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I stand shakily and glance around. The bridge and surrounding area are covered in slumped over Alphas. Even those that were carrying large wooden shields were hit. Some are trying to crawl away, but most are already passed out.Darts.
They’ve all got darts sticking out of their backs and faces and chests and legs and arms. Plastic shrapnel is all that’s left of the bombs.Dartbombs. Since November first told me about trolls — Betas who live in Paradise Hole and attack anybody daring to cross one oftheirbridges that traverse Paradise River — it’s clear they’ve updated their methods.They just took down an entire gang of Alphas.
This is the second time I’ve seen Betas take on Alphas in just as many weeks. I don’t know whether to be proud or terrified. Right now, I’m definitely feeling more the latter than the former. Because I might have made it past the first stage of their offensive, thanks to the naked Berserker slumped over beneath me, but they’re starting to swarm the ends of the bridge and soon, they’ll be coming to collect their bounty.
I’ve only got seconds before they see me and shoot me with one of their darts and I’m down for the count, passed out — or dead — like the rest of these Alphas. A bold move to try to take on so many, but these trolls clearly have practice and must think that the reward will be greater than the risk. I’m not sure. Aside from what’s in my pack, the Alphas don’t seem to be carrying much on their persons. From what I can see, they carry smallish leather packs and hand-hewn metal and wooden weapons. And given that I’ve got the biggest pack on the bridge — and am an Omega, besides — that makesmethe most valuable thing left on the bridge at the moment, just ripe and ready for their culling.
I lurch left, prepared to run back the way we came, but there are three trolls there, climbing out from under the bridge in so many layers of clothing, they look more like shadow-wrapped monsters than humans. I turn right, and there are six. Fuck me.
I glance at the river and slam my teeth together, trying to use the pain of it to think. I’m terrified. The spray from the river water isfreezingand I only have the use of one leg and one arm. And this isn’t an easy river. There arerapids.
I glance over my shoulder and the trolls, with their soot-covered faces, are looking at me. The whites of their eyes are flashing and they’re discussing something amongst one another, but in voices too low to hear. I’m not going to wait around for them to come to a decision, though, draw their dart guns and blast me in the face. I’m going tohaveto jump.And see what fucking happens…if I live at all, or if I die in agony.
I step up onto the railing, right next to where the Berserker is draped over the stone edge, only to be shocked when he grunts, pushes himself onto one side and strokes my ankle above my boot.
He blinks up at me and a momentary thread of something terrible pierces my heart, tethering bits of it together that were adrift. “Jump,” he croaks, sounding on the brink of collapse. “Won’t let you drown.”
Thwump! A dart hits my pack and the Alpha’s hand on my ankle steels and wrenches. He drags me off of the rail and I yelp as I go tumbling down towards the icy river. I’m vaguely aware of him tumbling down right after me…and thensplash!
No. Oh no nonononononononoonoooonno.
As the river water and I collide, my soul leaves its rickety frame then smashes back down in icy thunder. My body seizes up. I can’t do this. This was a bad, bad idea. I blame the Berserker. I should have gone with the Alpha gang and let them kill me for crimes I didn’t commit. It would have been more pleasurable than this.
My limbs can’t move, even the ones that work. Waves crash over the top of my head and rocks bang against my boots. They’re heavy, those boots. Boots the Berserker got back for me. I blame him for that, too. They’re weighing me down.
A gut-wrenching moan sobs out of my mouth as I collide with a river rock, my injured arm taking the brunt of it right before a heavy weight slams into my left side. Hot and hard as a brand, it coils around my chest, holding me awkwardly against an even greater weight.
I break the surface of the waves a minute later and the Berserker’s voice is in my ear. “Get us out of here, Echo. That’s an order.”
I don’t know what he means and gasp, pulling in more water than air.
“Breathe, Echo,” he orders and I do. I mean, I try. I’m still choking as he spits, “Now, get us out of here. Use your gifts to push us…onto…the riverbank.” He sounds like he’s in as much pain as I am, his words coming slower with every second that goes by.
I open my mouth to tell him he can’t order me around like this, but I can’t taste anything but ice and minerals, can’t even feel my tongue. But I can feel his arm, hot as an ember, and his body lining my back. He jumped into the river. Why? He was already drugged, his risk was even greater than mine. It still is. Unless I do something.
Over the frothy tips of the rapids, I see two friends I’d have rather not. Fear and Pain are with me now, waving wildly from atop their canoes as they navigate the rapids with a gravity-defying grace that I don’t have. Or maybe…I do… Because the Berserker ordered me to, which meansI can do this.
“Augh!” I roar and I close my eyes and I repeat his command again and again in my thoughts.The Berserker wants me to move us onto the riverbank. I can do this. The fact that the river bends beneath the commandhegave frustrates and elates me in the same breath. But I don’t dwell on the whys or even the hows, I justdo it.
Energy pulses out of me like a wave. I black out, but I can feel the water working beneath me, pushing me up, giving my bottom a boost and tossing me onto the muddy shore.
Right next to him.
Wrapped and trapped in his arms.
“Good Omega. You did good, baby.” His voice is really close and I can feel hot breath on my forehead. I preen, my back arching, my fingers reaching for him through the veil of my hatred. My instinct to please is too strong. His smell is too strong. The cold is too strong. Everything is too much. Everything except the encroaching darkness… Darkness is so inviting…
“No, Echo. No. You did so good. Stay with me.” His voice is lazy and slow and I hate its encouraging tenor. It’s a tone I haven’t heard him use before. Must mean bad things are coming.
I shiver and it hurts. My skin prickles and my palm…my good palm is against something harder than the Berserker is…hard and cold. I blink once, but the world is harsh so I close my eyes. I’m up high on some rocks out of the grip of the icy water and its hungry current. It doesn’t seem to matter, though. I’m not going to make it.
“Cold,” I try to say, but my teeth clack so hard, the word gets separated into fourteen syllables. “C-c-c-c-c-c-c-oh-oh-oh-el-el-el-duh.”
I cough up another lungful of liquid and my chest rattles. It doesn’t feel good. I don’t feel good. I’m going to die here unless I can get warm. I’ve got a dry sleeping bag in my pack, but that’s it. That’s all that would fit in the waterproof bag. Maybe, I can find refuge tonight, hunker down, stay dry and warm and my clothes will dry by the morning. Or maybe, my own body heat won’t be enough to survive the night.
And then his voice crashes into my thoughts, reminding me of something quite odd: I’m not alone — anymore.
I’m not aloneanymore.
