Page 126 of To Ashes and Dust
I primed my daggers to sink them into the darklings’ heads as they pinned Barrett down, but both the darklings went up in flames before I could do so. I ducked to grab Barrett’s arm as they dissolved into ash above him, using every bit of strength I had to pull him up. “Come on, Barrett!”
He grimaced but pushed himself to his feet, his gaze snapping to Vincent and Zephyr.
“Get out of here!” Vincent yelled, easing Zephyr down before rushing to the door to shut it as darklings climbed the stairs below us.
Barrett pushed me up the stairs, but my eyes shot back to Vincent. “But Zephyr!”
“I’ve got him! Go!” Vincent yelled before barricading themselves in the top floor hallway.
“Go, Cas, now!” Barrett yelled, pushing me up the stairs. The ghastly howls and shrieks echoed up the expanse of the stairwell. I pulled my gaze from where Vincent and Zephyr had disappeared, rushing up as I reached out to Damien’s thoughts.
Damien?
My feet grew heavier with each stair, and when I didn’t receive a response, an icy dread crawled over my skin.
Damien!
His voice cut across my thoughts.
Cas? Are you ok? Are you hurt?
I crashed through the door to the roof, the winter night winds whipping through my hair.
Vincent and Zephyr are on the fourth floor! I think Zephyr’s hurt! Get to them, please!
Barrett stumbled out behind me, pushing me forward as the shrieks grew louder, countless darklings swarming the stairwell below. I couldn’t see how close they’d gotten, the darkness cloaking their ascension.
I searched for anything to possibly barricade them in as Barrett slammed the door shut, but there was nothing. It wouldn’t hold up against them, not this many. I searched the rooftop for any other means of escape, of drawing them out of the building until the others could get out. My heart stuttered, my mind trying to grasp what bits of Zephyr I’d seen. He’d looked unconscious. Vincent had to pull him out; had he been injured? Had he been...
I didn’t let myself finish that thought as my body trembled.
Something crashed into the metal door, and my attention snapped to it as Barrett came to a stop at my side, his breath ragged. The gravel of the rooftop ground under our boots as we stepped back.
My hands quivered as I gripped my daggers, the sound of their clicks and shrieks muffled by the door between us as they pounded against it. Damien still hadn’t responded, and my mind swam with every terrible possibility as the door blew off its hinges. Broken and crushed darklings fell out onto the rooftop, more climbing over them as their soulless black eyes searched for us, their broken bodies snapping and twisting as they healed. I stretched my thoughts out farther, latching onto that tether connecting me to Damien.
Damien!
Silence was my only response.
46
DAMIEN
Iheld tightly onto the arm of the recruit, his terror thick and sour in the air like lemons and vinegar. I hadn’t yet met him, hadn’t worked with him at The Outpost, so I didn’t even know his name. Thalia had overseen recruits, and the guilt tore at me—that I’d been too absorbed in my own grief over the years to know. The shadows dissolved around us, revealing the med bay. Johnson whipped around to face me, pale as he braced the double doors. Another male, Logan, was already at work barricading the door, but how much longer would it hold?
“Lord Damien!” I jerked at the voice of a female. There were others here, thank the Gods.
“Were there others in the rest of the building?” I asked, calculating how many trips it would take to get them all out.
“Kyla was in her room last I saw, and Dawson and Lyra had stayed in for the night,” one of the males said. “But I don’t know if they were found or not.”
I knew this couldn’t be all of them. More had to have survived. Gods dammit, there was no time to dwell on it. I had to get them out, then check the rest of the levels for those who might’ve successfully hidden.
I turned to the far corner of the medical room. A group of females were huddled together, holding onto terrified young as they whispered soft words of assurance.
“Johnson, I’m going to move everyone to your clinic. Get ready to go. Grab anything you need,” I said, and Johnson nodded, rushing to grab a few things.
I turned to the recruit who’d come with me. “What’s your name?”
