Page 29 (2/2)

"Ash" Natalie’s voice is just a whisper, but it’s like a siren’s call spurring my body into action

I rush down the steps and scoop her up in my arms

"Are you hurt?" I ask

"No Where’s Day?" she says

"I’m here!" Day hurries toward us Her usually immaculate black hair is matted with dust and blood, and her thin face is scratched, but otherwise she’s okay

"I need to find Beetle," I say to them "Go inside"

Natalie shakes her head "I have to ht"

All three of us push our way through the crowd, heading toward the Boundary Wall where I last saw Beetle and Sebastian

Pandemonium has broken out

People push past us as they frantically try to get away froap in the wall Everywhere I look, people are screas and fed upon Terrified Sentry guards draw their swords and start slashing wildly, striking Darklings and people alike Blood is everywhere, intoxicating, delicious Hunger roars in s I want to feed

"Ash, he’s here!" Natalie yanksunconscious on the ground, surrounded by dust and debris His face is partially burned, and shrapnel sticks out of a gory wound on his stoet shrapnel in hi!" Day says hysterically

Natalie adet paler He needs oxygen and fast

Day sobs uncontrollably "Don’t leave me, Matthias, please I love you, please"

"Ash, your blood!" Natalie says

"What?" It suddenly dawns on ht resuscitate hiht work for hi into the flesh until the blood pours freely from my veins Natalie lifts up Beetle’s shirt to reveal the open wound on his sto Beetle’s life," I reply

I hold my wrist over the wound on Beetle’s sto for the celiac artery I just pray this works We ith bated breath After what seems like an eternity but can’t be more than thirty seconds, color starts to return to Beetle’s face It’s working! I keepweak and know I should stop

All around us, people are still screa each other out of the way as another staet Beetle off the ground soon, we’re at risk of getting tra

"He’s alive!" Day says

"Natalie, thank heavens, there you are!" Sebastian runs over to us

He quickly takes in the scene

"Seb, take Beetle into the school He needswrist "I’ll be right behind you"

"I’ue! Beetle’s hurt," she replies "Please? He’s my friend"

Sebastian relents and hoists Beetle into his ar They’re soon lost in the sea of fleeing people Natalie helpsweak

A Darkling lunges for a woman in front of us, and she shrieks as the creature sinks its fangs into her neck The people around her panic and run back in our direction, toward the wall We’re ie of bodies

"Ash!" Natalie screah the gap in the wall Clawed, bony Darkling hands grab at her flesh and drag her deeper into the Legion territory

"Natalie!" I force my way to the wall in pursuit of her

She’s surrounded by Darklings, their exposed skin crackling and hissing in the sunlight, but they don’t see with venom

"Get away from her!" I yell

They turn to look at lance away, disinterested I’, after all, not food

"Natalie, don’tclosest to her sticks out his snakelike tongue, tasting the air He tilts his head to one side, and the other Darklings do the sa her

I sense sos Evangeline stands twenty feet away, shadowed by derelict buildings Her inky-black hair whips around her face in the wind She steps into the hazy sunlight and lowers the hood of her blue robe, baring her fangs at Natalie

"Leave her alone," I say to Evangeline

She lets out a low, iven this huovernment did to us, but I haven’t"

"Ash," Natalie whispers

How can I protect Natalie? Use the Sight! I stop and fix ht:

Mine

My vision turns deep red as the Sight takes effect, and the air around s to leave s slink back into their shacks, but Evangeline stays where she is

Evangeline laughs "Are you really trying to use the Sight on ain?

Then it hits eline looks spitefully at Natalie "Did you like the little gifts I left for you?"

"What gifts?" Natalie says

"That cat and bodyguard of yours," Evangeline replies

"You killed Malcolm and Truffles? Why? What did I ever do to you?" Natalie says

"You stole eline yells

The world becoeline’s heart?

"How is it even possible?" I say to Evangeline

"A Tracker found ht in front oftoward us "He took me back to the laboratory in Sentry headquarters, where they strippedThey experis, Ash"

"You’re the child in eline as a young girl, terrified, alone, strapped to a gurney as she’s experimented on by some sick, sadistic doctor

"Then one day the E her younger daughter was dying Natalie needed a heart transplant, but the rebels had taken over the hospital," Evangeline continues "So they had to make do hat they had in the laboratory They had me As a twin-blood, my heart’s coht? A twin-blood doesn’t need a heart to survive"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>