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Distraught, I gasp for air and race up the stairs with my men.
We sprint out into an empty hallway. There is no pause. We swing right and frantically run to the side door we last used. The answer lies outdoors. I check the corridor behind us as Bardhyl sticks his head outside. With a wave of his hand at us, we hurry into a yard devoid of people.
In that same moment, an ear-piercing siren rings through the air, stealing the earlier silence.
I shudder in my skin, spinning on my heels, half-expecting an army of Ash Wolves to charge down on us.
“Fuck, fuck!” Lucien’s hand in mine shakes.
Bardhyl charges to the right and vanishes around the edge of the stronghold building.
“What the hell is going on?” I cry out.
“That siren goes off only when the undead have breached the settlement.”
My head spins. “Zombies have barged in here?”
Lucien draws me closer; the color from his face is mostly gone. “I suspect there’s something else going on.”
Moments later, Bardhyl careens around the far corner of the building farther away and bolts toward us like the devil himself chases him.
Fear twists his expression, and I feel sick to my stomach. Bile rushes to the back of my throat as anxiety strangles me.
I suck in each shaky breath as the ringing continues.
“I think Mad’s sacrificing Dušan to the zombies just outside the compound.” He gasps. “The siren must be to call the undead to him.”
A shiver grips my spine, and my knees buckle under me.
“I can stop it.” Before either of them respond, I rip my hand free from Lucien’s grasp and sprint to the edge of the fortress.
“Meira!” he calls after me. “Don’t go there!”
But nothing will stop me. My hands curl into fists, feet shoving against the ground, running like nothing else in the world matters.
And it doesn’t.
I curve around the corner of the fortress, my heart in my throat, but I skid to a stop as fear ices me all over.
Before me, hundreds of Ash pack members scramble toward the wall of the compound. Many are climbing the ladders, others hurrying to find a way to get up there and see what’s going on. Cheers come from a lofty pedestal where I spot Mad laughing. He’s drinking a glass of wine or something while enjoying staring out beyond the fence. He has guards surrounding him. They are everywhere. There is no way we can even try to attack him. We’re outnumbered, and my priority is finding Dušan first. I can only assume he’s what everyone is looking at over the wall.
More Ash Wolf members appear and join the others.
But I can’t see Dušan from down here.
Bardhyl and Lucien are at my side in moments, heaving for breath. “Don’t run off like that,” Lucien reprimands me.
“I-I c-can’t see him. Maybe it’s not him.” Tears roll down my face because even as I say the words, I know the truth.
This is exactly how Mad would dish out punishment. Make Dušan’s death a spectacle.
My stomach drops right through me and a scream surges through me at the injustice, at how fucking wrong this is.
“We need to get to him.” I scan the area when a group of pack members dart right alongside us. Five of them, but they don’t even pay us any attention when they’re running to witness the show.
Lucien shoves me between him and Bardhyl as more people move in a hurry. “We can’t be spotted.”
“There’s no way out that way,” Bardhyl whispers. “We go through the tunnels.”
