82 Gaffriel

We showered as fast as we could and abandoned the cabin. We didn’t bother checking out but left it unlocked and the key stuffed into the mailbox by the front office. What were they going to do, charge us for another night?

“Four,” Niala said. So technically, Point Pleasant had been four, but she fixated on the barracks, and I wanted to see if there was any chance we could find the elders and get her to a healer.

“The barracks.” I pretended she’d picked the right thing and smiled sadly at her. Her eyes lit up as she bounced on her feet.

“We can find Ranna and Touk and see if they know what happened!” Her enthusiasm peaked, and I wanted to play it as carefully as possible. We couldn’t just appear in the barracks; we needed to focus and play it as safe as possible.

“Okay, so we go to the roof of that dive bar and hoof it on foot from there. You have to PROMISE me, PROMISE ME! If we get separated—rough light. Just do rough light; meet me at that billboard. We can’t go anywhere else. You have to wait there for me for 48 hours. If I do not show up after 48 hours… Just… Just keep running. Okay?” I told her. “Go anywhere you can, near the Songbirds, the Grells. Take the rough light at any sign of threat.”

I didn’t know how well she’d listen, seeing the glassy look of exhaustion rising in her eyes again, so quickly. I held her hands tight, leaving in a flash.

We appeared atop the roof of the dive bar. With it being so early, they hadn’t opened for the day, and Niala went alert, eyes spanning the town’s horizon.

“What’s wrong?” I asked before I caught the smell on the wind, too, fires—old fire.

I bound off the roof without a second thought. Townsfolk stuck their heads out of shops, squinting at us as we barreled through the lanes toward the base.

Over the years, rumors spread about us being a finicky religious group, people tossing about words like ‘cult.’ We got teased mercilessly in school for it, and controlling our tempers was hard. However, it didn’t take us long to figure out how much stronger than humans we were and the damage we could cause.

The gates to the compound loomed before us, busted down and in crumples. Yellow tape laid everywhere, strewn in flickering ribbons. We smelled smoldering remains, and when we crested the drive, we saw everything—now nothing.

Nothing remained, buildings hollowed and gutted. The houses, all of them, burned to the foundations. The grousing hut was nothing but a few lifted footer pillars and coals. Everything… everything was gone, and I heard the weep starting in Niala’s throat.

“Ka,” she said, our worst swear, ‘what remains after the fire.’

“We have to go check,” I told her. She stepped back, crossed her arms over her chest, and shook her head.

“I—I can’t.” She whispered. I understood, but I had to know as I ran off.