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The words pound through my body, my dark mantra. Whatever comes next and whoever I have to kill—Cass, hopefully—none of it matters as long as I end up with her in my arms, safe.
My heart jumps in my throat when I finally see a sliver of Sage House, glowing white in the darkness, peeking between the tall houses that line Spruce Street.
Finally, I found her.
But as I slow down, my gaze lingering on the house, something shifts inside me.
Coming to a halting stop, I study it. Through the long, narrow houses that line Spruce Street and the towering trees, I can barely make out the house’s tall portico, the white columns that surround it, and the long-darkened windows.
It’s dark and quiet. That’s not especially alarming, I suppose. It’s very late—or early, depending on how you look at it—and Goldenrod has no electricity. But something niggles me, and as I continue to stare at the blank house, I gradually realize what’s so strange about it.
She’s not there.
In fact, neither is Stella. Or my mother.
I know it in my bones. The atmosphere is blank. The warmth is absent. They’re not there.
So, where are they then?
I close my eyes, inhaling deeply. The warm, humid breeze shifts gently around my body, the air prickling my skin, igniting my blood, and settling deep inside me. My eyes pop open when I smell it.
Smoke.
Slowly, I step forward, away from the view of Sage House and toward the end of the street, where it meets the very end of Dogwood Street.
The closer I get to Dogwood, the more pungent the smoke grows, hanging in the air and wafting down the empty street.
BANG.
A door slams loudly, and I’m so dazed I jump at the sound. I watch as a single beta sprints out of one of the houses on the corner of Spruce and Dogwood. He doesn’t notice me as he leaps over the front gate, his feet slapping the sidewalk as he disappears around the corner, and down Dogwood.
Where’s he got to be at this hour?
Spruce Street comes out on the far end of Dogwood, at the opposite end of where most of the shops and town hall are located. The closer I get to the corner, the clearer my senses pick up what’s happening far down at the other end of the street.
I can differentiate varied scents—sweet excitement, peppery anxiety, and sour fear. They float down the street on the smoke, along with the gentle hum of a crowd.
Dogwood Street. That’s where Hetty is. I know it with as much certainty as I knew she wasn’t in Sage House.
Suddenly, I hear a booming voice yelling indiscernible words. Violently, they tumble through the silence. Finally, turning onto Dogwood, I almost trip over my feet at what I see sprawled ahead of me.
All of Goldenrod must be out here—hundreds of alphas, omegas, and betas hunched together and staring up at town hall. They’re sandwiched between dozens of torches stuck in the ground next to the rows of trees. I can’t see their faces, but all their backs look stiff as they whisper to each other.
It’s Marcus’s voice that’s doing the bellowing. Through the sea of people, I can only see his top half, pacing back and forth in front of town hall, yelling emotionally, and gesticulating wildly toward a large wooden platform in front of the apothecary.
What the…? That wasn’t there hours ago.
But I hardly have time to wonder what it’s for as I process the sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. The whole town in one place, and in the middle of the night?
My chest heaving, I block out the low noise from the crowd and attempt to tune into what Marcus is saying.
“So, people of Goldenrod, I ask you to consider the reasons why we’ve experienced these unprecedented troubles,” he roars, throwing his arms in the air. “It’s true that we lost our electricity and our water. But more important than that, we lost our dignity. Forced into a life of sparsity and fear—punishments ill-deserved by those of us who live our lives in accordance with the Order.”
He pauses, his face stamped with emotion as he stares into the crowd. “Many of you have come to me with questions. Why has the Order forsaken us when we have been so good? So true to the principles the Golden Alpha laid out for us? What have I, an ordinary citizen of Goldenrod, done to deserve this?”
I move forward blankly until I’m standing in the very back of the crowd, watching as he pauses dramatically.
“Well, I have good news for you,” he says pointedly. “You are blameless. Every single one of you. The alpha council can trace our trouble back to one person. In fact, I can say with great certainty that none of this would have happened to us if not for one lazy, self-seeking, evil witch.”
