Page 119 of Guiding Desire

ThenightmarepulledOrreyback to Argentea, but the city wasn’t like he’d left her. Buildings were cracked, bruised by time, façades crumbling. Worst of all, the forest had come to the city, dark trees towering over houses and choking streets with their trunks, rendering the sidewalks a hazard with sprawling, ankle-snagging roots.

Orrey turned, but it was the same everywhere he looked. He tried calling out for Senlas, but his voice didn’t come out clearly. He spun, having heard a scraping sound, like the creaking of Vin’s floorboards and rocks being shattered.

Nothing, he didn’t see anything but those trees. When he turned back again, the trees had approached, though in doing so, they had also revealed the building outside of which Orrey was standing: Senlas’s apartment building. Home.

I have to wake up,he thought but never had a chance to pull himself out of the dream.

He was being shaken awake. He blinked, eyes crusted with sleep. Sunlight was all around them. When Orrey’s eyes focused, it still took him a moment to recognize Col with his ruffled hair and a straight cut on the side of his face.

Orrey didn’t understand. Then he remembered.

“Fuck,” he said, coughed. Then rubbed his eyes. It wasn’t sleep clinging to them but dirt.

“You’re fine. Thank fuck. You just moved your legs.”

“Huh?”

There was a noise, and the world shook.

Col grabbed Orrey’s arm. “They have a tectonist, but I don’t see shit from here. We need to get out of this vehicle, find cover, take down anyone and everyone who wasn’t part of our convoy.”

“The convoy…Senlas!”

Orrey sat up, finally realizing where he was: the roof of the vehicle. It had flipped over. The seat belt hung above him, cut to get him free. Next to him was his screen, cracked as if someone had taken a hammer to it, colors pitifully flickering over the shards.

“He’ll try getting to us. I saw rocks fly through the air, so he’s still around. And hitting stuff. Both good.”

Orrey scrambled until he was squatting next to Col. “How do we get out of the vehicle?”

Col reached for the door handle. Amazingly, only the windshield showed cracks while all the other windows were still intact. The door opened, though Col had to lean his weight against it.

“Do you remember that you have a gun and how to shoot it?” Col asked.

“Yeah. You too?”

“Oh yes. The shelter is a run, that way.” He pointed to their right. “I think the earth split between here and there. Some cracks we should be able to climb but be careful. If the tectonist sees you, they can just as well make the earth swallow you up without a trace.”

“Awesome.”

“So don’t get seen is what I’m saying.”

“Got it. Don’t get seen. Shoot them if you see them.”

Col nodded. “I go first, you follow me. Stay low.”

“Understood.”

Col pushed the vehicle’s door open wider. They scrambled forward, the muscles in Orrey’s legs protesting at first. Then nothing mattered. There was just noise and movement, the earth shaking.

They were low, like a hole in the ground as deep as their vehicle was tall, or had been. On the right, where they were running, where the shelter was, Orrey saw a hand, an arm, hanging over the lip of the ground above them, unmoving. He remembered the woman going down and wondered if this was her or someone else, if this was Taros or Vin or Karmine or—a rock flew past, just above that arm, like hope.

Remember what you do to wake up. You take stock. Take stock.“If Senlas is shooting rocks that way, then he’s seen attackers there.” He pointed.

“To the shelter first, then we’ll have a fucking discussion,” Col hissed.

Later, Orrey couldn’t really piece together whether he followed Col for a few more meters or said anything to disagree. It all blurred.

He ran toward danger, ran left where his Guardian had aimed that rock. The thought he had as he did so, as Col shouted at him to stop, that he wouldn’t forget:Remember your promise. Take care of my parents if anything happens.