She was caged. He broke the lock.
Wren Calder- code name Songbird- wasn't supposed to make it out of the Skybox. Her crimes where whispered across the Ark: sabotage, rebellion, blood on her hands. But when the hundred are dropped to Earth, Wren is...
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I CAME BACK TO consciousness like surfacing from the bottom of a frozen lake— lungs screaming, limbs slow to respond, mind fracturing down the middle.
My head throbbed with a jagged pulse, the ache blooming behind my left eye. Every breath hurt. Damp concrete pressed against my cheek, and the copper taste of blood clung to my tongue like rot.
For a long second, I didn't move. I didn't remember how to. Then the memory slammed back into place.
Dax. Wells' face evaporated in my mind like mist, replaced by the real one. His voice hasn't wavered when he said it— I'm not here for you, which could only mean one thing.
He was here for Bellamy.
Panic shot through me like lightning. I rolled to my side with a groan, biting down on a scream as fire laced through my neck. My hand came away sticky where it touched the back of my head.
Blood. The bastard had split my scalp open. But I didn't care.
I staggered to my feet, clutching a support beam until the floor stopped tilting. Dax was out there somewhere, and Bellamy— he had no idea. No clue what was walking through the woods toward him with a loaded weapon and murder in his eyes.
I turned fast, scanning the dim bunker. The door was slightly ajar, still hanging crooked from its rust-worn hinges. My stomach twisted.
I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious. Seconds. Minutes. Long enough for Dax to get far.
My fingers found one of the rifles left behind in the crate, the cold metal humming with old ghosts. My breath hitched in that familiar way.
But it didn't matter. I pushed through the fear, slamming the magazine into place, racked the bolt, and held it like I'd been born to.
Without stopping to think, I burst through the hatch, boot soles hitting frozen earth. The late afternoon light slashed through the trees in long, skeletal rays, bleeding gold across the moss. My ears rang with the sound of my own heartbeat.
I didn't look back, and the woods swallowed me whole.
My boots slammed over root and rock, the rifle bouncing hard against my shoulder. Every branch I shoved past scraped fresh lines into my arms, but I didn't stop. I couldn't.
My breath burned in my throat, vision narrowing to a tunnel of light and trees and the faintest trail of bootprints scuffed into the dirt. Dax hadn't even bothered to hide his tracks. He was close.
The sun dipped low behind the trees, bleeding amber through the canopy. Long shadows clawed their way across the forest floor like something alive, and the wind had gone still. The whole world held its breath.
Then I heard him. Not Dax. Bellamy. His voice cracked through the air, ragged and guttural.
"Please kill me!" he cried. "Kill me! I deserve it. Please. I can't fight anymore!"
