HOW MANY ANSWERS YOU SEEK ARE JUST A PART OF YOU, WAITING TO BE FOUND?
The game has changed.
Fresh from her first brush with mortality, a fragile Sadie Matthau is playing human in New York while the Survivors endure unimaginable tragedy. Wrought wit...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
PANDEMONIUM ENSUED. THE WINTERS TOOK OUR NEW FOLLOWERS and left through the city gates. Survivors pulled at my body, tearing at my clothes, screaming for me to stop torturing Catherine. It was all I could do to break free of the crowd.
Mark returned from the apothecary, coming back with everything I'd asked for and more. "Go!" I shouted, and he didn't hesitate.
I ran to our house on the square. I ransacked my room and threw all the books and notes I'd gathered into a bag. A mostly-packed suitcase sat on the ground, so I took it too. The floor beneath me began to feel hot, and smoke was creeping under the door. They had set the house on fire.
I jumped out the second story window — I might not burn in the fire, but my hair and clothes surely would — and I took off running through the forest toward the walls.
Then I thought of Lizzie. What would become of her if we left her here?
I changed course, darting back past the burning house, leaping over the crowds of Survivors in the square, and navigating into the church catacombs to Lizzie. But she was gone.
Frantic, I ran back the way I'd come. I had no way to find her or sense her in time. When I cleared the church, I sprinted toward the city walls again. Faintly, I heard John shout, "Tego texi tectum econtra hostes hostium." Before I cleared the walls, a crash of thunder echoed in my ears, and a fire bolt of lightning froze my body midair. Before I knew it, I'd fallen to the ground, only I couldn't tell where I was. There was no sound, and there were no walls, and there were no Survivors. Scrambling to my feet, I heard Mark calling my name, and then I could see him through the trees that surrounded us.
I ran toward him, only to crash into a wall I couldn't see, smashing my forehead against it. The pain was intense, and when I touched my forehead, red blood smeared my fingers. I hopped the invisible wall, jumping as high as I could to clear it, since I couldn't see how high it actually went.
Mark was on the other side.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"We're outside the Survivors" City," he said. "I think."
"I can't see it," I said.
"Neither can I."
"John cast a spell on me. It made the city disappear as I was running toward the walls," I said.
"I heard it," he nodded. "That's when it disappeared for me too."
"So now we can't see it. Just like the rest of the world. Just like I was-n't a Survivor at all," I said.
"Just what he wants," Mark said. "I sent everyone to the Laughing Horse Lodge in Swan Lake to regroup. Did you get everything you needed?" he asked, gesturing to the bag and suitcase.
"I guess," I shrugged. "Everything but the most important thing."
