“Fuck,” I growl, and then I roll out from under Hale without waking him.
“What?” Clay prompts as I storm out of the room, grabbing my guns on the way out.
“Wendy. I can’t believe I’m so fucking stupid,” I murmur aloud.
“What about her?” he demands.
“She told the chief Hale was fine. Hale said she was in the fucking room when the bullets exploded inside him. He said she freaked out and ran off. Hell, that’s why he thought I came to save him.”
“Shit,” he gasps in disbelief.
I round the corner as her scent guides me, and I kick open the door where I smell her the strongest. She jumps from her bed, and I fling her across the room using my gift.
“Who the fuck are you working for?” I blare, and she gasps for air as the crushing force exuding from me pins her against the cracking wall behind her.
“Araya, please. It’s me,” she strangles out.
“I know it’s you. It’s been you this whole fucking time, you spying little bitch.”
She strangles more, and then suddenly she’s gone. I can’t see her, and I can’t feel her anymore until something brushes past me.
“Fuck,” Clay squeals in a new octave as the sound of invisible feet running through the hallway erupts.
I fling my hand again, and I hear a thud as I connect. She reappears, and in a blink she’s charging full speed toward me. My body moves faster than my mind can think, and in a blur, her throat rips free before she collapses to the ground.
“Holy shit,” Clay sounds off again.
I swear he’s turning into my own personal cheerleader, though all of his cheers include profanity.
“She was one of them. She was fucking one of them this whole fucking time,” Hale growls as he walks toward us. “How the hell did I miss that?”
“Because she smelled so human. Because she acted so human. Because they’re one step ahead of us all the time,” I grumble while walking over to the hallway sink to wash off the new blood staining my hand.
He pulls me to him as his lips fall over mine, and he stares into the eyes not covered by the blue contacts now that the acid in my tears have washed them out.
“How did you know?” he asks so softly.
“Because you almost died. She knew. She fucking knew,” I whimper, and he pulls me to him to kiss my head as he coos into my ear.
“Hey, I’m fine now, baby. You got there in time.”
“Her body has to be burned,” Clay says to a man walking up, and I recognize the dusted hair on the aging face.
He points to a guy and motions for him to do as Clay said, and then he shakes his head in disbelief.
“Well, I suppose my new policy will from now on exclude humans as well as full bloods. This is crazy,” he murmurs.
“What did you want to tell me?” Hale asks softly. “You said you’d tell me everything when Araya got here. Why was it important for her to be here?”
“It’s important for all three of you to be here. Araya is the key to this puzzle, and she’s the saving grace for us all. She’s the only child of an emergent to ever live past puberty. And yes, there have been others. She was always stronger, smarter, and so much more evolved than the others though. Her compassion exuded anything I’ve ever witnessed.”
“You speak as though you know her. How did you know about her being an emer-”
“I do know her. You know me as Garth, but my original name was Gabriel Monetello. The purple eyes give her away, but there’s more to the story.”
I gasp as I realize this aged old man is the boy I once saved from a brutal lashing. He was barely five, and I was in my teens at the time.
“Gabe?” I gush.
