Page 40 of Entangled

He watches me from under his lashes, that cold, calculating light in them almost blinding. “Let’s just say that I have adifferentvision for the new world. One that doesn’t involve women in indentured servitude and children being used to force compliance. But these things take time.” His lips compress. “Andpatience.”

I stare at him as I hear someone groaning about needing some “forest time.” Alastair wants to stop this. He has his own plan.

It’s just coming too late to help me.

Alastair lifts his bowl, and in sudden panic, I reach out to grab it, staring at him. His eyes sharpen. The electric storm is coming to a head inside me, and my thoughts are fogged in urgent, raw adrenaline.

“Did you kill any of them?” I whisper, my voice throbbing from my throat. “Didyouset Jaykob’s barn on fire?”

Alastair stiffens, and suspicion falls over his features. “Eden,” he warns. His eyes peel me open. “What did you do?”

Someone retches behind me, and the sound makes me shudder. In fear? In satisfaction? So many emotions are roiling inside me, I can’t pick them out.

I lean down so our faces are close. “Answer. The. Question.”

Alastair holds still for a long, tense moment, then says, “I was pinned under a burning branch by your man’s blast. I wasn’t close enough to hit any of them.” He bites his lower lip thoughtfully, then huffs a derisive breath. “But I would have. If I’d had the opportunity. They have things we need. ThingsIneed.”

My grip tightens on the bowl, and my molars grind where I press them together. My hate is a violent, thorny thing. I want Alastair to bleed for even thinking it.

But if he can help the others, the women and children back at their Den...

“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you,” I grit out, choking on my loathing. I release the bowl and step back.

“Logan!” Akira screams. The sound is followed by a symphony of shouts, of vomiting. Dark, virulent satisfaction courses through me.

It sounds like freedom.

Alastair’s eyes widen in alarm, the first hint of panic I’ve seen in him. “Eden...” he breathes. “What did youdo?”

He looks down at the bowl, then drops it, staring as the soup pools in the dry dirt.

I half expect it to hiss and explode in plumes of toxic green smoke.

I take a deep breath. My stomach settles its slippery, anxious twisting. I glance back to see Owen on his hands and knees, his head pressed to the ground as his body convulses.

I lift my chin and look down at the injured man. “I killed your herd.”

Then I turn and stride through the seizing, dying graveyard toward Madison. It’s time for us toleave.

But as I start walking, the noise in the camp takes on an enraged buzz.

“Logan?” I see Akira stumble back into camp. She casts her gaze around the clearing, then lands on the solid blond man, where he’s braced against a tree, choking, gagging, his face a hellish shade of purple.

“Logan!”

Her scream wedges into me, it cuts into some of my burning satisfaction.

She runs to him, her hands running all over him, and I’m caught, staring, when I hear the first crack of a gun.

Suddenly, I’m being yanked by the back of my shirt. “Move,” Madison snaps.

I blink, then blink again, startled out of my trance. When I look around, I see a man pushing between the trees toward us, a gun in his hand. I see another kick over the pot, swearing, then spin in our direction. Another staggers to his feet, clutching for his gun. I hear an angry buzz rise above the choking and sobbing.

“Move!” Madison snaps again, as Akira lets out a bloodcurdling scream that imprints itself deep in my skull.

But this time, Imove.

Chapter12

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