Prologue
Torin
The moment the mate bond disappears, the bottom of the world falls out. My bear pushes forward, charging to take control as the rest of me slumps back in numb disbelief. I suck in a ragged breath as my metal spines shred my flesh to pieces. But it doesn’t hurt half as much as the feeling that strikes when I discover our bond is snuffed out.
As malformed as it was, it told me that Reva was safe.
And now it’s gone.
Which must mean she must be too.
Everything is a blur of movement and deafening noise as my bear takes charge. He’s fueled by a mixture of terror and fury, riding on top of Captain Finch’s monstrous tentacle while he demolishes everything he touches for miles around.
Smash.
Crash.
Crush.
Destroy.
Finch smashes buildings and roads to pieces, working like a frenzied wild thing until he’s taken down the entire town. There’s an ominous rumble, and the ground collapses under us. We tumble face-first into the dark.
I SMELL BLOOD. BLOODand dust and rubble. That’s all that’s left of this place now.
Through the darkness, I can just make out odd shapes and let out a groan. Seems my bear’s abandoned me. Pushing myself up away from the shattered floor tiles, I realise most of the blood I can smell is my own.
My arms are a mess of ragged flesh, so I suppose there’s not much left of me either.
My body isn’t working as I try and fail to stagger to my feet. My legs are jelly and the right one won’t bear my full weight.
I drag it behind me, picking my way out of the destroyed laboratory. The home of my nightmares.
It doesn’t smell any better than it did back when we were held here decades ago. It always was a festering shithole, and I have to say, Finch has improved the place by smashing it to bits. The only thing better would be burning it to the ground.
... I wonder where I can find some matches.
Finch is somewhere, still wreaking destruction just ahead. I can feel the vibrations in the floor and walls as he heads along, intent on leaving nothing here but dust.
But we’re not the only two people here. Kit has to be somewhere along with Jack.
And Reva—
My stomach rebels at the thought, but she has to be somewhere here too.
Limping from one ruined room to the next, I pick my way through the rubble, struggling over it with my gammy leg. There’s light streaming through from the gaping great hole in the ceiling, and I can just make out a massive bathtub, smashed to bits. The floor’s sticky and covered in something black that sticks to my bare feet.
In the middle of the biggest puddle, there’s a small, black lump, and I stagger toward it as horror slices through me.
It’s a raven, lying prone on the floor.
Jack.
I’m on my knees beside him, cradling his tiny body in my ungainly hands as I wipe and wipe the goopy black shit away from his beak.
How do you resuscitate a bird? I’m damned sure I should know by now, but Jack’s so good at skating through life unscathed, I’ve never needed to learn. Pumping his tiny chest, I wish I wasn’t naked as the day I was born. I don’t even have a spare sock to help wipe off the worst of the gunk he’s caked in.
He’s totally still. No signs of life in his tiny body, and I keep pumping, ignoring that my hands are shaking and look monstrously big compared to his body.
