The room is dimly lit and cold. How can it be nearing morning, and yet the air feels even more frozen than last night? I'm cuddled up beside Haryek, grimacing as I wriggle out of his grasp and sit up. My whole body hurts; I feel like I've been sleeping on gravel.
Frustrated, I'm uncertain how it is that I'm still not used to hardship despite my time in the army. While we did travel for a good way to reach Ziduri, this is one of the lower-end places we've been forced to endure. I might have preferred sleeping on the ground to this dirty floor. I can see my breath as I play with the ice crystals absent-mindedly, only to stretch and look out the window.
"Went out this morning," Penelope says as she pulls on an extra layer, reading my mind. "At least, Adriam and Victor did. Marcus and Verando were already gone. I'm assuming Reid went with one of those groups, kids kind of a shadow."
I snort. "Penelope, he's our age." Well, her age. I suppose I'm a touch older than her.
She gives me a look, and I roust Haryek and Tomas, who seem less than impressed with the thought of getting up. I'm starving, and I want to get on the path before the sun is too high in the sky. We exit the building, and the smell of burning wood and the potential of breakfast are welcome scents.
Scratching outside the gates makes a shiver run down my spine, and as much as I'm no longer a fan of Penelope, I edge closer to her. We head towards the stables, where everyone is seated around the flame of a fire pit. Skewers of meat cooking, I can't help but wonder where on earth that came from.
"I didn't know you had meat rations." Haryek questions, raising a brow. Elves aren't much for meat in the first place; I don't know if I've ever seen Haryek eat anything red.
The dark expressions of the few guards make us all uneasy as they look up. "Lycans." one spits, disgusted.
"Lycans? The infected?" Haryek doesn't sound convinced.
"No." The guard scowls. "Those damned dirty mutts you brought with you. See for yourself."
We make our way into the stables, and I smell the rust of blood before I can process the scene. Haryek rushes back outside, covering his mouth with his hand.
One of the horses strung up by its hocks from the ceiling of the stables, the rock floor covered in a thick layer of syrup-like red blood. It's been skinned and carved out; Victor drags the entrails out the back of the barn and throws them over the fence.
Marcus works on dividing the meat into edible bites, and my warlord is elbow-deep in the animal's ribcage, carving it up. They're all naked, steaming with the chilly winter morning air. In a particular moment of carnage, Reid gnaws on whatever Marcus has handed over to him.
My stomach rolls.
I don't know why this bothers me; I'm shrinking away from them as if I've stumbled upon feral creatures. My bloody warlord is grinning ear to ear, though everyone stops when we are spotted; the damage to my perception has already been done. They were animals, no better than dogs, and they'd killed this animal in cold blood.
The divide is clear: us and them.
Adriam is the only clean one.
He comes up through the hallway and bids us good morning, but no one responds. We stare, horrified, sick to our stomachs at the prospect of watching beasts that appear human do inhuman acts. My eyes are locked on Verando, whose startling gray hair and piercing light blue eyes have returned, bright as the first day I'd met him.
His mouth and chin were thick with blood, and he was the goriest of them all.
"What the hell is going on?!" Haryek demands.
YOU ARE READING
Annihilation - Book Three
RomanceBook three of the 'Alpha' Series. "It's one thing after another, obviously, they don't want us to be together. The only question, who are 'they'? " With the reveal of a plan to rid the world of the lycan scourge once and for all, the group is faced...
