Page 72 of Abducting Sarah

Mother Portend tapped her chin thoughtfully. “And what of the conduit he brought with him?”

My heart dropped to my feet, panic clutching at my chest.Keep your fucking mouth shut, Wave.

“All the conduits are dead,” she said, confused.

She doesn’t know. Thank the gods.

The crone stared at her, then one of the conduits near her nodded. Mother Portend said, “Oh, that’s what youreallythink. How interesting. I want you to get a message to your boss, Deacon. Tell him that he can have his men back in exchange for his conduit. He has until the suns go up.”

Wave shook her head. “He doesn’t have a conduit—they’re all dead—”

“Are you telling me my business girl?” Mother Portend snapped.

“No,” Wave said quickly.

“Then go.” The crone waved an impatient hand in the air. “You have only a few hours for him to return with my conduit.”

Wave stepped backward, then turned around and ran toAllegiant’sonworlder and left. Once she was no longer visible, Mother Portend ordered some of the dead conduits to follow her.

Then she told the others, “Put the boy and the body in the pit with the other one. We have work to do.”

Another conduit used her power to levitate Tiger and Kapok in front of her as they came back to the cabin.

Fuck.I was outnumbered, outgunned, and a man down.I can try to fight my way out, but I’ll die, and she will still try to trade Tiger for Sarah. The two bones in my hands were not sharp enough to work as knives. I hated yielding to Kapok’s murderer. But I was out of options.

I ran back to the pit and tried to climb down but falling was faster and better for my healing chest wound. I landed with my knees bent, which didn’t make the landing much easier, but at least I didn’t blow out my legs.

Mother Portend looked down into the gaping hole and taunted me from the opening. “You look lonely, Cozz. Don’t worry. I brought your friends.” Then she added, “One of them wasn’t good at telling me what I needed to know. Sorry.”

Kapok was dropped in first. His body fell on top of me.

“Fuck you, Portend!”

She cackled. “Be nice, or the youngster will have one more thing in common with his cousin.” Then she dropped Tiger in, too.

Thankfully, Tiger wasn’t stabbed. The floor above us closed up and we were left in the dank, dirty dark. It was then that I heard Tiger’s whimpers. “She killed him, Jac.”

“You’re awake?”

He sniffled. “She thought I was weak, so I pretended to pass out. I figured she wouldn’t kill me if she thought I was useless.”

“That was smart, Tiger,” I said, knowing the guilt was eating up the other man inside. “You did good.”

“I didn’t save Kapok,” he rasped.

“Neither did I—”

“You couldn’t,” he said angrily. “You were here.”

“I was at the doorway,” I confessed. “I saw it all go down. I—”

He shoved me against the wall. “You should have saved him!”

“I never would have stood a chance,” I yelled back, trying to make him see reason. “Neither would you. We both did the smart thing.”

“A lot of good it did,” he huffed and released me.

“We can’t take on an army of conduit ghosts on our own, Tiger.”

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