We leap over the dead bodies. Something grabs my ankle and I nearly lose my footing. I look down. Patrick’s hand is gripped around my leg. There’s a large gash in his thigh.
“Help me,” he begs.
I could leave him. I should leave him. He tried to kill me. But it’s not like I’m blameless. If I hadn’t fed on Catherine, my grandfather would never have had to kill her.
I look up at Ulrika. “Head to the paddocks! Just follow this path—it’ll take you there.”
She leaves with Kieran, the glass jar tucked under her other arm, while I help Patrick up. He briefly looks back at his parents’ lifeless bodies in the plaza, and then we’re hurrying through the streets as fast as we can with his injured leg, toward the gate beyond the paddock. It’s hard to see as volcanic ash rains down on us, scorching my throat with every breath. Through the gritty fog, I notice the Boundary Wall looming up ahead. The gate is already open, and people stream out of the narrow entrance to the world beyond. We run toward the gate, but halfway there Patrick yells out in pain as his injured leg buckles beneath him.
“Leave me,” he gasps.
“No.” I grit my teeth as I lift him over my shoulder.
I carry him out of the gate and run down the main road as fast as I can, putting as much distance between us and Amber Hills as possible. Along the way we pass the townsfolk who managed to escape the town. I spot Ulrika and Kieran among them.
“You made it!” Ulrika says breathlessly. She’s still carrying Theora’s heart in the jar.
The four of us keep running, running, running. I run from the landslide, I run from Amber Hills, I run from the life I once had. I don’t stop until my legs burn and my lungs are unable to take another breath. I drop Patrick on the ground and collapse, panting, heaving, throwing up bile and ash. He groans, but manages to sit up, clasping his bleeding leg.
Kieran collapses on the ground beside him. “I think we’re safe.”
I look down the road. It’s hard to see through the smog and ash, but I think he’s right. The Boundary Wall must’ve slowed the landslide down just enough to keep it from coming this far.
“Thank you,” Patrick says.
I glance at him. His whole body is covered in ash, so he’s gray from head to toe. So am I. So is everything. The sky. The ground. Our faces. Gray. Everything is the same.
“No problem,” I say flatly.
Ulrika hands me the glass jar. It’s covered in soot. I wipe away the black dirt, revealing Theora’s heart inside. Grief spills over me, thinking about the life we might have had together. I’ll never get the chance to love her or have her fall in love with me. I’ll never feel my heart beating again. Icarus stole that from me. I want Theora back, but not in this way.
I thrust the jar into Ulkira’s hands. She doesn’t say anything as she accepts it.
“What do we do now?” Patrick says.
I look down the road. There’s no point in going back to Amber Hills; there’s nothing there to go back to. I turn my head. The road on this side leads to Gray Wolf, then beyond that . . . freedom. I can go wherever I want to go. Be whoever I want to be. My options are unlimited. But there is one thing I am certain of: I will make the Darklings suffer for what they’ve taken from me. I clutch the circle pendant around my neck as a plan starts to formulate in my mind. The future stretches out before me, and I see it how I want it to be:
A world without sin.
A world in her image.
A world united.
So sayeth us all.
22.
ASH
“SO NOW YOU KNOW the truth about Purian Rose,” Lucinda says tiredly.
Everyone is silent. I sink back in my seat, trying to wrap my head around everything I’ve heard. Purian Rose is related to me? No wonder my mom never spoke about her family. Who wants to admit that their cousin is the man responsible for leading a war that killed millions of Darklings? She must have been so ashamed, and frightened too—being related to Purian Rose would’ve put our family at terrible risk during the war.
“Ulrika and I lived with Edmund and Patrick for a while in Gray Wolf,” Kieran says. “But it didn’t work out. They became fanatical about religion, spending day and night rewriting the Guild’s scriptures that were lost in the eruption and tweaking it to suit their own beliefs—”
“The Book of Creation?” Day interjects, referring to the holy text that the Purity faith is based on.
Kieran nods. “During that time Edmund’s hatred of the Darklings got worse. He blamed them for everything wrong in his life.” He sighs, rubbing his head. “He blew his top when he found out I was still in touch with Luci and Annora, so we parted ways. Ulrika came back here while I went traveling with Luci and Annora, attending civil rights rallies across the country, and Edmund and Patrick moved to Centrum to make a name for themselves in politics.”
“When he came into power a few years later as Purian Rose, we knew we had to stop him,” Lucinda adds. “That’s why we formed the Four Kingdoms.”
Elijah turns to his mom. “How did you get involved in the group?”
“I met Luci and the others at a rally in Thrace,” Yolanda answers. “We were all staying with Esme at the Moon Star tavern.”
Kieran smiles at the mention of his wife and home. Natalie flicks a guilty look at me. Neither of us has had a chance to tell him that Esme’s dead. Now’s not the right time.
“Why didn’t the Four Kingdoms reveal Edmund’s true identity?” Day asks.
“Because we didn’t have any evidence, just our word,” Lucinda says. “And who would believe us, especially since Edmund looks human. We tried to hunt down some of the former residents of Amber Hills, but many died that night of the eruption, and the rest were unwilling to talk.”
“We approached a detective with this information years ago,” Yolanda adds. “We think the detective got close to something once. He said he was following a lead—something about an illegitimate child”—I shoot a look at Natalie, who has turned pale—“but he died in a house fire before he could pursue it any further. The fire was set deliberately.”
“Sounds like something the Sentry would do,” Day says fiercely.
The Sentry guards burnt down her house after the ballot a few weeks ago. Her younger brother, MJ, was still inside at the time, although Natalie and I managed to save him.
“But you said Purian Rose doesn’t have a heartbeat?” Elijah says from the front seat. “How come no one’s noticed that?”
Lucinda gives a bitter laugh. “Oh, I’m sure Purian Rose has bribed or threatened his doctor to keep his mouth shut.”
“Guys, we’re here,” Acelot says from the driver’s seat.
The truck sways as we drive over the bumpy dirt track toward a run-down log cabin, hidden among the lichen-covered trees. It’s very dark both inside and outside the vehicle, since barely any sunlight penetrates the forest. Sinister shadows lurk between the trees like stalking wolves, making me shudder. I can see how the Forest of Shadows earned its name.
Acelot parks the truck outside the cabin and we get out. We’re in a forest glen. The air smells like pine needles, rain and sap. My boots sink into the lush, mossy earth as I jump out of the vehicle and help Martha down, then Natalie. Her hand is soft and warm in mine. She smiles at me, and for a second I return it, beforeg guilt and grief come crashing down on me. I shouldn’t smile, shouldn’t feel any happiness when my dad is . . . he’s . . . I swallow a painful lump in my throat. Natalie’s brows draw together and I look away. Now isn’t the time to break down.
Kieran strides up to the cabin and raps loudly on the door, knocking three times, then twice, then four times. The house looks abandoned—the walls are covered in ivy, the windows are dirty, and the yellow paint on the door is cracked. I’m starting to think Ulrika isn’t here, when suddenly the door opens. A middle-aged Lupine stands in the entranceway, dressed in leather pants and a tight black top and frock coat. She’s thin but athletic, with weather-chapped skin, short cropped hair and dirt under her nails. She immediately pulls Kieran into her arms.
“Fragg, I thought you were dead. You were due here weeks ago,” she says, then adds dryly, “You could have called.”
“Yeah, you know me, cuz. Always like to be fashionably late,” Kieran says. “We got caught sneaking around Primus-One.”
They pull apart, and Ulrika nods politely at Yolanda and Lucinda. She notices us for the first time.
“This is my nephew, Ash,” Lucinda explains.
“I know who he is,” Ulrika says, ushering us inside. “Everyone’s heard of ‘the boy who rose from the ashes.’” Did I detect a note of sarcasm in her voice?
The inside of the cabin is cool and dank. The main source of light in the kitchen/living room comes from the amber flames flickering in the stone hearth to my left, which casts a deep orange glow over everything in the dingy room. Shelves line the peeling walls, which are crammed with warped, mildew-covered books. Perched on a rickety cabinet nearby is a portable TV and a dust-covered telephone. There’s a simple pinewood table in the center of the room, and a few mismatched chairs. To the right, there’s a single work surface, stove, fridge and a couple of cupboards. Several dead rabbits hang from hooks above the sink, their fresh blood dripping into the porcelain bowl.
“We can’t stay long,” Kieran says to his cousin. “Do you have it?”
Ulrika nods. She walks over to the cupboards at the kitchen side of the room, while Natalie and Day clear a seat for Martha and help the old lady sit down. Beetle does a quick check of the house to make sure it’s secure. Ulrika angrily purses her lips when he goes into her bedroom.
“You won’t find anything suspicious in my panty drawer,” she calls to him.
Beetle exits the bedroom, the tips of his ears bright pink. He’s carrying some cotton slips.
“I thought the ladies might want something better to cover themselves with.” He passes them to Yolanda, Martha and Lucinda, who put them on underneath their blankets and jackets. Ulrika sighs but says nothing as she starts looking through the cupboards.
“Kieran said the guards know you’re living up here?” Day says.
Ulrika throws her an impatient look. “Of course they do. Edmund came to visit me when they started putting the wall up, giving me the opportunity to leave.”
“And you deliberately stayed?” I splutter.
“Why not?” she says. “This is my home. And at least here I’m safe. There are a lot of Lupine haters out there at the moment.”
“I wonder why,” Beetle mutters.
“It doesn’t bother you that millions of people are being killed just a few miles down the road?” I say.
“Of course it bothers me, but what can I do about it?” she says.
My fangs throb with venom and Beetle frowns, making the scar tissue on his cheek pucker. There’s plenty she could do, if she wanted.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why is Edmund still protecting you?” Natalie asks. “I thought he was mad at you and Kieran.”
“Kieran more than me. He’s the one who wanted to stay in touch with Lucinda and Annora,” Ulrika says, casting a cold look at Lucinda, who returns her frosty gaze. “Besides, Theora was my best friend. That still means something to him.” Ulrika closes the cupboard door and checks the unit above the sink.
Beetle turns to Lucinda. “Do you think Rose knew you were being held prisoner?”
Lucinda sits at the table. “I doubt it. He probably would have let Kieran go at the very least, if he’d been told we were there.”
I think about the fact that no one knew my dad had died at the camp—something that would have been all over the news if they had—and figure she’s right. With the huge amount of people flowing into the Tenth each day, it must be hard for them to keep track of all the prisoners. The registration department probably hasn’t had time to cross-check the names to make sure no one is there who shouldn’t be.
“Ah, here it is,” Ulrika says, pulling a dusty jar out of the cupboard. She places the glass jar on the table in front of us. It’s filled with a sickly yellow fluid. Floating inside it is Theora’s heart.
“Aw, gross,” Beetle mutters.
“Why did you keep it all these years?” Day asks.
“Theora was like a sister to me, and we lost our whole pack in the eruption the night she died,” Ulrika says. “I wanted to keep part of her, part of them, alive, I guess.”
“How is this going to bring down Purian Rose?” Elijah asks his mom.
I’m curious to know this too.
“We were going to transplant it inside someone,” Yolanda explains. “Our hope was that if we could get this person to Purian Rose, his heart might reactivate, creating a Blood Mate connection, and she’d be able to persuade him to stop the war.”
Beetle and Day share bemused looks.
“Utterly insane,” Ulrika mutters under her breath. “There’s no guarantee it would work, even if you could get the heart transplanted.”
The plan is crazy, but if anyone in this room understands the strength of the Blood Mate connection, it’s me and Natalie. If she asked me to end a war, I would, in a heartbeat.
“I think it’s a fragging brilliant plan,” I say.
Lucinda grins. She looks a lot like my mom when she does that; my mom always had a wry smile on her lips.
“But isn’t the heart really old?” Day says. “Not to mention it’s been in embalming fluid all this time. You won’t be able to transplant it inside someone without killing them.”