We need a plan,” I say because I haven’t got a clue what it is.
She grins.
“Damn right we do. Let’s get our girl back.”