Chapter 28
The Firstborn
Decker lunged towards him, teeth bared.
The ninth plague was here, and the looming tenth ripped through him like a stake in his chest.
Human.Decker’s defenses tore away with his immortality as the tenth plague, the death of Ender’s Ridge, rippled through him. Human limbs slowed, and the heavy ache of his chest, lurching and pounding, brought him to a faltering halt as he gasped for air. His heart, beating for the first time since India.
Elias’s face lit with morbid glee. “At last.”
The serpent towered in place at his side, fangs shining with venom as it waited for a command from its master.
Decker’s chest throbbed, head spinning. Humanity never felt like this. Being torn apart and rebuilt, skin and muscle, all wrong.
He’d never missed the stillness of his heart until now.
Elias spread his hands towards him, and the serpent lunged.
Too fast.
Everything once slow,predictable, was now like fleeing lightning.
The chapel doors burst open behind him.
Wood shuddered and split as the serpent slammed into the space where Decker had been a second before. Laurie snarled as he stood between the serpent and his maker. He was still untouched by the plague of humanity, but how long could it hold?
A shot snapped past them andtingedoff the throat of the serpent and it thrashed, caught in the sturdy stair-railing.
Shouts skittered through the town and Callie Gibson appeared behind them, flanked by her family, all of them armed to the teeth. Her dark eyes gleamed with understanding.
Willa straddled the roof, her shotgun snug to her shoulder as she fired again, splinters of wood flying from the steps. “Go!” Fear still etched lines in her face, and the barrel never swung to Elias.
Shielding him, Laurie dragged him down the alley and Sister Inez yanked them inside the chapel, locking the door behind them.
“Decker?” His hands were on his body, face, prodding, searching for the cause of his stupor.
Dragging in deep, strangling breaths, he triedto clear his head. “You barred the door?”
Sister Inez leaned down to paint one last symbol and tossed the brush to the side. “After you left.”
“Decker,” Laurie said. His hand lingered on his face. Tenderly. Likemore than neighborshad already begun.
He stowed away the warmth in his gut. “I’m fine. Something happened to Willa.”
Safine’s head snapped up and the spoonful of herbs clenched in her hand twitched.
“She’s alright,” Decker said. “She—she froze. She couldn’t shoot Elias.”
“Hurry,” Sister Inez said grimly. “The door will not hold.”
Laurie, still looking concerned, slotted his pages of translations in the journal and stepped into the circle.
The door rattled under the heavy body of the serpent and the barricaded pews screeched against the ground in protest. Pigeons strewed feathers across the sanctuary as they fled.
Safine gritted her teeth and tossed a stick of dynamite to Sister. “I’ll lure the snake out of town. Time it right and don’t blow your arm off.”
“I’ll keep my arm.” She snatched matchsticks from their jumble of supplies. “Decker, keep your head.”
