Marked In Flesh

CHAPTER 30

Firesday, Juin 22

Hope dropped the gray crayon, horrified by the drawing. She leaped up then half fell on the bed when her feet, asleep from being tucked under her for so long, couldn’t hold her. She felt warm liquid run down her legs, barely understanding that she’d wet herself.

Shaking, sobbing, too scared to call for help—too scared that no one would answer—she forced herself to look at the drawing again.

More than death. A horror that would never be forgotten.

She looked closer. She didn’t know that face. He didn’t live in Sweetwater. Had she drawn that face before? She couldn’t remember.

Fear grew inside her, its sharp edges slicing through her ability to think.

Had to find Jackson and Grace. Had to run, escape, hide. Had to tell . . .

A face in the corner of the paper, apart from the rest of the drawing.

. . . the Trailblazer.

Hope pushed to her feet. She could run fast now. She could run to the communications cabin and call the Trailblazer. She remembered the number. She would call because the danger would strike somewhere else before it came to Sweetwater. So she would call, and then she would find her friends and they would run and hide.

She stumbled out of the Wolfgard cabin, almost fell down the steps.

Caw!

One of the Ravengard, watching her.

No time to explain. Not until she had sent the warning.

Hope dashed between the cabins that made up the terra indigene settlement until she reached the dirt road. Then she ran as fast as she could to the communications cabin, chased by the image of a drawing full of death.

Joe Wolfgard scratched on Tolya’s motel room door, then turned away and listened to the howl of Wolves in the distance.

The Song of Battle.

he demanded.

came the answer.

But the pack’s hunters and guards, enraged by more wanton slaughter, didn’t listen.

Tolya opened the door. “Joe?”

“In daylight? When we can recognize them?” Suspicion in Tolya’s voice.

The humans had been careful so far. They had stayed inside vehicles so the Wolves couldn’t pick up their scents. But Tolya was right—humans wouldn’t reveal themselves unless they were doing something else that was sneaky.