Chapter 40
Nova
The morning is warm and we’re laughing about something stupid.
Trey’s telling Eli about the night Rane shifted and couldn’t change back for six hours. Zoe keeps interrupting. Rane is trying and failing to defend himself. Kyron can’t stop laughing.
It was pretty funny.
Even Locke looks relaxed for once. It’s nice.
The rest of the guys are behind us having a separate conversation.
Five minutes to the community hall. The sun is on my face. I’m not dreading anything.
That should have been my first warning.
The crow hits me like a brick.
Not lands. Hits. It’s in my face screaming, wings everywhere, talons catching my hair. This isn’t the quiet bird that sits on the railing. This is frantic, desperate, loud.
“What the — get off!” I duck.
“What’s wrong with it?” Rane reaches for it.
Trey waves his arm. “Get off her!”
The crow dives at me again. I shove it away and it comes right back, screaming, and I’m annoyed and confused and I almost laugh because it looks insane—
I look up.
Oh no.
The street is wrong. The spaces between the houses are full. Dark shapes everywhere, massive, pressing in from every direction. So many I can’t see past them.
We’re surrounded.
Locke moves first. I feel him shift beside me — the tension, the bones starting to crack.
Something hisses through the air.
He drops.
“LOCKE!”
He’s on the ground. Just like that. A dart in his neck and he’s down and his eyes are rolling back. I’m trying to get to him but someone grabs my arm — Rane, pulling me back — and there are people in tactical gear with weapons lowered like they only needed the one shot.
“Let go of me — Locke!”
He’s not moving. He’s on his back in the dirt and he’s not moving.
Trey is shaking next to me. I grab his arm and I can feel the shift trying to rip out of him. He’s holding it back.
Beckett hasn’t moved. There’s something dark curling from his hands. Like smoke. I don’t think he knows.
We’ve been cut off from everyone. The town, even Zoe and her cluster. Fuck.
The bears part.
Silas walks through.
My stomach rolls as I realize what’s happening.
“Couldn’t believe this place actually existed,” he says it casually, like he’s making conversation. He looks toward the community hall. “And so defenseless. We just walked right in.” He smirks. “Convenient time for a town meeting.”
“What the hell do you want?” Trey’s voice sounds like it’s being held together with wire.
“What do I want?” Silas turns to him. Tilts his head like the question amuses him. “No, no, no. It’s not about what I want. It’s what’s best for the Nightmare Order. That’s what matters.”
He walks around us slowly. Taking his time.
“You see, they don’t particularly like your cluster. It seems you forced their hand because you all kept showing up in the same place.” He sighs. “It was rather, inconvenient.”
He stops in front of me.
“And then you appeared. After all that time.” His eyes drop to my wrist. “You and your disgusting lack of a mark and the system puts you right at the center of everything.”
I can feel my pulse in my throat. My hands won’t stop shaking.
“The Order doesn’t like that. The Order likes things it knows. Things it can control.” He holds my gaze. “You’re not just an anomaly, Nova. You shouldn’t exist.”
More smoke from Beckett. Thicker now. Curling up his arms. Silas glances at it. That smirk again. He knows Beckett won’t do anything. Not with Locke unconscious and bears on every side.
“As far as I can tell, you’ve manipulated these men into believing you’re part of their cluster.” He says it like it’s obvious. Like it’s sad. “It’s sick. And the Order won’t stand for it.”
Vaelor growls. The sound comes from somewhere deep, somewhere that isn’t quite human anymore.
Silas tuts at him.
Bastard.
“You haven’t even shifted yet. Late bloomer, I suppose.” He takes a breath. “Or perhaps your cluster isn’t as viable as you’d like to believe.”
My blood goes cold. He hasn’t raised his voice once. Locke is on the ground and this man isn’t even slightly concerned.
He looks at all of them. Then back at me.
“We’re willing to be generous, Nova.” His voice softens. Like he’s doing me a favor. “Come with us.”
“And if I refuse?”
Silas smiles. Small. Polite.
“We kill them all.”