The Burning Shadow

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Except something had obviously gone wrong with my mutation. I wasn’t like April.

  But I felt … wrong in my skin. Like I didn’t know what I would do next, what I was truly capable of, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the Trojan Daemon and crew had come across on the way to us. It had tried to kill them.

  I had tried to kill them.

  Would that happen again? They were taking me to a place where their families lived, to a place where traumatized Luxen and humans had already been through enough, and I …

  I was capable of anything.

  I drew in a rocky breath and slowly let it out.

  I was holding it together.

  Eleven hours. That was how long this drive would take. Both Daemon and Luc wanted to make the trip with minimal restroom breaks, which translated into one, and I fully understood that. Being seen by anyone was dangerous, especially me since my face had been plastered all over the news.

  But I wished we’d saved some of the tranquilizers from the safe house so I could knock myself out.

  Minutes ticked into hours, and at some point, Zoe had dozed off beside me while I watched Luc and Daemon, sort of enthralled by their … friendship? I had no idea how the two of them could go from threatening and slamming each other into walls to chatting and chuckling with each other like nothing had happened.

  I still felt like crap for hurting Daemon, but they seemed to have forgotten their skirmish. Or maybe since them threatening each other was something that had happened a lot, it was just an ordinary day for them?

  Probably the latter.

  Several times, Luc glanced back at me as if he were double-checking that I was, in fact, in the back seat. We hadn’t had the chance to really talk after our little showdown outside the cabin.

  He looked back at me again now, those amethyst eyes drifting over me. I wished in that moment I could read his thoughts.

  “You doing okay back there?” he asked. “Need to stop or anything?”

  I shook my head and glanced over at Zoe. “She’s out.”

  “Good. She needs to rest.” Luc faced the front. “We’re making good time.”

  I let the blanket fall to my waist. My shirt was dry by now, and my pants were just damp. Keeping my voice low, I asked, “What is this place going to be like?”

  “You’ve been picturing medieval times, haven’t you?” Daemon glanced in the rearview mirror.

  Pressing my lips together, I nodded. “That or something postapocalyptic with wild dogs roaming the street and people collecting rain for drinking water.”

  Luc turned to me, a slow grin tugging at his lips.

  “What?” Pretty sure I’d seen those two things in at least a dozen end-of-the-world movies.

  “It’s not that postapocalyptic,” Daemon answered, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “A lot of nature has reclaimed large portions of the city. It’s kind of insane how quickly that happened, but we’re adapting. Kat and I have been there for almost two years. The same for Dawson and Beth. Archer and my sister have been there longer, helping those left behind.”

  A huge part of me still couldn’t believe that people had just been left behind. I shouldn’t be surprised that was the state of humanity, but it was still disturbing.

  “And there is still some electricity used in emergencies, like if there is a medical procedure that needs to be done,” Daemon explained. “We power them up, using the Source. It’s not something we do often. Major outputs of energy can be tracked. So, we’ve done a lot of scavenging. Batteries are worth their weight in gold. As are camping supplies.”

  I’d never been camping, so this should be interesting.

  “At least it’s not summer,” Luc commented. “It can get over a hundred degrees and no AC.”

  My eyes widened. “What’s the weather like now?”

  Daemon chuckled. “In the seventies during the day, fifties at night. We didn’t have as bad a summer as we could’ve. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the lack of pollution and machines, but we do have ways of keeping the houses somewhat cool. Providing airflow is essential, as is shade. For homes that didn’t have porches or trees to block the sun, awnings have been built. Staying on lower levels of homes helps. Basements are few and far between because of the limestone, and the homes that do have basements are used for the elderly or those who are heat sensitive. But when it gets really hot, all you can do is pretend that it isn’t that hot.”

  “What does everyone do in the city?”

  “Everyone who can work, works. A lot of people are farming and running cattle ranches who never had any experience with it before. Food is something we don’t have to worry as much about as we did in the beginning,” he explained. “Life inside the wall isn’t very much different from outside of it. There are laws and people to enforce them. Schools run during the days even though there aren’t a lot of children. Many didn’t survive the first year.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “We have doctors—Luxen and hybrid who came to the city,” he continued. “The city is more of a community now. Everyone helps everyone. It’s the only way they’ll survive.”

  “How many people are there?”

  It was Luc who answered. “In the metro area, before the population, it was over two million. Now it’s what, Daemon?”

  “A little over twenty thousand, and about five thousand of them are Luxen transplants,” he answered.

  “Does that mean the rest got out before the cities were walled?”

  Neither of them answered for a long moment, and then Daemon spoke. “No one really knows. There was a lot of civil unrest and chaos after the invasion and when the EMP bombs were dropped. Hundreds of thousands had to have died in the weeks and months after, most of it human-on-human violence. Others who had the means and the health got out.”

  I sat back, twisting the blanket between my fingers. “Why haven’t the humans left now? How can you all not be afraid that someone is going to leave and expose you all there?”

  “It’s a threat they live with daily,” Luc said, staring out the windshield. “But many of them simply do not want to be a part of a world that wrote them off.”

  “I can understand that, but it still has to be a huge risk.”

  “It is. All exits are heavily monitored, and we don’t want to be in the position where we have to stop someone from leaving. So far, it hasn’t been an issue.” Daemon paused. “We’ll just have to cross that bridge if we get to it.”

  That seemed like a pretty big bridge to cross later.

  “But we hope never to get there.” Daemon’s voice hardened. “We don’t plan to stay hiding forever. The city isn’t just a sanctuary for those forgotten or hunted. It’s also ground zero for the resistance.”

  * * *

  Tall oaks and elms gave way to swampy marshes that eventually leveled into long stretches of nothing but prairies. We’d stopped once to use the restroom, and then as night fell, we were on the road again.

  Not the highways we’d been traveling.

  Daemon took dusty, country roads that bypassed the larger cities near Houston that were still populated, but I knew we were getting close to Zone 3 because we’d stopped seeing any cars out on the road or any sign of life or light in the homes dotting the grasslands, or in the apartments stretching like empty, bare hands into the starry night.

  A nervous anxiety filled me as Daemon pulled into an abandoned car wash, followed by the Jeep.

  “We walk from here,” Zoe said, opening the car door.

  I stepped out into the cool night air, making out dust-covered cars in the darkness as I went to the trunk of the car to grab my bag.

  Luc joined me, taking the bag before I could drape it over my shoulder. “I got this.”

  “I can carry it,” I told him.

  “We have to move fast.” He closed the trunk.

  “Are we in Houston?” I asked.

  “Suburbs.” Daemon came around the back as the other three joined us. “Ev
erything here is abandoned. We’ve got about a mile on foot. You good with that?”

  I nodded.

  “Then let’s go,” Archer said from somewhere in the shadows.

  Luc took my hand and squeezed. My stomach was churning like a fan set to high as we walked out the back of the car wash and cut through overgrown, empty backyards.

  No one spoke as we hurried through the darkness, and I knew that all of them could move a million times faster than I could but were slowing down, exerting far more energy to do so.

  I could try to go faster, and considering what I’d done in the woods, I probably could be just as fast as they were, maybe even faster.

  But I didn’t even know how to tap into whatever was inside me, and if I did, would I turn around and try to kill everyone around me? It seemed like whenever I went badass assassin, I went after anything I perceived as a threat, and since everyone around was either a Luxen or an Origin, I didn’t think that was going to end well.

  So, I walked as fast as I could, holding Luc’s hand with a death grip.

  “You’re doing perfectly,” Luc said as he caught a low-hanging wire, lifting it out of the way.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  The mile seemed to stretch for an eternity as we crossed vacant streets and sprawling ranchers, past pools that smelled like moss and knee-high, swaying reeds.

  At any given moment, I expected a chupacabra to jump out of nowhere.

  Luc chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at me. “Chupacabras aren’t real, Peaches.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “Kat would probably agree with you,” Daemon said from up ahead. “She’s convinced they’re real. She says she can hear them howl at night.”

  “That would probably be a dog,” Luc commented.

  “Or a coyote,” Zoe said. “I definitely think there are coyotes around here.”

  My eyes widened. “I hope it’s a friendly coyote.”

  Someone chuckled. Maybe Dawson. Then Archer said, “Let’s not find out.”

  Finally, after an eternity, we cleared a heavy thicket, and I saw it in the silvery moonlight.

  “Holy crap,” I whispered.

  A wall of steel stood before us as far as the eye could see. It had to be close to a hundred feet tall, and as we edged around it, staying close to the cropping of heavy trees, I saw no opening.

  How in the world did they build this, knowing there were people inside?

  “They didn’t care.” Luc tugged me along.

  Up ahead, I saw one of the twins slip into their Luxen form, becoming a brilliant white beacon. “What is he doing?”

  “Letting them know we’re here,” Luc answered.

  A heartbeat later, the Luxen slipped back into his human form, and I heard the soft groaning of steel rubbing against itself.

  “Daemon?” came a low male voice.

  “Here,” the Luxen responded, and then we were crossing the dirt trench, heading for an opening I couldn’t even see. The twins disappeared into the wall, and then I lost sight of Zoe and Grayson.

  My heart launched into my throat as my feet slowed. I really had no idea what awaited me on the other side of the wall. A forgotten city. People who would either welcome us or be wary. Someone in there might know what was going to happen to me.

  Could tell me what to expect.

  Months earlier, I wouldn’t have wanted to know the truth. I would’ve rather hidden from it. But I wasn’t her anymore.

  “Evie.” Luc’s voice was quiet but strong.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I nodded. “I’m okay. I’m ready.”

  And then I stepped forward, hand in hand with Luc, into the unknown.

  40

  We entered a dark field that had once been a park. There was a swing set in the moonlight, the seats missing from the chains.

  I don’t know why that was the first thing I noticed, and not the men armed with rifles. They weren’t paying much attention to us, and I quickly realized they were guards, obviously protecting the entrance to Zone 3.

  We crested the hill, passing the park, and down below I saw rows of homes and a towering, sprawling city, completely dark.

  A yellow glow flickered to life several yards ahead, followed by another and then another. Gas lamps casting light along the street. There were people waiting for us.

  Daemon disappeared.

  That was how fast he moved. He just vanished, and a heartbeat later, I heard a soft, feminine laugh.

  “How are you?” I heard Daemon say, and then a plethora of questions came from him. “You feeling okay? No problems, right? You’re doing—”

  “I’m perfect,” came the response. “Especially now. We missed you.”

  Then Archer was gone. There was a squeak, and I squinted, seeing him lift someone up over his shoulder.

  Dawson sighed. “Show-off.”

  And then he was gone.

  There was laughter, male and female, and then a peal of giggles that came from a child, and soft voices, intimate moments of reunions. Zoe slowed down, and I figured, like me, she wanted to give them space. The four of us took our time getting to them, with Grayson hanging way back.

  A snapping sound caught my attention. Wind lifted up canopies that were stretched from a house, the fabric rippling.

  “Holy alien babies,” a female said, and the gas lamp moved closer to her face, revealing a pretty young woman with brown hair and big eyes. “Is that the Luc? Has hell officially frozen over? Is there another alien invasion on the horizon?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” He squeezed my hand and then said to me in a lower voice, “Want to meet Kat?”

  I did.

  I watched Zoe walk over to where Dawson was standing with another woman. Luc let go of my hand as he moved forward silently, and then he dipped down, hugging someone much shorter than he was, than even I was. He murmured something, and I heard her laugh as he pulled back, straightening.

  “Are you sure you aren’t having twins?” he asked.

  “Good God, don’t say that, Luc,” Kat replied as I clasped my hands together. “Not exactly prepared for a two-for-one special.”

  Luc laughed. “I’m sure Daemon is.”

  “Actually…” Daemon trailed off. “The mere idea gives me a series of heart attacks.”

  “Man up, Daemon; you could be getting ready to have triplets.”

  “I’m so glad I came to get you,” he responded dryly. “So glad.”

  I cracked a grin as Luc turned to me, and I saw that he was now holding what appeared to be a gas lantern. I inched forward.

  “Kat, this is Evie,” he said, stressing my name like he always did when it was someone who knew me before.

  Now that I was closer to them, I could see how pretty the young woman was … and also how pregnant she was. Like she looked as if she were due last week.

  Daemon had moved to stand behind his wife, two hands resting on a very heavily swollen stomach.

  “Hi.” I waved my hand awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

  She smiled as she extended a hand, clasping mine warmly. “I’m thrilled to see you. Both of you.” She glanced at Luc and then at me. “Daemon said you don’t remember … meeting me, but I just want to say I’m glad to see you here.”

  “Thank you. Same. I mean, I don’t remember you, but I’m glad to be here,” I rambled, sounding like an idiot as I dropped her hand. “I’m just going to stop talking now.”

  Luc draped his arm over my shoulders as he bent down, whispering in my ear, “You’re doing fine.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that.

  But Kat was grinning at me—at us—and there was a secret to her grin when she said, “You know, Luc. I always knew it.”

  “Shush,” he murmured, pressing a quick kiss below my ear.

  Daemon whispered something to Kat, and her smile faltered as her gaze fixed on me. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “To hear about your mother. I know that doesn’t change anything or make it bet
ter, and I do know. I just want to say I’m sorry.”

  The next breath I took was shaky. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  Her smile was full of the kind of grief I knew came from firsthand experience.

  “Hi!” a bubbly voice broke through, and I turned to my right.

  I immediately recognized the stunning black-haired woman standing there beside Archer. “You’re Dee,” I blurted out.

  She blinked. “I am.”

  “You remember her?” Kat asked.

  “No. I don’t. I just—I saw her on TV.” I turned back to Dee. “I always watched you…” I trailed off, wincing.

  Archer smiled.

  Luc murmured, “Don’t worry. That didn’t sound creepy at all.”

  I shot him a dark look I knew he could see.

  Zoe laughed.

  “So, you’ve watched me basically talk to a wall?” she asked, smiling.

  “If that wall is Senator Freeman, then yes.”

  Dee laughed as she leaned into Archer, and I couldn’t help but notice how both brothers were eyeing Archer like they wanted to punch him into another galaxy.

  “Uncle Luc! Uncle Luc!” a child squealed.

  Turning toward the sound, I saw a little girl, maybe four or so years old, on Dawson’s hip, stretching out waving arms as she wiggled in his grasp. There was a woman standing next to them, her dark hair pulled up in a messy topknot. She had a hand on Dawson’s back.

  Uncle Luc?

  My eyes nearly popped out of my head as Luc walked over to the girl, lifting his hands. The child practically propelled herself out of Dawson’s arms into Luc’s. She wrapped tiny arms around his neck.

  I suddenly remembered what Luc had said when Dawson realized who I was—or who I’d … I’d been connected to.

  I really don’t want to make Bethany a widow and little Ash fatherless.

  This was Dawson’s wife and child.

  Which would mean that since Dawson was a Luxen and Beth was a hybrid, the little girl was an … Origin.

  The woman was shaking her head in wonder. “She hasn’t seen him in years, but she remembers him.” She smiled at me, extending a hand. “Sorry. I’m Beth. Dawson’s wife.”