Page 4 of Keeping Sarah

Then, the ship shook violently. Sirens blared. In a panic, the mercenaries ran to their stations, including Rundown.

I looked out the window and gasped when I saw them. The jem’hora.

They were eyeless birds with silver feathers who stood higher than my waist. Each of their individual talons was longer than my hand, and Ladrians feared them. But for some reason, they had liked me from the moment I met them. Maybe it was because I was the contra who was said to have an affinity with nature, but whatever the reason, they came when I called them using that thread in my mind.

A few had torn at the wings and engines of the ship, while others had grabbed on underneath, tearing at the wiring. I hoped they were careful but just as I had that thought, I screamed when one flew into an engine.

“No!” I shouted.

All their eyeless faces stared at me through the window, as the ship lost altitude.Good work, fly away,I told them through our connection. I didn’t want any more of them hurt. They took to the sky, as we spiraled toward the trees.

“Clever,” Rex raged just before the ship hit the first of the trees and tumbled through them.

My feet swept out from beneath me, my head hit the wall, and then, nothing.

CHAPTER 2

Jacaranda

“He’s sedated for now, but he’ll be alright, Jac,” Ode said, sounding grim as she looked over Deacon’s unconscious body in Wave’s infirmary. “The damage…he’s lucky the mercs didn’t have a good shot, or his face would look like Mock’s legs.”

I nodded, looking to the smaller man’s condition as he lay in the bed beside Deacon’s. His legs had been shredded by the hand cannons. Ode had sworn she could fix them, but it would take some time before he would walk on his own again.

“How long before Deacon wakes up?” I asked, feeling lost without Sarah and devastated by Deacon’s injuries.

“I’m not sure. The concussion is one of the worst I’ve seen outside the hospital I trained in,” Ode said. “I’m shocked he was able to form sentences after it happened.”

My stomach churned, and I asked the question I didn’t want to ask. “Will the neurological damage be permanent?”

“Highly unlikely. He’s responding well to treatment. But he must rest—this is imperative. He cannot fight. He cannot run. Not either for a long time. Any jarring to his skull could be fatal for the time being—"

“Give me an end date, Ode,” I said, needing to know.

“I can’t,” she said with a shake of her head, “I have to reassess him after he wakes. This situation is touchy—there are no guarantees.”

“You’re supposed to be the best!” I snarled, my hands fisted at my sides in pure frustration over the situation.

“I am!” she snapped back. “Don’t you think I want to save him? After everything he did for me?”

I took a deep breath, trying to accept her words. But they went against everything I had in me. My hands flexed and stretched. I needed something to hit, but Ode was not it. “I’m sorry—I—"

“It’s fine,” she said, understanding in her eyes. “I know. I know. Where is Wave? She was supposed to be back with more bandages by now.”

“Seriously, Ode,” I said, knowing I’d overreacted and took my turmoil of emotions out on her. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—"

“It’sfine,” she insisted. “Now, let me get back to work, okay?”

Her voice broke at the end of her question. Her youth and terror and sisterly love of Deacon were obvious, as she looked up at me. I could see the face of the little girl he had rescued and saved so long ago.

“I’ll go see what’s holding her up,” I said.

Wave’s infirmary was far bigger than Ode’s, so the most severely injured were housed there. I quickly jogged throughAllegiant’shalls, trying to find the ship’s doctor, and bumped into her in the cargo bay doorway.

Her arms were overstuffed with bandages, her normally braided gray hair now loose and askew. “Out of the way!” she barked.

I just stepped aside, while she brushed past me and ran toward the infirmary. There was nothing I could do to help. Everything was in our medical team’s hands. I wanted to stay by Deacon’s side, but I had to figure out a way to save Sarah.

She didn’t have a medical team to keep her safe. She didn’t have anyone on her side in Faithless. She was alone—no, worse.

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