The Survivors: Body & Blood (book 3)

Revolution

IN THE WOODS ABOVE FLATHEAD, THERE WAS SMOKE AND NO FLAMES.

It was madness trying to get out. Ginny and I went first but only after I made Everett promise me he'd give Kutoyis the teleportation power until we got back later. He wasn't up to fighting, but his magic was the only thing that could make the city appear again for us all. With Everett's power, he could flash in, reveal the city, and get back home quickly.

I went instantly. And that's when I saw smoke and no flames in the open field I had called home for 140 years.

Mark was there in an instant, and Ginny shortly behind with Everett and Anthony in tow. Kutoyis just behind them.

I wasn't sure who else would come, so many of them barely recovering from the power death they'd suffered hours earlier.

Kutoyis unveiled the city, and we ran into full on pandemonium. John and Rebecca's home was on fire in the square, causing the billowing smoke that filled the air. Lizzie's house, edged up against the forest, was covered in flowers and looked like a shrine. My heart soared at the sight of it.

Regrettably, the church was also starting to catch fire, which I'm sure had been set by rebels who were tired of John twisting the Bible to work in his favor.

In the smoky crowd of people, heads turned to look at us as we arrived, and as I was appraising the situation, they were appraising me. "Sadie?" we heard voices say to one another. But quickly it escalated to, "Sadie! Sadie's here!"

Brothers and sisters of mine who I had hardly spoken to in my entire life ran up to me, grabbed me, hugged me, and pulled me toward the amphitheater. In a clearing, I saw Andrew.

I ran to him. "Thank you so much for calling!"

He pulled me to him in a tight embrace. "You came! You came! I thought we had lost you forever!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"See for yourself," he said and pulled me where the crowd seemed to be taking me. "They finally saw it. They saw his evil for what it really was."

The crowd around the stockade parted, and on the ground lay a bloodied and unconscious Michael, the young boy who'd stopped aging in his youth, who had stood up and told me of John's rules of Witch Hunt the day they'd smoked me out of the City.

But chained in the stockade stood an equally bloodied John. His most staunch supporters — Catherine and Mary, and his wife, Rebecca — appeared to be held in place by several younger Survivors, using powers like Mark's. The remaining six elders — Thomas, Ann, Joseph, Jane, William, and James — were huddled together in the treeline off to the side. And while exhilaration came off the crowd next to me, a sharp dagger of pain and fear came from the six elders, whose futures were uncertain.

"You!" John cried when he saw me, and he spit in my direction. The young rebel Survivors responsible for keeping him in the stockade sent shocks through him, and he cried out in pain.

"Jeremy!" I called to the one doing the shocking. "If you do to him what he did to us, we are no better than he is."

"Sorry, Sadie," he said, his face serious and apologetic.

I turned to Andrew. "That's true of everyone. Please. Go put out the fires, and control the crowd. Tell them I want to see them in the amphitheater. Go!"

Before I leapt to the stockade platform, Beth grabbed me. "You came back?" she said. It came out like a question. "You came back!" she cried, and she pulled me to her.

What had he done to them?

It was too late for questions. I jumped to where John and his supporters were, and I addressed him. "It seems your status as beloved patriarch is gone."