Page 115 of The Last Sanctuary

Chapter Fifty

Three days later, they came across the first living people they’d seen in a week.

It was mid-afternoon. The sun shone high in the cobalt blue sky that revealed itself in patches above the tangles of branches overhead. The air was full of the usual forest noises, the sigh of the breeze, the thrum of insects, the rustle and scurry of squirrels and chipmunks, and other small creatures.

A child’s voice rang out. Startled, Raven stiffened. She leaped from the hoverboard she’d been riding along the overgrown trail she’d come across yesterday morning, and had been following north ever since.

She seized the hoverboard, darted off the trail, and pushed into a thicket of underbrush. Crouching, she clutched the board to her chest and held her breath.

Shadow’s hackles raised along his spine. Silently, he vanished into the trees and disappeared. She knew he wouldn’t venture far. He’d be lurking nearby, alert and watchful. If she needed him, he’d make his presence known.

Raven remained hidden, straining her ears as the noises grew louder. Three figures appeared around a bend in the trail.Stomping loud as a herd of elephants. She peeked around the edge of the trunk.

A young woman and a guy her age walked side by side, heading north toward Raven’s hidden position. A younger boy straggled after them.

The two older people looked about Raven’s age. The girl was Filipina, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Short and plump, with shiny black hair that fell to her shoulders and choppy bangs.

The younger boy looked about eight, also Filipino, and likely the girl’s brother. His thicket of unruly dark hair fell into his black eyes.

The guy looked about twenty. He was tall and big, with warm brown skin, broad shoulders, a barrel chest, and tree-trunk arms and thighs. He looked intimidating as hell. Until he smiled at the boy, and his brown eyes crinkled affectionately. His smile seemed kind.

Like Raven, they carried packs and rifles and looked like they’d been on the road for a while. Their clothes were wrinkled, their hair matted, their eyes circled with dark shadows of fatigue.

She noted the sleek handgun holstered at the girl’s hip. The girl held the boy’s hand, but he was giggling and trying to escape, to pull free from her grasp.

“Benjie!” she admonished in exasperation. “You think I’m letting go of you for even a second? You have to stay right with me so I can keep you safe.”

“I can take care of myself, Willow,” the boy muttered.

“Like hell you can,” the sister said. “What do you need to remember?”

“Stay together, stay safe,” the boy repeated, his face solemn.

“Do not forget that. We stick together. We take care of each other. Got it?”

“Got it,” the kid muttered, rolling his eyes.

“I mean it,” the girl—Willow—said.

“I said I got it!” The boy half-turned, his eyes narrowed as he gazed back along the trail. His gaze seemed to come to rest on Raven for a moment.

Her heart stopped in her chest. Then his gaze darted past her as his sister tugged his hand, and they kept walking.

It was then that she saw it, clutched tight in the boy’s left hand—a small, rough wooden object in the shape of a bird with outstretched wings. One of Raven’s own carvings.

This boy had found one somewhere. He’d kept it, held it close, perhaps treasured it the way she’d hoped someone would.

Her heart thudded against her ribs. Was it a sign? Should she show herself to them?

Still, Raven didn’t move. The strangers trudged past Raven’s hiding spot. The older guy made a joke, and the boy laughed. It was a high, sweet, beautiful sound that made her chest ache with loneliness.

Raven watched them go until they’d passed out of sight, until she couldn’t see the wood carving held tight in the little boy’s hand.

These people seemed so normal. Regular people, just like her. Did that make them safe? Or even more dangerous?

She remembered her mother’s last letter. The letter she’d read while sitting on the tiger house roof, on her birthday, while Vlad lounged lazily below her feet. A lifetime ago. An entire world ago.Find good people. Don’t be alone.

It was a risk. People were a risk. Trust in anyone but yourself was a risk.