“It matters to them,” Remi said, motioning to Ava, to Gray, to me. “And that’s enough for me.”
It was too much. The pride. The agony. The unbearable love I felt for that broken, brutal soul standing in front of us, willing to fall so that we didn’t have to.
The forest had gone quiet again. Too quiet.
A beat.
A snap of a branch.
Erin looked over her shoulder.
Then the world cracked open.
Remi fired.
The shot ripped through the clearing.
Erin jerked, eyes wide, mouth open, then collapsed.
Dead weight.
Gone.
Chaos detonated like a bomb.
Bishop screamed, turning toward Remi. I hit him first. My elbow caught the side of his head as I twisted, ducking the barrel of his gun and grabbing it clean. I fired once, chest shot, he folded.
Behind us, three of the five moved.
One dropped from a sniper round. Another shouted orders and fired wildly toward the trees. Return fire lit up the dark. Trees split. Smoke bloomed.
And still Remi stood.
A bullet tore into the log beside her. She flinched, stumbled back, breath catching in a pained wheeze, but stayed up. Stayed aiming. Still bleeding.
She was fucking unstoppable.
I reached for Ava. “Behind me,” I said, dragging her toward cover.
Gray had moved, god, that man, he twisted, disarming the guard behind him in one brutal motion and taking the rifle. He returned fire like he’d been born to it.
Sound surrounded us... and that is when I saw them.
Figures emerging from the haze. Armed. Focused.
Our people.
Herpeople.
Remi dropped behind cover, gun still raised, but her body was flagging. She was pale now. Too pale. Her hands were shaking. I needed to get to her.
But I couldn’t leave Ava.
And then I saw Bishop again, crawling, dragging Erin’s lifeless form across the dirt.
I raised my weapon...
But Remi beat me to it.
