Page 83

MARA

H ounds…bloody hellhounds were near. “Javi, we gotta get outta here. We gotta get out of here now —”

“I know,” he snapped at me, popping off another round, cursing under his breath. He flattened his back against the car once more, breath harsh and ragged. “We’re all dead once those hounds reach us.”

“Mara!” I swept my gaze across the street to my mom. She was crouched, her back against the trunk of the car as she watched me. “Get to the palace!” she shouted. “You and Javi get to your dad. I’ll cover you.”

My heart danced to a reckless tempo as I looked back at my cousin. He shook his head. “I can’t leave her, prima. I can’t leave Lin.”

“But, Javi—”

He gripped my shoulders then, silencing me.

Eyes wild and sincere, my cousin spoke from a place of conviction and desperation.

“Lo puedes hacer, primita. You can do this. You can convince Tío to stop all of this. I know you can. But I can’t leave Lin.

She didn’t leave me when she had the chance, and I refuse to leave her, understand? ”

My throat stung with unshed tears. Damn it, this was so messed up.

“You and your mom go. I’ll cover you, and then I’ll figure out how to get Liddy, but there isn’t enough time…not with hounds on the way.”

He pulled me into a hug then, so hard and fierce, it felt like more than just an act of affection. It felt like a—

“Goodbye, primita. Te quiero,” he said before translating, “I love you.” He pulled back, just enough to bore into my eyes. “Believe in yourself, cousin. Go fly.”

I shook my head. He couldn’t be doing this to me. We could do this. There was a way to save all of us. I had only just found him again…I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. “Javi—”

“Go!” he yelled at me, pushing me back. “ ?Vete! ”

“Javi!” I screamed, just as he ran out from behind the car towards Lin, firing several shots.

Gunfire rang out like a crescendo of fireworks, loud and heart-stopping.

“Javier!” my mother screamed, and then she too was running out into the street, trying to provide him cover. I fired off several rounds as I raced out to Nora’s side, taking down three Enforcement officers, but it didn’t matter in the end.

Javier yelled as he got to Lin, but not before he took several shots, halting him mid-step. He dropped to his knees, hands falling to his sides, gun slipping from his hand and clattering against the asphalt.

“Javi!” I screamed, launching myself toward him. An arm snaked around me then, encircling my waist, pulling me back. “Let go!” I shrieked at Nora.

Another shot rang out, and I saw Javier’s body jerk back as it took the hit. No, no, no, no! Please , no! I can’t lose someone else. I can’t lose Javi too! My cousin swayed for a moment before he fell to his side, lying next to Lin.

Several mournful howls called out into the night, followed by the bone-chilling cries of a pack way too close for comfort. They had caught the scent of blood.

Tears spilled over then as sobs racked my chest. “ Javi! ” I cried. My mother was talking to me, her words sounding distant and far as she pulled me away, hauling me backward from where Liddy and Javier lay.

Not Javier…not my cousin. I couldn’t do this. I didn’t want to do this anymore. How much more was I expected to lose?

BANG!

Another shot rang out, striking a parked car to the side of us.

“Mara!” my mother screamed at me, and then she was dragging me into the dark, hauling me like I was a little girl needing discipline. More howls called out into the night, and the Enforcement officers seemed to frighten, scattering into the darkness.

Hope shined like a beacon.

“We’ve got to go back,” I screamed. Several yips and yaps responded. “We’ve gotta go back!”

“ No ,” my mother yelled, yanking me along and turning a bend. In the distance, the Presidential Palace glowed, bright against the pitch black.

“But Mom,” I protested, “maybe they’re alive!”

My mother whipped me around to face her, taking my face into her hands. “Those hounds are near, Mara, and we have a job to do. If we don’t make it to the palace in time, everything will be lost, and it will all be for nothing.”

I blinked, tears still streaming down my face as I tried to shake my head. “Please, Mom…don’t make me leave him behind.”

“Life is the price we pay for freedom, Mara. The lives of those who fight to defend it pay that price for us.” I shook my head, pressing my lips together.

“Your cousin was a good man,”—I flinched at her words, recoiling as she referenced Javi in the past—“and Lin was an exceptional woman. They both fought to defend the Telvian people’s right to freedom…

their right to live . Don’t let their sacrifice be a waste. ”

The pressure clamped down in my chest, making it almost unbearable to breathe as my entire face crumpled into sorrow.

Nora took me into her arms then, wrapping them around like a vice, kissing my crown, and then making cooing sounds to quiet my tears.

And I let her. I let my mother do what a mother has never done for me before—I allowed her to comfort me.

“I know this is hard. I know all of this has been extremely hard. But we mustn’t give up now.

We’re too close and have lost too many to give up now.

” She pulled back, looking into my eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Mara. So sorry for everything you’ve had to endure, for everything you’ve lost and suffered.

But you’re strong”—she gave a weak smile—“so much more like me than I ever thought possible. And you can do this. We can both do this.”

Brows furrowed, I tipped my chin to my chest, feeling my anguish curl into a tight little ball.

I tucked it away, burying it deep inside me, because my mother was right.

But it wasn’t about if we could do this…

we had to. We didn’t have the luxury of choices or the option to fail.

The price of that would be too great—two entire regions’ worth of lives—and that was a price too steep to pay.

I wiped away my tears as a cacophony of eerie howls broke the silence of the night. “You’re right,” I said to my mother, turning my head to see the glowing white marbles of the Presidential Palace—pristine in appearance but dripping in the blood of all those I held dear. “Let’s finish it.”