Page 121 of Heart of Dawn
Eternally.
I am unsure of our next meeting. For now, I must go underground to reflect, to mourn the loss of dear Joseph.
Until we meet again.
Daria
I hugged my man. “I wish there was something we could do to help her.”
“Give her time, Ori. Give her time.”
I played with Wendy for the rest of that night, grateful for getting to keep her. She might have reverted to the digital pet, but at least we were still the awesome twosome.
I couldn’t ask for better than that.
We endedup settling in Dunstable, moving closer to the town center, taking over a row of houses on a street just off the main high street.
James wove his engineering magic in every house, setting up a hot water system, and even gave us electricity. All limited, of course, but my goodness what a luxury.
Paige set up a clinic on the same street, Basil and I were on standby to help with any healing should any newcomers arrive in town. Cate took over another house, filling it with weapons, Arlo helping her source supplies.
Malorie became our chef, an artist with any food we found. Stars, we ate so well considering the circumstances.
It was like Haven had been restored in a new form.
After a month of searching and waiting, we hadn’t come across any survivors.
Miko and Andrew set up signs everywhere around the town’s borders, and in the town itself with details of our street on them. They directed people to seek us out.
We all took turns to patrol three time a day, always vigilant for any newcomers.
One morning, I plucked up the courage to put the USB stick in a working laptop. On it, I found a brief profile of man called Stephen Wilkins—a human scientist who spearheaded nefarious research into things best left alone.
I also found a file about godly essence harvesting, how they were taken from the deepest parts of the earth. According to the text, they were fossilized fragments of a lost time, brought to life by blood sacrifice. Not full life, because sleeper blood was required to do that, but slaughtered animals were enough to activate it.
Talk about a deadly rabbit hole. Who would even know to do this? And why would you want to?
Ugh. I stopped looking. This research deserved nothing less than oblivion.
Shifters began to find us,settling into houses. None of them knew about the Wilkins Facility. Those secrets appeared to be dead along with humanity.
Some of them had followed Lance and his crazy dreams of one pack under his rule. After the factory massacre, everything fell apart for them. They scattered and prayed for an easy death or the end of Dawn.
They had been scared out of their minds like the rest of us.
Miko became the ruler of a new growing pack instead, minus the tyranny. But it did take him a while to be convinced to let those Lance followers in. Lots of his arm-folding and stubbornness met those shifters as they begged for mercy and a second chance.
Miko eventually relented with severe warnings of suffering if anyone betrayed him.
No blood magi approached, though. I wondered if they ever would and what the reception would be. If we were going to rebuild the world day by day, as was the grand plan, then we’d have to learn to forgive. And they were the last of the spellcasters, the witches were all dead—their human blood having cursed them into extinction.
Magi blood wasn’t the same, having spared them from Dawn’s killing hand like other supernatural creatures.
Hmmm. Where did they stand in the world now? I mean, not every egg was bad, after all. And that took a lot for me to say, given the encounters I’d endured with the magi.
We’d just have to see what happened next.
During the fourth month,three fae arrived on horseback by order of Prince Dorian, bringing a letter from him for us.
