Page 150 of The World Undone

Arnell continued talking, but his words melted into the air, indecipherable to me. I licked my lips, trying to bring moisture back to my mouth, to form words. I shook my head, trying to process what the hell had happened in my few hours away. Half of my family went off on one dangerous mission, while the other half went on another. Without me.

I swallowed the betrayal, now wasn’t the time for that.

I cut my eyes to Izzy, she shook her head, hands up in surrender. She had no idea.

That did nothing to soften the fear unfurling in my chest though.

“Are any of them back? Have you heard anything?” I fought to keep the tremor of terror from my voice, but it just came out sounding robotic, metallic and distant. How long could I compartmentalize my emotions away until I lost all ability to control them? I had a feeling I’d find out soon.

Arnell shook his head, his fingers and hands twisting in a knot as he tried to calm his own panic. That softened something in me and I reached my hand for his, squeezing his trembling fingers in mine.

I wasn’t the only one worried about Ro—and I was eased by a strong sense of gratitude that Ro had found someone else to love him as fiercely as I did. Maybe that would make leaving him behind without me a little bit easier. “I’ll get him back, Arnell. I promise.”

“I’ll go—” he started to say, but I let go of his hands and disappeared before he had a chance.

It was broad daylight, and in any other situation, I’d aim to be more subtle, to avoid human eyes. Right now, I didn’t give a fuck if any of them in our town saw me.

When the world reshaped itself, I was in the middle of a familiar street, right outside the very post office where Ro and I had picked up Seamus’s letter begging Cy to come help train at The Guild.

But it looked nothing like I’d remembered.

Smoke billowed around me, the heavy heat of thick flames crisping the hair on my arms.

A loud crack, and a roaring wave of noise pulled my attention.

The diner.

It had collapsed, swallowed almost entirely by flames now.

My breath lodged in my chest, clogged and unwavering as visions of sitting in there every Saturday night with Ro tugged at my memory.

“Max?” the voice was soft, drowning in the angry clatter of the fire. The whole town was burning. The smell of charred meat and smoke all I could breathe in. A body was on the ground, outside of the diner, all recognizable features burnt away.

I bent over, vomiting when I saw another arm lying still under the rubble. A familiar gold bracelet circled the wrist.

Darlene.

Darlene who served at the diner.

Darlene who’d played a feature role in every birthday, who made this town I lived on the outskirts of feel like home whenever she could.

Darlene who greeted us with a smile that took up her whole face whenever we walked in.

Darlene who was one of the only people I’d met who was brave enough to tease Cyrus.

Darlene who was dead.

Not just Darlene. They were all dead.

Michael, the boy I’d kissed, Jason, his brother—Jarrod had killed them all.

I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I felt it in my bones, an unwavering certainty that made it impossible to breathe. They wouldn’t have stood a chance against his power, against his rage.

Which meant that they weren’t just all dead—they were dead because of me. Because I left them all here to fend for themselves.

Why didn’t I plan for something like this? Could I have saved them somehow?

My hands were numb and stiff at the same time, my ears ringing with a low, droning buzz.

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