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“He’s seventy years old, Cali. If he’s still alive, he’s not physically capable of venturing inside that hospital.” With a huff, he nabs a twig and digs in the dirt. “Probably a mistake telling you this.”
“Thank you, Kenny.” I reach out to touch his arm, but he recoils, his eyes cold and angry.
“I’m not doing this for you. Or Valdys. If it were up to me, he’d have been executed by a firing squad. It’s only for Wren that I’d consider such a stupid idea.”
Maybe his anger is justified toward me, but I haven’t forgotten he was the one who put Valdys back into that facility. I’m certain he’s the one who led them to our hiding spot. “You should know that Roz was looking forward to seeing the stars again. We both talked about it endlessly, while locked inside that place. I don’t care if you forgive me or not, Kenny. The fact is, I loved her. She was all I had for a sister when that shithole stole mine from me.”
“I will never know love like I did with her. Never again.”
“As I will never love another the way I love Valdys.”
His eye twitches, and I know it’s resentment that runs hot through his blood. “I’ll talk to Rhys. The sooner we get inside, the faster we can save Wren.”
“You must care about her a lot.” In an effort to keep from stirring his anger toward me, I try to keep him placated with more benign conversation about her. I get a sense she doesn’t care for me much, either, but I’m not here to make friends.
“Do you even know who she is? Do you even recognize her?”
“Should I?”
“She’s the girl who escaped. The only girl from Calico who escaped and lived.” His eyes give an appraising onceover. “Before you, anyway.”
“I heard that girl was eaten by Ragers.” Obviously Wren came from Calico. I saw her Alpha carry her through those doors, but I never made the connection to the rumors I heard about the girl who escaped.
“Of course you did. Why would anyone at Calico want to make the others believe that escape was possible. It breeds hope.” Cheeks caving with a long drag of his cigarette, he squints and holds it in his lungs for a second. “The two Alphas. They both in?”
Glancing back to Cadmus, whose back expands and contracts with easy breaths, already asleep, no doubt, I nod. “I’m not going to lie, though. Our only objective … my only objective is saving Valdys.”
“Then, it’s understood. Neither one of us shares the same purpose for doing this.”
“I guess not.”
A cold chill settles over my skin as I walk through a dark tunnel. The sounds ahead, an agonized wail like nothing I’ve heard before, draw my feet closer, in spite of the fear thrumming through my veins. Everything inside of me says to go back, to abandon this idea, but I can’t. I have to know where the sounds are coming from. As I approach a gate, smack in the center of the tunnel, I notice skulls, hundreds of them, lying in a pile. A man lies atop of them, his arms outstretched, nails digging against the bones as his body sinks into them. I can’t see his face, but I’m certain it’s Valdys. “No! Wait!” I cry out, pounding at the gates. “Valdys!”
He reaches out for me, right before the skulls bury him alive, the bones swallowing the shine of his slave band.
“Valdys!” I scream, startling upright.
Panting hard through my nose, I scan over the small group sleeping around the campfire that still flickers with orange embers. One man sits off to the side, leaning against a large boulder where he keeps watch. His eyes flit to mine, only for a minute, before he rubs them and yawns, resuming his watch.
At the sound of grunting and groaning, I turn to see Cadmus, convulsing in his sleep, as he sometimes does. For weeks, I’ve avoided comforting him, out of guilt, I suppose.
His body trembles as he lies curled into himself, and the sounds he makes in his sleep remind me of the days when I received my injections, just before my body would grant mercy and I’d pass out from the pain.
I scoot closer to him, flush against his massive back, and I wrap my arms around him. “It’s okay, Cadmus,” I whisper. “I’m right here.”
Resting my cheek against his broad back, I take in the leathery texture of his skin, where scars have healed into multiple deep gashes.
He snatches up my hand, pulling it against his chest, where I feel his heart pounding against his ribs, which shudder with his shaky breaths. It troubles me to see this man, this formidable beast of a human being, made so vulnerable by the memories locked inside his head. Things I wish I could erase for him, to end this suffering he endures every night. The same images that prod him to consume the drugs that somehow steal away the harsh lines of reality for him.
I don’t know what they did to him back at the hospital, but whatever it was must’ve been horrific to turn a powerful, if not cocky, man into the frightened boy that shivers in my arms.
Chapter 14
Wren
I’ve told myself a number of times in the last week, there’s no pain I wouldn’t suffer for this child, but as I lie exhausted and weak, breathing hard through my nose to keep from inciting another round of it, I wonder how much of that is true. How much more agony can I endure for a life I’m not entirely certain will thrive at the end of it?
It doesn’t take much pondering, at all, to come to the decision that I would do what I have to. Closing my eyes, I attempt to force myself asleep, a tough feat when I know Six and Kenny are whispering quietly outside the cave. If not for the crackle of fire, I might hear whether they’re discussing the demise of the newcomers, or what a foolish plan it would be to venture inside Calico again. Either way, I’m grateful for Kenny’s perspective that helps temper Six’s impulsive nature. I know it’s out of love that he’d consider something so dangerous, but there isn’t a chance in the world I’ll risk losing him, even if that makes me sound like a hypocrite.
