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Luka huffs out a laugh. “Not at all, my friend.”
I walk down the stairs, not really wanting to talk to Luka anymore. This isn’t making me feel better; if anything, it has me more convinced that Aisling is in deep danger, that we all are. Luka follows me anyway, though, taking out a pack of cigarettes as we cross through the front door. I start to walk away, but he raises his voice.
“Hey, Finch.”
I turn around; he normally doesn’t call me by my name, preferring ‘Newbie.’
“Yeah?”
“The offer still stands,” he says.
I cross my arms, watching as he calmly lights up a cigarette and brings it to his face. The coal burns red, shining in his eyes, making him look like some kind of fucking viking god.
“Weird way of saying you want to fuck my girl,” I mutter.
He shrugs. “Shit’s gonna come down on the three of you hard,” he says. “Might be good to have more folks in your corner.”
“And you would give up the Angels for that?”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “It’s not gonna be like that.”
“You know something I don’t?”
“Nah,” he says. “Just a feeling.”
Maybe he’s just reading the writing on the wall…maybe he’s psychic after all, or maybe he’s keeping secrets. Whatever the case, his words leave me shaken—and I can’t take it anymore.
“I’ll see you around, Luka,” I mutter.
“See ya, Finch.”
I leave him behind, smoking a cigarette in the drizzling rain outside of an old, rundown church. Luka’s always had my back…and I don’t think that’s changed.
But the walls are closing in.
And it’s only a matter of time before judgement day.
Chapter nine
Aisling
The train rumbles beneath us, the echo of its journey bouncing off the hollow walls of the underground. I press closer to Oberon, the warmth of his body a stark contrast to the chill in the air. I’m looking for something…for comfort in this awful world, maybe. I don’t fight it, no matter how warm and safe he is.
Because this world is awful.
Our talk with Roman, seeing Cassie like that…it threw me off. I’ve known what my task is this whole time—to save the girls I was trapped with, to get the hell out of Pacific City—but this is bigger than me, isn’t it?
Bigger than me—bigger than Gunnar, Oberon, Lark, Ruby…
There are thousands, maybe millions of omegas just like me, trapped in the hellscape of Echo Beach. I need to help them all, not just the people I know.
My gaze flits across the array of TV screens lining the subway cars, each one flickering with the relentless pulse of commercials and public service announcements. On one of the holographic screens is a commercial for some kind of new medicine—contained in a bottle with a branching tree plastered on it. I cock my head, the tree sparking a memory of what we saw in the ruins of Dreamland…and something more.
“Look at that,” I nod subtly toward an ad that washes over us in a wave of soft, ambient light. “It’s that symbol again.”
Oberon shudders slightly, holding me closer. “You think it’s connected to the people making this shit?”
“Could be the cult Luka mentioned.” I watch the screen intently, trying to pick up on any hidden message that might be woven into the graphics. “Fuck…and if they’re out there distributing it like medicine…”
