When no one said anything, Kell seemed emboldened. He pulled himself up again and stared at Jerren, almost daring the boy to shoot. Jerren retreated, and Kell hobbled after him. “Last chance, Jerren,” he rasped. “Take me back and we’ll forget everything.”
Jerren kept the guns trained on him as we backed toward the fort entrance. Nyla shadowed his every move. But Kell matched them step for step, his right leg dragging across the ground.
“Stay back,” growled Jerren.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me again?” Kell’s teeth chattered. “You chose the wrong side, boy. We had a visitor during the night, see? An old friend, you might say.”
I flashed Alice a look, but she shook her head. “Dare’s dead, Thom. Kell’s just trying to rattle us.” Her hands were shaking, though.
As we reached the tunnel that led out of the fort, Kell lurched forward, a grotesque smile stretching his sunburned skin. Jerren pointed one of the guns at Kell’s head. Still the man didn’t stop smiling. He simply eased forward until the barrel was pressed against his forehead. “Really think you’ve got it in you, Jerren? Really think you can be a killer too?”
Rose was heavy against me as I stepped backward from the scene, but I continued to watch. Somehow I knew that Jerren wouldn’t kill his mentor.
“We need to run,” murmured Alice.
Before she’d finished speaking, Kell opened his mouth and bit on the barrel. He brought his hands around and placed them on the barrel too, so that when Jerren tried to pull away, he couldn’t. He’d be disarmed at any moment, I was sure of it.
Jerren seemed petrified. Again he tried to pull away, but it was no use. He was crying too. After everything, this is how it would end for him. At the same place as his parents.
Nyla reached around her brother and wrapped her hands over his. I figured she was trying to pull the weapon away too, but when she stood on tiptoe and kissed her brother on the cheek, something in the air shifted. And I knew.
I tried to shout no, but the word wouldn’t come out. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because at that moment she pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER 31
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. I’d seen Kyte shot right in front of me, but I hadn’t realized what was happening back then. Plus, the Guardian’s wound had been so small. But there was no way to ignore Kell’s blood spattered against the ground, or the remains of his head, sliced open like one of Rose’s fish—gutted, discarded. It was gruesome.
I had to look away, which is how I saw the rats were converging on our path. Even the sound of gunfire wasn’t enough to deter them anymore.
“Run!” I yelled.
Alice took Jerren’s arm and pulled him from the carnage. When he dropped the guns in disgust, Nyla calmly picked them up again. As the rats closed in on her, she adjusted the bags on her shoulder like there was no hurry at all.
I looked her in the eye and she returned my gaze. As much as I hated Jerren for putting Rose in the cell with Kell, he’d never frightened me the way that Nyla did in that moment. As she left the bloody scene, she swung her arms loosely, a gun in each hand.
I staggered backward through the tunnel, unable to take my eyes off the rats. They were completely still, just watching us.
“They remember your flame,” said Nyla.
When I was halfway down the tunnel they swarmed Kell’s body like flies on a horse. There were sounds of clawing and tearing. When one by one the rats turned away, they carried a souvenir with them: a piece of Kell’s flesh. Each one ate greedily. Then, sensing that they wouldn’t be able to fight the tide and return for more, they pursued us.
I turned around and ran, pounding out one footstep after another as Rose bounced against my back, a dead weight.
Nyla quickly passed me. She followed the others out of the tunnel and along a path. When it forked left, they followed it toward the beach. I could see the water sparkling just ahead of us.
Jerren took another left turn and suddenly they were running parallel to the coast, hidden behind a row of trees and bushes. Sweat poured down my forehead. Rose moaned with every bump.
“Go this way,” I yelled, veering straight toward the water.
About thirty yards ahead of me, Alice spun around. “No! Someone’ll be watching from Sumter. We need to stay hidden.” Her face darkened then, and it wasn’t hard to imagine what she saw so close behind me.
Jerren stopped too. “Fire a shot, Nyla. It’ll frighten them away.”
“They might hear it on Sumter,” yelled Alice.
Jerren raised his hands. “They won’t.”
Nyla pointed the gun at the ground and a shot rang out. For a moment, Alice seemed to relax. But only for a moment.
“Come on,” Alice shouted. “It’s less than fifty yards to the cove.”
We were running across grass now. The footing was uneven and I stumbled but didn’t fall. My head throbbed with the sound of my breathing.
From the corner of my eye I saw a rat just behind me. Then two. Then several more on the other side. They were flanking me, grouping in preparation for an attack. I had no idea what the attack would be like, only that it was inevitable.
Alice waited for me at the tree line. Seeing the rats, she threw a stick. It landed beside me, knocking a few of them aside. But others took their place. They filed between my legs so that I almost stepped on them.
Nyla turned to fire, but the gun just clicked. Empty. She tossed it at them instead.
She and Alice sprinted through the trees and I followed right behind them. The change of direction caught the rats off-guard. The water was only a few yards away.
“Thom, jump!” screamed Alice.
I leaped forward and crashed into water only a few inches deep, Rose on top of me. My face was driven into the water and against the sand. My mouth filled with both.
Someone pulled Rose off me and I pushed myself up to the surface, gasping for air. When I looked back up to the beach, the rats had formed a line along the water’s edge.
I stayed crouched down in the water so that I could hold Rose. She was breathing, but her eyes were half-closed. The blood that had soaked into her tunic made the water around her cloudy.
“Remove her clothes,” said Jerren flatly. “The salt water will clean the wounds.”
He was right, but it was his fault Rose was in this state at all. None of this would’ve happened if he’d listened to us. The contrast between him and Rose made me sick—he hadn’t paid at all for his stupidity. Suddenly I couldn’t see anything but Kell standing behind Rose, the knife against her neck.
“Here, I’ll do it,” he said when I didn’t move.
“Get away from her.” I slammed my hand into his chest, knocking him backward.
He bounced back up but I was ready for him, fists raised.
“No way,” said Alice, stepping between us.
“So you’re taking his side,” I snapped. “What a surprise.”
She gritted her teeth. “Not even close.”
She swung her fist around, catching Jerren square in the gut and sending him to his knees. “You knew this was going to happen, and you let us walk into it.”
“I saved you,” Jerren moaned. “If I’d told you what Kell planned, you never would’ve come along.”
“Exactly.”
“And Chief would’ve had you shot. He thinks your parents are the dangerous ones—never would’ve sent me and Kell alone to deal with you if he’d known the truth.” He rubbed his stomach. “He’s scared of you all, especially your parents. And when Chief is scared, he doesn’t take any chances. Coming today kept you alive. Now you can help the rest of your families.”
Alice joined me and together we lifted Rose out of the shallow water and onto the catamaran. We cleaned her wounds and used what was left of my tunic to bandage her neck. “We need to get back to Sumter,” I said.