Page 42 of Shadow Bonds

My head falls back against the tree trunk.What have I gotten myself into?

Cyrus’s words flash across my mind reminding me of what this means for them.

If I die, they die.But I guess that’s only if we complete the bond.

I freeze when it hits me what that truly means. I’m not a Shadow. I’m not strong like them.

No wonder they’re all so pissed. I’m just a liability to them.

Not only that. If anyone finds out what happened to me, I won’t be the only one that ends up under the firing squad. I’ll be dragging them down with me too.

I hit my head off the trunk and groan. I only wanted to figure a way out of all this. Now I possibly have four lives in my hands.

Shaking off my shitty mood, I hide what’s left of my food and head back to the house.

I head inside and sigh when I find them all waiting around looking as pissed as they were yesterday. Apart from Cyrus. He actually looks happy to see me while the other three look like shit. Like they haven’t slept in days and it’s finally catching up to them.

“What did I do now? Was my existence too loud for you?” I ask, truly over them and their shitty mood swings.

“You look fine,” Theon grits out.

I frown. “And you look like shit. What’s your point?”

In fact, they all look a little under the weather apart from Cyrus. Maybe they all caught something.

But I keep my mouth shut. They’d figure a way to blame it on me somehow.

“Tomorrow we’re all heading to the War Camps. Knox is with you tonight in case there’s another attack,” Malakai says as if he’s the one that commanded it. But I let it slide, having already made a deal with Knox. Something he seems to be upholding by keeping his mouth shut at least.

They start to move, but since a couple of them are being amicable, at least for now, I take my chance and ask them a question that’s been playing on my mind since I woke up in here and ran into them.

“When I woke up here after the accident. You said that you wanted to get out of here. What did you mean?” I ask, and they all turn to look at me.

Cyrus frowns while Knox gives me his normal suspicious look. Theon just outright glares at me, as if I’ve offended him somehow. And Malakai narrows his eyes on me.

“Well?” I push, hoping they’ll give mesomething.

“We want what we’ve always wanted. To finish our time in the academy and move to the War Camps,” Cyrus answers. “Permanently.”

CHAPTER 14

Cyrus’ reply slowly filters through my mind as I line up with the other girls and make our way to a portal that will bring us to the War Camps.

I misunderstood them completely. None of them ever wanted to really escape. They just wanted to move to the War Camps. A desolate place that’s apparently brutal, savage and absolutely chaotic.

It’s also near the Hollow. A place were monsters and beasts are born.

Robin moves closer to me as we step into the portal. A rush of warmth and then cold slides across my skin as we move through it.

Hot, dead heat hits me as a desert of beige sand greets me. Glancing to the side, I spot hundreds of steel framed tents with heavy black and beige fabric. They’re all setup in different sections around the area, with hundreds farther down from this spot. I move farther away from the portal and find dark reddish rocks sitting everywhere and anywhere. Some are huge, reaching the size of the tents while others only reach up to half of my thigh.

There’s nothing else here. No water. No breeze. Nothing.

Why on earth would anyone want to live here?Permanently.

Sloane—the female I met in Commander Talos’ office—gathers us to the side and waits for everyone to step through the portal before speaking.

“The camps are setup similar to the academy. Those who have companions will stay with their Shadows.” She turns around and points farther down from us to a large tent four times the size of the others.

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