Page 91 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
“Her ID,” I say, nodding. Dane’s too, if we’re to go back. When I move toward her, Mason grabs my arm.
“You’re not going back.”
“I think I have to.”
He stares at me in disbelief, grip slackening enough that I can approach Autumn’s mangled corpse. I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste blood, but I don’t make a single sound as I slip my hand into her pocket and pull out her hunter’s ID. Dane’s is easier. I feel nothing but low-banked anger when I look upon his face.
“Blake?” I ask Rae, and she nods.
“We found him. We didn’t know what had happened at first.”
“Dane killed him.”
Nia nods. She jerks her head. “Mason.”
He still just looks at me. I don’t know what to do. Will they let us go back?
“Mason, now,” Nia snaps. She leaves the classroom, and Mason gives me one final, longing look before he traipses out after her.
Rae approaches me and lets out another faint sob.
“Do you have Blake’s ID?”
“Y-yes.”
I cross to the trapdoor. Callum and Sal have pulled Otto’s body out, and my heart hurts and my stomach twists at the sight of him, the backs of my eyes stinging. My throat hurts, too, and it’s not just the bruising. I take Otto’s ID from his inside pocket and push to my feet.
“Come on,” I say to Rae, and when she doesn’t move, I grab her arm. She stares up at me, a question in her eyes. “We have to go.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Raewrigglesoutofmy grip somewhere between the school and the train station. When I look back, I can’t see anyone following us, but I don’t think for a second that we’ve truly been forgotten or left alone.
I have my bat. Rae has her axe. Our packs are gone, but I don’t care about that.
We have to go. We have to get away from all this. I don’t know how I let myself get so sucked into it, but we can’t—we can’t—
“Isaac, what’s going on?” Rae asks.
I shake my head and only let out a sigh of relief when I see the train station. It’s as empty as the day we arrived, and I glance up at the old clock on the platform.
The train won’t be here for an hour.
“Whathappened?” Rae insists. “I don’t understand. Why would Dane kill them all?”
“He wanted to take Mason back to the Citadel.”
“Why?”
I usher her over to one of the benches on the platform, though I’m not still when we sit. I’m twitchy, glancing at the entrance to the station, then along the tracks. They could come from any side.
Hell, Mason could send an entire horde of zombies after us if he wanted to. He could tear us to pieces.
“He’s the necromancer. Mason. He caused all this.”
Rae’s eyes flare wide. She hardly blinks as I explain everything I learnt—everything from Dane, everything Blake and I discovered inside Nia’s office.
By the time I’ve finished, I’m crying. Tears slide down my cheeks, dripping from my jaw, and my chest heaves with each breath. Everythinghurts. I’m so tired. And the worst thing of all is that part of me doesn’t really blame Mason for any of it, even if he doesn’t have regrets. Twenty years ago, he would have been a teenager. They said the necromancer was just trying to bring someone back.
