Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Shadows’ mercy,” I breathe, following Kalden, who’s already a blur at the base of the hill.
I place the wired rings attached to my cuffs around both middle fingers and clench, releasing the folded nightstone blades.
Before I dart beneath the forest’s canopy, I slice through my leather gloves at an angle to avoid nicking my skin, just as Kalden instructed.
Leaning forward, I sprint into the trees as the buzz of energy awakens in my palms.
Unlike Gem and Gabe, Kalden doesn’t bother with reducing his speed to match mine. I’m unsure whether it’s because my safety isn’t a priority for him, or because he trusts I’m capable of defending myself, thanks to his lessons. I tell myself it’s the latter as he disappears from view.
I find I don’t need to see Kalden to know which path to take. There’s a magnetic pull on my senses, guiding me forward. I suppose I should question it, but I don’t. There’s no time for doubts.
More shouts come from up ahead, louder now that I’m getting closer. It isn’t until I pass my earlier bathing spot that I remember I left my helmet at our campsite.
Maybe they won’t notice.
The logical side of my brain scoffs at my na?veté. I’m basically a human lantern. They’re going to notice. And the cameras will, too. Which means I’ll never get to return home, even if I survive the Hunt.
When I breach the meadow’s edge, something round and black launches towards me. I flinch, deflecting it with my arms. The object whacks against my forearms before falling to the ground. I jump away from it.
Kalden, who’s running towards me, shouts, “Put it on!”
On second look, I realize it’s my helmet. As I dart out of the camera’s range, Kalden fastens his own headgear, the tiny suns of his irises fully concealed by the deep tint of the polarized lens.
“The cameras are off,” he explains, tapping above his brow bone. “I disabled them with a targeted solar flare, along with the sensor.”
I hadn’t considered that was possible.
“Thanks,” I say a few seconds too late as Kalden abandons me once again, sprinting back through the trees.
“Orelle?” Gem calls from nearby. “Orelle!”
The swelling within my chest strains when Gem appears on the opposite side of the clearing, her nightstone poniard at the ready. I finish tugging on my helmet as quickly as I can, praying to the shadows that she was too far away to see the evidence of my treason.
Gem’s sprint falters for a split second, and the knot above my heart grows, but I don’t let it stop me from running towards her and wrapping her in a hug. I keep it short, giving her shoulders a squeeze and pulling back almost immediately.
“Thank the darkness you’re okay!”
“Where were you?!” Gem speaks over me. Her helmet blocks her features, but I imagine concern pinches between her brows.
The tangy odor of blood and gore assaults my senses. Forgetting Gem’s question, my attention drops to the rumpled grass, where three bodies lay, unmoving.
The first is sprawled on her side, hand stretching for the rapier just out of reach. Coppery red hair juts out from the bottom of her helmet, identifying the fallen soldier as Faron.
A second woman lies beside her, face down in her knapsack, like she hadn’t yet woken when the Sols attacked. Blair, judging by the mid-length blonde strands coated in crimson.
I startle when the third woman’s fingers twitch. Her helmet isn’t fully secured to her suit, revealing a sliver of ashen skin that pulses with the faintest golden light. Lowering to my knees, I cradle her head while pulling off the headgear to reveal glossy gray eyes.
“Meridna?” My voice cracks as I wrap her hand in my own and use the other to tuck her loose silver-and-brown locks behind her ear. Blood spills far too quickly from the six gaping wounds in her chest, and I wish I could do more than offer comfort.
Though her forehead contorts in pain, Meridna’s pale lips pull into a smile.
“My Georgie,” she whispers hoarsely.
“Meridna, it’s me. O—”
“I’ve missed you so much, Georgie.” Meridna blinks slowly, smile spreading, and I know it isn’t me she’s seeing, but her son—the one who died a little over three years ago.
“I’ve missed you too,” I say as a tear slips through the ventilation slit of my helmet, spilling onto her cheek.
“Don’t cry, my love.” She gives my fingers the gentlest squeeze. “I’ll never leave you ever again. Our forever . . . starts . . .”
The last of the golden glow drains from Meridna’s pallid skin.
Gem begins to mutter the prayer of departure. “Shadows guide your spirit. May you find peace in the eternal night in the name of our holy darkness.” She cups a hand in front of her helmet, symbolically shrouding her vision, and lowers it to Meridna’s unseeing eyes in a final farewell.
Once Gem finishes, we linger for another silent minute.
I stare at the pool of crimson surrounding Meridna’s body and leathers, recalling Jacqueline’s method of survival. But how can I desecrate the last of her lifeblood? Take advantage of her death to prevent my own? I can’t.
A fresh wave of cries cut through the morning breeze, and I leap to my feet.
“What are you doing?” Gem calls from behind as I take off towards the commotion.
“I need to make sure it isn’t Gabe,” I say over my shoulder, trusting that she’ll catch up.
Seconds later, she does. “He’s got those nightstone missiles, remember? I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Why hasn’t he used one yet?” I ask while dodging spindly branches, chancing a glance at the cloudless blue sky above.
Selfishly, I’m glad to see it hasn’t been marred by the false night of Gabe’s carbon nightoxide, but I can’t help but wonder why he didn’t use it against the Sols.
“Were there too many to attack at once?”
“I don’t know,” Gem admits. “He woke me up maybe a half hour ago, all freaked out, saying you were missing. Kalden was gone, too. I figured you were together, but didn’t know for sure, so we split up to search for you.”
“Oh,” is all I say as we continue weaving through the thicket, still following that inexplicable magnetic tug, as if the sun’s energy coursing through my veins senses its likeness nearby.
Gem huffs a dry laugh. “That’s it? No ‘I’m sorry for scaring you shitless, and I promise not to do it again’? What were you thinking, Orelle? Wandering off right before dawn without telling anyone? Without telling me?”
“I’m sorry for not saying anything. It was still pitch black when I woke, and I wanted to let you sleep.”
“I don’t give a shadow’s fuck about sleep,” Gem snaps. “You left your helmet behind, and I had no clue if I’d find you in time. I could’ve lost you.”
“The Sols weren’t near—”
“That’s not what I meant.” She lowers her voice, as if that’ll prevent her built-in camera from picking up her next words. “You and I both know there are worse fates than death.”
Like becoming the very creature we’re meant to hunt. A creature who wouldn’t hesitate to feed on people it might’ve once cared for, too ravenous to discriminate friend from foe.
An unwelcome image of Gem in Meridna’s place materializes—except instead of me grasping her hand as she takes her final breaths, I drink from her bleeding heart until I’ve drained every drop of her life essence.
I stumble over a thick root, bile coating my tongue as I blink, evicting the image from my mind. Gem slows her pace, waiting for me, despite her frustration.
“That won’t happen,” I vow.
She folds her arms tightly across her chest. Though I can’t see it, I feel her narrowed gaze slicing through her helmet, like she can sense the golden light flooding my irises and veins beneath mine.
The polarized lens completely extinguished Kalden’s illuminated features from view, but what if the tint on my headgear isn’t dark enough?
Maybe I could tell her the truth . . .
I imagine how that conversation might go.
“I was exposed for a few minutes, but don’t freak out. Minimal exposure won’t turn me into a Sol.”
“What?!” Her eyes would go wide. “How do you know that?”
“Because Kalden told me it wouldn’t.”
Except telling her that would break my pulse promise with Kalden.
“Because I’ve been exposed before and turned out fine.”
Except she and Taurance didn’t believe my recounting of what happened in the transport tunnel after the earthquake.
I heave a sigh. No matter how I approach it, Gem is unlikely to respond well to the truth. Though she deserves to know, and there might come a time where there’s no avoiding it, now isn’t the right time. Not with her camera still recording and the magnetic energy in my chest tightening.
So, for now, I leave it at, “I promise I’ll be fine.”
Gem tenses like she wants to press further, but an ear-scraping screech stirs us back into motion.
We find the Sol less than a minute later.
Sols, my mind corrects. Unlike yesterday’s stray, this one isn’t alone.
Three of the unclothed charred-skin creatures close in on two of our fellow Huntresses, herding them towards the open dunes, away from the shaded shelter of the trees.
The pair sprints along the forest’s edge hand in hand, toeing the line between the foliage and sand.
A streak of black zips atop a distant sandy crest, and I could swear I spot something that looks a lot like the motorized cart that transported us yesterday morning, but it disappears before I can confirm the hunch.
Another figure comes at the Sols from the side. It moves so fast that on first glance, I assume it’s a fourth Sol. Then I see the two nightstone throwing knives clenched in his fists.
Kalden.
Though he’s several yards ahead, I recognize his chosen weapons, and the tug in my chest strengthens. I quicken my cadence to keep up, Gem matching my stride with ease.
Kalden lifts his left arm, hurling a knife into the air. The nearest Sol dodges the blade while it zips past inches from its skull.