Her gaze shot to the church—which was now more of a fiery cavern. It was insane. It was suicide.
It was...possible. She was different for a reason, and that was to help people when others couldn’t.
She ripped free. Kai reached for her again, his voice a muffled warning. Sanna threw him off and sprinted towards the building. The Alpha burst out of the rubble with an ear-splitting shriek, one arm hanging by a grisly thread and a deep grash running from her sternum to her hips. She circled once, then disappeared into the night.
Sanna dove into the flames, gritting her teeth against the pain that sizzled across her flesh. She rolled on the ground, recovered, and stood. Heat blasted her. She vaulted over jumbled pews and smoldering clutter. Flames clawed at her skin and singed her hair. Blisters bubbled and burst across her skin. She was dissolving, becoming one with the flames.
Noxious black smoke filled the church, stinging her eyes. She stumbled onto the raised platform and cried out when her scorched fingers gripped the altar for support.
Where was he?
She turned around, searching for any sign of her father. The flames moved around her in brilliant waves of yellow and gold.
There was a dark, charred form sprawled under a fallen rafter. Sanna raced towards it, each step a fresh, crippling agony. It was him. Ivan. Her father. The Alpha’s venom had chewed through his metal helmet and skull, all the way down to the glistening gray matter of his brain. A deep, quaking groan rumbled down from the roof.
There was no time to grieve. She had to get out before the whole place collapsed. She pivoted to the broken window, but a hacking cough stopped her cold. Kelsey.
Sanna followed the sound and found her slumped under a pew. Sanna scooped her up, crying out as the rough cloth sloughed her ravaged skin. The soles of her boots stuck to the floor as she made her way to the window. To safety. To life.
She wasn’t going to make it. Hell had split opened and swallowed her. The throbbing, relentless ache obliterated all other thoughts. She dragged her feet, her steps fumbling. The dead weight in her arms grew impossible, weighing her down.
“Sanna!” Kai shouted above the roar.
Darkness fell over her. She couldn’t see, but moved towards Kai’s voice, tripping and stumbling. The woman whimpered in her arms.
“Drop her! Save yourself!”
No. Kelsey was Tess’s little sister, and Tess would’ve carved her own heart out to save her.
Sanna fell forward, lost in the red hell of agony as the fire feasted on her flesh.
Kelsey’s weight vanished. Sanna felt herself being lifted. Carried. The scent of evergreen and male sweat filled her nostrils, soothing her. A strange crackling noise filled her ears as her brain began to shutter, bit by terrifying bit.
“I’ve got you.” Kai’s voice faded as a dark current swept over her, taking her far away from him and everything else that mattered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Kai sprinted from the church as a great, whooshing sound came from behind him, followed by a blast of heat. The roof must have finally given in. He fell onto the ground, cradling Sanna’s limp body, and took in the enormity of her wounds. She’d stopped breathing.
“Sanna?” He croaked, his smoke-ravaged throat burning from the effort. “Wake up.”
He shook her. No response. Grief weighed heavy on him, an anchor dragging him further into despair. How could anyone survive such injuries? Every inch of her exposed skin was blackened. Blisters covered her hands like puffy white mittens. Even her hair had been singed all the way to her scalp. She’d been burnt to a bloody husk.
He should have stopped her. Endless possibilities paraded through his mind, reminding him of all the mistakes he’d made that led to this terrible moment. He held her to his chest wishing his heart could beat for the both of them.
I should have told her about Iris sooner. Then none of this would’ve happened.
A woman gasped. Anne. She stood beside him, her sooting hand covering her mouth as she assessed the magnitude of her daugther’s injuries. She snapped into action, reaching for Sanna’s ankles. “We must get to clinic. Quickly.”
“Why? She’s not—” The words died in his smoke-ravaged throat as he stared at Sanna’s rising chest. A slight, nearly imperceptible movement that sent his inner tumult grinding to a halt.
He grabbed onto her wrists. They hurried to the clinic as fast as their awkward gait would allow. Raj followed, Kelsey slung over his broad shoulders.
Kai’s focus tunneled. He didn’t know if it was day or night, or if the entire horde was at his heels. All he knew, was that the girl he’d kissed in the pale morning light was breathing again.
By the time they reached the quarantine yard, he was breathless, and his arms were jelly. Anne didn’t fare much better. Sweat streaked through the mask of soot on her face, and her dark hair was plastered to her forehead.
“Help!” Kai croaked. His foot caught on something soft and he went down, landing inches away from a severed head, partially buried in the snow. Anne screamed, dropping Sanna’s legs. It was the clinic guard who’d first introduced him to Theo. His headless body was sprawled at Kai’s feet, a grisly chunk missing out of his forearm.
There’s been a breach. The Infected could be anywhere. He gathered Sanna
into his aching arms and continued to the clinic. The splintered front door hung from its hinges like a broken tooth. A shadow darted across the open threshold.
Haven jumped through the doorway, clutching a bat embedded with nails. She glanced at Kai’s burden, and her fierce expression melted. “What happened?”
“The church was on fire, but she went back anyway.”
Theo towered behind Haven, the young guard’s blood dripping from his axe. He dropped it and met Kai halfway, his arms outstretched. “Let me help.”
Haven’s club clattered onto the porch. She rushed over, managing to worm her way between Kai and Sanna’s shoulders, while Theo took gentle hold of her ankles.
Raj came up the steps. “Merrick, take the her.”
Kai glared at the other man through his good eye. “You’re not going to arrest me
again?”
“I’m fresh out of dungeons, at the moment. Besides,” his gaze flicked to the wall. “I got bigger problems.”
Kai cradled the girl in his arms. She was barely a teenager. Her face was badly burned. If she survived, she’d never look the same again.
“Thank you, for going after them,” Raj turned to leave. “Erling won’t forget what you did tonight.”
“We have to survive it first.” Kai carried the girl to the backroom. Haven broke away from the trio surrounding Sanna and prepared another cot. He set the girl down and sank into the nearest chair, exhausted. His skin felt oily with ash and sweat, and the stink of smoke wafted up from his ruined clothes.
Those last moments at the church were a blur. He didn’t remember going after Sanna, but the image of her walking through that blazing hellscape was seared into his mind. She’d become a human made of embers—a burning, mobile corpse who collapsed a few feet from the window. Next thing he knew, he was inside, dragging her towards the opening. Raj must have retrieved the other girl.
She was lucky, the Inferno would’ve left her to burn after what she’d done.
The snow had sizzled when Kai laid Sanna down. Steam wafting all around her. The whole thing had been a waking nightmare. How could anyone survive?
Unless...Sanna’s blood wasn’t the only thing that was different. Maybe she was something else entirely—not Infected, not exactly, but something similar. Her biological mother had been human, sure, but her father...that was still a mystery.
Iris would know, if Sanna survived long enough to ask her. Kai looked over at the exam table but could see only her mangled feet. The rest of her body was blocked by Theo, Haven and Dr. Larson who hovered over her like a band of witches, passing vials and potions and rolls of white linen between them.
“None of thi
s would’ve happened if she would’ve stayed where I’d left her,” the other girl croaked.
“That’s some gratitude. No one else was bothering to save you. Sanna nearly died.”
“If only.”
“Did you ever stop to think she might be the only thing that could protect you from the person you saw in the woods? Whoever he is.”
“The last thing anyone here wants is Sanna’s help. This whole thing is her fault,” her voice drifted, growing softer. “How many more people will have to die, just so she can keep living?”
“Wait a minute,” Kai snapped to attention. “The person who put you up to this—what does he look like?”
“I...never saw his face. I only...heard his voice.” Her head lolled onto her chest; her eyes shuttered.
“Kelsey?” Kai lunged forward, shaking the girl’s shoulder.
“She’s out, man.” Theo crouched down beside him, studying her face. He pushed up her eyelid. “Probably for the best. We’re ready to start working on her.”
Theo moved to the front of the girl, while Haven took her feet. They hoisted her up, and the stench of smoke and scorched flesh filled the air.
Kai’s stomach turned. The room shrank to the size of a coffin as memories of the Inferno, of the death and pain he’d caused, threatened to overtake him.
Panic sizzled along his nerves. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see. He had to get out of this place before his heart burst and the sticky tar of oblivion dragged him back to the horrors he tried so hard to forget. He stood, the ground buckling and swaying beneath him, and staggered out of the clinic.
He doubled over the railing, gasping for breath.
He hated hospitals. Clinics. Doctors. They made him feel small. Powerless. Like when he was carrying his sister from settlement to settlement only to be turned away for not doing the impossible. Abandoning her.
The doctors and nurses refused to touch her after they saw her blood sample. In their eyes, those few droplets of red killed Esme off long before the dormant virus ever took its chance. Their cool, detached adviced still haunted him. She’s dangerous. A liability. Think about your own future. There’s no guarantee she’ll survive anyway. Leave her behind.
“Are you okay?” Theo asked, as he stepped onto the porch.
Kai straightened, painfully aware of his scarred forearms, the fresh blisters on his hands, and the desperation gnawing him from within. “I’m fine.”
The siren wailed. He turned to the wall, and wondered if the horde was drawing closer, if these would be his last few hours. “I should go. They’ll need all the help they can get.”
“Here,” Theo passed him a small jar. “For your hands.”
“Thanks,” Kai slipped the ointment into his pocket. “Hey Doc? Have you ever had to decide who got treatment and who didn’t?”
“No. I heard that last summer’s fever got that bad, but I was still in New Hope.”
“I’d start thinking about it now, if I were you. I’ve heard it’s easier if you have a plan.”
He ran down the steps and across the yard, stepping over the young soldier who’d been so thrilled at Theo’s cat gut stitches. Frustration seethed in his chest. He didn’t want to be here. He hated places like this, and everything they stood for. Had Esme been with him, they’d have thrown her to the horde for merely existing. He owed these people nothing and yet he could die here if he didn’t help them. It made him feel trapped. Caged.
“Merrick, wait,” Theo called after him.
“What?” Kai spun around.
“Well...ah...I haven’t told anyone this—”
“Spit it out.”
“I can’t say it’s a cure—yet—but I thought you should know,” he pushed up his
glasses. “It’s about Sanna. I think—I think we have something in her that could really change things for us. As a species.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, exactly. I really need to get her to New Hope. They have labs there—real ones, with equipment.” He took a step forward, his voice dropping to a low whisper. “Do you understand what I’m saying? This could be...what we’ve been waiting for. Dying for. She could be the answer...to everything.”
A thousand questions crowded Kai’s mind all at once, choking his words. “Scientists have been saying stuff like that since the First Night. What makes this any different?”
“Her, obviously.” Theo said, his eyes shining with a zealot’s passion. “Just think...Sanna’s died twice now and you’ve known her for less than a week. She died once when we were kids too, when she fell out of chimney during a siege and broke her neck. I never told anyone. Not even her mother. I was too afraid, and my dad had just been bitten...” he shook his head, refocusing on Kai. “There’s gotta be something inside her to help us to stop this virus. Once and for all. I thought you should know that, so when you’re fighting on the wall, you’d know what’s at stake.”
“Is that why you came back, to study her?”
“It’s one of the reasons.” Theo’s lips curled into a bitter smile. “I don’t think the other one will pan out, though.”
The siren called again. Things were going from bad to worse.
“I’d better go.” Kai pivoted and raced to the chain link gate, then down the pitch-black alley, towards the red glow of the fire. Theo’s words swirled in his mind, taunting him with the possibilities. Could Sanna be the cure?
Hayes had said there already was one, and that the people in power were keeping it for themselves. He believed that if enough buildings burned, the government would give up its precious treasure and all the uncleans would be saved. Kai had thought that—wished it—for a long time, until he realized Hayes was no better than the people he hated.
A wall of heat smacked into Kai at the far end of the alley. The fire had crumbled the church and was now devouring the tavern. Multiple chains of Erlingers’ were dousing it with buckets of water, but it had grown far beyond their efforts. He rushed down the street and spotted an grayish blur streaking towards him. Frankie, yapping and wild-eyed, his fur blackened with soot. “Hey, bud. I knew you’d make it.”
The dog trailed Kai as he continued to the heavyset person at the head of the chain. Dinah, her doughy face drenched in sweat, was heaving bucket after bucket of water into the flames.
“It’s a lost cause. You should be soaking the other buildings.”
“I don’t care about the tavern,” Dinah huffed. “Some old fools panicked when they saw the Alpha and ran to the cellar.” She splashed another bucket onto the flames. “I think they must be trapped.”
The tavern’s interior glowed a hellish red as smoke poured through the second story windows. If the didn’t people escape soon, they’d be cooked alive. Just like Broken Creek.
“Give me your coat,” Kai said.
The giantess passed an empty bucket to the person behind her an excepted another. “Are you crazy?”
“I mean it. If you hurry, those loyal customers of yours might live to drink another day.”
Dinah glowered at him for split second, then tore off her coat. Kai dunked it into a bucket of water and flung it over his head. The hem dragged by six inches; the sodden fabric heavy on his shoulders. Sucking in a deep breath of smoke-tinged air, he entered the living furnace.
The stairwell leading to the second floor had collapsed, leaving a gaping hole engulfed in flames. Kai tucked his chin into the steaming collar of Dinah’s coat and scrambled over the burning chunks of railing and steps. The fire was slowly spreading across the dining room, towards the bar, where bottles of Dinah’s homebrewed liquor sat waiting to explode.
The basement stairs led to a landing, where a pile of rubble blocked the cellar door. Muffled voices cried out at as he flew down the steps and shoved away the clutter, his hands throbbing. The house groaned above him. Bits of flaming debris snowed down from the second story, singing on his sleeves. He found the culprit. A beam wedged between the cellar door and a chunk of the
collapsed staircase. He wrenched the board free and pushing the staircase clear. The door wedged open. A streamed terrified people rushed out, most old enough to be his grandparents.
“Keep going!” Kai urged when a few hesitated near the top steps. “Don’t stop!”
An ancient man hobbled through the opening. Kai grabbed his thin arm. “Is there anyone else in there?”
The man shook his head, started to climb the stairs. His legs were wobbly. Kai looped his arm over his shoulders and helped him the rest of the way. Pop! Pop! Pop! Kai ducked, pulling the old man down with him. Liquor bottles exploded, sending glass shrapnel flying through the air. The elderly woman leading the line screamed, a red veil of blood pouring down her face.
“Keep going! Help her!” Kai urged the man behind her, who grabbed the woman’s elbow and led her out. The rest of the them followed close behind.
The night air felt gloriously cool on his heated flesh as he staggered onto the street. The man he’d guided took Kai by the cheeks and pulled him closer, planting a kiss on his forehead.
“Thank you, thank you,” he murmured, tears streaking down his leathery face.
A wave of raucous cheers and applause took Kai by surprise as the line of water-bearers enveloped him, thumping his shoulders and whooping to the sky. Dinah cut through the crowd. “You did it, Merrick! I’d pour you a drink but—”
A deep, terrible cracking noise silenced her words. The group fell to the ground, their hands protecting their heads, as the tavern collapsed with blast of immense heat. Red-hot sparks floated through the air above them, hunting for another structure to consume.
Kai was the first to stand. “This whole street should be evacuated.”
“What about the Alpha?” Dinah searched the sky as if the mere word could summon her. “Anyone not fit to serve on the wall is either out here or hiding in their basements.”
“Ivan Iron Tooth got her pretty good. I bet she flew off to lick her wounds.”
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