Page 119 of The World Undone

“The blood bond,” I whispered, “he’ll be okay.”

We didn’t know the limits of their bond, but in the past, it seemed to be focused on mirroring wounds specifically. If one of them was asleep or knocked out, it didn’t seem to affect the other.

Healing Eli took far less time and energy than healing Charlie had. He came to slowly at first, then all at once. He shot up, eyes wild and searching until they landed on me. “Max?”

I nodded, unable to keep the grin off my face. They were alive. They were okay.

“Atlas and Wade?” Dec asked, her voice flooded with concern and impatience as she studied the others down the way.

“Not yet,” I responded, though it came out more as a grunt.

Eli pulled me to him, burying his face in my neck.

It took me a moment before I realized they were missing someone.

“Where’s Evelyn?” I asked, the question drying up when I noticed Levi’s expression over Eli’s shoulder. I knew that look with an intimacy that shook me to my core. Pain, rage, and fear, all boiled together into grief.

I squeezed Eli tighter as he stifled a broken sob.

It didn’t take long for them to fill me in, and when they got to the end, we were interrupted by another arrival.

Atlas, Wade, and Tex materialized a few paces from us, dressed in blood and the remaining tatters of their clothing.

I ran to them, both relieved to see them finally back, but terrified by the empty expression stretched on all three of their faces.

Without a word, Atas set a wolf down at his feet—one I’d never seen before, though I didn’t have time to ask before my heart sank.

Charlie shifted next to me, her arm on my shoulder, excitement and worry vibrating through her grip.

Tex took a few steps forward, his shoulders sagging under the weight of Bishop cradled in his arms.

He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing.

Charlie’s scream tore through my chest, echoing through the trees, as I kept her from falling.

The rest of the world was silent, cloaked in her pain.

22

WADE

The afternoon bled into evening, as the entire community came together to lay rest to Evelyn and Bishop.

I couldn’t even look at Charlie without choking up.

He was alive and well this morning—excited, even for his first mission in ages.

And now he was gone, leaving his wife and unborn child behind without him.

The world had never felt so cruel.

Worse, it had all been for fucking nothing.

Three missions, two deaths, and not a single fucking clue as to where the stone was.

Instead, all we had were a bunch of dead ends, some extra vampires to deal with, and Darius lost to his own darkness.

Max spent most of the evening trying her damndest to be helpful, serving everyone food, watching the kids, preparing rooms for Claude, Nika, and Nash. When she wasn’t running from chore to chore, trying to keep busy, she was sidled next to Eli, me, Atlas—a soothing presence as we all processed the gaping, constraining feeling of loss.

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