“Luna, Luna.” Fowler’s steady voice drew my attention to him. “They’re not going to go away.”
I bobbed my head, latching on to the sound of his voice, so calm and mesmerizing. I inhaled, searching for composure. If I wanted to live, if either one of us was going to have a chance, then I couldn’t be a hysterical mess.
“We can’t both stay up here.” I nodded again, even though his words did not fully penetrate. Was he saying we were going to have to make a dash for it? Through all those dwellers? I bit back a cry as the tree jerked again with a splinter of wood. Even if we fought our way free, how could we clear them without getting a fatal dose of toxin from so many receptors?
Fowler released a deep breath and cupped one hand against my face, his thumb stroking my cheek tenderly. “Luna, I don’t regret it. Any of it. Not since the first moment I met you in that forest.” He paused with a deep inhale. “Understand me?”
I shook my head, bewildered. “No, no, I—”
“Say you understand,” he cut in, his voice hard, allowing for nothing else but my agreement.
“Yes. Yes.”
“Hold yourself silent and still. No matter what happens. Be quiet. Stay in the tree. Let them think there’s nothing more up here for them.”
“Fowler?” I angled my head. “What do you mean—”
He kissed me so hard that our teeth clanged, but I didn’t care. I only felt the hot press of his mouth and his strong fingers diving into my hair, holding me for him. He lifted up his head at the same time he released my face. “I love you, Luna.”
My chest clenched as his arms loosened around me. He sucked in a sharp breath. My mouth worked, searching for a response as his words reverberated through me.
His palms rasped the rough bark as he shoved off the branch. It sprang higher with the sudden loss of his weight and I tightened my grip to stop myself from falling even as I stretched my other hand out for him, groping air wildly.
Thud.
Dwellers went wild under me, snarling, clawing each other for a piece of him. I opened my mouth on a silent scream, but Fowler’s words held me in check. I would do what he asked of me. His sacrifice couldn’t be of no value.
I listened hard for him. I heard several of his grunts over the dwellers’ din, but he didn’t scream. I had to hope he wasn’t being torn apart. Who could hold silent during that?
Hot tears streamed down my face, but I held quiet, choking on sobs, drowning in the sound of the savage thrashing below. I grasped my branch with aching, bloodless fingers, desperate for the sound of him. A cry. A single word. I needed to hear him. I needed something to tell me that he was fighting them off, getting away, escaping like he had always managed to do before.
Only nothing ever came.
Gradually, the noise stopped. My ears strained, but I could not even detect the dwellers’ telltale breathing. I sniffed, searching for the coppery-sweet scent of freshly spilled blood. Nothing. Silence hummed, floating in the loam-laden air, and I knew they were gone. They had gone underground and taken Fowler with them. I held still for several moments longer, my heart racing, my thoughts churning. It couldn’t end like this. Fowler could not end like this.
Calm swept over me. Suddenly I knew what to do.
Unsheathing my dagger and pressing a palm flat to the tree’s trunk, I gathered my nerve, inhaled several quick breaths, and dropped down from the tree. I struck the sodden ground on my knees. Mud splattered me in the face, sticking thick in my eyelashes. I wiped at my eyes with the back of one hand.
An eerie quiet surrounded me. I moved quickly, frantically, covering a wide area, distaste coating my mouth as I patted the surrounding ground for remains of Fowler. As I suspected, they took him. They had all gone back below with their quarry. He could still be alive—for a little while anyway.
I continued crawling, hurrying until I found where the ground was the softest. Not even ground anymore, but more like a pool of mud. This was where so many of the dwellers had emerged.
I flexed my hand around the hilt of my dagger, sucked in the deepest breath my lungs could hold, and dove headfirst.
Into the abyss.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS