cascade | kotlc

23. Meanwhile: The Second Train

- J. R.

"Where are we going?" she yelled at Fitz as they leapt back to Havenfield. The house was empty and she stormed down the stairs, each step a literal hurricane clashing under her feet.

"I have no clue!" he yelled back, throwing open random doors and finding nothing. "Shit, shit, shit, Silveny!"

HELP! PAIN! HELP!

She mentally cursed as she sprinted. "Where's my sister?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't-" He cut himself off and sighed. "I'm sorry. I get more angry these days, with-"

"I know! I'm sorry, it's just- Silveny's in danger, and we're here, wasting time, and Faye's stranded in Italy too, this is not good!"

"No shit!"

HELP! PAIN! HELP!

June dashed down a stairwell and yelled "I'm coming, Silveny!" to the air, hoping the alicorn could hear her through her mind. Something was ricocheting around her skull, a shard swept up in a tornado, and fear hammered at her everywhere.

"Can you rewind an alicorn?" she asked Fitz when they ran out of the building and toward pastures. "Theoretically, if you needed to reverse..."

"Pain? Maybe," he wheezed. "But a delivery? Reversing the creation of an alive alicorn? Probably not! And the Council would murder me! Not to mention that I still don't know how to control it, and I might end up turning Silveny back into a nonexistent baby!"

"That's nice," June grumbled. "Could be more positive."

"How do you want me to be positive now?" he screamed when another chorus of HELP! PAIN! HELP! blasted their minds. "Silveny might-"

"Don't say that!" she cried out, swiveling around and searching for her parents. "Where are they? Where's Sophie? Where's anyone?"

The wind churned outside, blowing the pasture grass into rippling waves of beautiful green, yet she couldn't concentrate on the natural beauty. Crows cawked in the air and June scanned the entire line of hills.

"Nothing," she breathed, sinking down onto the soft blankets of verdant green. She wanted to cry. "No- nothing."

Fitz sat down beside her, cradling her drooping head in his hands. "Hey, it's fine, we'll find her, she'll be fine-"

"No she won't! If it's a delivery, she needs-"

HELP! PAIN! HELP!

She let out another stream of curses as she struggled to stand, her legs unusually clumsy. Perhaps it was from the adrenaline coursing through her body, or the horror settling over her, but her entire body was shaking and Fitz had to help her walk, goddamnit...

"Sophie!" she cried, and a bird shook out its feathers. "Sophie, where are you! We need you!"

No response, just the whooshing of wind through the trees and the whistling of the pines, and the crashing of water on sand under the cliffs. June sagged to her knees. "Sophie!"

"She's not here," Fitz whispered, his hand over his face. "I can't believe it. I thought..."

"Sophie!" she screamed again.

HELP! PAIN! HELP!

A tear trickled down her face. "No, Sophie, please, where are you? Please, I need you, surely you've heard Silveny's transmissions, you have to have come here, right... or maybe we were too late, and Faye's still rotting away in those flames, and if she-"