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Brianna glanced anxiously at the sky She couldn’t stay out here And she couldn’t go back to Sam with empty hands It would be the end of her She had disobeyed orders before, but now to be such a failure, nothing but a few dead coyotes … and a failure when her powersif she was not the Breeze

She dashed to the top of the nearest hill, a scraped-bald thing maybe two thousand feet tall She could ht Turning the other way she could see the ocean The road was hidden from view

What to do?

Then she sahat looked like a person walking To the north It was hard to be sure because of the light and the narrowness of the gap between two hills But she thought she saw a single person ht be Drake She had a plan for dealing with hi to slice and dice him and use her speed to spread the parts all around the FAYZ

Hah! See if Drake could put hireat If

TWENTY-SEVEN

10 HOURS, 54 MINUTES

DIANA’S LEGS ACHED Her bare feet were bloody Justin was trying to help her but there was no way to ease the pain of bare soles on sharp stone

Anytime she slowed or stumbled Drake would snap his whip, and the pain of that was so ine that she would e alive

Diana knew that was the objective Drake had taken to gloating about it She’d had plenty of opportunity to think of snide remarks But each one came at the cost of another slice in her flesh Or worse yet, Justin’s So she stu in silence

"Don’t knohat he wants with you," Drake said, not for the first time, "but whatever he leaves is mine That’s all I know Make soe Hah Try that"

He was still looking over his shoulder constantly Diana had come to think of it as Breezanoia--a terrible fear of Brianna

"She can co up all she wants," Drake said "See if she can cutthe brat See if she can do that"

Drake was spiraling down almost as fast as Diana herself His fear was palpable And not just fear of Brianna The dying of the light scared hiet there before dark," he muttered ht fell Drake would be as lost as anyone And then hoould he keep control of Diana and Justin?

No coet away from Drake Maybe And then what?

Diana’s hand went to her stomach The baby kicked

The baby The three-bar baby The baby hat he wanted, of course Diana had no doubt about that The dark creature wanted her baby

When she could take her s and back, when she could suspend for a brief few seconds the crushing fear that bore down on her, Diana tried to understand What did it ith her baby?