I met Joss's eyes, my expression grim. "I'll kill him for what he did to Gordon."
If my response unsettled him, he didn't show it. He nodded and turned back to the camp.
Shortly after, everyone was awake and ready to go. I hobbled along behind, able to walk alone with my cane. It was a leisurely pace to the east, and I was positive my ankle would heal soon. The walking stick was a clumsy thing in the soft sand, but it was growing on me. I thought it might make a defensive weapon for Stephanie once I was done with it.
We trudged through the morning and found the mid-day heat particularly harsh. Sweat rolled down our faces and stuck our shirts against our skin. Stephanie, who looked the most miserable of us all, reached into the wagon for a bottle of water. As soon as she pulled it out, she dropped it again, her face going pale as she looked at Joss. "We're almost out."
I grumbled, limping to the wagon to see only three bottles left. The lump of worry that had been in my stomach grew heavier. I looked to the ridge of rocks in the distance that marked our destination and then looked back the way we came. I frowned. We had covered a depressingly small amount of ground so far, and my hopes in reaching Area 51 by this evening drifted away. At this rate, I didn't think we would be able to make it there by tomorrow either.
"We ration it," I said. "Stephanie and Hope, take drinks now."
As Stephanie and Hope both took a drink, I decided it was time to test the limits on my water consumption. By the looks I shared with Joss and Meg, they had the same thought. We pushed on, the worry growing heavier as I struggled to increase my pace. There had to be something beyond that ridge. Water. Food. Supplies so we could restock and find a way out of this damned desert.
"We need to rest." Joss finally said as we walked around a wall of dirt and clay. It was only a few feet high, leveling off neatly at the top with a wash of sand below, but neither the wagon nor I could climb it. I looked past the natural elevation and saw that Joss's interruption had been purposefully timed. A huge outcropping lay beyond, promising shade to rest in.
In my determination to keep moving forward, I failed to notice that Stephanie was exhausted. Hope had been riding in the wagon for some time and was the only one of us not drenched in sweat. I nodded, and Stephanie broke toward the rocks, groaning as she sat down in the shadows. She pulled off her shoes to rub her feet as the rest of us gathered around her.
My ankle throbbed dully as I relaxed in the shade, and I let my eyes close for a second. I said absently, "Maybe we should travel at night, when it's cooler."
No one responded. Stephanie and Hope passed the same water bottle from earlier back and forth, and my mouth was suddenly, terribly dry. I looked away and tried to convince myself I wasn't thirsty. Using the bottom of my shirt, I wiped the sweat from my face, feeling granules of sand scratch against my skin. No one was in the mood to talk, and I watched Hope as she sat next to Stephanie, playing a game with a handful of rocks.
The sun had dipped low in the west by the time I felt like moving again. I wanted to test my ankle, pulling myself to my feet without the aid of my walking stick. Taking a few tentative steps, I found my ankle could support my weight, although not without pain. It was bearable for short distances, at least.
I tilted my head back, looking at the towering boulders around us, and wondered if I could climb to the top. I wanted to see the ridge, see what was beyond it. Maybe the glow was visible now that the daylight was starting to fade.
"You're not climbing up there," Meg said, catching me off guard. I couldn't wipe the guilty look off my face as she stepped up behind me.
"Um." I stuttered, words failing me.
"Why do you want to climb up there?" She pressed, and I heard Joss chuckle. I frowned at him before pulling Meg off to the side. It was time to tell her.
"Joss and I think we've seen lights over that ridge. We wanted to be sure before we told you."
Her eyebrows rose in surprise, and her mouth dropped open. "Do you..." Now it was her turn to stutter. "Do you think that's where everyone went?"
"We hope." I smiled a little as I shrugged.
Meg turned her head to the top of the boulder some twenty feet above us. With a determined nod, she said. "I'll do it."
I grinned at her. "Be careful. We don't need both of us hurt."
She was already searching for a handhold when she looked back at me and winked. "I used to be quite the tomboy. I got this."
Hope watched her mother and giggled as Meg climbed. She stood to get a better view, bouncing up and down with excitement. Joss joined me, and we gave her a round of applause when she reached the top.
"See anything?" I called out. Meg twisted her body around so she could see the ridge, and turned a beaming smile back to me.
"I see ligh--" The last word was stolen from her, lost in a gasp as her body jolted like she'd been punched. The smile on her face turned into a grotesque grimace before her features went slack. A black bolt appeared out of nowhere, pinning her shirt to her chest, and a crimson flower bloomed around it.
Time stopped.
Somewhere deep in my mind, I knew what had happened, but I couldn't process it. The world went silent as Meg's eyes locked with mine, eyes full of confusion and pain. The only thing that existed at that moment was the light in Meg's eyes, the light that was rapidly fading. The light that disappeared.
Her body went limp and began to fall.
Blood rushed through my ears with each heartbeat, muffling everything beyond. Beside me, Joss gasped, but it was a world away. Non-existent and inconsequential. I couldn't pull my eyes from Meg as she slipped from the rocks, her body falling back to earth. Somewhere far away, someone was screaming. I felt like I should be screaming too, but I wasn't breathing.
Meg was falling...
Her body hit the hard clay with a thud that reverberated in my ears like thunder. I gasped, my knees collapsing beneath me, but I couldn't look away. The scream grew louder in my head.
Joss grabbed me, pulling me roughly to my feet and shook me. He blocked my view of her, and the world slowly started to spin again.
Hope. Hope was screaming, running toward her mother's fallen body, and Stephanie was right behind her. To protect Hope or get to Meg, I didn't know, but she was doing something human. Something reasonable. She was taking action while I stood there numbly as if everything was happening to someone else, to other people I didn't know. This wasn't us. This couldn't be us.
Joss was in my face, talking to me, yelling at me, but I heard nothing. The words didn't make sense. It was just noise, a useless buzzing in my ears. I barely registered the sobbing mass that was Stephanie and Hope behind him. In the back of my mind, I knew that should be me. I should be down there with them, collapsed in on myself with grief, but there was no emotion. No gush of tears. No wail of sorrow.
I was numb, mind and body, completely separate from the world around me. A void.
Suddenly, Joss's eyes grew wide, and he thrust himself forward, crashing his body into mine, and we tumbled to the ground. A flash of black divided the air where his head had been, and pinged off the boulder beyond him.
A sharp pain in my ankle bit at me as I landed, reminding me I was real. My eyes fell on a long, black bolt that lay on the ground a few feet away, twin to the bolt that had penetrated Meg's chest. A crossbow bolt. Joss had heard it coming, had been fast enough to dodge it, and strong enough to push us both away. I focused on him, the noise coming from him forming into words again. He was yelling at Stephanie and Hope to take cover. That the danger was still out there. That Reed was still out there.
Reed.
Anger exploded inside me. Joss was pulling on me again, trying to get me to move as tears coursed down his cheeks, and I pushed him away. I stood, hissing through clenched teeth. "Protect them!"
"Ali!" His scream followed me, but I had already turned away. The anguish in his voice assaulted me, threatening to break through the cloud of anger that armored me from the pain, but I kept going. I couldn't
break now. If I broke, Reed would win.
For Reed to be able to make that shot, there was only one place he could be. The drop-off we had avoided earlier, and there was no cover beyond that for him to retreat to.
My limp was gone.
I ran, ignoring the sand that sucked at my boots as it tried to slow me. My eyes scanned the length of the ridge, and as soon as a figure appeared, I dodged to the side. A bolt whizzed past me.
He wouldn't have time to reload again before I got there. I charged toward the last place he had been, and reached for my revolver, feeling nothing but empty air.
I staggered, losing time and momentum as I realized Joss had my gun. It was too late to turn back. Dread bubbled in the pit of my stomach, but I clenched my jaw and continued on. I had my blades.
Leaping to the edge of the drop-off, my eyes caught sight of the man again, and disgust and hate shuddered through me. My anger renewed, but I had underestimated him. He had been able to reload the crossbow and was turning to aim when I landed on the ridge above him.
I reacted quickly, kicking at the weapon as I leaped down, and the shot went wide. I landed beside him, pulling both blades as I ignored the pain that flared in my ankle. There was no time to dwell on it. Reed had no weapon other than his crossbow, and he was swinging it at me with all his strength.
I threw myself backwards, feeling the tip graze my midsection as it swept past me, and Reed's momentum crushed it into the clay wall, the crossbow cracking under the pressure. I charged, screaming as I lunged at him, both knives ready to attack. I had a clear shot. He was twisted awkwardly from his missed swing, and I was ready for the kill.
But he was fast. Faster than I expected him to be. Inhumanly fast. He blocked my dagger, but I felt some satisfaction as my bowie knife sunk into the flesh of his shoulder. I tried to jump back again, seeing the kick coming, but my ankle buckled underneath me. I couldn't dodge the boot that slammed into my chest.
I was airborne. The kick threw me backwards, and I landed hard in the sand a good five feet away from him, skidding to a stop. I coughed and spat blood as I struggled to my feet. Black spots were rimming the corners of my vision from the wind being knocked out of my lungs, and I couldn't focus on Reed as he charged me.
Is that a knife?
I side-stepped away, intending to deflect the blade he bore against me, but realized too late it was a distraction. I twisted, trying to dodge his following punch, and succeeded in taking the brunt of it against my hip instead of my gut. I gasped but ignored the new pain. He had left himself open, and I stabbed out with my dagger.
Reed hissed. Spittle flew from his mouth and splattered over my face. His hand shot back with his inhuman speed and threw my dagger out wide, but not before I felt the tip sink into the soft flesh of his belly, and it tore a line across his front as he pushed it away.
Then the world flashed white. One instant, I was trying to back away, to collect myself so I could attack again, and the next instant, I was laying on my back in the sand. I never saw what hit me, but my jaw and cheek bone seared with pain, and blood trickled down my cheek.
"Bitch!" Reed spat, his shadow falling over me like doom. His hand covered the wound on his stomach, and he scowled at me with his one glittering eye. "It's just a scratch. I'll live. Not like it's a crossbow bolt to the heart."
"You bastard!" I screamed, rolling away from him. I had lost my grip on both blades when I went down, and only my dagger was in reach. I clutched it to me and was on my feet before he stopped laughing.
"You've stabbed me. You've shot me. You've eviscerated me, but I'm not dead, Ali." He taunted as he circled around me with his knife held at the ready. "What do you think you're going to do now? You can't even get close to me."
"Do I need to get close?" I said, spinning the dagger in my palm and nimbly catching the blade with my fingers. In one smooth motion, it left my hand, spinning end over end toward its target, and Reed easily side-stepped it, twisting his body away as the dagger flew past.
I was never good at throwing knives, but it was the distraction I needed. As soon as the dagger flew, I used the same motion to grab the busted crossbow off the ground and leaped at Reed. I held the crossbow high over my head with both hands and used all my strength to bring it slamming down on him. He turned in time to raise his hands, an attempt to fend me off, but I busted through them, shattering the crossbow over his head.
Reed roared in pain. A stray, metal sliver penetrated his eye-patch, and he slashed out wildly with his knife. I ducked underneath his flailing arm and came up to jab the splintered handle of the crossbow into his ribs. I savored the grim satisfaction of the mortal blow for an instant before the back of his blade-wielding hand caught me in the temple, driving me into the sand.
He fell on top of me, throwing me to my back and straddling my chest. One hand clamped down on my throat, and I struggled violently, clawing and slapping at him, but I was no match for his strength. A deluge of panic flooded my mind, and I knew he would outlast me.
As the black rings pushed in around my vision, I saw Reed almost calmly lean back to pull the sliver from his eye-patch, and a thought struck me. I couldn't turn my head, but reached down toward his ribs, my fingers brushing against the crossbow handle protruding from his body. I slammed my hand against it, driving it further into his ribs, then yanked it out, intending to use it to fend him off.
It did not succeed.
Reed released my throat seconds before my jaw bore the full brunt of his heavy fist. I didn't have time to blink. My body went limp, and my thoughts turned to fog.
"You don't give up, do you?" He growled, leaning over me. "You're only alive right now because I want to kill you slow. Have you not figured that out yet?"
I flinched, hearing his words and wanting to fend him off, but my arms wouldn't obey. It was a struggle to cringe away as he leaned closer, filling my vision with his pale, sweaty face. He opened his mouth, letting his tongue slip out. I wanted to whimper, to cry out, but my throat was too damaged to make any sound other than a gargle. I suffered in silence as his slimy tongue licked the sweat, sand and blood from my cheek.
"Mmm." He moaned. "Salty."
I spat a mouthful of blood in his face.
His hand was on my throat again, constricting, and this time I didn't fight it. Reed snarled above me, but I knew he was a dead man. He would bleed out while he occupied himself with my torture, and Joss would get the others to safety, to the lights. It was my consolation as the black rings came back to threaten my consciousness. My eyes slipped closed.
A loud crack cut through the desert, echoing through my foggy thoughts and rebounding in my skull. Reed crashed down on top of me, releasing my windpipe, but smothering me with his body. I drew in short, shallow breaths, wondering what weird torture he had planned for me when I realized he wasn't moving.
I opened my eyes. Joss was standing a few feet away, my smoking revolver in his hands. The look of horror on his face twisted into a grimace as he doubled over to vomit bile into the sand.
An eternity of seconds passed while my addled mind pieced it together, and I finally realized Reed lay dead atop me. I struggled out from under his body, seeing blood and matter pouring from the fresh hole in his head, and my strength returned to kick his body away in disgust.
"Joss." I tried to call out, but my voice was unwilling to work. I crawled the few feet to him, where he retched and cried into the sand.
As I drew closer, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and reached out to me, brushing sand from my cheek. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live." I barked, able to achieve some volume, but it hurt like hell. I looked back at Reed's crumpled body, and the numbness that had surrounded me began to fade. I coughed again, and then I sobbed.
Meg was dead.
The dam inside me broke, and the tears and wails I thought I was incapable of came on full force. I curled into a ball, heedless of my numerous injuries, and sobs wracked my body. Joss was there, his arms wrap
ping around me as he cradled me, and I felt him crying too.
Minutes passed, but the tears wouldn't end. I couldn't go back to Hope. I had failed her. I had let Meg climb that wall to her death, and Hope had lost her mother.
"Ali," Joss said, pulling away, but I couldn't face him. "Ali, we have to get back."
I shook my head, denying him. I didn't want to move. I wanted to sit there forever until I faded to nothingness.
"Ali." He reached for me, and I jerked away.
"Let me go." I moaned, wanting more time.
"No." He said firmly, his hands grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to look at him. "You promised you wouldn't leave me again. We're in this together."
"Meg." I whimpered, aching at the sound of her name. All my anguish and despair was poured into that word. Joss grimaced but cradled my head in his hands as he pressed his lips to my forehead.
"For Hope." He choked. "For Stephanie. For us. We have to get back."
I covered my face with my shirt, wiping away the blood and tears before I met his eyes again. He looked weary and aged beyond his fifteen years. He had killed a man to save us all and still had the strength and determination to pull me back to sanity.
Jesus, Joss, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
"Okay," I whispered.
Joss tried to smile, and it was a hard thing to watch. There was too much pain lying underneath the surface for it to be more than a feeble twist of his lips. My eyes welled with tears again, and I quickly brushed them away, hoping Joss didn't see.
When I looked back at his face, I froze. He wasn't watching me. His head was tilted oddly to the side with a look of concentration plastered on his features. I knew that look by now. He had heard something.
Then Stephanie screamed.
Joss sprang into action, grabbing the revolver from where he'd dropped it and ran, kicking up sand as he raced away. He vaulted to the top of the ridge and disappeared, leaving me staring after him with fear budding in my gut again. I spun to look for my blades, my fingertips brushing over the handle of my dagger when a shadow fell over me.
The Phoenix Curse (Book 3): After Page 25