Page 189

Something is lit behind me, and I close my eyes as it’s tossed inside the pit, illuminating exactly what I was dreading seeing. I hear the swears behind me, and even some whispered prayers as we stand and stare.

The room is pretty big, probably an old storage room, if the shelves pushed against the back are anything to go by. That’s the only furniture though—no light, no bed, no blanket. Just four solid cement walls and the floor. Dark and cold.

And filled with blood-covered, naked corpses. Some even have missing limbs.

One closest to the door is turned my way, and her face is completely smashed in. It’s so bad, I spot her brain escaping. Flies buzz, and my stomach rolls as I run my eyes over them all.

There has to be over a hundred, and when I spot the two small children at the back, tears fill my eyes.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Lochlan dry heaves. “I swear, I never knew,” he cries. “I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know!” He stumbles back as I look at him. “I worked outside on protection. They didn’t let me—” He shakes his head as he falls to the floor and grabs his head, muttering to himself.

“Get him outta here,” I bark, my voice rough with anger and grief, and then I look back into the room. I hear the others leading him out as I step into the space. I have to check if any of them are alive, even as much as I don’t want to go in there. I would never forgive myself for not making sure.

I have to close my eyes when they clash with that of a girl no older than ten or eleven. Her face is bloodied so badly, all I can see are her piercing blue eyes, open and empty. Her little body is broken. I have seen so much violence and death in my life, so much senseless pain and torture.

And this is why I’m fighting now, this is the fucking reason why I’m making a new North. So tragedies like this never happen. So that girls can be safe. So that people like Clarissa never end up dumped and forgotten in a pit of death.

It only hammers home how important this change is.

Crouching down, I press my fingers to a neck, and when all I feel is ice-cold skin, I move on.

I make sure to check as many as I can, trying not to think too much about the limbs I have to move to get to them.

By the time I’ve reached the other end of the room, I feel filthy, like I will never be clean again.

Standing in the mass of bodies, my heart aches for the senseless loss.

I’ve killed a lot in my life, mainly to survive, and other times it was a job, but it was always a necessity.

I didn’t hate it. In fact, I liked it. I’m good at it.

But I never killed for fun, for the pleasure of death.

The fact that these poor women and kids had to die at a sick man’s will, their hearts broken, their hope gone…

to think they thought no one cared, it pisses me off.

I’ve been there, and that lack of hope is what kills you faster than a blade. Right now, staring around, I have all the motivation I need to see The Nations through. I will kill every single flesh trader myself if I have to.

No more fucking senseless death.

No woman will ever be hopeless. They will know I will always come for them, always protect them, always avenge them.

“Baby girl?” Thorn calls, and I look up to see him and Jax at the door. I take one look at him and have to turn away.

But then they are there, both of them. Their arms wrap around me, offering me their strength. “I couldn’t save them,” I whisper.

“I know—”

“I couldn’t fucking save them!” I yell, smashing my fists into his chest before pressing my head there.

“Baby girl, you can’t save everyone, but you sure as shit are trying. Stop being so hard on yourself. Think of all the lives you have saved here today by stopping them. Think of all the lives you will save in the future,” he whispers, as Jax kisses my shoulder and holds me.

“Maxen, Drax, and Dray are making the others pay. Want to see? Might make you feel better,” Jax murmurs.

“Others?” I echo.

“They found more men holed up in the basement. They went there when the shooting started and set up traps. We lost a man, but we got them,” he informs me.

Sucking in a deep breath, I step from between them and slick back my hair. “Yeah, let’s go,” I state, trying to stay calm when my heart is filled with such hate.

Thorn leans in and kisses my forehead. “There’s our fucking queen. Head up, baby girl. Just a little longer, and when we are back and you are in our arms, you can break.”

I let them lead me from the room with the intent to come back later and sort the bodies. For now, I want to see what my other men are up to, and hopefully, it involves blood and pain. With the way I am feeling right now…I need both.

I find them in the main area of the plant.

There are five men on their knees, with my men in front of them.

Dray is circling them, running his knife along their faces.

Drax is perched on a crate, aiming at them with a teasing grin.

Maxen is standing before them like an avenging god with his arms crossed as he stares them down.

Lochlan is muttering as he paces back and forth. I keep my eye on him as I step up next to Maxen and look the men over. They are all glaring, all pissed as hell, yet I see some fear in their eyes. They know what we are capable of, and they know they are next.

“Who knew about the bodies in the back room?” I ask.

No one answers, so I turn, and with a wink at Drax, I grab his crossbow and take aim.

“Who knew?” I repeat through my teeth.

Their eyes dart to the man on the left, and without a word, I fire. The bolt embeds in his eye as he falls backwards. The others yell and try to get up, but my men stop them as I turn and hand the crossbow back to Drax, who licks his lips. “That was so fucking hot, babe.”

“You knew too?” Lochlan yells, and I look back to see him pressing his blade to one of the man’s faces

I should stop him, but I don’t.

“Everyone fucking knew. If you are pretending you didn’t, traitor, then you’re an idiot.” The man laughs, spitting in his face.

We all step back, knowing what is coming from the tension in his shoulders.

Lochlan whirls and smashes his fist into the man’s face.

I watch with an evil smile as he screams and does it again and again.

When he’s done, there is nothing left of the man, just bloody pulp as Lochlan stands there panting.

His fists are covered in blood, and there are tears in his eyes.

I know guilt, I see it in him now, but only time will help him heal.

He storms away, and I look to the last two men. “Did any of you touch those women?”

Their lips clamp shut, so I wander over and crouch before them. “If you don’t answer, I am going to start cutting and won’t stop until your skin is covering the floor like a rug… Now, did you touch those women?”

The one on the right narrows his eyes. “No.”

“Liar.” I grab my blade and slice down his arm, cutting deep until the skin flaps open and hangs as he yells. Grabbing his throat, I squeeze and stop his scream. “Now tell me the truth, or your penis is next.”

He gulps against my hand as I let go. “Yes,” he hisses in pain. “We both touched them, we all did.”

Nodding, I hold the knife to his neck and look into his eyes. “Remember them as you die, as you choke on your own blood, and piss and shit your pants when you’re terrified, and we all watch you die. Remember them,” I snarl, before slitting his throat.

It sprays across my face as I punish him. I knock him back to the floor to choke and die a painful death. I look at the other man then. “Did you know their names?”

He swallows, and that is answer enough. With a snarl, I slice his throat and leave him to die as I turn and look at Lochlan. His face is drawn in guilt and anger, but there is nothing I can say that will reassure him, so I step closer and clasp his shoulder.

Just then, Jon runs into the room, face panicked. “Get out, get out now!” he screams. “The forge is exploding!”

Fuck.

I turn and start to run, and everyone follows as we sprint through the machines and to the front door.

As we race down the corridor, our boots and panicked breathing is loud.

I almost slip in some blood, but Maxen yanks me up and throws me forward.

We don’t bother going through the back entrance.

Dray throws himself into the front door, opening it.

We all burst out into the open and have to duck behind the stone wall encasing it as those left outside take fire.

The first explosion comes from behind us, and I turn to look at the building. We are trapped and need to move now, or we are all dead.

“Fuck, we left the women! We can’t leave them!

” Lochlan yells and stands. I try to yank him back down, but he turns towards the building.

He isn’t going to—fuck, he is. I throw myself on top of him, tackling him to the ground as fire whooshes over my head.

Just then, we hear the growls and yips of ferals, and I whip my head around to see those from below the plant attacking the men firing at us.

One is assaulted near us, standing on an abandoned bus.

His screams fill the air, as do the growls of the three ferals attacking him as they shake him from side to side.

Lochlan uses my distraction to drag himself from under me.

I reach for his ankle, but I’m too late.

He rushes into the building, right into the flames of the imminent explosion.

Getting to my knees, I stare after him with an open mouth, debating going in after him and dragging him out, but the earth rolls beneath us as the explosions begin from the gasses caught in the plant.

Dray throws me over his shoulder and starts to run, our people following us as we wind between ferals and assailants, killing any that get too close. When we are behind the fence, he throws us behind a sand dune, and I turn with a glare.

“What the fuck—”

“You were going to go in after him and get yourself killed, soulmate,” he snaps.

“I was—” Just then, a giant explosion bursts from the building.

Lifting my head, I watch the mushroom cloud billow into the sky before it suddenly falls, and all the debris and air fly towards us.

I bury my face in Dray’s chest, and he buries his in my shoulder.

The earth rolls and shakes. We can feel the flames from here, and rubble and dust cover us as we huddle behind the dune.

When it’s over, the world is quiet.

I lift my head hesitantly and look around. One of our men has a pipe shard through his chest. Blood runs from his mouth and his eyes are empty—dead. But all the others seem okay, apart from a few cuts and bruises, covered in sand and dirt.

Swallowing, I get to my knees and look over the dune to the plant. Or where the plant once was. All that is left is a towering inferno. I spot ferals and half burnt bodies littering the scorched ground before it. Everyone is dead, the women inside burned… Lochlan.

I spot a body not too far away, probably thrown from the blast, so ignoring my men, I stumble to my feet, slip down the sand, and land next to him, turning him onto his back.

I wince at what I find. His face is half burnt away and melting, the skin on his chest too, and one of his arms is missing.

His mouth is locked open in a scream, his teeth visible, his other eye gone and melting down his blackened face.

Half of his body is basically a skeleton.

I can see the bones underneath the melting skin.

Turning my head away, I try to control my gag.

He’s dead.

A hand lands on my shoulder, comforting me, and I lean into it. I look up at Thorn as he peers down at me with a sad expression. “You couldn’t save him, baby girl. You tried, but that man needed to face his demons, and in the end, he chose to give up his life to try and offer peace to those women.”

Standing, I lean into his side as I stare down at Lochlan. The man wasn’t a saint. He made mistakes—fuck, we all have—but he didn’t deserve to die like this. It was his choice though. And in the end, he chose to die with his guilt rather than live with it.

The fire is still burning, but we have nothing to put it out with. There is nothing for it to spread to, though, so soon enough, it will die down. “Let’s go home,” I mutter. Turning, I spot my people spread out behind me.

They are covered in blood and wounds but victorious. We came here and completed our mission. We stopped a slave trader threatening our North, our Nations. We lost lives, and as I feel the blood drying and flaking from my body, I remember why I wanted a home.

A forever.

I’m still the Champion, but I’m also a queen, and tonight has shown me there will always be enemies, but it’s not just my job to stop them anymore. My soul has enough scars and darkness, it might be time to let someone else bear the weight.

As the sun starts to rise, the brilliant rays shining across the sand, I know this is my last adventure out here. My next one involves The Ring and my men, nothing more.

It’s time to hang up my swords and become the queen they need.

To rule The Wastes for as long as I live.

Thorn’s hand twines with mine as we watch the fire burn. Even when it goes out, the fire to make this land better, to protect people, will continue in my soul. That fire will never extinguish, even when we are gone.

Our dreams and the difference we make will live on.