Page 62 of Season of the Wolf

I shrugged, unsure of how to explain the little bit I knew.

She didn’t press for more info, just followed as I started toward my brothers, feeling a little nervous knowing they most likely watched and scrutinized my every move tonight.

But then … my feet stopped dead in their tracks. The lights that hung above flickered in tandem with a thunderous tremor, one that vibrated deep beneath our feet.

My gaze darted in Dallas’ direction and I grabbed Beth’s hand before rushing toward him. Even Nick halted, just shy of making a clean exit. His head swiveled as the building reverberated with energy from the loud blast.

I reached Dallas, my brothers.

“What was that?” It was a stupid question, seeing as how they’d been blocked off from the outside world for the last hour and a half just like I had.

“We’ll go check it out,” Declan offered.

I wasn’t surprised when the others and Dallas followed him, moving toward the exit like a living wall. Beth and I trailed them, too, but slowed when our names were called. Chris and Lucas approached from the left.

“Hang on. We’re coming with you,” Chris announced as their steps synced with ours.

Naturally, when we made it to Nick, he fell in step as well. It seemed that, with his concern focused on what went on beyond these walls, he hardly noticed the sound I was convinced he now heard whenever I was around.

The five of us walked the dark hallway just beyond the gym’s double doors, leading toward the exit of the Athletic Building. Outside, the moment we tasted night air, there was no missing the plume of smoke that billowed against the inky sky.

“Looks like it’s coming from somewhere north. Somewhere near the falls,” Dallas explained, finding me in the small crowd that gathered in the lot.

I felt my chest expanding at record speed as my breaths came faster. “What about Liam? Elise and Hilda? We have to get to them.”

Dallas pointed to a phone pressed to his ear I hadn’t noticed before. “I’ve got Elise on the line now. They’re all fine, just wondering what’s going on. She’s checking in with the guards.”

With his reassurance, I only settled a little.

The door of a truck slamming brought my attention to Richie as he approached. He, too, was on a call, asking someone on the line for an update. The grave look on his face, the urgency in his steps as he moved toward Nick, made fear spike in me once more, like it never left. When his expression turned grim as the person responded in his ear, my stomach did a somersault.

Three words left his mouth and the crowd fell silent when he uttered them. “It’s the dam.”

The dam …

“Everyone needs to get to higher ground!” Richie’s voice boomed to the crowd, prompting those who once stood observing to rush toward their vehicles.

It was Nick who turned to his brother to ask the hard question amidst the sound of screeching tires, with the glare of headlights whizzing past.

“What about everyone else?”

That dark look was still plastered on Richie’s face when he answered. “The authorities are working on evacuating those they can.”

I frowned, asking, “What do you mean‘those they can’?”

Richie leveled a solemn look my way. “Whoever did this, whoever caused the explosion,” he said, as if we didn’t already know who was behind it “… they must’ve severed communication to landlines beforehand.”

It became clear the Sovereign wanted this town to suffer, experience devastation at its worst—a lesson to never cross him, I guessed.

“We’re spreading the word as quickly as we can via cell phone while we’re able, hoping people are notified quickly enough,” Richie added.

I couldn’t even form a single thought. The fate of this town rested solely on civilians starting phone chains or going door to door. There was no way to contact the owners of large establishments unless someone present happened to get the call in time to warn everyone else.

Chaos.

That’s what was ahead of us. We were a matter of minutes away from it, actually.

My head reeled when Dallas sprang into action, his military experience already proving to be more useful in a crisis than my tendency to panic.

---