Bryce slid past the boulder, Aiden and Helena hot on his heels. They ran through the maze, turning here, ducking there, over and under, and ‘round, and ‘round, until Bryce didn’t know which way they’d come.
“Left!” Helena ordered.
He turned left. The tunnel opened slightly. He caught the scent trail they’d left behind, coming in from the other way.
“Right, over there!”
Bryce went right, and nearly fell into a crack in the earth. “Jump!” he shouted, leaping over it. He turned to catch Aiden, to make sure he didn’t trip, and then Helena. She took point, leading the way, letting Bryce cover the rear. The horde was gaining, and they were not happy.
Suddenly, Helena stopped, and Aiden slammed into her. “We have to split up,” she said.
“Not a good time,” Aiden snapped. “Move!”
“No, listen, we need to end this.” She drew her sword. “We came from that tunnel there; that’s the way out. That way was the hive, and over there the pod things. That means Sinna’s gotta be down that last tunnel.”
Aiden shook his head. “You don’t know that. We don’t separate. Now move!” He shoved her toward the way out.
Helena punched him—hard. “You hit like a girl,” she said, eyes gleaming wild and dangerous in the darkness. “Can’t stop me, hoss. So go do your thing, and let me do mine. Get your girl. I’ll buy you the time.”
Aiden grabbed for her, but Helena twisted out of reach. Bryce knew better than to get in her way. She was not wrong. “Get a move on!” she yelled as the horde began to show their faces. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she went at them, and it worked. The horde was so focused on her, they completely ignored the brothers.
Aiden swore, started back, but one look at Bryce stopped him in his tracks. They stared at each other. Tough choice. Bryce knew exactly what Aiden was thinking. Helena still had a chance; Sinna, for all they knew, was dead. They could be chasing a ghost, and even if she were still alive, these caves were a labyrinth. They could be wandering around underground for days and never find her.
The logical choice was to help Helena.
That was the choice Aiden was supposed to make; the one his clever brain insisted he should make.
He didn’t.
“Let’s go,” he said hoarsely, shoving at Bryce to get him moving forward. Away from Helena. Because he wouldn’t let them split up again.
Bryce closed off the part of his brain that called him out for leaving a female behind and took off at a run, heedless of the uneven terrain. He didn’t care when he slammed his shoulder into an outcropping, or when a raised boulder tripped him. He bashed his head a good few times, but he kept going, farther, deeper. Up, down. Always forward. He didn’t stray from the main tunnel, trusting his instincts to lead him true. All life followed the path of least resistance, and this tunnel would lead somewhere, he was sure of it—
The tunnel spit them out into a cave thick with steam. It hit Bryce in the face, closed around him like a stifling wet blanket he couldn’t claw off. He slowed, stopped, squinted through the mist to make out the terrain, find his next step.
Behind him, Aiden swore. “Oh, fuck. No. B, this isn’t right.”
Bryce turned on him, a cold fist squeezing around his heart. “What?”
Aiden swallowed hard. “It’s the baths. We’re aboveground. We’re in Haven.”
Bryce shook his head. No, there were no converts in Haven; he’d seen it from the hill. The place had been razed, leveled. Nothing inside but debris and ashes. Sinna wasn’t here.
But she wasn’t back there, either. Four main tunnels, and they’d seen all of them. The cave, the hive, the pods, and now this. Four main tunnels, and God only knew how many smaller ones branching off. An ant hill maze.
Check outside, a small voice told him. This isn’t the end of the tunnel. You need to check out there. Forward or back? His instincts pulled him in both directions at the same time. He wanted to send Aiden ahead and go back down himself, but he couldn’t. They had to stay together.
And Bryce needed to check outside, to silence the little voice that said Sinna’s head was mounted on a spike in Klaus’ backyard, her body being picked over by convert scum. To make absolutely sure she wasn’t there.
Leave no stone unturned.
One foot in front of the other, he made himself walk toward the light ahead. He had to check, to see for himself. When the numbness came, he welcomed it. Better than the crushing guilt. He’d left her, let her be captured. He’d taken the wrong path, lost her trail. What fucking good was a blood bond, if it couldn’t lead him to her?
And Helena…she might die down there. All for nothing.
They’d failed.
Step by step, he emerged into the light of day. The ground was charred black, with jagged pieces of wood and metal lying strewn in piles. The fence hiding Klaus’ cottage was gone, the garden trampled. Haven was a ghost town, lost souls wailing on the wind, and Bryce strained his ears for the one he needed to hear. Call to me, he thought, desperately willing the prayer to her, wherever she was. Call to me, tell me where you are.
Outside of the walls, a howl went up. Too low, too deep to be Sinna’s, but for a moment, his heart leapt, and he started for the front gate.
Aiden’s desolate voice stopped him short. “Trey,” he said.
Another howl.
“And that one’s Morgan. The dogs are out there, holding them off.” He sounded hollow, defeated. “We should go to them.”
Bryce didn’t move. “How did you get out?” he asked, raw-voiced and beaten. It had been nagging at him since the moment he’d heard Aiden’s howl among the horde. Bryce had put everyone in danger for his brother, when all this time Aiden had been safe and sound. He’d escaped all on his own just as Bryce should have known he would. It had been Sinna’s choice to attempt a rescue, but he’d agreed. Unfair to put the blame on Aiden’s shoulders, but a dark, toxic kernel of resentment grew inside of him, insisting it was his fault. And he needed to know Aiden had paid for it somehow, that he’d hurt along the way, lost as much as Bryce had; that they were still brothers, in blood and in pain. That it hadn’t been as easy as Bryce suspected.
“A human let me out of the cell. I escaped through another tunnel in the baths. One way, straight out through the bat cave.”
The resentment grew. “How did you get past them?”
Without even looking, Bryce knew Aiden shrugged. “They weren’t there. By the time I made my escape, they were already in here, picking off the humans. And anyway, that’s not how they came in.”
Bryce faced him, and Aiden’s eyes went wide.
“They came in through the dungeons!”
Bryce remembered being back in that cell with Aiden and Sinna, planning their escape.
These tunnels could be all over. Probably an emergency exit strategy, which means they might lead out somewhere far from here.
Pass.
Yeah. Agreed.
What are you talking about? That could be our way out of here!
Yeah. Or it could spit us out in the middle of Convertlandia…
That was exactly what they’d done. The hive could have been right underneath Klaus’ feet this whole time, just waiting for the right moment to strike.
It also meant they had another way in, a different path they hadn’t checked yet.
Hope.
As one, they turned for the other tunnel, running at full tilt toward one last chance. Bryce skidded in the dust when they reached the entrance, tripping on the smooth incline into the tunnel, and almost took a dive the rest of the way down as a massive explosion shook the ground, raining rocks from the ceiling, kicking dust up from underground. The passageway shook and shuddered, a dull roar climbing up from the depths, closer, faster.
Aiden cursed and grabbed Bryce’s arm to haul him back up the incline as the tunnel collapsed. They fell to the ground outside, coughing, blinded by a plume of dust, but, thanks to Aiden, whole and unharmed.
“Helena
must have set off Big Bertha,” Aiden wheezed. “Goddamn psycho!”
When the dust cleared, Bryce stared at the pile of rubble at his feet.
The tunnel, the cave…the hive. His one last chance.
Buried.
64: Sinna
It happened too fast; a row of dominoes tumbling in rapid succession. The cavern disappeared in a plume of dust that engulfed them, and Sinna stumbled, choking, eyes stinging with it. She couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. She faltered.
The boy pulled her along, trilling in alarm, but she barely heard him over the roar of crumbling rock as the tunnel collapsed on their heels. Sharp stones and pebbles flew past with the force of speeding bullets. They tore at her clothes, particles embedding into her skin. She lost sight of the torch and plunged into darkness, with the boy’s hand her only guide. Sinna clutched him tighter. The second he let go, she was done for.
The tunnel sloped up as they raced the collapsing earth. Sinna pumped her legs harder, ignored the burn in her lungs, blinked back tears trying to wash out the dust. Fear propelled her. Run. Keep going. Don’t look back!
The boy turned sharp right, and the going got tougher, steeper in a raw, jagged crevasse torn across the landscape, covered over with centuries of earthquakes. She climbed more than ran, but the avalanche slowed its progress here, the walls too strong to give in without a fight.
Then, all at once, there was light. Just a few short yards ahead, blessed golden light of day speared through the plume of dust from a hole in the ground so high she couldn’t reach it. Sinna jumped, fingers barely skimming the top edge. Not enough! The boy scrabbled up the side wall to show her how it was done, urging her on. But Sinna was hopeless. Her hands slipped, and she couldn’t find a foothold.
And the landslide was gaining.
The boy whined and jumped down. He turned her toward the far wall, then crouched, taking hold of her ankle. With more strength than she’d expected, he tossed her into the air, and Sinna caught the lip of the opening. Arms burning with strain, she pulled herself up while he pushed from below.
Elbows over. Crawling out—halfway there! She swung a leg up over the edge and dragged herself out into the light of day.
But she wasn’t finished. Turning around, she leaned back into the hole, and reached down to help the boy. It was instinct.
His eyes glittered, his mouth smiled, and he reached one scrawny arm up to her.
A massive rock pried loose and dropped onto his shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
“No!” she shouted. “Come on! Move!” Sinna slid forward, reached deeper, but the soft earth crumbled around the hole’s edges, nearly sending her back down after him. She gasped and scrambled back, but reached down all the same. “Hurry, give me your hand!”
Dazed by the blow, the boy was slow to rouse, slower to get to his feet.
“Get up! Get up!” she yelled at him.
He looked around, disoriented, then tilted his head up to meet her gaze. There was a gash on his head, leaking far too much blood; he was smeared with it, eyes unfocused.
“Give me your hand!”
The boy cawed—a small, lost sound. He blinked, and started to climb the wall. Too slow! His foot slipped. He tried again, looking up at her in the same way she’d looked up at that green light in the darkness, twelve stories above the Chernobyl den. Just a child. Scared, pinning all of his hopes on reaching the top alive. He wanted it so much, and he was so scared it made him slow, clumsy.
The earth cracked over the top of the tunnel.
“Hurry up!”
He reached, faltered, lost his grip, and dropped back down.
He was still reaching for her, when the earth buckled and rained down on top of him.
Sinna cried out, and scrambled back from the hole, crawling on her belly to a safe distance. She was shaking all over, shock setting in with a vengeance. Silent tears ran down her cheeks, but she couldn’t bring herself to truly cry.
The rumble beneath the earth was slowly ebbing. Sinna was now out in the open, blue sky above her. She lay there for long moments to catch her breath, soaking up the warmth of the sun, the heat of the ground.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sinna was aware she’d emerged on the eastern side of Haven, somewhere between the bridge and Haven’s front gates. Converts shrieked and roared as their hive crumbled. They were close enough to smell, which meant they could smell her, too.
She tried to howl, but her voice was reedy, barely a wheeze. Even if Bryce was looking for her, he’d never hear.
Was he around? Was he still alive? And what about Helena and the others?
North side, she remembered. They’d come from the north, from the direction of their Montana den. That’s where they’d made their stand. They wouldn’t circle around; they had no reason to. The converts brought the fight to them. She was on her own.
Can’t just lie here forever. Get your ass up. Get up! Or it was all for nothing.
Sinna dragged herself to sit, rubbed dirt and tears from her eyes to squint around her. She sat with her back to a twin tree stump, hidden from view on two sides. Daring a quick peek around, she took in the lay of the land closest to her. The horde had thinned out, but it was still there. Converts stumbled around, disoriented, screeching and lashing out at each other as though they didn’t know what else to do. Fights broke out everywhere, convert against convert, but as soon as one went down, unmoving, the victor ambled off, screaming as if in regret.
They were scattering.
Sinna pulled her feet underneath her, strained to hear a familiar sound. They had to be there, somewhere, and if she could get to the north side, she could find them. The road toward Haven lay just a few feet away. It’d be the fastest path, but also the most exposed. It wasn’t far, two miles at most, and she’d be able to touch Haven’s outer wall.
But she had no weapons, nothing around that would hold off an angry predator. Walking out, or even standing up from her hidey-hole, was tantamount to offering herself up as a mid-afternoon snack.
She was stuck.
Now what?
65: Aiden
There are always casualties in war. Collateral damage. You expect it, you prepare yourself for the inevitable moment when you look up and someone you’ve known all your life lies dead on the ground. You know your heart will break, so you toughen it up, tell yourself life will go on; that they won’t have died for nothing.
You train yourself to withstand the loss of something dear, but it never happens the way you think it will.
There’s something much worse than death in this world: dying while you’re still alive.
I watch the tunnel collapse.
I look at Bryce.
And I know he is gone.
He’s sitting in the dirt right next to me, shoulder to shoulder. His heart’s pumping, his chest rises and falls with breath, his eyes blink against the dust, but he’s gone.
That cave-in might as well have buried him. It would have been kinder.
~
An ungodly ruckus outside of Haven followed on the heels of the cave-in; converts answered the loss of their hive in a chilling symphony, like the mournful notes of wolf howls in the night. Only more freaky. Aiden itched to get out of here. The horde had been holding back, but now that they had nothing to protect, they could flip out. No way could the dogs hold it together under the onslaught; they’d be butchered out there. He needed to sound the retreat.
But as much as he wanted to get up and go, he couldn’t leave Bryce. His brother hadn’t moved an inch since the dust settled, staring at the dungeon’s remains and not seeing them at all.
“Don’t go catatonic on me now, man. I need you with me.”
No response.
“Damn it, Bryce! Your pack is out there. Can’t you hear the converts? They’ll slaughter every last one of them. We need to move!”
He didn’t.
“I’m sorry, okay?” Aiden said past the lump in his throat. “I fucked up, I know I d
id.” They never should have split up in the first place. He’d promised Sinna they’d all get out of there, and then he’d had to go and play the hero. Pack first, always. There was a reason for that. They were stronger together, as a team. He’d broken that strength, not once, but multiple times. Hotshot Alpha, acting like it was just him and Bryce on the roads. Only it hadn’t been.
And now…
Sinna—gone.
Helena—buried.
The dogs out there—holding the line like he’d ordered them to, because they trusted him to know what he was doing. They’d die out there, too, if he didn’t sound the retreat.
And Bryce refused to move.
“Don’t do this. Don’t shut me out. Get mad, Bryce!” Aiden shoved at him. “Yell at me, hit me! Fucking shoot me in the head! I got your mate killed. Don’t you want to get even?”
Bryce turned his head. Face slack, he looked at Aiden, looked through him, and said, “You’re my brother.”
And that was it.
Christ, he’d have preferred the bullet to the head.
Chest tight and throat all but closed off, Aiden swallowed hard and pushed to his feet. “I need to get out there,” he said, voice breaking. He coughed to clear the frog out of his throat but it was lodged in there pretty good. “I need to tell the others to retreat. I need…”
Didn’t matter. Bryce wasn’t listening anymore.
Aiden’s feet weighed a ton when he walked away from him, shuffling, kicking debris around.
A smudge of bright yellow on the ground caught his eye, and he bent over to pick up the hula doll he’d had stashed in the mule’s side compartment. It was warped, the spring mechanism that allowed her hips to sway completely melted. Her big eyes mocked him; her smile was cruel. She stared at him and taunted, Where’s your Zen now, smart guy?
Aiden let the doll drop back into the dust.
He dragged his feet through the wide-open inner gate. To either side, the concrete wall stretched its arms around Haven; a cold embrace that had smothered everyone inside. It was still stained with Wolfen blood. The females were long gone, but their chains were there. Silver. Gleaming in the sunlight. When this was all over, he’d come back and collect a link from each to wear around his neck.
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