Page 113 of The World Undone

“I won’t go back there, I won’t go back,” I whispered.

Grab your blade, Atlas. Come on.

My hands were stiff, my fingers frozen in a claw-like grip that I couldn’t budge.

Suddenly, I didn’t see the white room, splashed in shades of red, crowded with demons just fighting for a chance at survival.

All that I saw was my team.

Max was in front of me, her throat sliced, blood trickling to the ground around her. She gasped, eyes wide with fear as they found me.

“Atlas,” my name was a blood-laced gurgle on her lips. “Help me.”

I crawled towards her, pressed my hands to her throat as I tried like hell to stem the bleeding. My vision blurred and my heart beat so rapidly that I was half-convinced it would bruise my ribs.

“No. Not again. Not again.”

Her body stilled beneath me. Gone.

Wade was next to me, indigo eyes leaking tears of red as he crouched over her. A blade was submerged in his chest as he sank down around her.

We were losing. It was over.

I screamed until my throat went hoarse from the force of it.

Wade stood up, the dagger gone, his eyes dry. “Atlas.”

I blinked. The two scenes smashed together as I watched the drude collapse in front of me, her neck snapped at a bad angle as Wade’s mouth moved.

The ringing and echo of my scream dissolved into the chaos of the room. “Wade?”

“Atlas!” He was crouching over me now, Tex at his side, snarling a warning at a demon who got too close. “Where’s Bishop?”

Bishop.

Shaking my head, I stood. I dug my fingers into my palm, focusing on the pain to ground me.

Bishop was across the room, surrounded by two wolves, neither of which was familiar.

“No.” My chest gripped at the sight of the wolf at his feet. Mavis. Still. Too still.

The wolves lunged at Bishop, just as Wade grabbed me and teleported the three of us to him.

When we rematerialized, the larger of the two wolves had Bishop’s throat in his mouth.

I grabbed onto Bishop with one hand, and buried my hand into Mavis’s fur in the other. We’d bring his body home, at least. Mavis deserved that much. For a moment, I thought I felt the soft pulse of the wolf’s heart.

A tendril of hope spurred in my chest.

Was he somehow still alive?

In another breath, Wade pulled us out.

I fought for breath, my lungs tight as our new surroundings came into focus. We were back in the barn, but we’d brought the other wolf with us too.

In one fluid movement, I pulled him away from Bishop and snapped his neck. He wasn’t dead, but he wouldn’t be able to attack us for a while. Maybe when he woke up, he’d stand a chance at a new life, away from the fucked-up depravity of Guild imprisonment.

Tex began to shift back, the loud cracks and pops of his bones a painful soundtrack.

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