Page 41 of Broken Kingdom

Her eyes begin to shine. “Same. But if I’m ever in a situation like with that dragon again, don’t come after me. I don’t want you to go down with the ship.”

“Tough shit,” I say, smiling as her eyes narrow. “I’m with you, Jules. No matter what. Might as well save your breath because on this one, I’m doing what I damned well please.”

She rolls her eyes, but her lips curve as she says, “Fine. But I reserve the right to argue more about this somewhere down the line.” Turning back to the gathered crowd, she shouts, “I need five fit volunteers to head through the portal first. We’re not sure where we’ll end up, so we need strong, uninjured people to help facilitate a smooth transition on the other side.”

Juliet gets her volunteers and gives them quick directions on separating and triaging the wounded, then our three fit men and two women are running through the now open portal.

Women and children go next, followed by the injured, most of them propped up by friends or family members. In just a few minutes, we’re down to the last group of twenty. By the time Ophelia emits another one of her ear-shredding shrieks and the ground starts to shake with the force of her footsteps, it’s just Juliet and me standing guard at the portal between Coralie and Gillian.

We watch Ophelia, with Catherine clasped gently in one of her giant bony hands, jump the river in her wendigo form. Once she touches down on the other side, she sets Catherine down and shifts back into her sleight, exhausted-looking human skin.

Catherine grabs her around the waist before she can fall and together, they limp through the portal with a breathless, “See you on the other side,” from Catherine.

“Go,” Coralie says, shouting to be heard over the sound of the raging dragon on the other side of the field. I’m not sure what happened to the thing, but it’s clearly pissed. “We’ll be right behind you.”

I take Juliet’s hand and dash through the glowing circle of light, already sensing something is wrong, even before Juliet gasps and cries out in pain.

Twenty-Four

Ford

On the other side, I wince and squint into the sunlight, so much brighter than the dusk we just came from.

“What’s wrong?” I ask Juliet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she says.

“But you—”

“I just need to get to a phone,” she cuts in, releasing my hand.

As my eyes adjust, I see our people spread out across the remains of an old mini-golf course, I vaguely remember from when I was a teenager. It was already abandoned back then and a good place to go if you wanted to drink and make out without being interrupted by older pack members.

It’s only about a mile from our winter territory and close enough to Hermione’s base of operations that she should be able to get here in fifteen or twenty minutes, tops.

When I turn back to Juliet, she’s already commandeered a cell phone from somewhere and is making the call. Leaving her to it, I shift my attention to the people closest to the portal. I’m about to tell them to clear the area, so I can get men and women with weapons up here to fight back in the event one of the dragons tries to come through behind Coralie and Gillian.

But before I can speak, the portal vanishes, winking out of sight in the blink of an eye.

I spin to Juliet, who’s still on the phone, to see her eyes sad as she says, “Thank you, Hermione. We’ll have the injured gathered together and ready for transport as soon as you get here.”

She ends the call and sighs.

“She said something to you on our way out, didn’t she?” I ask as I come to stand beside her. “Your mom?”

“She told me she was proud of me,” Juliet whispers. “And that Gillian couldn’t be trusted…and that I won’t see either of them again.”

I curl my fingers over her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too,” she says, lifting her chin with a deep breath. “But she made her choice and a sacrifice for the good of our people.”

“She didn’t give two shits about Zion,” I say gently. “She did it for you.”

Juliet nods slightly, her eyes shining. “Yeah.” Swallowing, she meets my gaze. “I may want to cry about it later. But not now. Now, we’re going to take care of our pack.”

“We are,” I promise. “And later, I’ll take care of you.”

And I do.

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