Page 94 of Evan and the Alpha

The smoke is a shroud around the wreck, cloaking it from my sight. I kick my legs furiously; I need to get free and run back, back to where Evan is still trapped.

To where Evan is now a corpse, left for dead.

Yafir’s claws dig into my arm. “We don’t know if he’s there or not,” he hisses into my ear. “You can go burn yourself on the pyre, but what if Evan is alive? What then?”

I shake my head. “I’m going to die anyway! Let me go burn with him!”

“He might not be dead!” Yafir rages in my ear. “If you go die now, you are sealing his fate! You will throw him away on despair, but that is foolishness—only cowards would rush to embrace the pyre, because they’re so afraid of waiting for death and certainty. Face this with courage, brother—know that when you go, there will be certainty.”

I snarl at him, but it’s too late anyway. There’s a deafening explosion and fire bursts from the wreck, shooting into the sky in a column of red and angry orange, swirling against the backdrop of the sky. The smoke cleared for but a second so we could see the column of flames; then the shroud falls back in place. It begins to rain metal pieces, shrapnel falling from the heavens.

“Run!” Vince barks, and the two of them drag me further and further away from the inferno, which I am certain is Evan’s funeral pyre.

At last, when we are a certain distance away, they relax their hold on me. I fall to my knees facing the pyre, slamming my hand against the ground. The sun gods are too cruel; first, they took Evan from me, then gave me false hope of his return, only to force me to watch his certain demise as my brother carried me away. Now I shall die anyway.

Yafir puts a hand on my shoulder; I know that there are others watching, the gossipmongers, the spectators. They should be busy helping the wounded or attempting to put out the blaze.

Vince is pulled away from us to consult with the elders about the fire. It is very close to town, and the wind is blowing from the west. Our city could ignite.

I should consult with the elders too, but I do not care. The city can go up in flames, and me with it, for all I care.

“Come on,” Yafir says gently. “Let’s look.”

I pull away from his touch. “What is the point of looking for something that is already gone?”

Yafir sighs. “Sobek, please.”

He waits a moment or two more, then wanders away, disappearing into the crowd. I am left with my misery.

Sometime later, a shadow falls over me. I look up, expecting to see Yafir, come back to lecture me some more, or perhaps Vince.

Instead, I find the kind, round face of the bespectacled sun spirit, Darwin. His head is wound with bandages; he has terrible bruising under his one eye, so much so that his normally pale skin is now blue and purple like a kroakka’s.

“There’s someone you should see,” he says.

My heart leaps into my throat. I rise to my feet and follow. Every step, every breath is filled with trepidation as he leads me through a winding maze of tents and makeshift cots. Sun spirits lie everywhere, moaning and groaning, kroakka moving between the rows of bodies. My stomach twists.

Do I really want to see Evan like this?

We pause at last, over the bed of a sun spirit who is wound almost head to toe in white bandages. I frown as I peer down at him; he is too tall, too broad for Evan.

It’s when he opens his one good eye that I know who he is. A growl rises reflexively in my throat as I stare down at the eldest alpha brother, Scott.

Darwin looks up at me, then down at Scott. “I’ve brought Sobek,” he says to Scott. “Scott. Can you tell him what you told me?”

Scott’s eye slips shut, then bounces open again. He turns his head. He seems disoriented, confused. I almost feel bad for him.

“Huh?” he asks at last, turning to face Darwin. There’s almost no recognition in that green eye; it’s almost as though he’s looking beyond Darwin. “Dad’s dead.”

His voice is scratchy. Darwin’s face falls; he looks upset. I wonder if he and Evan’s phapha were close. That seems strange to me; Darwin is so kind.

“About your brother,” Darwin prompts. “About Evan.”

Scott sucks in a sharp breath, then leans his head back. He stares up at the sky emptily. “Ev,” he murmurs at last.

“Where’s Evan?” I ask, unable to contain myself any longer. “What’s happened to Evan?” My stomach gives a sick leap; I don’t really want to know.

Scott closes his eye and exhales again, turning his head. His brow works for a second. “Ev,” he whispers. “Ev and Min and that … alligator guy. They … they took one of the shuttles.”