Page 83

There’s a long pause before he sighs, shaking his head again. For a second, I think he’s going to tell me to go to hell. Instead, he waves his hand in dismissal. “Let ‘em pass,” he finally says. “Get the fuck out of the way, unless you wanna look like that.” He points to Szolen, who snarls and snaps his jaw.

The soldiers move aside, creating a path, and Valdys guides Szolen through it, prompting some of the men to take a few steps back.

Cali follows closely behind him, with Titus trailing her steps, keeping the infected soldier at a distance.

“Savage bitch!” One Legion soldier breaks from his stance, knocking his gun into Cali, who stumbles backward, into the infected soldier behind her. Broken loose from Titus, he scrambles for her on all fours, when she kicks herself away, like an animal, and I hold my breath the moment he’s close enough to bite. Before he can sink his teeth into her, the infected soldier is swiped up into the air, dangling by his throat, and in one swift twist, Valdys snaps his neck and lets the body fall into a slump on the ground. He lurches toward the man who attacked Cali, now held back by three of his fellow Legion officers.

“He was my friend! You fucks infected him with your savage diseases!” The man seethes as Valdys accosts him, and he spits at the Alpha’s feet.

A glance to his feet and back, and Valdys hammers his fist into the man’s face so hard it throws him into the line of men behind him.

My guess is, if he isn’t braindead from the hit, he’ll have a headache from hell when he wakes.

Valdys strides back to Cali, lifts her up into his arms, and carries her along the path, while Titus guides Szolen behind them.

“So much for living in harmony together.” Swinging around to face me, Arty points toward the commotion. “’The fuck was that, Wren?”

Lips thinned, I shrug. “You don’t mess with an Alpha’s woman, Arty. The Legion officer is lucky to be breathing.” As I pass him, I give a rueful smile. “By the way, I didn’t mean to lie to you. Back at the gate.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Rolling his eyes, he shakes his head. “You been lying to me since you were fifteen years old, kid. I don’t expect no different.”

“Well, I mean it this time. Take care of yourself.”

“You’re not staying?”

I glance back at Six, whose face holds no indication as to whether he would stay, or not. I’m not sure I trust the rest of the community enough to stay here. They’ve indoctrinated themselves too much into this way of life, to trust that they wouldn’t attack us for changing their minds. The soldier was a good example, and probably not alone in his thoughts.

My guess is, they’ll continue to keep others out, trapping themselves behind these walls, until the very idea of going beyond them is too terrifying to chance. We, on the other hand, will continue to evolve and learn how to live amongst the predators, like every other animal on this planet. “No. There’s nothing here for me anymore. But if it’s all right with you, I might visit Papa’s grave one more time before we go?”

“Sure thing.”

I pat him on the back, and when he flinches, I chuckle. “You can’t get sick from a pat on the back, Arty. Not how it works.”

Lips tight, he gives a nod and pats me on the back in return. “Take care of yourself out there, Wren.”

“I will.”

Kneeling beside Papa’s grave, I wipe the tear that streaks down my cheek. Six and the others wait for me inside the house, where they gather some supplies we’ll take with us.

“You were right in your journal, when you said we saw the world differently. And yet, somehow we still learned to love each other unconditionally. We evolved together. And maybe that was your point. There was never a cure, was there?” It’s clear to me now that, aside from Papa, none of the doctors at Calico were ever really searching for a cure. They were only looking to create something bigger, stronger, more violent than the existing monsters. Six didn’t risk his life to retrieve an end to all of this.

There is no end. Only survival.

“It was always about learning how to live with one another. To evolve as a species.” I smile at how ridiculously simple the concept is, yet how complex and elusive at the same. “I wish you were here to explain this to me, because it makes no sense. I should’ve turned Rager from that bite. Even as a carrier. You told me direct inoculation was ...” Frowning, I shake my head. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The only plausible explanation I have is his journal, where he diagrammed an antibody found only in Six. The strongest titers against the proteins produced by the disease. One that was to be used as a basis for a cure. Perhaps that antibody lives in me, with this pregnancy.

Papa would’ve loved to tease out the possibilities. In fact, I imagine him examining my arm, feverishly jotting notes as he studies it, trying to puzzle the mysteries of the universe. Perhaps it could’ve saved him, too. “I miss you, Papa.”

Chapter 34

Cali

A stack of folded clothes clutched to my chest, I enter the room that was once Wren’s bedroom, glancing around only briefly at the bed and furniture within in the small space. The sound of water draws my footsteps toward the bathroom, where the door stands cracked. I peek inside to see a massive figure through the frosted glass, my heart caught between contentment and sorrow. Light and darkness. The peace I should feel at having found the man I love is shadowed by the despair of having lost another.

I set the clothes that Wren offered for Valdys down on the countertop beside the sink, and keeping my eyes on what must be his back, I yank my shirt over my head, tossing it to the floor behind me. My pants follow, then underwear, until I’m as naked and vulnerable as I feel inside. Padding quietly toward the door, I open it to find him standing in the water, his forehead pressed to the tiles.

Across his back, etched in deep grooves, are a series of scars that mar his skin overtop of older ones. Thick, puffy ridges inflicted by the unforgiving lash of a whip.