The shuttle swerved under the pull of the Reeks as they climbed up after the kids.

  Logan swore and caught the control quickly, pulling the shuttle back level. “I can’t hold here much longer,” he yelled.

  “Come on, come on,” I muttered, watching the girl climb.

  The boy below her was holding on by one hand now, his screams could be heard over the sound of the shuttle as they yanked on him.

  Then, he was gone.

  The Reeks ripped him from the rope. But they weren’t done.

  One of the Reeks began climbing the rope, another following, and they crawled over each other like a menacing chain of blackness. They were inhumanly fast, unusually quick compared to the girl. She had just passed the tree line but was still only half way.

  She glanced down at the Reeks below and her eyes widened.

  “Don’t look down,” Em screamed. “Focus on me. Look at me. Climb!”

  The girl listened, but I could already see she wouldn’t be fast enough.

  The shuttle dove again, shifting with the weight of the Reeks. I gripped onto Em’s leg just in time before she went flying out of the shuttle door. Leanna grabbed the other leg, and we pulled her back inside.

  Despite nearly plummeting to her death, Em moved back to where the rope was still secured to the shuttle and looked over the edge. The Reeks were now closer to the girl than she was to us. She wouldn’t make it.

  “I can’t hold on any longer,” Logan screamed, his muscles tense as he fought against the pull of the Reeks heavy on the rope. “They’re going to drag us down!”

  “Em,” I yelled, but she kept looking at the girl.

  “Please,” the girl cried, knowing she wasn’t going to make it. “Please.”

  “Em.”

  “Please!” I heard again.

  “Do it now!” I ordered, and Em snapped her gaze to me only for a moment before she pulled out the blade on her hip and sliced it clean through the rope, severing it from the shuttle.

  I heard the gasp. Saw the silent scream as the girl began falling back to earth, her arms clawing out towards us, as if trying to catch the air to stop her fall. I closed my eyes before she hit the ground, and the Reeks covered her body before I’d opened them.

  “I’m sorry.” I placed a hand on Em’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off as she continued gazing down into the forest. The Reeks flooded it.

  “We’ve got company coming.” Simon tore my attention away. In the distance, shuttles moved fast towards us, dispatched from wherever they hid just outside of the Void to check on the explosion from the mountain. “We have to go.”

  I nodded my agreement, and Logan steered the shuttle away, moving higher and away from the incoming shuttles.

  Behind me, Em sat on the floor, the shuttle door still open, and the wind blowing her white-blonde hair around her face in a flurry. Her gold, bright eyes were dim against the sorrow and weight in her shoulders.

  I closed the shuttle door, sitting down beside her and gripping her hand.

  We didn’t say anything, didn’t voice what we both thought or felt. She squeezed my hand, and I squeezed it back, closing my eyes in hopes I could wipe away the image, but I couldn’t.

  Those things were worse than I could ever imagine. Thousands of them ran into the forest, and even if Caspian was still alive, we had no way to save him from that.

  SIENNA

  I couldn’t move. The weight felt nearly unbearable, but something within the white fur-lined clothing Tynan had given me kept the full mass of the mountain I was trapped under from crushing me completely. The hood over my head, reinforced with some sort of metal, had stopped rocks from crushing my skull, and there was the smallest bit of space by my face allowing me to take shallow breaths.

  One arm was tucked awkwardly underneath me, the other tight by my face. I wiggled my pinky, which sent a shockwave of pain down my arm and through to my back. That arm was possibly dislocated, maybe broken.

  The leg pinned under my body was definitely broken, I was sure of it. I could feel every inch of the pain radiating down my leg and into my foot.

  It was too dark to see anything, and I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious. Judging by the ringing still in my ears, it hadn’t been long, but from where I was under the collapsed mountain, I couldn’t see daylight, and I couldn’t hear anything but my muffled breathing.

  It would be useless to scream. It’d use up what little bit of air I had left, and if I couldn’t hear anything, no one would hear me.

  Maybe shock had set in because I wasn’t afraid. My breathing was calm and slow, my heart rate steadying out. There was nothing I could do but wait and pray to the stars someone found me or my death came soon.

  I didn’t know if Gunner had gotten to Theo in time. I had no way to know if the explosion had done its job and closed off the tunnel leading under the mountain, or if it had taken down the entire mountain and everyone with it.

  If Gunner hadn’t made it, I hoped Theo had died quickly and without pain. It was the most we could hope for at this point. Suffering and pain, as I felt now, was much worse than a quick death. I was glad for the clothing keeping me alive, but it was a cruel thing if I was only meant to live long enough to die slowly.

  I took a few deep breaths, in through my nose, out through my mouth, and I waited. It could have been hours. It could have been minutes. And it all could have been a dream, but I swore I heard voices and the sound of rocks moving in the distance.

  My heart rate sped up, and I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my throat.

  “Here,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and strained. “I’m here.”

  They wouldn’t hear me. I could hardly hear myself.

  I tried to move again, and every bone in my body shrieked in protest. My breathing was no longer calm; it was ragged and fast. Too fast.

  Stars flickered in my vision. No. Not stars, firelight. A tiny crack of light shone through the seam of two rocks just by my face, but my heart rate continued to climb, and I knew I was going to faint.

  The last thing I heard before everything went dark was, “Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.”

  I wasn’t dead. But the pain had me almost begging for death.

  “Her pulse is weak,” a voice beside my face said. I recognized the voice, but the tone was different. The usual sarcasm and teasing Gunner personified was gone.

  I groaned.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered and I stilled.

  They had up to my shoulders free and were now working on the rocks covering the rest of my body. Through blurred vision, I could make out three more men tossing large rocks aside like they were pebbles.

  “You’re… alive?” I managed.

  “No, I’m dead. You’re talking to a ghost.” Gunner’s sarcasm returned. “Just shut up and save your energy.”

  “Theo?”

  “He’s fine…” was Gunner’s reply before he shushed me again.

  They pulled a large rock off my back, and I greedily gulped in air as my lungs finally expanded, allowing me to breathe a bit easier. But then they began working on the boulder crushing my leg. I stifled a scream as it shifted, and a wave of nausea shook through me.

  “Shit,” Gunner mumbled. “Definitely broken.”

  I nodded.

  “We’ve got to get the rock off of you. It’s gonna hurt like hell, but we’ll be as quick as we can,” Gunner said.

  “Just… do it,” I said through clenched teeth.

  The boulder shifted again, and I sucked in a sharp breath. I didn’t see if they got my leg free before I fainted once again.

  Light shone on my face. Fire light. We were back at the Guardians’ camp, and I was lying on a table near the roaring fire. Silhouettes moved around the red and orange flames. Someone touched my leg and I winced.

  “Can you fix it?” a gruff voice asked.

  “I will do my best, but I can’t mend bones,” a terse female voice sounded at my side. Her hands were gentle as she moved around my leg. One quick glance down told me the bones below my knee had been snapped in two.

  “I thought you were a healer?” came the rough voice again.

  “Not that kind of healer,” the girl snapped. Her hazel-green eyes glared. “I don’t have those gifts. I’m not like Ava.”

  What I wouldn’t give to feel the cool healing powers of Ava once again. To not feel this staggering pain that with every touch nearly sent me over the edge.

  “Just do what you can.”

  I finally recognized the voice or my heart did, anyways. It had always skittered a few extra beats at the sound of Theo’s deep voice.

  I stretched an arm out to where the sound was, and a hand gripped mine immediately.

  “Sienna?” he asked, leaning over me, so his face came into view. “How do you… feel?”

  “Like shit,” I said.

  “You look like it, too,” Gunner said from behind him. He smirked over Theo’s shoulder.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Scouts got a bit antsy and set off the charges too early. You were still in the tunnel when it collapsed,” Gunner said, his tone no longer pleasant.

  “How did you—”

  “I didn’t,” Gunner replied before I finished asking. “One of the Guardians pulled him out before the whole place imploded.”

  I glanced back to Theo, whose thumb was gently circling the soft spot between my thumb and wrist. A faint purple bruise spread around his wrists where they had chained his hands apart. His face was grim, but unmarked.

  “I’m fine,” Theo said, and I released the breath I’d been holding while I surveyed him.

  “I’m fine, too, thanks for asking,” Gunner snapped, and Theo just rolled his eyes.

  “Thank you,” I said, turning back to Gunner, who tensed.

  He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “Don’t mention it,” he said. “You would have done the same for me.”

  I gave a thin smile. I would have.

  “What happened to…” My words felt heavy, and each syllable was slow and tired.

  “You should rest,” Theo soothed, as he pushed a strand of hair from my face.

  “I want to know,” I said a bit firmer.

  Theo went to argue, but Gunner answered for me. “Dead. All of them, either crushed under the mountain rocks or taken out by the Reeks.” My eyes flashed to his. “The explosion was a bit… larger than expected. Half the northern slope of the mountain is gone, and with it… a gaping hole into Venzier.”

  That had not been the plan, not what we intended. The Reeks, they had been trapped in Venzier, thousands of them for years. Now…

  Gunner gave a grim nod. “There are too many for us to even attempt to contain. The Guardians have sealed and reinforced any path leading out of here… nothing can get in.”

  “But our trackers,” I said.

  “We’ll be removing them, once my sister creates a tonic from the herbs in our garden to ensure you don’t die before we get it out,” a soft female voice sounded at the end of the table I lay on. I’d forgotten about the healer still tending to my leg. “We’re too deep under the mountain for the signal to work, so we should be able to remove it without setting it off, but we want to take precautions first.”

  I glanced back to Gunner who raised his hands. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t know they could remove them!”

  I let out a long sigh.

  “You should really rest,” Theo said, his voice quiet, but stern.

  My eyes met his, and he knew the question written across my face before I said anything.

  “We can’t go find her. We can’t even leave this place. I’m not sure anyone could survive the amount of Reeks we let loose…” His head dropped. “I’m sorry.”

  I squeezed his hand as tears slid down the side of my face. I could feel the shame and guilt in his voice. He had brought Blane’s crew to the tunnels. He’d risked doing so in hopes the Guardians would take them out before they got near, but the Reeks had gotten in the way, and the Guardians had made the decision to save their people. We’d forced their hand, and from the curt tone of the healer patching me up, they were not happy about it.

  “We’ll find a way out of here, together. We will,” I whispered, and Theo squeezed my hand back.

  It was a small comfort, having him nearby, as I closed my eyes and exhaustion took over. But as I drifted off, all I could see was Vic, in the forest alone, and a swarm of Reeks converging on her.

  CASPIAN

  I could feel the horde getting closer, moving faster. Birds scattered from trees. A heavy wind blasted overhead as a shuttle flew past, heading away from the mountain it had just flown over. I didn’t stop to wonder if the shuttle carried someone who would save us. Didn’t allow myself to hope it was an ally, even as I thought I spotted the Cytos Guards’ insignia on the bottom as it flew higher and farther away from us. I held onto Vic’s arm and sprinted harder.

  “What happened?” Vic gasped.

  I hadn’t explained anything to Vic when I’d dropped from the tree I’d climbed. I only ordered her to run. South, away from the swarm of beasts coming from the north.

  A few Reeks entered our path as we ran, and I swiftly disposed of them. The four we faced so far were almost laughable in comparison to the staggering amount of them coming behind us.

  “I don’t know,” I grimaced, leaping over a tree that’d fallen and helping Vic over its large trunk.

  We kept running.

  “Th-there’s a lot of them, isn’t there?” Vic stuttered.

  I nodded.

  The smell alone was indication more than the usual were on our tail. In the distance, the ground seemed to rumble and groan under the fast, heavy feet of the thousands of Reeks heading towards us. The occasional scream from humans being caught—killed—was the only indication of how close they were.

  When we started running, I didn’t know where we were going, only we had to get as far away from the north as we could. But now, my sight was set on the only location I thought we might stand a chance surviving in.

  “We can’t out run them forever,” Vic reminded me.

  “I know,” I said through clenched teeth, trying to reign in the panic threatening to pull us both in. There was no way out of the Void, the Reeks already hunted us through the forest, and now their numbers had doubled… tripled… exploded.

  Where have they all been hiding? I wondered. Under that mountain? Had they been trapped there? Caged? Did someone let them out on purpose, or had they somehow broken free?

  It didn’t matter how they got here, or where they once were. It didn’t change the odds of us living by knowing what had happened.

  Vic twisted to glance behind us, and I gripped her hand tighter. She let out a gasp, and I didn’t dare look back with her.

  “We won’t make it much farther, Cas. We need to hide or climb,” Vic said, stumbling on the uneven forest floor.

  “Almost there,” I said.

  “Where are we going?” Vic asked, and I was ready to scold her for so many questions until I realized she might have been speaking to keep the fear from taking over.

  “The base Dr. Merinda sees me at.”

  I could feel the questions wanting to spill from her, but she just asked one. “How?”

  “I’m hoping someone is watching, tracking what’s going on, and gives us a hand,” I said, twisting us to the left now towards the small hatch hidden under the shrubs I prayed was unlocked.

  It was a calculated risk. I knew every Camp near this base, had been to each one of them, and I knew we wouldn’t make it to any of them at this pace. The Reeks were too fast, too close. I just hoped Dr. Merinda needed my information just as much as I needed their help now.

  We swung around another tree, and I released Vic’s hand, crouching down by the hatch.

  I pulled on it.

  Locked. It didn’t budge.

  I grimaced and tried again.

  “Cas,” Vic muttered, voice urgent.

  I could feel them, too, knew we had seconds before they arrived.

  I swore under my breath, pounding on the door and pulling it again.

  “Cas!” Vic’s voice rose, and I glanced up for only a second. The Reeks were in view now. A wave of darkness, like a black shadow slowly covering the sunlight.

  I pulled at the hatch, muttering under my breath.

  I stumbled back as the hatch suddenly unlocked and swung open. Vic didn’t wait for me to say a word as she jumped down the hatch, wincing when her knees smashed to the ground.

  I was right behind her, pulling the hatch shut behind me before falling to the ground and heaving for breath. Above us a rumble sounded, and the ground shook all around us.

  The small, cramped space was dark for a moment before I put my arm through the glowing red circle at the back, and it turned green, and the fluorescent lights burned my eyes.

  Vic slunk back against the wall. Above us the footsteps sounded heavy overhead, and dust sprinkled from the roof.

  I waited to see Dr. Merinda but she didn’t show. The person standing before me was still familiar, though.

  “Like the flare of dramatics?” Dr. Allard said.

  “You sure took your time letting us in,” I snarled, still gasping to catch my breath.

  “You’re lucky I was able to hack the codes to begin with.” Dr. Allard shrugged.

  “Hack them?” I asked, finally pulling myself to my feet. A tight, sharp pain stung my side. I took a deep breath, and it eased a little.

  “You think they would allow me to save you if I’d asked? Whatever’s happening out there is not our problem; it’s just our mess to clean up. Inconvenient and irksome, but your issue, not ours. I only opened that hatch out of curiosity,” Dr. Allard drawled. “I’m curious who blew up the mountain and released those things on everyone in the Void. I knew competition was fierce out there, but that’s just downright stupid.”

  Explosion. I tucked that bit of information away as I replied, “I know about as much as you do.”

  “Pity,” Dr. Allard said. “I saved you for nothing.” He turned his back, and the Linked image looked ready to disappear with him.