River
“They could have all gone to the old army base,” Hawk suggested. “They wouldn’t be as close to the ocean, but if they felt it was better to be grouped closer together for protection, there are a lot of places on the base for them to stay.”
“Or they could have been evacuated and Mac didn’t know about it,” Kobal said.
I wanted them both to be right, but the pit in my stomach and the strangling sensation in my throat said they weren’t.
I took Kobal’s hand and led him around the back of Mrs. Loud’s house and into the empty town.
They were all supposed to be safe here!Please don’t let me stumble across the bodies of all those I’ve known and loved my whole life.
Turning the corner of another house, I released Kobal’s hand and bolted up the steps of the home my friends Asante and Lisa shared. I practically ripped the screen door off its hinges when I threw it open. Grabbing the knob, I turned it and shoved open the door.
“Asante! Lisa!” I shouted and then winced as my cry sounded louder than gunfire in the house. I hesitated for a second, but nothing jumped out to eat me and I heard no explosion of noise from outside.
I hurried down the hall, past the pictures in their frames and the scrawled drawings that Bailey’s tiny hands had created, hanging on the walls. The faint hint of cooked apples lingered within, but there was no sign of life.
“Gage! Bailey!” I called.
Throwing open a couple of doors, I barely glanced into the empty bedroom and bathroom before continuing. I froze in my tracks when I came across a room with two twin beds. A worn teddy bear lying on the bed against the wall, and a pair of patched pants lying at the foot of the other bed caused the lump in my throat to grow.
Bailey won’t sleep without that bear and Gage is always ripping or outgrowing his pants.
The blue curtains fluttering in the breeze coming through the open window caused shadows to sway over the walls. My gaze ran over the furniture, but I didn’t see any dust on it or on the comb set out on the nightstand. It hadn’t been that long since they’d last been here.
The board behind me creaked; Kobal stepped closer to gaze over my shoulder into the room. “Gage and Bailey lived here?” he asked.
“Asante and Lisa brought them here after I was taken to the wall.” But they weren’t here now.
Lisa’sparents’house!Theycouldbethere!I spun back toward Kobal and tried to shove past him.
“River, slow down,” he said and rested his hands on my shoulders.
“I can’t. They have to be…. I have to find them. One way or another, Ihaveto know what has happened to them!”
“You will.” Drawing me against his chest, he hugged me close before releasing me. “But you must take it easy. There could be something we miss if you keep running from one place to another.”
He was right, but I wanted to tear this entire town apart with my bare hands in search of them. Stepping back, he framed my cheeks with his hands and tilted my face up. He bent to give me the briefest kiss before clasping my hand to lead me back down the hall. I couldn’t bring myself to look too closely at Bailey’s drawings, I might burst into tears if I did.
Raphael, Hawk, and Caim stood inside the front door, but the hundred or so other humans and demons remained outside and alert for any hint of danger.
Stepping outside, I released Kobal’s hand before leading the way back through town at a brisk jog. My feet stumbled on the pavement when I came to an abrupt halt next to the community garden. On a normal day, any number of people would be within it, tending the vegetables and weeding. Lisa had often worked here to help keep everyone fed.
Now, all I saw were the handful of tomatoes that had fallen onto the ground and remained there.
“They would never let food rot in such a way,” I murmured to Kobal.
I didn’t recall covering the distance between the garden and Lisa’s parents’ house, but I found my feet barely hitting the ground as I flew up their porch steps. I glanced at my own house and inwardly cringed before throwing open the door of the screened-in porch and hurrying across it to the other door.
I moved so fast that I couldn’t get the inner door open before my shoulder bashed into it. Pain shot from my shoulder to my wrist as I fumbled with the knob. Kobal pulled me back and twisted the knob. He didn’t bother to tell me to slow down again; it would be useless. I was too out of control, I knew it, but I couldn’t reign myself in.
The door swung open and I stepped into the shadowed interior of the house. My breath caught as the ever-present scent of lavender filled my nose. I stopped for a minute to take in the books lining the shelves, the TV pushed into the corner, and the scarred coffee table with its numerous water rings. I’d created a few of those rings myself.
As I forced myself onward, Kobal walked beside me through the living room and into the kitchen.
No one was there, but in my head, I could hear Lisa’s mother laughing as her father flipped pancakes for breakfast, and Lisa talking excitedly about whatever new thing she’d discovered in the garden.
It played out so perfectly in my mind that for a second I saw their images before me, and their laughter replaced the sound of my blood pounding in my ears.
