Page 74 of Heart of Dawn
My stomach somersaulted. Not now. Not when we’re this close.
“They cannot enter here,” Anya said. “Too big.” She twitched so rapidly it made my scalp itch. Friend to Wendy or not, she was still a spider, and I couldn’t even handle a Faery penny spider invading my beach hut at the best of times.
“Wretched yetis. They are weak under the power of Dawn.” Anya moved forward. “The undying are coming. Brace yourselves.”
Moments after she gave the warning, pink eyes cut through the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
MIKO
We slipped out a side exit onto a gently sloped road, no biters in sight, the rain pounding everything. Water streamed down the road, overwhelming the drains. An aggressive wind howled, churning the plethora of rubbish, stirring the hair of the corpses strewn everywhere.
God, it was dark for a morning. Almost night-like, the clouds so thick they could’ve been painted on with a trowel.
It didn’t take long for those bodies to reanimate, each one in various states of decay. They crawled, staggered, each one groaning for our blood.
So unfair that the already dead got to re-join the fight.
Dawn didn’t play by the rules, using all the cheat codes.
Paige continued to lead us, having studied the maps of this area while I’d been sleeping.
Basil clung to Paige’s back, being the slowest of us, with a face like a smacked arse. Mercifully, he didn’t complain in his pompous way, keeping his gob shut.
We passed a blue and white sign, telling me this was Hemel Hempstead Hospital. I knew this town, having come here once to meet with some fellow alphas. Didn’t see much of it because the visit was strictly business.
Under the heavy downpour, our soaked scrubs clinging to our bodies, Paige led us to a residential street, the houses heavily damaged by fire. Of course, there were charred corpses everywhere, burned-out vehicles blocking a lot of the street. But not enough to slow us down. Thank God.
We navigated the streets, weaving through the debris, ignoring the predictable reawakening of the bodies.
“The morning of your demise!” Dawn cried from several mouths.
Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, dickhead.
Eventually, we came to a public footpath overrun with undergrowth.
“This way,” Paige said, charging in first.
I stayed close behind her, pushing through the bracken, taking a thorny vine to the cheek, crushing weeds under my trainers. Focused on the escape, thinking of nothing else. Well, there were things trying to throw me off, but they were useless against my fresh, new walls.
Fuck off, intrusive thoughts. You won’t be bringing me down.
I’m off to…die.
I turned off the noise, too ready to shirk my responsibilities and storm the Faery gates with my one-man army.
“Ori?”I tried our connection.
No answer, but I felt his heartbeat.
Still alive. Still going.
“I love you…”
Making good gains, we reached a new path hugging a field of tall grass. No corpses, only more weeds breaking through the concrete.
“We follow this for a bit,” Paige announced, “clear a couple of residential streets, then we hit some woods and some farmland. We might be able to pause there, horde permitting.”
