Page 64 of The Hollowed

“Stop it,” Myra interrupted before he could ramble on. “That’s none of their business.” Her glare lasted only a second before it softened, pulling another ripple of laughter out of all of them.

“Everyone just get some sleep. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us,” Myra ordered, and for once Alex didn’t feel the urge to argue.

For the first time in days, he let himself relax. He leaned back, tightened his grip around Luci, and held her close. The chaos, blood, and fear all blurred as he let himself believe they were safe. Then, he finally allowed his eyes to slip shut, and he surrendered to sleep.

Chapter 28

Lucilla

They’d taken turns driving, allowing the others to drift in and out of uneasy sleep as the road stretched ahead of them. When it was finally Luci’s turn behind the wheel, the others had collapsed into one another in the back. Alex’s arm draped protectively around Luna, and Cipher slumped beside Jace, whose head leaned against the window.

Myra hadn’t slept all night. Luci had told her she could and even insisted on it, but instead of resting, Myra sat alert in the passenger seat, scanning the road signs like sleep was a luxury she couldn’t afford.

Luci’s knuckles tightened on the steering wheel as she squinted through the morning sun. She didn’t know or trust these roads. One wrong turn could ruin their plan.

“I wanted to thank you,” Luci said, her voice barely above a whisper

Myra turned to her, but said nothing.

“For coming back for us,” Luci continued, stealing a glance at her before her eyes returned to the road. “And…I need to apologize for leaving you behind. I really thought you were dead. If I’d known,” her voice caught as guilt pressed against her ribs. “We wouldn’t have left without you.”

There was a second of silence between them before Myraquietly asked, “What happened to the others?”

Luci’s jaw clenched as the memory pulled at her like barbed wire against her skin. “Paxton and Sable didn’t make it up the stairs,” she explained. “They held them off so I could get through. I didn’t see what happened after that.”

She didn’t mention the shot, how Paxton’s scream had lodged itself in her mind and stayed there.

“And Grayson was bitten,” she continued. “I tried to help him. I thought maybe I could stop it, but the infection was already in his bloodstream.”

“Fuck,” Myra said softly.

Luci didn’t look at her. She couldn’t because if she did, she knew she might break.

The road ahead blurred for just a second before Luci blinked away the tears forming in her eyes.

“Well, I accept your apology,” Myra said. “And maybe it was all supposed to happen this way.”

Luci’s brow furrowed with a touch of confusion.

“If I hadn’t gone back to the hospital,” Myra continued, “I wouldn’t have known about Jace being pulled from the transplant list.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “And we wouldn’t have known you and Alex were in danger,” she added. “Doc never would’ve told me to come for you if I hadn’t gone back.”

Luci didn’t know what to say to that so she just nodded, feeling a small, aching kind of peace bloom in her chest.

Maybe Myra was right. Maybe fate had always been a little cruel, but sometimes it was just cruel enough to push them in the right direction.

“I just…” Luci started. “I just hope this place is really safe, that they can actually help Jace.”

“Yeah,” Myra sighed. “Me too.”

Luci turned to glance at her, and Myra offered a small, tired smile.

“But don’t worry,” she added. “If it’s not, we’ll find a way out of there. We always do.”

A few hours passed in relative silence before Jace stretched and rubbed his eyes. Luna’s head lifted from Alex’s lap, and Cipher sat up straighter in his seat. Luci had gotten them off the highway and was now guiding the minivan through an eerily quiet city filled with sun bleached trees and narrow roads.

That was when the first painted sign appeared.

It had been hammered into a post just off the road and bore words painted in bright, uneven strokes.