The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,94

you do, but I could try, and at least then you wouldn’t have to live with this, too.”

“It’s all right,” I told him. “I want to.”

I couldn’t say exactly what made me do it. It was his worried expression, the way he clenched his fists at his side, the small kindness of it. The power rattling the chain-link fence. It all registered like tiny quakes in my heart.

I rolled up onto my toes to press my lips to his cheek. It was such an unfamiliar texture, the rough scrape of his scruff growing in. His skin warmed where I touched it, and I lingered there a moment longer than I’d meant to, taking in the smell of the car’s leather seats, of the sweet green woods surrounding us.

There was no resistance in his grip when I reached out and took the bolt cutter from him. I stepped back until the warmth faded and only that startling, gentle urge remained, still as confusing as the moment I’d first felt it. He didn’t say a word as I turned south, toward the place I felt the electrified fence calling out to me.

It was a simpler version of what we’d seen near the checkpoint, only eight feet high instead of twenty. But the electricity prowling back and forth across it was no less lovely or lethal. It turned frenzied at my approach, like an excited pack of dogs. The silver thread in my mind slipped out, connecting with it, guiding it away from a section of links in front of me.

All that mattered was getting to the other side. I was allowed to be angry right now. I got to be furious about the lie about the checkpoint closing, and that it was yet another thing standing in my way.

I brought the bolt cutters up and cut the first strip of metal before I could stop myself.

When I’d finished, I kicked out the loose piece and stepped through. Keeping one hand on the fencing, I waved the others forward. Roman went first, stealing a glance at my face as he passed by. Priyanka only let out a long, impressed whistle.

When they’d both gone on ahead, I turned back once more to see what I’d done.

And saluted it with my middle finger.

“Can you see anything inside?” Roman’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie as Priyanka and I walked across the pavement toward the dark blue sedan. Lisa had forced us to take one of their sets, and while I hadn’t wanted to, I owed her. Big-time.

“Not yet,” Priyanka replied. “Nothing moving, at least.”

The satellite view of the estimated address hadn’t been deceptive, exactly, but it hadn’t been accurate. Instead of an empty field, the vehicle was parked in the dead center of a large paved lot. The kind that might have been used for a supermarket or a mega shopping center. That should have been used for something. Instead, there was only the massive cement footprint of a building foundation, and a few scattered pieces of timber and cinder blocks in the nearby field.

“This is creepy, right?” Priyanka said. I had to jog to keep up with her stride. “A little creepy?”

The air was so thick with moisture, it seemed to hiss at us as we moved through it. My hair rose into waves, sticking to my cheeks and neck, and all I could taste was the leftover syrup from the Waffle House breakfast Priyanka had bought us. That, and my own sweat.

My body tensed more and more, even as the heat did its best to melt me down to my raw nerves. By the time we were close enough to make out the shape of the seats inside the car, I could barely breathe.

She’s not in the car. She can’t be in the car.

Roman had given me one of the guns from Haven, and it hadn’t left my hand since we’d stepped onto the lot. I raised it slightly, aiming at the car as we approached it from behind.

I nodded to Priyanka, and she moved to the passenger side as I approached from the driver’s. The car’s battery was dead. I wasn’t picking up any spark of electricity anywhere nearby, save the walkie-talkie in Priyanka’s hand. The part of me that had secretly feared this was some kind of elaborate trap almost relaxed.

The sedan was unlocked. The smell of stale, hot air greeted me when I threw open the door. A bag of what had formerly been M&M’s sat wilting in one of the