Page 12 of A Memory in the Flame

The rest of the group laughs, but the sound dies on my lips when Drew and Nina walk into the room. A lump forms in my throat. I swallow hard and try to smile. When Drew looks away and Nina just glares at me, the smile falls off my face, and I hurry out of the small room. I know I need to apologize to her again—or at least try to—but the weapons room probably isn’t the best place. All those clubs and swords within easy reach.

Apparently, fate is on my side today, because Bill pairs the two of us together before we descend to the sewers.

I keep my mouth shut as we ride the elevator. I remain silent when we start down the tunnel we’ve been assigned. I wait until I feel as if I’m going to burst if I don’t saysomething. “Look, Nina—”

“Keep your apology,” she cuts me off, whirling toward me. Her goggles shine beneath the fluorescent lights. “I don’t want it. In fact, all I want from you is to stay the hell away from me and my brother.”

I stand there and blink at her for a few seconds before I find my voice. “I was assigned to the sewer sector, Nina. I can’t exactly control our proximity here.”

“Your problem,” she says and walks away.

I exhale over the tinny sound of water dripping off concrete around me. Nina doesn’t wait for me, and I don’t bother trying to catch up—I’ve accepted the fact I’ve been ditched. I know these tunnels well enough now that it doesn’t bother me, but I wish there was something I could do to make Nina consider forgiving me. I didn’t expect to mourn such a brief friendship.

Maybe Drew hates me, too. By the blood, we need to talk about what happened.

A blow from behind sends spots dancing across my vision.

I reach for the sword at my back and spin. Panic rushes through me, like ice in my veins, when I come face to face with a weeper.

I hold the sword in front of me. “Stay back,” I warn shakily.

The weeper is female. Her balding hair hangs in dirty blond strands around what’s left of her face. Hollowed cheeks, black eye sockets, and mostly missing teeth. She reeks of death and decay.

I try to hold my breath as I widen my stance to fight. “I’m sorry,” I tell the creature who was not always this way.

She swings her arm out and wails, the sound echoing off the stone walls. Maggots fly from her mouth, and I swallow a gag, backing up even more as I hold my weapon steady. The cold, hard wall meets my back, and I suck in a breath.No more defensive maneuvers, I think frantically. I need to kill this weeper before it bites me.

With a deep breath, I bend my knees slightly, readying myself.

“There is no sanity in the dark. There is only chaos,” the weeper whispers. The blackness where her eyes used to be is fixed on something over my shoulder.

I freeze. “You... you can speak?”

“There is no sanity in the dark. There is only chaos.”

My stance falters. Confusion floods through me. “What does that mean?”

“There is no sanity in the dark. There is only chaos.”

“You said that already. I—”

“There is no sanity in the dark. There is only chaos.”

Then, moving with vampiric speed, the weeper bolts. A string of curses escapes me and I burst into pursuit. After Lucas, though, I know I shouldn’t pursue her alone. Slowing to a halt, I report the attack on my walkie talkie and wait in a wide, brightly-lit tunnel for the others to arrive. My mind spins.Did that really just happen?

I hear a single pair of footsteps, and I raise the sword again, breathing hard from the force of my fear. When Drew’s tall, lanky form comes into view, I nearly sag. “By the blood,” I breathe.

At the sight of me, Drew jerks to a halt. “Are you okay?” he asks. His voice is tight and strange. He won’t look directly at my face.

When I say nothing, he raises his gaze. Our eyes meet for a breathless moment, but instead of the happiness I felt before, now a knot forms in my stomach. I don’t know what to say—seeing his expression answers my questions about us. Whatever we were before, we aren’t anymore.

Even if there’s a part of me that wants to speak to him, repair the damage, Alexander’s warning still rings in my head like the echoes of a bell.It’s for the best, I tell myself. But the lies we tell ourselves are always the hardest to believe.

“I’m okay,” I say finally. The lie tastes sour in my mouth. “Not a scratch on me. The weeper is probably still loose in the tunnels, though, since I haven’t heard anything on the walkie. Has everyone been warned?”

“Where the hell—” Drew starts. With her usual, impeccable timing, Nina walks around the corner. She’s followed by Gulshan and Leo. Drew’s voice is tight as he says, “You were supposed to be with Charlie.”

Nina just shrugs, keeping her gaze pointedly on Drew. “Obviously, she didn’t need me.”

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