“We’re here now.” Rogue met my eyes. “No going back.”
“No going back.” They echoed the words. We stacked our hands on top of each other, sealing the silent vow.
I climbed the ladder first. I’d measured each foothold for my friends’ heights. Even Desta could reach them comfortably. The rungs held steady under my weight as I ascended, rung by rung, until I reached the extraction point. Coldiron framed the portal hole. I’d persuaded it to glamour the opening, blending it with the surroundings until it was nearly invisible.
This sentient metal was a miracle.
Miracle!Coldiron whispered, awed.Miracle! Miracle!
I pushed the cover aside and peered out. Dark sky, heavy clouds. Perfect.
I pulled my friends out one by one until we all crouched on the surface, drawing fresh air into lungs that had known only mine dust for hours. Not that the air here was much better. Nuclear bombs had damaged the atmosphere, then the Quantum Bomb finished the job.
Humans were amazingly talented atdestruction.
My friends stared past me at the fences and military outposts behind us, grinning.
“At least we’re on the surface.” Rogue smiled at me like I’d hung the moon.
“Shh.” I held up a hand, looking toward the watch tower powered by Stormglass, the arcane metal we dug with our labor, blood, and tears. With my superior sight, I could make out two guards playing cards, their bows leaning carelessly against the table leg.
I gestured. We crouched low and edged away from the mine, moving as quietly as possible across the rocky ground under the heavy sky.
We walked for half a day before we hit the swamp. That’s when the mutants came.
We’d known about the danger ahead, but it had been theoretical. When we actually faced a horde of monsters, the byproducts of the Rupture, we were no match. None of us were.
I should never have brought them.
Dreamers had no place in this world.
The mutants came in waves—twisted things that had once been human, animal, or something in between, yellow eyes glowing in the dark. Shrieks filled the air.
We fought. Gods, we fought.
Desta ran first. Kaid screamed for her, then went after her. They vanished into the darkness while Rogue and I held the line, until we couldn’t anymore. We spent a day and a half searching for them.
The mutants hunted us down instead.
“It’s better to die free than live as a slave.” Rogue smiled even as a greenish spider-thing seized him,mandibles clicking. Always looking at the brighter side. “If I don’t make it…you live for me, Max. Live for all of us.”
He knew. I saw it in his eyes.
I roared and fought toward him, hacking with my Coldiron-infused dagger, but too many mutants swarmed between us.
I couldn’t reach him. Couldn’t save him.
Rogue died without knowing I was a girl. I’d planned to tell them when we were safe.
That day never came.
I ran until I couldn’t, my lungs burning, my vision blurring.
Then I thought I saw trees. Only they weren’t trees.
They brought me to their fortress.
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