Chapter 6 Foreen
Foreen
The city is nothing like I expected, in all the worst ways possible.
I’ve avoided travelling close to it in the past for fear of being picked up by the Path.
The first thing I notice is the massive stone and metal walls that surround it that are impossibly tall.
Behind are the empty shells of skyscrapers covered in green and grey.
They remind me too much of skeletons so I don’t look too long at them.
I don’t know what the name of this city was before the Ravage hit the world, but it’s become something else now, transformed into something synonymous with suffering and torment.
It looks like misery.
I never thought I’d find my death in this city. For some reason, I just assumed I would die elsewhere. But to be here, walking the steps where thousands of my omega sisters and brothers have bled and suffered, is a cold reality check. My fate is written in blood not yet spilled.
I’m going to die here.
In days or weeks, my corpse will be rotting on the ground, feeding the carrion crows that sit on the walls of the city, waiting for the feasts to begin. I shudder and clamp my teeth on a thin whine that escapes.
“Steady,” Bear says. “Just be calm, follow instructions. Don’t give them a reason to kill you before you enter the city, and when you get in, run. Someone will find you.”
“What? What does that mean?” the alpha who was friends with the one who launched off the cart asks. He’s refused to have anything to do with us, but I’m not sure if it’s from fear or self-preservation.
Bear doesn’t answer. Cadel and Mordecai brace themselves as the cart rolls to a stop.
The Warden stays atop his horse as a black-masked duke walks over and takes the reins of his heathen steed.
“Warden, it’s an honor. Are you joining the hunt this year?”
Like we’re a sport. I want to gouge out his eyes.
“I have been instructed to, yes.”
“Oh, we are so honoured to have you here with us.” The duke looks at us, and I glare.
“If you are so proud of who you are, take off your mask!” I snap at him. I don’t see any reason I should be silent and make this easy for them.
“Who are these?” The duke asks, ignoring me.
“Last minute captures.”
“Oh, excellent. We let the rest into the city. Could we wait until tomorrow or do a night release now? How would you like to play this?”
The deference is sickening.
The Warden turns and looks back at us, his eyes sweeping over me dispassionately. I saw him flinch. My words hurt him.
“Send them now,” he says, and his eyes land on me. We glare at each other until he turns away from me.
“Right, you heard him. Get them ready and send them in,” the duke shouts.
Twenty guards surge towards the cart. I recoil, but despite my efforts to remain free, they pull me out and slam me to my knees.
“Who are you?”
I clamp my mouth shut.
My hair is yanked hard, and a hand slams into my face, and it goes instantly numb.
“Name?” he screams.
I can’t think straight; I can barely remember my own name. He’s so close, his teeth exposed, his eyes are dark but red-rimmed. I wonder if his mother is proud of him. I’ll never tell him. Never!
“Kaida Keres,” the Warden says slowly.
The guard falls back, his grip on my hair loosening.
The duke looks between us; then stomps over to me and rips my shirt open, exposing me to all the guards around us, who are suddenly staring at me like I might sprout wings and cut them down.
The brand is thick and ugly in the middle of my chest. The omega symbol never did heal right, but it wasn’t supposed to.
“You captured Omega Keres?” The duke whispers in awe. “Warden, you are even more impressive than the rumours say.”
He bows over his right fist in oozing respect.
My torn shirt hangs off my shoulders, but nobody bothers to cover me up, and the eyes are hungry.
“And four more alphas,” a baron announces.
“Yes, that’s Maddox Sinclair,” the Warden says, pointing to Bear, and I stare at him, wondering what his game is because he should know who Bear is, shouldn’t he? Maddox Sinclair? Who is that?
“And these three?”
“No idea,” he says, glaring at me. Almost daring me.
“Names!” a guard shouts at Mordecai.
“Wait!” I shout before they can hit Cadel. “That’s Andril and Tennison Black.”
“What are you doing?” Bear hisses. “Shut your omega mouth!”
The betas look between us, and whatever false animosity Bear and I are throwing tricks them into believing we’re telling the truth.
They were two alphas who were friends with Maddox and had died of sickness about a year ago. It was out in the wild where the betas can’t track, I know because I was there.
Bear looks at me sharply one last time, then turns back to the duke. With a sigh of resignation, he spits out bitterly, “That’s right. My brothers.”
“What were you all doing in the city?” The duke growls, pacing back and forth. “Did you think you could win? Did you think you could hurt us?”
“Food,” I say bitterly. “We were just looking for food.”
“Huh.”
He looks like the idea of that completely stumps him. It’s the truth but not. Hunger brought me into the city early, but it’s not the reason I was there.
“And you?”
“Iron Hutchins,” the alpha we don’t know says with a growl that deepens.
I can see his intentions before he even moves.
“DOWN!”
All of us drop to the ground as he throws his body up and charges the closest beta. He’s massive, so when he knocks him down and slams a foot onto his chest, the beta’s ribs snap in a killing blow.
The dying oof sends chills down my spine.
I turn my head and see the Warden dismount gracefully using no hands.
He pulls out a massive black sword and darts in, slicing up from the alpha’s genitals to his chin.
His entrails spill in a slippery, steamy mess over his boots.
He stands frozen, not moving, and then he collapses, his life extinguished just like that.
“You!” the duke shouts. “I told you to keep him down.”
“Sorry, sir, he got away from me.”
“Clean this up, and you’re demoted. Your punishment will be not to enter Foreen until the High King gets here.”
The boy looks as if he might cry. His punishment is not being able to kill us, and that’s so bad he might cry? I have no words.
“Get them up, and get them into the holding cell.”
I’m dragged up. The Warden grabs my shirt and wraps it around me, tying it up at the back.
“Wouldn’t want you to corrupt any more minds,” he murmurs, and for the first time since I’ve seen him, there’s almost a note of mockery in his voice.
“It’s not my fault they are so easily led,” I whisper back.
His eyes flash up to mine. We look nothing alike but for our colouring. My eyes are light silver compared to his dark grey storm clouds. For a second, I can see him sitting beside me, laughing as the day fades into night. I’m happy.
Happiness is a lie. It’s a heartbreaking betrayal.
His eyes turn cold at the same time my heart does. A thousand lifetimes of pain have happened since that day.
He turns away from me, leaving me to the black-robed followers as they shove me towards the city. It takes us a long time to walk there. The sheer size of the wall takes up my entire mind as I stare at it.
They built this wall to keep us inside so they could kill us.
It rises so high we can’t see the buildings anymore. As we get close, I realise the wall is made of stone with metal and bits of ancient debris. Climbing it would be possible but incredibly dangerous. One slip, and you might cut yourself to ribbons.
A chain-link cage sits in front of two massive metal gates. The iron sheets shudder in the wind and make this awful wailing sound. Nothing grows close to the wall, but the surrounding ground is stained red.
“Inside,” the barked order startles me.
We’re pushed into the chain-link cage where eight robed warriors hold swords on us, waiting for any attempt at movement. I wait patiently while they remove my cuffs and then scream at me to lie on my stomach.
I obey, hating it, but as soon as I’m down, Cadel is beside me, and then Mordecai.
Finally, Bear joins us. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch them retreat, and the chain-link gate closes. We get to our feet, and I warily notice how out in the open we are.
“Do you have a pack?” I ask Bear.
He squints up at the sky. “I have an omega waiting for me inside.”
Cadel makes a sound.
I focus on Bear. “They’re inside? How do you know they are alive?”
“I can feel it. If they were to die, I would want to die, and I hope some kind soul would find it in their heart to give me mercy and end my suffering.” Bear has forbidden bonds?
It’s illegal for alphas and omegas to be together just in passing.
However, participating in heats or bonding has been outlawed, and it’s instant death to anyone caught.
I’m impressed, and my respect climbs just a notch.
Have I dreamed about having them? I think everyone has, but I’ve never met alphas I’ve liked enough to even think about it, let alone seriously consider it.
But a bond? They are said to join your souls so completely that you can feel your alpha from incredible distances. And they can feel you.
I shudder thinking about anything that strong. I don’t want them ever.
“I hope someone would be kind enough to kill me, too. What are their names?” I ask wistfully.
“Go to the school,” he says, ignoring my question.
“The school?”
He nods. “I can’t say more than that, but any Resistance members you find will know that’s the meet up spot.”
The gates to the city slide open and a desperate howling from inside leaves me rattled. It’s not that I fear this actual city, but I do of what’s coming. Right now, listening to that wail, I’m afraid.
I don’t want to die.
“Come on, it’s not safe to linger,” Bear says.
“Enjoy your last minutes in this world, Keres!” The duke calls.
I glance back, past Cadel and Mordecai, to see the Warden perched on his horse, staring at me.
“We need to go,” I say nervously.