Patrolling the final sectors is always an experience. Not always a good one. They were the most heavily guarded—being so close to Thornblade’s fortress of a building.

You’d think Ronan would notice that may we needed to take this seriously and maybe this wasn’t just some game.

Yet, here we are—somehow, Ronan had managed to get himself tangled in barbed wire — dangling by his hoodie like a deranged sock puppet.

“How the hell did that even happen?” I asked as I watched helplessly. We had just jumped over the fence of Sector Four after passing through Sector Six to get there. Just a jump over the fence, Ronan did it more than the rest of us considering how many times he’s snuck out.

Now Max has to climb up and cut the Fire Holder’s hoodie off so he doesn’t get eaten by crows of something.

His hoodie was already torn, his arm holding most of his weight and it looked like it was seconds from dislocating. 

Max cut the final part of the hoodie and Ronan fell down in a heap with an ‘oof’ and he hit the ground—dark curls fanned out in the dirt.

None of us moved to catch him, but I swear Skylar slowed the wind just enough so he didn’t snap anything.

Max landed on his feet next to Ronan as he examined his injuries. The rest of us trying to wait but Max took his sweet time.

Eliot had already gone scouting with River without us. Skylar looked close to joining them.

I looked at my watch, then at the sky. The sun would set in about an hour and that was way more ground to cover than we had daylight. We were going to be patrolling in the dark tonight.

Just the kind of day I needed.

Ronan finally got back up to his feet when I turned to him again, his sideways cocky grin still in place, his face covered in dirt, and now just in a dark tshirt that revealed the olive skin of his arms, decorated with the occasional scar.

If you didn’t figure it out by now—Ronan gets hurt a lot.

Still grins while it happens though.

We finally got moving, Eliot and River found us, Eliot’s face flushed a dark pink, either from running or something else I wasn’t sure. I’d seen Eliot take down two guards without blinking. But whatever this was? It got to them.

“We finished scouting the east and north sides of the perimeter.” River said behind them. Eliot nodded in agreement.

I raised an eyebrow but didn’t question. I glanced over at Max and Ronan, who finally made it over to the rest of us, Max’s hand glowed faintly where it rested on Ronan’s ribcage. Broken, probably. Again.

“River, Skylar, come with me, we’ll check the south and west sides, Eliot—go with Max and Ronan and start scouting Sector Three.” I explained, my voice commanding and much more responsible sounding than I felt. Blake would’ve made fun of me for sounding like a tired commander. But someone had to fill the silence he left.

Everyone nodded, Ronan did finger guns.

I sighed, turning towards the west side of the perimeter and headed that way with Sky and River.

These kids drove me crazy. But you can’t help but love ‘em.

~

Sector Four was stable. Not rich, not poor—just high enough to be comfortable, and low enough to be forgotten. Somehow Sector Four wasn’t completely empty.

Skylar walked in front of us, her dark curly hair too similar to Ronan’s in this lighting. They swore they weren’t siblings by blood, everyone doubted it. Same dark curls, same darker tan skin, though Ronan’s was more olive-tinted. Same I-will-kill-you-with-one-glare look.

River walked beside me, hand already holding a dagger in one hand. He had to rely on weapons more than the rest of us—I was surprised he wanted to tag along. He wasn’t required to be here. Which meant he had a reason. I just hadn’t figured out what it was yet.

But he was stubborn, and if I’m being honest, really good at combat.

“Me and Eliot saw government troops near the east side heading this way.” River whispered. “If they were sweeping this far west, it meant they were searching most likely. Keep your guard up.”

I resisted the urge to ask why Eliot seemed so flustered before, now was not the time. Instead—I nodded, walking a bit faster to stay closer to Skylar.

We reached the southern corner and started up the west side—quiet, eyes sharp, waiting for trouble to show itself.

We heard it — a sharp clink of metal hitting the cement. Smoke burst into the air instantly

“Smoke bomb, don’t breathe it in.” I told them, my voice sharp before I took a deep breath and held it.

The smoke stung my eyes, I gripped my knife tight as we slowly crept closer. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of me.

Someone grabbed me from behind, arms wrapping around my neck, I stabbed them with my knife and down they went.

Another one dead. You’ll make up for all these bodies eventually. I reminded myself.

I heard another body fall to the ground and I prayed to the Eternals that it wasn’t one of ours. Another grunt, a third body falling to the ground.

At this point, my heart was hammering in my chest, my lungs were burning, and my neck was sore.

I had less than five seconds before I couldn’t hold my breath anymore.

I heard footsteps, Skylars, run past me. I followed, and so did another pair of footsteps. 

3…

2…

1…

I gasped for air, the smoke filling my lungs. It had some odd taste that did not seem promising.

“Declan!” I heard Skylar yell.

I kept running. The smoke thinned ahead — Skylar must’ve forced a current through.

River and me burst in at the same time, gasping for air.

The smoke still burned my lungs, the world tilted slightly but I forced myself to stay awake.

I held my hands on my knees to keep myself upright before glancing up at Skylar. Her face was flushed and her hair was starting to fall out of the ponytail.

“Ambush. Only three guards.” She listed. “It seemed too easy.”

I had to sit down, the world started to spin, but somehow, I nodded. “Too easy…” I trailed off for a moment.

“It may have been something to slow us down, they didn’t even put up much of a fight.” Sky noted.

“Or a diversion,” River muttered, low and grim.

I nodded again. “Either way, we need to finish and get out of here. I don’t like how that felt.”

The two agreed and we set off to find the others. I had a bad feeling about this.