Page 79 of Legacy

There’s movement all around.

It’s like a tornado touching, and we’re in the center. All it will take is one shift in the breeze to send everything toppling.

I slide out of the van and meet Steel’s gaze first. He’s trying to rush Tempe into the van behind us. And when I turn to the gate, I realize why.

A woman is bundled on the ground just outside the gate to the compound. She’s naked and contorted, and the only reason I know she’s not dead yet is because of her piercing scream ripping from her lungs.

Jesse stands over her, frozen. And even in the moonlight, I can see his pale cheeks. The shock on his face. Taking another step forward, I pause when I spot the barbed wire wrapping her skin. It twines around her entire body, streaking her skin with blood.

So much blood.

And mine goes cold as Jesse whispers a name that makes all other sounds quiet.

“Sera?”

23

Legacy

Sera screams, and myworld stops.

I see the woman I’ve hated for years, hurt, bleeding on the ground.

I see Bea’s mother in pain.

I see the extent of what our enemies are willing to do to get back at us.

And for a second, I can’t breathe. I can’t move.

A hand finds my arm, snapping me out of the haze, and I look down to see Reagan standing beside me. Her wide brown eyes are fixed on Sera, and like the world was moving in slow motion, it all speeds up again.

Fast forward until I’m back in this moment.

“Legacy.” Steel’s voice cuts through the chaos, and it makes Reagan jump as he comes up beside us. “Ricky is taking the girls back to the neighborhood.” He looks at Reagan. “Are you good to go with them?”

She nods.

One moment, she’s next to me. The next, she’s being pulled into a van with Tempe.

Time is skipping.

Her eyes find me the moment before she climbs in, and I know I should probably say something to her to make sense of this mess, but words die on my tongue.

She breaks our gaze before I do, looking utterly defeated, and I block that look out, even as it burrows. It’ll eat me from the inside out, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now, so I focus on what I can.

Steel tips his head, motioning me to follow, and I find feeling in my legs again.

Patch is hunched over Sera when I get to her, readying a needle that I hope will take her pain away. Blood drips from the rough gashes where the barbed wire slices her skin, and it’s worse every time she wiggles.

She’s been stripped of her clothes and curled into a ball with her knees tucked up to her chest and her arms over them. Barbed wire wraps around her entire body, holding her limbs in place.

It’s been five years since I’ve seen her, and she looks years older than she should. Her blonde hair has been bleached platinum, and any makeup she was wearing is smeared.

Ghost stops at my side, watching, and I wonder if this reminds him of when we found Paulina in this same place. The only difference is that Paulina was already dead, while Sera isn’t.

“Sera.” I squat down, trying to get her to look at me.

Her screams pierce through the empty desert. They sink into the pit of my stomach. And when she flinches as Patch shoves the needle in her arm, the barbs cut deeper, sending another chilling cry from her mouth.

---