Chapter 48 #2
“I am, sir. The omega Kaida Keres did not escape with the rest of them. If we eliminate her, it will be easier to subdue the others.”
I flinch at my name, but Cadel doesn’t move.
They walk on slowly, still talking. They are going to set fire to Foreen? I’m not sure how I feel about it. Part of me doesn’t want to lose the history here, but another part of me thinks that the ghosts of the past would rest easier if their pain and suffering were erased.
Setting fire to the city while we are still trapped inside would be unpleasant to say the least. My mind goes blank at the thought.
We stay plastered to the wall for a long time, making sure they are well out of sight and gone before Jarek moves, slinking out to check.
Cadel turns me in his hold and hugs me tight.
“Are you all right?” he whispers.
Am I? No, not even close.
I exhale roughly. “We need to get out of the city,” I say in a rough voice. “I don’t want to burn.”
Still, I know there are people here who are going to be left behind.
“Is there anything else we can do for the others?” I ask.
Mordecai slowly shakes his head. “No. Not without giving away our and their location.”
I shudder. To burn in a blaze like this would be horrific.
“Let’s go to the temple. We’ll get out of here and hope they find a way. I guess we can’t save everyone.”
I can see it on their faces. Hope is nothing; it’s not going to help anyone. Not us nor them. Mordecai takes my hand, pulling me close to him. He brushes my cheek and leans down, pressing his lips to mine. I cling to him, feeling his strength and every bit of his worry in his touch.
“Come on!” Jarek hisses.
I break away from Mordecai and dart after Jarek. We get one block before my knees give out, and I find myself kneeling in the street, in the grass. My mother is dead. My whole family is gone. They murdered her.
Four years of searching for answers, and I have them all now. It’s lonelier than I would have thought possible.
Tears fill my eyes and spill over. I have no control over myself. I don’t even know why it’s happening now. I thought I was okay.
Jarek crouches beside me, while Mordecai and Cadel stand guard. He waits while I gasp, smothering my pain with a fist pressed to my mouth.
I am alone now.
“No, not anymore. We’re here with you now,” Jarek murmurs and reaches out, taking my hand. “It’s just a bit of emotional backlash from your heat. You’re okay, Kaida.”
I reach into my pocket and pull out the photograph of us. He takes it from my hand and stares down at it before he puts it in his own pocket.
“That doesn’t matter. It’s the past, and we’re here now.”
“It doesn’t make sense. How are we in a photo from seven hundred years ago?” I almost shout.
Jarek puts a finger under my chin and tilts my head back. “I don’t know, but what I do know is that you are perfect, and you are here, and I am sorry for everything that happened, but it’s not happening this time. We are going to survive this.”
He pulls me to my feet, lifting me into his arms. I stare at the green of his eyes, the shape of his nose, and the bow of his lips.
“Jarek,” I whisper. “How do I know you?”
He shakes his head and keeps walking.
“None of this makes sense. My mother knew I was coming; she knew what was going to happen with the fight with the Warden; she showed me how to escape. How is that even possible? There was a book, an entire book, with photos of us!”
Jarek and Mordecai exchange a look that says they know more than they are willing to say. Cadel doesn’t even turn around; he just keeps scanning for danger.
“Don’t do that. Don’t keep secrets and be all weird.”
“It’s not that we’re keeping secrets; it’s that it sounds crazy, and we all know it.”
“Know what?” I growl.
“What if she knew about what was going to happen because your mother was a prophet or seer?” Jarek asks quietly. He shrugs. “Just an idea.”
“What if we know each other because this isn’t the first time we’ve met?” Mordecai asks just as casually.
Cadel stops and turns his head, watching us intently. “It’s a whole big, elaborate plan.”
I almost laugh, but his expression makes the words die in my throat.
“What?” I ask, startled.
“But if it is, I can’t see it. I can’t figure out how it all fits together, but we’re all pieces in a game being moved by a hand smarter than ours,” Cadel says and turns away again.
“That is not a comforting thought,” I say to Cadel.
“No, it’s not, but it’s the last chance that alphas and omegas have to survive this. I would be surprised if the gods had decided not to interfere. Alpha, beta, and omega designations are sacred to them. They would not have been pleased to watch this unfold.”
I stare at him, wondering if I should try to delve deeper and ask more questions.
The world explodes, the sound booming through the city. Glass breaks, buildings collapse and crumble, and then a wall of dust hits us. Jarek throws me to the ground and covers me with his body.
“Where did that come from?” I shout.
Jarek squeezes his arms around me. “I don’t know.”
It takes forever, but then it stops, and we’re left in a dusty brown world with a very limited view.
“No!” I hiss and search the sky, staring at the now missing spire. Tingles crawl up my spine, and before I can think it through, I’m flying in that direction.
Jarek catches me before I run out onto the street, but he stops right behind me, staring in dismay.
The spire is gone, but so are the buildings on either side of the temple.
All that remains are their collapsed ruins, which sit on the temple, flattening it into a mound, the secret exit is buried deep underneath it all.
I can feel the panic that goes through each one of us.
“Does anyone have any other ideas to escape?” I whisper.
There’s silence, heavy and void of hope. There is only one way out of Foreen, the only way anyone has ever gotten out in seven hundred years. We have only a day, maybe two.
No one has an answer, and our one way out of the city is now under a mass of bricks and rubble. The path to the underground river is buried. There is no way out.