Page 48 of Veradel
Just as the sentries start returning to their patrolling rhythm with a spooked look in their eyes, the howling bursts back into life, right behind the Wall where I first jumped into Lucan’s arms.
The sound electrifies me.
All of the sentries turn toward it, half of them starting to sprint in the Blood Moon Palace’s direction.
Pulling my hood over my head, I step out into the open at a quickened pace. I’ll have to pass right behind a sentry, frozen in his tracks by the roaring of Monsters.
But as long as they keep howling…
Twenty yards. Ten.
That’s when I lift my eyes and my heart cripples with intense shock.
“No!” I gasp. Cry. Wail, really. Forgetting where I am, the urgency of the situation, my knees buckle as I take in what I so desperately wish wasn’t real.
A body stretches out above the Healing Center doorway, wrists and ankles tied with rope that strains against the cinched knots. Each limb is pulled out tight, the head lolling unnaturally. Still, I recognize the face—the thick eyebrows and dark hair—and my entire body goes rigid as pain rips through me at the realization.
Claudia.
Ablast of emotions rocks me, coming from Saskia herself.
First is shock, so swift and powerful that I almost collapse alongside her.
This brutality wasn’t committed in secret, not behind the walls of the palace, but out in the open, in front of the very place that people go to be healed. It’s a mockery and a warning and a threat all wrapped in one—the last piece of this facade of a utopia peeling away.
Revealing the true nature of Xantera for everyone to see.
“No,” Saskia cries again, and then her grief—and mine, too—hit me square in the chest. You don’t have to be a healer to know that Claudia is dead. Through Saskia’s eyes, I can see dark, dried blood caking the rope hanging her up, soaked into the woven fibers and staining them a deep, almost black, red.
It’s all my fault, Saskia thinks in horror.If I hadn’t asked her to broadcast incriminating videos to all of Xantera…
It’s nobody’s fault but the one who took her life, I cut her off, pacing along the Wall and wishing for the thousandth time I could kick it in. This time, not for revenge. This time, I just want to comfort, to be there for her and let her cry into the crook of my neck. But right now, I’m only a warm presence in this chilling reality.I’m sorry, I whisper.
Saskia heaves out her own, “I’m sorry,” but it’s not directed at me. The pain cracks through her chest, the regret pricking her like a thousand needles.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” is all she can manage to get out as it echoes through the night back into our connection.Lucan… do you think Eleni’s okay? She helped Claudia get to that tech room. What if she got caught, too?
I can’t answer that despite how much I wish I could.
And that’s when anger explodes out of Saskia, stacking on top of the sadness, one after the other, oscillating back and forth until pure rage wins out.
Rage at the Guardians. Rage at the system. Rage at the lies and deceit and cold-blooded indifference.
Her gears click into place, a shift that slams into me with an overwhelming force—and I know.
I know she’s not just a healer anymore. She’s a healer who is now willing to kill the parasites that killed Claudia. Willing to destroy the vampires that have officially pulled the veil of perfection off of everyone’s eyes with every countermove made against her.
But I see this for what it is—desperation. The Guardians have no other option but to instill fear in the humans. Fear ofthem, not just me as the Monster.
Problem is, Saskia is no longer human.
Iknow I need to steal the centrifuge before I get Claudia down. But seeing her strung up like that, murdered for sharing the truth… it only strengthens my purpose and the deadliness coursing through my veins.
Gagging, my furious tears well as I take a step back.
The automatic glass doors stretch open before me from the motion, just as the sentry whips his head in my direction.
“Hey!” He grabs my arm, twisting me around forcefully and pulling me right into the line of the camera I was trying to avoid. Hopefully, the Guardians are distracted just as much as the other sentries. “Do you have permission…” Recognition dawns across his face as he peers under my hood, and his mouth curls into a disgusting smile. “You’re that Chosen One who—”
