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We walked quietly down the hill. The trail was overgrown with logs, covered in bright green moss. The ground was still gray with ash, and blended in with the fog until it looked like I was floating in a dark and gloomy sky. Even when I snuck out past the fence, I’d always been careful to return before dark. This moody twilight kept me on edge.
I glanced back at Penelope, her eyes bright and nearly glowing in the shadows. At one time, the presence of an elite would flood my system with anxiety and adrenaline, but I knew I was lucky she was with me. And she was different from the others. I’d known her as a chosen, a human, not so long ago. We’d both suffered since then.
The rest of us had split up a few hours earlier. We’d made most of the journey together, setting out at dawn and driving until sunset. The hoverbikes rode smoothly on ancient roads, even those covered with bark or leaves, and even zoomed over piles of brick and collapsed buildings, but a few times we had to go around larger obstacles. I’d never seen this part of the world before, so it was tricky to orient. Sometimes on the horizon I could see the remnants of what looked like huge cities, even larger than the ruins where Havoc had been located. A few impossibly tall towers stood out from the overgrowth. Monoliths of metal and glass, half-swallowed in creeping vines that had begun to sprout without the toxic ash. In between the dark forests were wide stretches of valley, with pale sage and purple wildflowers. It was almost beautiful.
We stopped at dusk to separate. Camina went back to Iklebot, Trevor to Harpoon, and Luke to the Shire. I wished there was a faster way to communicate, but we had to be careful. The hovercrafts were quiet enough not to attract slagpaw, and we were careful not to carry too much elixir between us. But it was safest not to broadcast our plans, at least until we’d had a chance to check in with our allies and regroup.
If all went according to plan, Augustine and his elite would meet us later, once we all gathered in Algrave. It was up to me, to make sure my former compound would be a safe haven, at least for a few days. Emma was my driver, but she was uncomfortable going into the compound alone, so we decided to wait outside of the gates until Luke could reach the Shire and send Penelope to rendezvous with us. She arrived an hour later, and together we hiked towards the entrance.
Algrave looked so small, and so familiar, in the valley below. But it was empty, dead. The gates still standing, the doors open. Things had been abandoned on the road by the refugees. Things too big or heavy to carry. A piano, a large potted plant, a stuffed bear. Suitcases of clothes, strewn across the path, torn open by scavengers. Once we reached the road, I startled a family of racoons. But other than that, Algrave was deserted. The tall main gates were slightly parted, the chains casually draped around the bolts but unsecured. It was easy to slip inside.
I felt my chest tighten, as the silence became threatening. It was too much like Quondam. Lost, forgotten. All those figures in ash, frozen in perpetual terror. This was not quite that but… something else. The ghosts lingered, in empty stools on desolate porches. The constellations of leaves across the sidewalks that should have been brushed clean.
I nearly walked past a pile of refuse, before I saw the bodies. An open grave of Algrave’s most elderly… a dozen maybe. Their bodies drained and wrinkled; wisps of gray and white hair. All that life, that experience. The light in their eyes. Nothing more than a midnight snack. Easier to eat them than to move them.
“You ok?” Penelope asked.
“Sure,” I said. I waited for a wave of nausea to pass, but it was difficult with the fetid stench in the air. We had to keep moving. I don’t know what I was expecting to find, but this didn’t surprise me enough to worry. The dead couldn’t hurt me. I tapped down the spark of anger, adding it to the slow furnace that burned in the pit of my stomach.
“Come on, I live this way.”
The route was familiar enough to me that I didn’t need to look where I was going, but I found my eyes pulled towards every empty window and doorway, until my skin was crawling. It smelled like rot and sour milk, and the stench from the market; spoiled meat buzzing with flies. I lifted my skirts as we crossed through the mud.
It was our job to clear the town and make sure we weren’t all walking into a trap. But I didn’t know exactly what to look for. It was so quiet, without the purification engines, and so dark. There were a thousand places to hide.
I blinked in confusion as we got to my house. Or where my house should have been. But the entire street was reduced to charred rubble; the black pillars of the scorched foundations.
“They burned it,” I said. Just my house, and all the houses around it. A black spot on the map, like a smudge. I wanted to lay down in my bed, sip tea in the small kitchen, or curl up in the tiny nook I used to read in. When I could no longer fit inside, it became Loralie’s secret spot. But there was nothing left. I’d stopped the sky from burning, but somehow this smoldering pile of soot and ash cut sharper and deeper than the poisonous air. This toxin hit in a rush and made me sway.
Nigel promised me once, he’d tear me apart. But I didn’t realize it would happen this slowly. Part of me had been eager to come home. To connect with a shred of my former self. But I had no home left to return to. No roof for shelter. No childhood keepsakes for comfort. He took this from me. My heart raced. He knew where I lived with my family. Did he know about Loralie and Jamie? Was this a warning? Surely, Jessica would have told him by now.
And even if he didn’t, he’d evacuated every citizen of Algrave, to make sure he had someone I cared about. This was a message. A message for me alone. That he was just vindictive enough to make this personal.
King Richard had destroyed Quandom, and the family I could not remember, out of one man’s transgression—now Nigel had done the same for me. Thousands of people’s lives, on my conscience. My responsibility. But how could I protect any of them, when I couldn’t even save Jazmine, one of my closest friends?
When I finally turned around, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I was alone. The darkness flickered, and I paused to listen, but it was just the light of the moon shifting with the clouds. I still wasn’t used to it. The purification engines had kept the ash away, but never enough to see the sky.
I paused in the central plaza, which was already half-decorated with pine trees for Winterfest, with red and white bows and strands of light that would have been festive, if there were anyone left to enjoy them. Memories teased at the back of my brain, and I could almost taste the spices of the mulled wine and hear the carols we’d sung when I was younger.
I made my way back to the nicer area of town, looking for Penelope. A single candle in the mayor’s window guided me like a beacon, even across the square.
The house was so dark I could barely see, but finally I found Penelope’s eyes shining in the darkness across the room. I took the candle from the window and used it to avoid the furniture, but paused when I heard whispers.
“Who are you talking to?” I asked sharply.
“Myself,” she said, patting the seat beside her. I eyed her warily, her eyes were too bright in the flame of the candle, and her lips were stained a deep red, nearly concealing the sharp white points of her fangs. Beside her was a crystal decanter, half empty, and a small glass.
“One thing I’ve learned about the compounds,” she said, “is that the mayors usually keep some blood around for rare occasions.”
“Haven’t they been feeding you enough?” I asked.
“If you mean begrudgingly debasing themselves for my sustenance,” Penelope said, “and then making it weird and awkward between us, sure. But this is so much more enjoyable. Smelled it from halfway across town. Honestly I’m surprised the predators haven’t gotten into it yet.”
“You are the predator now, remember?” I managed a wry grin, though my chest still felt a hollow ache.
“Oh,” she said, “right.”
“Is that Emily?” a familiar voice said, startling me. I scanned the dark room but we were alone. Penelope smirked and held up the boxy device in her hand.
