Page 36 of Red Ruin

Odds are, I’m not heading home at all.

CHAPTER9

IRIS

I find the Guide Warden,Cherise, with the squad putting out fires in the hollowed-out second-floor offices. The cubicles are flattened and charred.

It’s open concept now.

She spots me and tosses her fire extinguisher to another Guide. “Iris? Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I ran to grab backup, but then everything was on fireagainand?—”

“I get it.” I wave off her concern. “Is the Farguard always this wild?”

She rubs sweat off her brow, leaving a streak of ash behind. “Major Azrid has been in slow decline, but I didn’t realize how far gone he was until tonight. Trezzoran is always like that. Guides below B-class can’t handle their damage, and no one we have left is even twenty percent compatible with them. We’ve been preparing for the inevitable.”

“Yikes.” I grip my bandaged throat. That explains why Vhex was running around solo.

My heart pinches.

No Guide ever wants to watch a Sentinel flame out. The despair in those last few pulses of magic feels worse than dying.

It’s an accusation.

Why didn’t you save me?

I’ve only felt a final rampage a handful of times.

Never again.

“Yikes on pikes,” Cherise agrees, then pauses.

She scans me from head to toe.

I tense, half expecting her to punt me back on a train for blowing up her base.

Instead, she pulls off her warden’s badge and offers it to me with both hands. “Please. You have to take over. I’ve been running the Guides and lesser Sentinels, but I cannot begin to handle the dukes.”

“About that…” I pull the commander’s token from my pocket. “Duke Azrid is so out of it that his mark disappeared. I was thinking?—”

“Yes.” She presses the badge back to me. “Take it all, you absolute angel.”

“Why hasn’t anyone already taken command?” I tuck the badge away, too exhausted to deal with the info that keeps trying to zap into my brain. “What about the third S-class Sentinel? I can pass the badge to them if?—”

“Never,” Cherise says firmly. “You won’t glimpse Sentinel Simms unless the base is overrun.”

“Why not?”

“He’s too busy fucking his Guide.” She makes a noise of disgust. “They’ve been humping like jackrabbits ever since they imprinted.”

“That’s going to have to change.”One problem at a time. “I sent the dukes to clean up the damage they did outside. I’m not holding my breath on their follow-through, but at least they’re out of our hair. Can you assign a crew to start repairs on the perimeter wall?”

“Already happening.”

“Fantastic. What else is on fire?” I sway until I have to lean against a cube wall that somehow survived the vampire cannon.

“You look like you’re going to be the next one burnt out.” Cherise steadies my shoulder. “Let me find you a room and a healer. Don’t worry. I’m on top of everything else, Commander.”

I laugh woozily at the title.

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