by Kate L. Mary
“How long do you think it will take?” MIRA asked.
The horizon glowed orange in the distance, but the sun had not yet risen, and behind us in the valley our army was waking up. Asa and Nyko had been in the city for hours now and should have had more than enough time to get to the gate, and yet they still had not opened it. I was beginning to worry that something had gone wrong. That like Xandra, we would never see them again.
“Any time now,” I said despite the worry clawing at my insides.
My eyes had barely strayed from the gate since Mira and I had settled in for the night, and it felt as if I had hardly blinked. They were beginning to burn, but still I could not look away. It was like I thought looking away would doom Asa to death.
“Hopefully—” Mira’s words were cut off by a hum.
I stood, looking around as I searched for the source. It reminded me of the sound the electroprods made, or how I had sometimes been able to hear the buzz of the lights in Saffron’s dining room when the house had been very quiet.
The hum started low, but it grew louder as the seconds ticked by. It echoed across the wastelands until it seemed like the ground would begin to shake, and I covered my ears.
At my side, Mira did the same. “What is it?”
Just as I shook my head, a brilliant light began to glow, pulling my gaze from the gate at last. I turned to face the tower, pressing my hands harder against my ears. The light was blinding, brighter than the slowly rising sun. I squinted, trying to get a better look at it, but it was too brilliant. Too intense.
“Something is happening!” I called, raising my voice to be heard over the hum.
A boom vibrated through the air, and I ducked like I thought I was going to be struck down by a bolt of lighting. A burst of light shot from the tower, quivering through my body as it spread across the wasteland toward the wall. I could feel the electricity from it, moving over my body, and it reminded me of the time I had shocked myself trying to plug in a vacuum inside Saffron’s house.
The current moved through me, and all around the valley a cry of surprise rose up. People dropped to the ground and covered their heads, but I stayed standing. Facing the city with my hands over my ears. Too stunned to do anything but stare.
The buzz of electricity had felt strong enough to knock the walls down, but they had not fallen. They stood tall and strong, and what could only be described as a bubble now stretched over the entire city. It was translucent, shimmering blue in the dim light of the early morning, and I instinctively knew we would never be able to penetrate it. Not with our bodies and not with our weapons. Even worse, there was another much smaller bubble surrounding the tower, making it now impossible to destroy the mirrors.
“What is that?” Mira said.
She stood at my side, as stunned as I was. My hands were still over my ears, but I lowered them when I realized the hum had died down. It was still there, but like the lights in Saffron’s house, it was low and I had to strain to hear it.
“I do not know,” I whispered, staring at the bubble in disbelief and shock.
All around me, the other members of our army began to climb to their feet. There were hundreds of us, all of us staring up at the bubble. No one spoke for a long time, and when the silence was finally broken, it was with a shout of fury.
Emori slammed into me a second later. I hit the ground, too stunned to move as she pulled out her knife and pressed it to my throat.
“I told you he was not trustworthy. You sent him into the city, and now he has warned them that we are coming!”
I could not speak. Asa had not done this, of that I was certain, but I was in no position to argue with Emori. Not when I had no proof, and not while she had a knife to my throat.
“Emori!” Anja screamed. “Get off her!”
The woman on top of me did not look away. “You have the blood of our village on your hands, and you have allowed the Fortis to twist your mind. You are not fit to be Head.”
Someone grabbed Emori from behind, but she fought against them, and the blade of the knife stung against my skin a second before she was pulled away, followed by the warmth of my blood spilling from the wound.
My hands went to my neck, but I did not move. I was frozen, lying on my back and staring up at the sky as the sun moved higher, spreading its rays across the blackness. All around me there were voices and shouting, but I could not focus on them. I felt the afterlife coming for me, and I knew with certainty that all the sins I had committed over the last two years would pull me down to the underworld. There was so much blood on my hands, just as Emori had said. Bodhi, our village, hundreds of Fortis hunters, and the rest of their people on top of that. I was responsible for all their deaths, and as I lay bleeding in the sand, I suddenly found myself wondering how it had all happened. How had I ended up in this position? This was not the place I had set out for two years ago when I married Bodhi. I had looked into our future and seen a lifetime of happiness, but instead all I had gotten was blood and death. And it was my fault. No one else could be held responsible for where I was now, not even Emori, who had been the one to slash my throat. No, it had all been up to me.
“Indra.” Mira’s face appeared in front of me. “Hold on. Please.”
When I swallowed, it hurt more than I had expected. “I am sorry, Mira. I did not plan for all this to happen.”
“Stop,” she said, sobbing. “You did nothing wrong. You taught us to be strong. You taught us how to stand up for ourselves. Emori is wrong.”
More blood gushed from the wound when I shook my head. “I was wrong. I wanted vengeance, and I risked all of you.”
Another face appeared at my side, Roan this time, and at his right a man I recognized as the Mountari healer.
“Hold still, Indra,” Roan said. “Kale will fix you.”
He moved aside, allowing the healer space, and my hands were forced away from my neck. A fresh gush of blood followed, and with it the sound of Mira’s sobs grew. I wanted to look at her, but I could not. All I could focus on was the bubble in the distance, the one that had enclosed the city. Not only had it cut off our chance of taking out the Sovereign, but it had also trapped the man I loved inside. He would die within those walls, just as Bodhi had. Maybe everyone who loved me was destined to die. Maybe I had already died myself and been dragged down into the underworld, and the punishment for my many sins was that I would spend eternity watching the people I loved die one by one.
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Acknowledgments
Once again, I have to thank my sister-in-law, Rebekah, for telling me to watch The 100 – am seriously obsessed with this show now. More thank yous go out to Netflix for making The 100 available to me, and the creators and cast who have made it so awesome. Yes, I borrowed a lot of names from the show, but credit also goes to Outsiders for giving me the name Asa, and Point Break for allowing me to think of the name Bodhi.
A very special thank you goes out to my author bestie, Diana Gardin, for allowing me to borrow the term passage markings, which she used in her own novel, The Lilac Sky, and my SIL, Rebekah, who helped me come up with the name for my city guards, the Fortis.
This book was so much fun to write, but also a huge undertaking since the world is so complex, and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to give me such great feedback. The enthusiasm of people like Cheer Stephenson-Papworth and Mysti Holsinger-Stitt, who rallied the participants in the BOD Reads group to make Outliers the April book, means more to me than I can possibly say. All I can say is: thanks for being so awesome!
Jan Strohecker, thanks for being that first critical eye after I finished writing the novel, and reading it again before I hit that ever important publish button. Thanks to my first readers and typo hunters: Courtnee McGrew, Rebekah Caillouet, Cheer Stephenson-Papworth, Karen Atkinson, and Erin Rose.
Thanks also to Lori Whitwam for being so excited to ed
it this book and raving about it during the process. I can’t wait to send more projects your way! ,And last but not least, a big thank you goes out to Amber Garcia, my PR Goddess, for setting everything up last minute.
As always, I am forced to acknowledge my husband and kids and how amazing they are. Whenever I’m really into a project, they get neglected, and I appreciate not only what good sports they are, but also how supportive they are. My husband especially has no problem picking up the slack, doing laundry and running the kids to events, so I can get just a little more done, and I couldn’t ask for a better support system!
Also by Kate L. Mary
The Broken World Series
Broken World
Shattered World
Mad World
Lost World
New World
Forgotten World
Silent World
Broken Stories
The Twisted Series
Twisted World
Twisted Mind
Twisted Memories
Twisted Fate
Zombie Apocalypse Love Story Novellas
More than Survival
Fighting for a Future
Playing the Odds
The Key to Survival
The Things We Cannot Change
The Blood Will Dry
Collision
When We Were Human
Alone: A Zombie Novel
The Moonchild Series
Moonchild
Liberation
The College of Charleston Series
The List
No Regrets
Moving On
Letting Go
Anthologies
Prep for Doom
Gone with the Dead
About the Author
Kate L. Mary is an award-winning author of New Adult and Young Adult fiction, ranging from Post-apocalyptic tales of the undead, to Speculative Fiction and Contemporary Romance. Her Young Adult book, When We Were Human, was a 2015 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards Silver Medal winner for Young Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi Fiction, and a 2016 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal winner for Young Adult Science Fiction. Don’t miss out on the Broken World series, an Amazon bestseller and fan favorite.
For more information about Kate, check out her website: www.KateLMary.com
